you cut me open and i keep bleeding love

Whilst you watch powerlessly from the sidelines trying desperately to save them from themselves. It can be soul-destroying watching a person you love change and be taken under their own darkness. You can be let in and trusted one day but then shut out and ignored the next. Speaking from my own experience with a very close friend of mine, I know it can be a lonely and confusing place. You are worth a lot and you help more than you know. So if you are one of these people reading this today, let me tell you something: YOU are a silent hero.

It really is not an easy job supporting someone with severe anxiety or depression or bipolar disorder or any other mental illness. They may be lashed out at or shut out (or sometimes worse: both) when all they are trying to do is help. Unfortunately sometimes the people helping can be forgotten in all of it.

And if you are somebody who suffers from a mental illness reading this, it may be an insight into what the ‘other side’ experiences. I’m talking about ordinary people, with no formal training, just trying to be there to help their loved ones in their time of need. And I’m not talking about professionally qualified therapists and counsellors here (although they deserve much praise and acknowledgement for what they do). The people who are there for mentally ill people day in and day out. It truly is hard for them but this post today, however, is for the people like me. My heart breaks for all those who suffer from their inner demons. Mental health therefore has been a topic close to my heart for many years as I see the impacts it can have on people and their daily functioning and relationships. Since then I have had a fair few experiences of people feeling comfortable enough to open up to me and allow me to help them with their struggles. It all started from when I was in high school and a friend confided in me that she was feeling low and thinking of committing suicide (thankfully she didn’t and is now a happily married woman living life to the full). As I have mentioned on a previous post I have supported a few friends with their mental health issues over the years.

You cut me open and i keep bleeding love