I was reading a statistic yesterday about a study that says that mental health sufferers live with symptoms for over a year before they look for help. At first I thought this was a strange statistic, but then I thought about it.    I only recognised the symptoms retrospectively after looking back and seeing the signs.
The issue is that Mental health issues never seem to arrive suddenly like a cold or virus but rather sneak up on us gradually, and then what does it feel like to have these issues?
I don’t know about anyone else, but how could I explain to a doctor or anyone else for that matter about what was wrong with me when I couldn’t explain it myself?   I didn’t feel right wasting people’s time for “I don’t know what’s wrong” I just don’t feel right.    Maybe I was just having some bad days, maybe I was taking too much on at work, maybe it was just a phase, my fitness and energy were just dropping because I was getting older, I was getting angry because people were getting more irritating.
I just didn’t understand what was happening until it became too late and hit rock bottom.    The one thing that helped me was talking to some people who just agreed with me; who didn’t offer solutions and just said “Yeah that sounds shit”, “that must be really difficult”, “Are you also feeling like this as well?  It’s horrible when that happens”.     They showed understanding rather than trying to “fix me” because I didn’t feel like I could be fixed, but it relieved me to know that people understood my situation and didn’t judge.
Knowing that this helped me, I regularly have conversations like this with others but from the other side.   To be able to empathise seems to be a massive positive.    When people feel stupid getting help I just tell them to tell people the symptoms and don’t hold back.   “I cry a lot”, “I don’t sleep”, “I’m getting angry a lot”, “I feel strange and not like me”, “I feel nervous”.   
At first the symptoms can be hard to differentiate from “Just having a bad day” but when you have more bad days than good days it’s time to make some change and get some help.

#recognisethesigns #seekhelp