I’ve suffered from mental health issues for the last six years and, in that time, I’ve learnt a lot about mental health and the different sorts of mental health issues that exist - all through my own experiences. For instance, before I realised I had OCD, I wasn’t aware of just how much I didn’t know about the condition. I just thought, like many people probably do, if you...
I would never describe my childhood as perfect. It was far from it. In a way, it was me, my mum and my dog against the world. Our household was abusive and therefore, I felt very alone. I was a very nervous child. I didn’t like change. I was just five years old, standing in the playground at school when OCD joined me. I remember this voice in my head telling me if I picked up leaves and...
It all started when I was 11 years old. I had just started secondary school and found the transition a little more difficult than I'd imagined. I did make friends but quite soon one of them started bullying me and made me feel very low. A short while later I began picking up small rituals that I felt compelled to do for no real reason. I was stepping on drains a certain number of times,...
I first experienced postnatal depression (PND) after the birth of my first child in 2006. I very quickly became depressed, obsessive about safety, suicidal and felt resentment for my own baby. I developed OCD, became fanatical about little rituals or routine and refused to talk to anybody about how I was feeling. Eventually, after weeks of self-harming, I sought medical help and was put on...
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