'It's not just you'
Asking for Help & Vulnerability
Young people anonymously share their experiences with being vulnerable and asking for help with their mental health challenges. To anonymously share your own journey, send us an email with your testimony.
Trigger Warning: these testimonials discuss sensitive topics such as eating disorders, addiction, abuse, suicide and self-harm.
“I always feel like I’m a burden when it comes to telling someone how I’m feeling. I’m always so stressed about the fact that they might think I’m such a burden, they must think I’m annoying and they are only helping me because they feel like they are obligated to and they don’t really care about me.”
Anonymous
“I fell into a really bad addiction as a teenager and was really depressed. If I hadn’t asked for help I’d probably be homeless - if I wasn’t already dead, and if I’d somehow managed to escape prison. It would be one of those three.”
Anonymous
“There have been so many times where someone asks me what I need, and I knew what I needed but I was just too scared to ask. Like if I needed a hug or something.”
Anonymous
I wish it felt normal to just say “I’m feeling terrible today” when I am. Instead, when someone asks me how I’m doing I just say “I’m fine”. Even if they ask twice. It’s so frustrating.
Anonymous
“Literally nobody ever taught me how to talk about my feelings. PSHE lessons do sometimes emphasize “go to the nurse, talk to a teacher or a parent”, but that’s just the basic things and I feel like there should be a master class on how to communicate feelings because how do you actually do that. It’s so scary."
Anonymous
“I wish I could go back to when my parents were born and teach their parents how to talk about feelings within a family setting. There would still be intergenerational trauma passed on, but at least we would know how to deal with it. And then I might be more comfortable talking to my parents about how I feel.”
Anonymous
“I feel like we should all start greeting each other with “How are you feeling right now?” rather than “How are you?”. It might make others feel more comfortable being honest about what’s going on.
Anonymous
“Sometimes I know I really really need a hug, but the thought of being comforted by someone else, or someone seeing me upset, makes me feel so uncomfortable“