What helped me?
“When I was feeling down last year I turned my phone off and stopped going to college and seeing friends, I didn’t feel like talking to anyone … but this just made things worse and I got behind in my course work.
In the end I decided to go back to college and started to focus on my work again, getting out of the house and back into a routine really helped. I returned to my youth group and got involved in activities with friends, rather than sitting at home alone feeling stressed and having negative thoughts – after a while I started to feel better and slowly got myself back on track.” by Anon, aged 18
“I went through a really rough patch a couple of years ago, things were difficult at home and at school and I started to feel really low and experienced some suicidal thoughts … I told my family and someone at school how I was feeling and started working with a youth worker. Speaking to someone about my feelings really helped, eventually I built up the confidence to join a music group for young men who had experienced difficulties with their mental health and made new friends who understood my experiences.
This was a real turning point … I got involved with the CAMHS Young People’s Board where I had opportunities to try out lots of new things and discovered talents I never knew I had! Since then I have started a course at college and joined the NCS youth programme this summer. Things are really good now, I still have days when I feel down, but now I know that these will pass and that I have friends who are there when I need them.” by Anon, aged 16