Anonymous Story: Struggling in Silence

For quite a long time I struggled in silence, coping with family issues and school issues in addition to my low mood. This led me to develop depression and start self-harming as a way to try and escape the feelings I didn't understand.

I was referred by my GP for some talk therapy. I was seeing a therapist every week for 4 months. Although therapy helped me with my low mood, it didn't do much for my self-harm urges. Later that year someone suggested that I should go to the TEEN FLASH programme. The programme was quite new at the time and I must admit I didn't have high expectations for it, I didn't really know much about it either and later I realised that I wasn't interested in finding anything about.

Fast forward to the first session where we were introduced to the staff running the programme and the other participants, I felt welcomed as soon as the staff members said:” Hello, come on in”. I was pleased to hear that parents had a different programme than teens as I wasn't comfortable sharing and talking about this topic in front of them. At first, I found it hard to talk to the other participants but after some icebreaker exercises (I loved talking about our pets) I started to feel more comfortable around them. At the end I of the first session I said to myself that I was going to give the program a go.

Throughout the programme, I learned about the mechanism behind self-harm and what sort of things triggered those thoughts and how to try and stop them. This was done by a variety of creative activities. What I really enjoyed was that the programme is made for anyone who struggles with this issue, for example, I like science at school, and I enjoyed hearing about brain development and different facts about my teenage brain. Other participants were more interested in art and that was included in the program.

At the end of the programme, I had learned how to cope more effectively with different triggers and how to better communicate with my family about the issues that are affecting me. The program helped me with my recovery (which wasn't easy) and I learned coping skills that I'm still using now. One of the hardest things I had to learn was that I was worth recovering and that I really wasn't alone. Now I'm happy I share my story and I hope that it helps you.