With A Little Help From My Friends

Finding people to stand by you and remind you that you make your own reality, so you can choose to make it better, and happier, is important

For most of my childhood, I was a bubbly, active child, who loved books and movies, art, photography and music and was always there to help anyone who needed it out. I was constantly creating things, and being an only child with two working parents meant I spent a lot of time on my own.

I remember being around 15 I stopped enjoying everything that made me, me. I was always emotional, and growing up, I dealt with being so different from the other kids that they made me feel like an outsider for it, even though I didn’t think much of it because I had a hundred dream worlds to escape to when I was alone. But suddenly, I was crying a lot more, fighting with my parents, failing classes and constantly doubting myself. I eventually saw a counsellor at school after a crying spell in class, and my school told my mom and dad about it.

I started therapy with a child psychologist to work on my anxiety, but after a few sessions I felt guilty about things like wasting my parents’ money, and not being able to control my thoughts and actions, so I stopped going to therapy. I tried to deal with everything on my own, but I hid the constant anxiety and occasional panic attacks for many years.