Welcome to our new blog posts about mental health. We have asked one of our lovely volunteers to write up some information and advice regarding mental health. So keep an eye out for the blog posts titled "Welcome to Stelly says"! 

My name is Estelle but I go by Stelly, Im 20 years old and I’m gonna to use this space to talk about mental health and problems young people face daily, with the main aim to provide some help that can be more relevant to you as a 21^st generation young person. Please let it be known this blog will occasionally contain sensitive topics.

Depression and anxiety are two of the most common mental health problems that young people face today. They can manifest themselves in many ways, and it can be supeeeer overwhelming. It can be mega challenging to know how to cope and manage with them, but the important point to note is that you can! Depression is generally defined as feeling very low and not enjoying the things you used to, however as I said before, there are many ways that this can show itself in your life. For starters, you may struggle to get out of bed, you might struggle to jump into the shower, complete homework, see friends, make reckless decisions, isolate yourself etc. These feelings are completely normal when you have depression - as annoying as they are. Anxiety is a sense of fear and can be as general or as specific as it wants. For example, I suffer from social anxiety, and public speaking is my biggest fear.

We want to use this blog space to talk about issues you face during your lives and potential solutions or coping mechanisms for these problems. Having been a carer and recently just turned an adult myself, I relate heavily to your lifestyles and hope to really make a difference to the mental health crisis young people (especially young carers’) are facing!