In August, a group of NHS leaders said they were seeing a rise in people reporting severe mental health difficulties while charities including Mind, Samaritans and Calm have all said they have seen an increase in people coming to them for help.”Lockdown has affected my mental health for the first time in my life – I look back at myself in March and see a different person.Some of the things said ‘Cass needs to build up some core strength and maybe get a bit fitter’ – which is completely fair.I didn’t actually realise I had an eating disorder until one of my friends said a lot of the things I am doing are dangerous and demonstrate eating disorder habits so I got help.It left me with brain damage on my frontal lobe, it affects my emotions, my personality, my sense of humour – everything.”Through the injury I was also left with epilepsy – it means I can’t work, I can’t drive – so I have to stay fit and active every day.”I write music and write about my problems and that’s the only way I’m ever going to get anywhere with all this. “As soon as the initial lockdown started I was bombarded with social media posts saying that ‘this is the time to hone your craft – this is the time to do your dream project’.”One of the things I saw a lot was the statement ‘if you’re not working your hardest now – you never really wanted it’ and that kind of thing really stuck with me.”With all that in mind, my advice to anyone else struggling would be that having more time to create doesn’t equate to having to create more.”
Read more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-54418913
