Headspace

Hello there!

If you're reading this then you've stumbled across one of the spaces that I like to call 'Little Laura's World'—spaces that I've created to talk, and share experiences regarding mental health (something that is slowly, but surely becoming one of the hottest topics in recent years).

In complete honesty, I'm a little nervous about writing about mental health. Sometimes I wonder if I talk too much about topics surrounding health and wellbeing, and I wonder if people are even remotely interested, or if people are thinking, I wish Laura would stop banging on about mental health. The reason I say this now, especially, is due to recent experiences that have left me wondering if I have been right or wrong in speaking out so openly about the mental health crisis of 21st century society. However, whilst sometimes I do get a bit nervous about sharing online, every time I start to think like this, there has always been a little voice of encouragement that says: "If not me, who? If not now, when?" But I don't speak about mental health and mental illness for attention or sympathy—I speak about it because so many people suffer from invisible illnesses and in the past have felt unable to speak out or get help due to stigma, and it is clear that as a society we don't know or understand enough about 'invisible' illnesses to help those who are struggling.

This is slowly starting to change though. I remember the first time I began to notice that things weren't quite right with my mental health at age 16 when I was just starting my A-Levels. I had always been lively and bubbly. I managed to get good grades for my GCSE's, and I wasn't generally someone who struggled with low self esteem. Suddenly though, I had started to become anxious and was experiencing horrible mood swings, causing me to cry almost on a daily basis. I remember very vividly speaking to a teacher about how I was feeling and being told something along the lines of how I didn't look like somebody struggling with anxiety or low mood, and I felt crushed. This was my first experience of what it was like to speak to someone who clearly had very little understanding of invisible illnesses. That incident was five years ago now, and so I can see now firsthand how far society has come over these past five years, because phrases like the ones I experienced are becoming less common. But we still aren't perfect, and that's why I continue to talk about my own experiences so that, as a society, we can start to break down misconceptions and misunderstandings about mental illness.

I've also found how therapeutic sharing my thoughts is. When I initially starting writing this, I was a bit unsure of where I was going, but now I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll and the words I'm wanting to say are just spilling out onto the screen, and it's actually a lot easier than I initially thought it would be. You may or may not also know that 'Little Laura's World' also has a YouTube channel, so I thought it would be a nice idea to start combining both my writing and my videos together and see what happens, and if you want to talk a look at any of the videos, there is a link on this page to my most recent video on 'Mental Health and Friendships'. I realise I'm no professional mental health specialist or YouTube guru, but I beleive that sometimes just knowing that it's okay to talk about how we feel, and understanding that we aren't always as alone as we think we are can be a source of comfort.

Laura over and out xxx