COUNSELLING AND MY JOURNEY THIS YEAR.
The other day I was walking home from the shops and saw someone who I hadn't seen for a while, she said to me what an amazing job I do with the mental health work.
For me, it is all on social media so I never really get a true understanding of how my work really helps others but it really does.
Over the last 6 months, my life has been a total rollercoaster and even though I am generally open on social media about my life, I have kept some things on the down low as its been very personal to me.
In January, my life was really starting to go off track, that it was really affecting my daily routine.
👉I was dealing with the loss of our family cat who sadly got put down the day before new years eve.
👉Not feeling too well after the covid booster.
👉my house was upside down due to being decorated in every room.
👉dealing with the pressures of work
👉it was coming up to the 20 years anniversary of losing my mum in February and trying to sort out a big event which then ended up being cancelled due to lack of numbers so felt really let down.
👉the stresses of trying to get numbers sorted for the Oxford Half Marathon.
After feeling like it was becoming an issue in my day to day life and after a general chat with my manager at work, I finally reached out for help.
In February I decided to reach out to The Lucy Rayner Foundation for counselling.
I then had 6 weeks of 1 hour session each week just to have someone that I could talk to consistently.
This helped me massively as I could have that person who I could really open up to without fear of judgement.
To be honest a lot of what I went through was actually burnout and there are ways we can avoid getting to that level.
To avoid burnout, follow these tips:
Work with purpose.
Perform a job analysis, and eliminate or delegate unnecessary work.
Give to others.
Take control, and actively manage your time.
Get more exercise.
Learn how to manage stress.
I cannot thank the charity so much for the help and support that you gave me when I was starting to struggle.
I wouldn't say I was rock bottom through all of this but I started to hate dealing with the easiest of tasks.
During that time and recently I've had 2 friends reach out to me as well saying they need support so I have got them to sign up for counselling through the charity.
I won't mention names as its not my place too but knowing that I have helped others in the process really does mean a lot to me.
There is absolutely no shame in reaching out for support.
6 months on I am now back on track and I am feeling so much better.
I cannot thank my support network for all the help and support during the process and especially my managers for noticing that things weren't right with me and pushed me with doing the right thing.
Over the coming months, I plan on working with the charity on a bigger involvement to really get their charity and the work they do more in the open.
It makes me so proud to work so closely with them and so pleased we know each other on a personal level too.
If you are reading this and do need support then please reach out.
The Lucy Rayner Foundation offer counselling support to those aged 14-39 so don't feel like you are alone.
Thank you for taking the time for reading this blog post.
IF YOU ARE REALLY STRUGGLING THEN PLEASE SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.
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