RandomJosh

Growing up gay is hard enough as it is, as is growing up in the southern part of London, with its bad reputation. Putting both together can only lead to terrible things right? For the beginning of my time growing up I had always experienced levels of bullying for being gay in both primary and high school, which often made my confidence drop and distracted me away from my studies. I would often try to stay home because of "sickness" but then get home and be absolutely fine. I would do this out of fear of another day coming, though at the time I would literally be so in fear that I would feel ill inside. During my sixth form time was a lot better. There was still a little bit of fear in the back of my mind, however I was comfortable enough to come out, not only to my friends and the ones who supported me, but also to come out to my teachers who also helped me along my journey so much. During the time of having my first "real" boyfriend, I would often be more...

To this day, I am still not 100% sure what triggered my depression (if anything), but what I do know is that it is there with me all the time. In lieu of it being Mental Health Awareness week this week, I felt like I would write up a little about my own personal experiences living with a mental health issue so this may not be the same experiences that every other person has. My earliest memory which links to my depression came when I was in my primary school age, so not even turning 13. I was experiencing a lot of bullying surrounding my sexuality and it always managed to get the better of me. One day I was in my sister's room and was on her bed, I was really feeling upset and alone at the time and went and hide under the covers where I tried to strangle myself so it could all end. As you can tell it didn't get very far as I am still here to talk about it now. Skip ahead a few years, so I went to high school and was doing reasonably well academically, but again the bu...