Lived Experience Forum

[Adge]

Thanks so much @Glisten 

I really appreciate your kind thoughts.

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[Judi9877]

Hi @tyme and others here. What a great discussion thread that has emerged! Thank you for starting it.

To be honest, the past 12 months for me has been a great period of recovery in regards to my mental health journey. I’ve been able to find a Tafe course and an educational provider that has accepted me and one in which I’ve felt a sense of belonging and acceptance with my fellow students which has been rare in my previous attempts at study. I’ve had people who believe in me and my ability to achieve my Certificate IV in Leisure and Health and who can see that I would suit working in aged care as a lifestyle officer for older residents. I’ve had some great teachers at Tafe who have seen that I’m more than just a person with mental health issues and who have helped me believe in myself and given me the opportunities to flourish and succeed at the subjects and course with all assessments in my course to the point where I’ve only got practical placement to complete before graduating with a qualification and hopefully a job at the end of it or further study as a PCA. This will be my first completed qualification I’ve achieved after 20 years of studying various things (I did get a Bachelor of Arts in 2009 which was my last qualification) so it’s a massive accomplishment and achievement for me.

 The past 12 months have been busy and I’ve had my periods of motivation being a problem with doing assessments and actually travelling to Tafe but my housemate, sister, Tafe teachers, Tafe student services team and fellow students have all believed in me and I’m soon to graduate and I’m proud of myself.

I’ve had lots of medical staff members tell me to give up studying as I’ll never be able to work because of my mental health issues and to just learn to stay at home and do nothing with my life, even my father whom I’ve since chosen to remove from my life, but I’ve persevered and I’ve been able to achieve completing a course and I’m proud of that. Before I started my course in April last year, I struggled with my mental health and employment and finding what I wanted to do with my life. I tried several courses after getting my Arts degree in 2009, including a Certificate IV in Mental Health several times and trying to study my Certificate IV in Leisure and Health twice but I kept on failing with self belief and the belief that I couldn’t work because of my mental health issues. It was only last year that my sister agreed to help fund my new course as a last resort and to help me with my motivation that I got up the courage to try again and study and I’m pleased to say it worked. I found myself enjoying the course as it allowed me to be creative and learn new things about designing activities and plans to make people happy and enjoy life and I realised I want to do this as a future career. My Tafe teachers gave me confidence and taught me that it’s okay to be me and that I’m more than my mental illness. None of my dealings with medical staff asked me what I wanted to do with my life and what made me happy as they only saw me as a sick person. If only they had taken the opportunity to ask if I wanted to learn a new skill or look at different employment options instead of just being sick and in and out of hospital and mental health community treatment facilities (2019-2022) then I believe things just may have been different for me. 

I believe that recovery is possible for people with mental illnesses as I’ve seen this for myself. I believe that recovery is a journey for each and every person and that every person’s journey is unique to them. I’ve learnt new coping skills and strategies and I’ve learnt that having a group of people to be your own cheerleaders is important, especially when things do get tough. Self belief is hard at times as well as having motivation and accepting things in life, but it can happen. Recovery can mean two steps forward and one step back but it still means you are taking steps in the right direction. Like a character said in Finding Nemo- just keep on swimming! 

Judi9877😊

[tyme]

Yes! Just keep swimming.. just keep swimming @Judi9877 

It's a huge learning for everyone - but we have to be willing to take up the opportunity. And you have.

Thank you so much for sharing this.