Mental Health Awareness Month

Hello lovelies! 🙂

So, as you all might know, May is mental health awareness month. I personally believe it’s great to have a month dedicated to mental health awareness as it reminds people to spend extra time researching, sharing personal experiences, listening to other’s struggles and spreading as much awareness as they can to help break the stigma!

Shockingly, mental health is still heavily stigmatised in the UK, and all across the world. This is pretty hard to believe considering approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year – that’s your mum, dad, auntie, uncle, brother, sister, cousin, even yourself. Whilst people are speaking out more and more each year about mental health struggles, it’s still stigmatised to the point many people refuse to get help as they’re ’embarrassed’ or ‘ashamed’. Sadly, it’s also pretty common for people to put off reaching out for help as they’re scared and don’t know what to expect. This is completely understandable, but this where I come in to help.

Speaking out about a mental health problem is not, in any way, weak. It’s actually one of the strongest things you can do. Why would you sit there and struggle when you can reach out for help rather than going through it all alone? Would you sit with a broken leg for months on end refusing to get help? I assume you wouldn’t, so compare that to a mental health problem and you’ll realise it really doesn’t make sense to suffer in silence. Even telling a friend, family member, complete stranger on the internet can help massively. However, sometimes mental health struggles can begin to effect every-day life to the point talking to those around you isn’t enough. This is when you should reach out to a professional for help.

This is as simple as booking a doctors appointment to have a chat about any problems you’ve been experiencing, just as you’d do with the common cold or a virus. There is absolutely no shame in doing this. Trust me, no matter how scared you are to reach out to the doctor, they’ve heard it all before and then some. Something I found quite reassuring when first reaching out was reading that 30% of GP appointments are centred around mental health problems. You really are not alone, so please don’t ever think that.

I promise you that reaching out to a professional does not make you weak – it’s actually the strongest thing you can do to help yourself and the people around you will be so relieved and thankful you did it. This is the first step to recovery, and I and so many others are so proud of you.

Please remember my DM’s are always open on all of my social medias and I’m always here to help, no matter how big or small the problem is. You are special, you matter, and you deserve to get the help you need. Everyone deserves happiness.

Lots of love,

Soph. xx