I thought I would steal Mark’s blog this week - if that’s ok with you ?
As many of you will know ( as I often can be found sharing the fact wherever I go ) I have an amazing role now within the NHS - working with people who very literally saved my life in 2021 when I had my breakdown.
Role Play
My role is a peer support one - so I can freely and honestly share my story of survival and hope with those who are struggling with their own mental health journey. It is a role that I find both challenging and therapeutic—both difficult and extremely rewarding. On many occasions I have found myself in conversations with people who have been through very similar traumas to those I have suffered—maybe they are using the maladaptive coping methods I have used (self harm, self neglect etc)—and I have the privilege of walking alongside of them as a living example of how a life can be turned around.
I often find myself looking back (those facebook time hops don't help!), and I see someone that I am beginning not to recognise anymore. A sad, unconfident character that was scared of everything and anxious of doing anything new, to a now adventurous and curious and soon to be 50 young lady who looks forward to her future, not dreads and trudges through every day. It's like I am living again. appreciating even more the wonderful life that I share with my amazebob husband, and grasping hold of every opportunity to tell my story as is humanly possible.
Exciting Times
The peer support role (often known as life experience expert role) is still a fairly new concept. Clinicians have seen the need to have people working alongside them who have lived experience of mental help especially. I heard very recently a clinician comment that my role as a peer support makes the theories on paper come alive! This absolutely reinforces my enthusiasm and my passion for my role. I wanted to turn something really nasty and traumatic into something useful and hopeful.
So in the next few weeks and months you will find little me in a more up front role, delivering training to healthcare professionals about the importance of Trauma Informed practices within the NHS. Also I will be helping people on the road to recovery to make their own personal plan of action for staying and keeping well through a fantastic programme run by the recovery college.
Exciting, fulfilling times for me, and slight changes in our household lay ahead, but adaptation is something we have become experts in during the last few years. For the first time in a long time I am well and truly back in the driving seat of my life. It's taken until I’m almost 50, but better late than never !
Until next time.
#
Hey, there! If you enjoyed reading any of the above, why not take a look at some of my published work? Below you’ll find links to a number of short stories I’m lucky enough to have included in anthologies. I’d love to know what you think.
New Tales Of Old
Death Ship
Pestilence: Drabbles 1
Reaperman: Drabbles 3
The Musketeers Vs Cthulhu
Eldritch Investigations
No comments:
Post a Comment