"Whilst I feel very lucky and grateful that I was able to receive support from mental health services and have met so many lovely staff who have made me feel cared for along the way, the majority of my experience left me neglected, invalidated, and traumatised. This is the reality of the system at its current state. I was under mental health services for 3 years, and I never received therapy until I was able to pay for it privately. During those years, I spent time in a CAMHS psychiatric hospital and was sectioned twice on an AMHS ward. The experience of being in a ward is terrifying. I spent my time there hiding in small spaces, and even tried to run away because I was not only unsafe in myself, but also unsafe in the environment that I had no choice but to be in. The reality of my experience was I was attacked by a patient in a ward, I was invalidated by psychiatrists and was told other more lethal ways that I could hurt myself. I also was misdiagnosed with a personality disorder when I was actually autistic, which meant I was told it was easy to speak when experiencing a verbal shutdown (non-verbal)."

I have lost multiple friends to their internal battles, people who did not receive the help they so desperately needed. Mental health is so stigmatised that you don’t realise they are struggling until they are gone. We need services to be stronger and encourage people to speak up about these battles. Mental illness is no less painful than physical illness, and it should be treated as such. Just because you can’t always see it, doesn't make it any less real.