After a while, I started realising that I felt a lot better by helping people. I do a lot of work at my uni volunteering, and ever since I started it's helped. Even if it's just raising awareness.
I've already done one campaign and next week I'm doing another. I'll hopefully be helping out with giving talks about my PTSD and other issues. I'm massively trying to tackle stigma. I've organised it so that people can live 24 hours under my OCD rules to help them understand and banish some myths. The main purpose is to promote empathy and I'm thrilled that I'm already getting such positive feedback.
A few months ago I managed to raise £200, hopefully this year I can beat it! Proceeds are going to Anxiety UK as, after consideration, me and a couple of other people realised anxiety is the contributing factor of so many mental health issues.
As well as the 'day in the life of' (living a day under my OCD rules), we're doing 'behind the smile' in which we're creating an exhibition wall with pictures of celebrities with mental health illnesses to show that they are invisible, you can't judge from the outside and to show people how much you can accomplish despite mental health issues e.g. Whoopi Goldberg is known to have PTSD.
As well as this, we're setting up a henna boothe for people to get a semi colon on their wrists to show their support for mental health and the Last Word open mic at the end of the week.
I genuinely never thought I'd be able to put my experiences to good use like this and have such an amazing week planned out. I had so much negative energy, it feels good to have a positive outlet. Hopefully I'll be able to help at least one person.
I got the idea for a day in the life of back when someone completely did not understand the nature of OCD last year. I can't walk on cracks and I have to count when I walk. This girl that I was walking with repeatedly tried to shove me into cracks and admitted she wanted to see if I'd break down. In the end she ended up shoving me into the middle of the road where a car narrowly missed me. I waited until I got home to cry.
I was really annoyed at first. But then it hit me - this girl didn't realise the repercussions. My OCD and PTSD are very interlinked, stepping on cracks can cause me to panic and go into flashbacks.
So after a while I started thinking how I could educate people. I can explain it... But you never really understand without getting a taste of what it's like. It was then that I thought about people getting sponsored to live by my rules for a day.
I pitched my idea to the campaigns officer and did it the next week, and this will be my second time running it but on a much, much larger scale. It's just so nice to feel passionate about something for once.
I've already done one campaign and next week I'm doing another. I'll hopefully be helping out with giving talks about my PTSD and other issues. I'm massively trying to tackle stigma. I've organised it so that people can live 24 hours under my OCD rules to help them understand and banish some myths. The main purpose is to promote empathy and I'm thrilled that I'm already getting such positive feedback.
A few months ago I managed to raise £200, hopefully this year I can beat it! Proceeds are going to Anxiety UK as, after consideration, me and a couple of other people realised anxiety is the contributing factor of so many mental health issues.
As well as the 'day in the life of' (living a day under my OCD rules), we're doing 'behind the smile' in which we're creating an exhibition wall with pictures of celebrities with mental health illnesses to show that they are invisible, you can't judge from the outside and to show people how much you can accomplish despite mental health issues e.g. Whoopi Goldberg is known to have PTSD.
As well as this, we're setting up a henna boothe for people to get a semi colon on their wrists to show their support for mental health and the Last Word open mic at the end of the week.
I genuinely never thought I'd be able to put my experiences to good use like this and have such an amazing week planned out. I had so much negative energy, it feels good to have a positive outlet. Hopefully I'll be able to help at least one person.
I got the idea for a day in the life of back when someone completely did not understand the nature of OCD last year. I can't walk on cracks and I have to count when I walk. This girl that I was walking with repeatedly tried to shove me into cracks and admitted she wanted to see if I'd break down. In the end she ended up shoving me into the middle of the road where a car narrowly missed me. I waited until I got home to cry.
I was really annoyed at first. But then it hit me - this girl didn't realise the repercussions. My OCD and PTSD are very interlinked, stepping on cracks can cause me to panic and go into flashbacks.
So after a while I started thinking how I could educate people. I can explain it... But you never really understand without getting a taste of what it's like. It was then that I thought about people getting sponsored to live by my rules for a day.
I pitched my idea to the campaigns officer and did it the next week, and this will be my second time running it but on a much, much larger scale. It's just so nice to feel passionate about something for once.
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