I’m officially(-ish) an activist😍

I have a habit of signing up for a lot of things when I’m in a good mood. Sometimes this leads to a lot of regret and a bad mood, however what I’m about to discuss next is something I will not regret. A few years ago I didn’t think I would be around see age 16, let alone being 19, at university (if my appeal wins but that’s another story), quite happy and beginning my journey in campaigning for better mental health provisions.

I recently became a YoungMinds activist.

And I am still so shocked that I was chosen and although I’ve only been to my induction, I am so excited to help create change (and wear my new T-shirt).

One of their campaigns is the ‘Wise Up’ campaign and this one really hits home. This campaign is all about getting the government to make sure that the wellbeing of students is, at least, as important as academic achievement. When I was at school this definitely was not the case. Academically I did fairly well, my homework was usually in on time, I got good grades and I never got in trouble, but my mental health was awful and eventually I was forced to go into hospital which could have been avoidable.

At school they assumed that because you were doing well, you were well. Even though I cried in lessons, couldn’t concentrate, threw away my lunches and self-harmed during breaks – because I was doing academically well, I was fine. There are so many time where the decline in my mental health could have been noticed. One example that really stands out is when one of my closest friends at the time told my geography teacher about me having suicidal thoughts and the teacher smiled and said nothing. Even though I still like this teacher, at the time it felt like they really didn’t care which made me feel worse than I already did.

I feel that my school were so focused on keeping the ‘outstanding’ Ofsted status that they forgot about the wellbeing of the students. Luckily YoungMinds are fighting to change this. They’ve been influencing government and reaching out to Ofsted and frankly I’m so happy that they’re taking action to make sure that students won’t have the experience I did.

To YoungMinds all I can say is thank you and I will be the best activist I can be.