There's Always Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have just sent in my application to See Change to be on a youth panel. This panel is all about promoting positive mental health and helping See Change to make a difference. Here is some information about the Youth Panel: “Thank you for your interest in getting involved with See Change. Our youth panel will be a valuable part of our campaign, whether you’re on Facebook and Twitter or raising awareness in communities. The Youth Panel (YP) is a group of 10-15 young people aged between 18 and 25 who will advise and guide See Change in all areas of our work, get Ireland talking about mental health, reshaping people’s attitudes and creating new fun ways of reducing the stigma attached to mental health problems. See Change is a social movement that is changing how Ireland thinks about mental health. We want to create a conversation within the community about people’s attitudes and behaviour towards mental health. Mental health is part and parcel of being human but societ...

Think big is a project that has been set up to help promote positive mental health in Ireland. This project has been designed by O2 and Headstrong. This projects is for communities to help and make a different for young peoples mental health. Do you have an idea that will help young peoples mental health? Do you have an idea that will help promote positive mental health? Well if you do why dont you sign up to think big ans start your very own project. Visit their website to get started....  http://www.o2thinkbig.ie/ Here is a video of one very successful think big project.... who knows your project could be as successful as this one!!

Sometimes it can be easy to know way you feel a certain way but other times it can be very hard to know why you feel a certain way. Many times they way you feel can be caused from actions that are taking place around you. Other times we can feel a certain way and not know why and nothing around may have happened to cause you to feel that way. We as humans are able to have many different feelings for many different reasons. It is very important to try and learn about our feelings to know why we feel these feelings sometimes. This will help you to learn to cope with feelings in a healthy way and feel more in control of your life.                                            It is a good idea to think of all the different feelings that you are capable of having and then trying to...

When my dad and I were working towards recovery together we had many many fights about me harming. He couldn’t understand how I was feeling and in turn I couldn’t understand how he was feeling. He helped me to understand how he was feeling and so i had to help him understand how he was feeling. Because he had never suffered from self-harm he was not able to understand and after a while I began to accept that. He did not know how to help me and so it was my job to help him to help me. To do this i had to explain to him why i was self-harming even if he wasn’t able to understand it I had to tell him why so that we were able to talk about things. Once we were able to talk about self-harming we began to talk more. He moved on and began to not get angry and annoyed at me for harming but he showed me how upset it made him, he showed me that he cared and he showed me that he wanted to help me. That was enough for me to be able to decide that I needed to help him to know how to help me. ...

Often people can self-harm because of how they feel about themselves and their body image. It is often hard for people to think about their body image and weather they like it or not. Some people say that they scar themselves because they don't like their bodies. Harming just makes them feel worse so it doesn't really make them feel much worse. I know for me I self-harmed because I didn't like my body along with many other reasons. Now that I have got control of my self-harm I regret some of the scars that I have caused. I don't  regret doing it because it has made me the person I am today, someone who has an understanding of mental health and mental illness now. But the thing is I have ruined my body and I have to wake up every day and see all my scars. I cant wear t-shirts because I have scars from my shoulders to my wrists. I even have scars on my hands. I cant wear shorts that go above my knees bec...

People who self harm generally from my experience do not think about off the risks that are associated with things such as cutting. Yeah there is the obvious risk such as cutting to deep, or cutting an artery which may lead to death. But beyond that there are more risks such as infection. Leaving a cut untreated can lead to infection and if a infection is not treated this can lead to future complications. if an infection is sever may require antibiotics and a doctors treatment. But along with that there is many serious infections that can come from self-harming. When a person is feeling very low and want to self harm they may use anything that they can come in contact with to harm because they are desperate. It is not good that they are self-harming and it is a lot worse if they decide to use something that may be dirty or may have been used by someone else and could have harmed them by accident. If something such as a razor blade is used that has been used by another person ma...

While i was looking on the internet the other day I found this article and thought that it would be good for people to read and might help them cope. "I have a green box. It isn’t just any old green box, although it looks that way to most people, but it is special, really special. It’s whats inside that counts My Green Box is for special occasions – occasions when I am feeling out of it and when I want to self-harm. It is a safety mechanism that my psychiatrist and I have put in place. Maybe it isn’t the box so much that is special, but the contents and their purpose. It is a mixed up muddle of finger paints, water colours, brushes, plasticine, paper, pencils, pens, glue, little toys, a small puzzle, pictures from calendars for analysis – anything and everything that will keep me occupied when I really need to hurt me. It is a distraction mechanism. It also has  envelopes  and addresses for letter writing and a safety list of phone numbers I can call if I...