Lets Get This Campaign Going...

Hello you lovely lot!

Firstly I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who read/shared my blog last time. I was overwhelmed by the response to it and delighted by the messages I received.

Due to this response, my passion for getting people openly talking about mental health has grown even more. I am aiming to blog weekly to keep you up to date with my own journey, but I'm also looking for guest bloggers. I want to cover all aspects of mental health - and my anxiety disorder is all I can offer my own experience on. So PLEASE if you wish to do a guest blog for me from a different perspective on ANY aspect of mental health, please get in touch with me. Whether it's you who suffers from it, a friend/partner/family member, or even if you just want to get your voice heard, drop me a message. Anything said to me is in confidence, and I will always ask permission before anything is shared, and I'm happy for people to remain anonymous if you'd like.

I've set up a Facebook page for my blog where you can keep up to date and get in touch with me - https://www.facebook.com/letstalkaboutmentalhealth

And also my blog now has it's own twitter page that you can follow for updates and get in touch - @letstalkmhealth

This Week

I've had a tough week this week.

In my previous blog, I posted I had only had 2 major panic attacks since September. As sods law would have it, this week I had my third.

I was with some friends in a pub post rehearsal, and unfortunately it just sprang out of nowhere (which is unusual in itself, there is usually a trigger for these big ones).

However, I came to realise A LOT during this last panic attack, and has really got me thinking.

The first thing that struck me, was that I felt so embarrassed. I was focussing more on trying not to draw attention to myself, that I lost control over the panic attack and panicked more. Looking back at it now, I had absolutely nothing to be embarrassed off: I handled myself very well and did what I needed to do.

But I haven't been able to stop thinking about...WHY was I so embarrassed? Why SHOULD I be so embarrassed? And the answer...it comes back to what I said in my last blog, is this stupid, ridiculous, taboo we have about admitting we have a mental illness.

I'm not ashamed to stand up and say I suffer from an anxiety disorder - in NO WAY am I saying that. I would happily tell everyone I meet. I didn't need to feel embarrassed, nobody was judging me and I was handling myself well. Had I have realised that at the time, perhaps my panic attack wouldn't have been quite so intense.

I am very open, but I know others are afraid to be quite so open...and I want people to stop having to feel like that and feeling that they have to hide it.

The second thing that struck me, was just how much MORE I want and NEED to do to get this campaign going. I can't describe how important it is to me to get everyone openly talking about mental health and to stop others feeling this embarrassment. 

I don't know what else I can do to get this campaign going - but keeping this blog going is definitely a start, and please, PLEASE get in contact with me if you feel you can help me with this. Guest blogging, ideas for raising awareness, whatever it may be. Even just sharing, retweeting, whatever, your support means the world to me and others suffering with mental illness.

So please follow my twitter page (@letstalkmhealth), like my page on facebook, and get in contact if you are interested in doing a guest blog, want to ask me any questions, have any ideas for upcoming blogs, or even if you just want a chat.

I would love to hear from anyone and everyone, people with all forms of mental health disorders, be it anxiety, depression, bipolar, personality disorders, OCD, PTSD, eating disorders etc, please PLEASE get in touch with me. Anyone currently suffering, or anyone who has beaten these illnesses. I would love to hear from you.

Lets work together to get talking about mental health!

Until next week!

Suzy x

#LetsTalkAboutMentalHealth