Last August I was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and spend two months in hospital. When I was discharged I decided that I wanted to do something with my life and turn a negative into a positive and so I began working with Fixers. Around the same time I noticed a lot of pro-ana and pro-mental illness posts appearing all over social networking and one comment that really stuck out to me was someone saying that they wanted to be sectioned so that they could have a hug whenever their sad. I was also shocked by the amount of comments about mental illness being fashionable and people likening the psychiatric ward to a big sleepover but that is not the reality.
I wrote a spoken word piece and used my photography along with Fixer’s filming and editing to create a piece to explain what being sectioned is like from a patient’s perspective whilst also targeting the groups in social media that aspire to be unwell. Being sectioned often feels like something I should keep secret and be ashamed of so that’s exactly why I decided to shout about it publicly. There should be no stigma.
Feel free to share this video and spread it’s message.
We then separated into groups to focus on six key sections which were: Health Care, The Media, School, Home, Work and Play. Young people discussed the issues in these sections and came up with solutions as to how young people could be happier in these places, for example if schools were to offer mental health education it would be of huge benefit to young people and enable them to feel happier and support one another.
In the afternoon we went to the ITV studios for a Question Time-style debate. Anna Williamson was our presenter and I was lucky enough to be one of the six panelists. All of the panelists had personal experience of mental health problems and drew from their experiences in order to answer questions, highlight issues and offer solutions and advice.
I am a fixer. Fixers are a UK charity enabling young people to use their past to fix the future. I am working on a project about my experience of being sectioned for my eating disorder but unfortunately I cannot share it with you yet as it isn’t finished. However, I have found some fabulous fixers who have worked on eating disorder related projects.