Mental Health Awareness Week is officially here but if you have been tuning into the TV or social media then you will know that this has been a topic of discussion which has been building up over the last few weeks. With thanks to the young(ish) Royals, William and Harry and the Heads Together Campaign they have shown that nobody is an exception when it comes to mental health problems and, that even years on, these issues can still rear their ugly heads. This for me has been very poignant because, just like Harry, I have been battling with grief for a number of years and haven’t ever actually tackled it. If you are not familiar with my blog I lost my Mum to Cancer after a 15-year battle. I was 21 and my sister was 17. I am very open about this and I can talk very easily about what happened but missing her is something that goes far deeper. I previously wrote about my feelings back in October for World Mental Health Awareness Day as I was beginning to acknowledge low feelings, anger, depression and anguish creeping back in again. And that’s the thing with any mental illness, it can lay dormant for days, months or even years and suddenly begin to ebb it’s way back into your life, sometimes quite unexpectedly. The best thing I did was to be aware of it… this, by the way, has taken years of learning the ups and downs of my moods and reacting to them. The problem this time was that my ‘dealing with issues’ actually translated as me pushing them to one side and carrying on. I have been gradually getting lower, worn out, angry, emotional, teary and have lacked control over my feelings.
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