Although my anxiety can get bad, there are things that help to take the edge of and help me chill out. In this blog I hope to describe these things and explain why each of these is so helpful to me.
1. Family
I am very lucky to have extremely supportive parents. They have helped me hugely by paying for private healthcare instead of having to wait for the NHS services and have always just been there for me. I can talk to them about anything and they always try their best to calm me down if I’m getting a bit too stressed. Although it is hard for them and they don’t always know what to say, their support has helped me so much through my journey of mental illness.
2. Friends
My friends are also incredibly supportive. Although it seems like my friendship group often shifts direction, I am very fortunate to have some really caring friends that will listen to me, and put up with my last minute cancellations and rants. I find going out with my mates is an extremely gratifying experience and I am thankful to those friends that have stuck by me through all the times I haven’t been such a good friend back.
3. Music
I find listening to music can be a really good way to help me almost zone out when I’m stressed. If I can focus on the song, even for just a little bit, I am not focusing on any negative thoughts. Throughout the last year of college, I constantly had one headphone in playing music (thankfully most of the time my hair covered it!). Although this was maybe not the best idea ever during lessons, but sometimes it would definitely help having music playing.
4. Drawing
Drawing is quite a recent hobby that I have taken up. As I am not yet well enough to work, I have a lot of free time at home to kill. I used to always doodle all over my work but had never really got into drawing proper pictures until I had so much time to kill. I set up an instagram account for my drawing @zf_drawings_ and am actually quite proud of some of the drawings I have done.
5. Youtube
This probably isn’t something to be proud of but I spend a lot of time on youtube. Soon after I decided not to go to uni, I discovered hi 5 studios. This is a studio in California that makes videos for many channels such as dope or nope, totally trendy and rekt. There are many youtubers at the studio that I really look up to as role models. The studio is not interested in the drama that many other channels have turned to and are just fun, family friendly videos. Matthias, the CEO of the company, has so many wise words. He has taught me how change can be a really good thing and to try and invest your energy into the right places. There are also many other people that inspire me there such as Samantha Fekete, who is very similar in age to me, but very mature for her age, giving so many useful lessons about self love. Tanner Malmedal is another youtuber who is ummm… handsome to say the least. He is so fun loving but also really down to Earth. These are just a few of the amazing people at this studio that have really helped to distract me and to give me a smile through any hard day.
6. Reading
I also started reading when I didn’t go to uni. This was pretty intimidating at first as I hadn’t read a book in years and sometimes can struggle with concentration when my mental illness us bad. However, I have found it a really good way to not only kill time, but to get invested in the story and learn some lessons along the way. My favourite non-fiction book that I have read so far is Becoming by Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama is one hell of a woman. She is so strong and influential, and is inspiring girls across the world, from all different backgrounds, to help to improve the world. I looked at tickets to go see her on tour when she comes to London- unfortunately I can not afford them, but some of the lessons she taught in her book definitely hit home enough. My favourite fiction book that I have read is Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. This book involves many family problems and works greatly on character development and has an insane ending. It made me cry so hard but it was good tears. I highly recommend both these books to any women in particular who are interested in reading.
7. Exercise and meditation
These two I don’t exactly do regularly. I go on a dog walk around 5 times a week and exercise on our exercise bike when I remember to do so. Exercise has been proven to help a lot with people with mental illness, however, for myself, I feel like the benefits come more from the fact that I am taking care of my body and that I have done an extra thing instead of just watching TV.
I have also just started doing meditation using a meditation app called headspace. Many people say that meditation has really helped them to find a general sense of calm in their life. The meditation reminds me a lot of the breathing techniques that they taught me during CBT. I have not done this long enough to really see if it has an impact on me, but I’m hoping by continuing to use this app that I will feel some of the benefits that other people have felt.
I hope to use all of this techniques as well as hopefully some others during my journey through mental illness. I have recently ordered a journal, so I can write down my thoughts and feelings as many people say this helps. I hope as I get better, I find more things that I enjoy and can carry out on a regular basis, to help maintain a sense of calm and happiness throughout the rest of my life.
The things in this blog may not help/ appeal to everyone, but they have definitely helped me through.
Thank you for reading 🙂
Zoe x
my life with mental illness 
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