“From an early age I have felt unhappy with my life. Growing up, I was bullied which led to me skipping classes at school, feeling unable to talk to anyone about it, which led to a lot of criticism towards me. Family issues have been a big contributor to my mental health. At around the age of 15 I became severely depressed.
I kept this to myself because I felt that talking to someone would only make things worse, this made me feel isolated for a very long time. When my parents found out about this I felt rejected as they didn’t give me the support I needed. At the age of 15 I also had my first serious relationship which lasted until I was 17. The relationship was very negative and only aided to the contributors towards my mental health and I became very suicidal. I visited the GP about my mental health although I didn’t really want to speak to a stranger about it because I felt uncomfortable. When speaking to the doctor I felt like they weren’t really listening to me and just referred me to talking therapy, which for me – wasn’t the best option. Even so, I didn’t get a letter back until 6 months later. After all the negative responses and lack of understanding towards my mental health I decided to keep my feelings to myself.
At the age of 17 I became very suicidal again, and this was the scariest part of my life. I wanted to die, but had conflicting thoughts – what if this doesn’t work? What if there was something incredible planned for my life? Since this point of my life I have tried to keep myself in a more positive mindset. I have not seen a therapist or gone on medication as I think that is not personally for me. I believe that my mindset is the most impactful asset. That night has made me look at everything in a different way. For most of my life I have let my mental health hold me back, but now I am using it to help me. I have always wanted to use my art to help others – whether that be through a message or by donating money in the future. As mental health has affected me for a lot of my life, I want to use it in a positive way to help others. As well as looking at other important social issues, I want to use my art to stop stigmas attached to mental health and I want to reflect my own experiences in my art to help others.
My mental health is an issue I still have to face everyday, and although I now have a positive outlook on life, some days are a struggle. I am sharing my experience to help others, please help me make a difference. Please support and share my work, comment, like, show my work to charities and if you are a charity – get in touch. 1 in 3 of us will suffer from mental health issues and we will all be affected by mental health in one way or another. It is time this changed.
You can follow Coral’s healing journey on instagram and on her website!”
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