On 4Th February Time To Change – How My Mental Illness Helped Me Find The Love Of My Life

We kissed, as we said goodbye at the station.

Mental health problems affect 1 in 4 people every year, yet too often people are afraid to talk about their experiences because they fear it will affect their jobs or relationships. On 4th February Time to Change, the anti stigma campaign run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, going to be getting the nation talking about mental health to break the silence and end the stigma. For instance, figure out more here.

Since I couldn’t face stepping outside the house without that protection, in true ‘me’ style. Wearing a nice outfit and not a hair out of place. I’d made a successful start to my career, acquired a collection of lovely shoes and handbags, fostered a fun loving group of friends and was always the life and party soul, By this time, I had everything any young woman my age could ask for. On the inside, I was willing myself not to be here anymore.

I didn’t know anything was wrong until I reached my twenties, it’s just that I never really knew what was ‘normal’, Mental illness is something that has affected me throughout lots of my life.

On the way to the station, we got chatting about the fact that I’d never been to an art gallery, and he suggested we should go to the Tate. We did, and I assumed it was a friendly day out. Now look. We got on really well, though, and ended up going for drinks afterwards. Of course I remember looking into his eyes and feeling like he was the person I could spend quite a bit of my life with, It was that point that it dawned on me. It just hit me, it sounds cheesy.

There are waymore ups than downs, Together, Mark and I are building a life that’s worth living for both of us, where we do have ups and we do have downs. I’m truly thankful for it. We’re able to recognise a dip in the other person, and we both understand that if one of us is having a down day, it’s just illness part.

I finally decided to make use of my private health care, after a few months.

i plucked up the courage to phone up, and was given an appointment two days later to go to the Priory to see a psychiatrist. With that said, there, I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and Mixed Depression and Anxiety, and was initially admitted as a day patient for two weeks. Then again, they were very understanding, and off to the Priory I went.

From that first trip to the Tate, Mark and I escalated into a proper relationship, and now we’ve been together for nearly four years. We’re about to move outto the suburbs with our two cats, Currently, we live together in London. We’re very excited about it, and about our future together, it might be a different pace of life. Whenever everything I did was plagued by the constant voice in my head which told me I just wasn’t good enough, despite being the outgoing girlwho was always smiling, and was friends with everyone. I was completely unable to talk about how I felt. One Christmas Eve, in my mid twenties,my mum realised she had to do something, and booked me an appointment with my GP.

It was during this time that I met Mark.

At the Priory, you get given a timetable of sessions to go to, not dissimilar to school, and Mark just happened to be in the same group therapy session as me. While recovering from depression, and so heonly seemed to pop in and out occasionally, he was in the Priory as a day patient. We became friendly with each other, and then one day I gave him a lift to the station. There was no reason in particular, I’m generally very social anyway. I wasn’t really looking to meet anyone at all, I certainly hadn’t considered fancying him because I was in such a bad place myself. Besides, never mind entertaining the thought that anyone would think I was attractive.