@James8 Just back on my shift for the week and wanted to check in with you and say hi😁. Hope you are feeling better and can see you also managed to chat with a few different people online in the forum, which is wonderful to see and be able to get insight from other people and their experiences as well.
One of the best things I found was finding my people, like me who know and get living with mental health concerns, the daily grind and how like most of us, we are in it for the long game, they way and the example I think of is tennis players.
The battle back and forth, winning and losing, trying out new shots to get things across the line, the rally battle between yourself, body, brain and anyone else, the highs from overcoming obstacles and the lows from struggle, frustration or things just not working out the way we thought it would. For every victory point, it can be easy or a battle, we don't and won't always win or go to plan but we just keep trying to give it our all.
In time we come to realise, not every loss is a real loss in the long game of things, it is how we are driven to be resilient, and how its a lesson that is hard but teaches us their is always hope and what living with mental health issues in recovery will always look different and be different for each person.
One of the biggest reasons I became a peer is because I wished I would have had someone to talk to about my own feelings and issues back when I first started to realise I didn't feel the same as friends or colleagues in my high school years. The relief that someone actually gets it!
Connection to others in which ever way u can find it, sports, work, friends, online, chat groups, gaming, community. When you feel connected to others, you feel, seen, heard and validated.😎
