Helping myself

Hello everyone,
Normally my blogs are full of Rosie's random words of wisdom and advice thank you so much to all the people who have read it I'm amazed that so many of you have read it, I hope it's helped some of you out there. Even just one person. That means a lot to me. Anyway, this blog is a little bit more personal to me, it's taken quite a lot of courage and guts to say this but, tomorrow is the first time in my 26 years I'm going to help myself and it feels quite strange tbh because I'm so used to helping others, whether it be in my job, online, my friends at home, family, in a volunteering setting. I spend most of my days of the week helping others in a variety of settings.

Which is something which I love and I love being able to give someone that little confidence boost or that feeling that someone understands, because it can be a pretty lonely world out there. I'm so used to helping others that talking about my own issues and problems seems pretty daunting. If we could all follow the advice we give to others wouldn't life be much easier. As some of you know I've had a pretty hellish year at work, and not only has it effected my confidence but my mental health has suffered quite significantly. It wasn't till now that I finally realised that what I had been experiencing for years wasn't right, I always felt that there were so many people worse off than me. A lot of people probably wonder why I talk about dyslexia/dyspraxia a lot, it's because I personally know the effect they can have on mental health if poorly understood. This is why I'm so passionate about raising awareness about hidden conditions both learning and mental. To the outside world it looks like you have nothing wrong and a smile can hide so much. The outside world can be to quick to judge someone without knowing their full story.

A lot of people always say to me "oh you're so nice Rosie" I always think at the back of my head when I meet people you don't know what secret battles someone is going through so I never judge. I hope by writing this blog it gives other people the confidence to seek help for mental health issues, I know there's a lot of people who label themselves without stepping foot in a doctors surgery. Having a mental health issue is more than feeling a bit shy, or feeling sad one day, or not having many friends. Please if you think you may have issues go and seek help before assuming they have a label to them there still is so much help available out there even if you don't have a label there are so many amazing charities out there, you just have to be brave enough to go for t and take the first step. For me making that initial step was hard, as someone who has always struggled opening up it seemed very daunting, but I got given some advice from one of my best friends called Kate who said to me "Rose you're the only person who can help yourself." A lot of people assume that looking up to a celebrity can solve everything, and it's quite easy to become trapped in a bubble when you have someone being nice to you. I personally feel very lucky that I have had some amazing advice from the person who I look up to and find inspiring. Mollie has given me so much hope that there will be understanding people out there and if I keep talking about things people will understand better. She's kept me strong and being able to meet her a few times this year and help make her birthday book has made me focus on something positive and to stay strong for.

Also I've been lucky enough to have some amazing friends *waves* especially an amazing inspiring lady who goes under the name Casey, someone who has fought many battles herself but still finds time to help others. I also have an amazing boyfriend who has been my rock, who has been there for me so much and helped me in my darkest hours. He's never once judged, but always understood and always has an open mind which is a rare quality and I feel so lucky to have met someone as caring.
This blog is mainly to say that for a little while I'll be looking after myself and helping myself feel better so I won't be automatically helping other people but I'm still obviously there for people. If I don't immediately reply please don't be sad. Have the confidence to go out there and help yourself too, cos it will feel so much better when you do. Hopefully as time goes on more and more people will have the confidence to speak out not for attention but to help raise awareness and stigma. I hope this blog may have helped people who may be going through similar, thank you for reading this blog.