Even though my friend is willing to be apart of my project, I still wanted to get outsiders stories of self harming and mental illness and that's where Young Minds Charity came in.
Young Minds is a great charity which helps individuals through a very difficult and sensitive period of time for them. They give them support and somebody to talk to who they trust completely. While on their website I saw real life stories of some individuals who were willing to tell their stories to outsiders but also individuals who were coming to the site and seeking that help, making them understand that they aren't the only one who is suffering.
It really touched me reading some of these stories because even though my friend had been affected by it and recovered it still goes on and it is seen as taboo in a lot of ways. There was a lot of stories which people represent with self harming for example Hanroun's story is about bullying and how he got into a gang and was convicted of assault, he would punish himself because of the colour of his skin and the things other individuals would say to him, which is disgusting and wrong but in the nicest possible way bullying is talked about nation wide but what surprised me is the amount of individuals who had ADHD and yes we do hear of it but I don't feel like we hear about it enough. It is mostly common within boys and it is a struggling time for them.
Fred was an individual who suffered from ADHD and he got depressed because he wasn't able to hold down a stable job, he would get into trouble with the police as they thought he was making up excuses, the sad thing is that he still keeps it a secret from employers and friends of his. He had changed his name to Fred on the Young Minds website as he does not want peers to know about his secret.
I find this very upsetting as I feel individuals should never suffer in silent but also should never be ashamed of who they are or what they have, everybody is unique in certain ways, and I do feel that mental illness in the form of ADHD and self harming is still taboo and needs to be spoken about more often and individuals should never be scared to ask for help.
