MQ Ambassador Flo Sharman is also a copywriter and mental health advocate and public speaker, told us to share his experience of mental health conditions and why he will be interested in mental health research and why he will be interested in mental health research and why he will be interested in mental health research and why he will be interested in mental health research and why he will be interested in mental health research.
Flo, thank you so much for chatting with us. First, what are your interests?
My love in life and in many ways my savior in my mental illness is mental health and unity in walking and running. I have been lucky to have my horses for many years and my Darling Fergi is my world and has saved me from my mental illness and has been my driving force to get through the hard days.
I live with resilience, and this has also been an important tool in my lifelong recovery from four of my mental illnesses.
The great outdoors play a big part in my life, and I love being in the countryside and am very lucky to live in the Cotwolds, minutes from miles of open fields. The great outdoors is doing it for my mental health and has been one of my many escapes over the years.
What are your favorite things about life?
Meeting different people and making memories to last a lifetime and hopefully enriching people’s lives and making a difference to those around me. Having the ability to enjoy the beauty that the world has to offer and have a special kind of connection with animals.
Can you tell us about your diagnosed mental illnesses?
I was diagnosed at the tender age of 8 and ½ yrs. an adult with not one but four mental illnesses namely PTSD, OCD, panic attacks and depression.
Can you give a summary of your life experience?
My mental illness journey started with a mental breakdown at 8yrs old, it started one night with physical symptoms that changed my life forever. In 3 short months from those first symptoms of blindness, paralysis, headache and many other symptoms I was totally depressed, suicidal, kicked out of my primary school and almost ended up in a Tier 4 clinic.
At that time I was diagnosed with 4 mental illnesses before that first attack that showed itself in those horrible symptoms that thought it was attacked by one girl and I would go back to being a lady with a full life. Unfortunately, it wasn’t actually the opposite in reality!
Not only have I been diagnosed with four mental illnesses that I struggle with on a daily basis I also deal with four physical illnesses that are invisible and this just goes to show that difficult things are not fully visible when I tell them everything I need but they usually get it right!
How has your experience of your wrists changed over the years?
I lost my baby because of my mental illness and it took me many times over and over, medication, therapy and my mental illness box to get to where I am today.
My mental illness didn’t go away now that I know I always have those labels, but I don’t define them as just one piece of the jigsaw that makes me who I am.
I face challenges everyday and my OCD is always a battle and so is my PTSD and I know they will always be with me but I live a life I love and I always have challenges.
What do you understand about the goals of your situation?
For many years no one knew what caused my mental breakdown in the first place and it took me many years to figure out that my brain surgery and self-abandonment were all connected to the hospital at such a young age. I was 16 years old before I found this and the reason is because of the lack of research on mental illness and that my friend drives me I want to share my story and spread the word on mental research from important generations.
What do people say when you tell them about your circumstances?
Often when I tell people that I suffer from PTSD they are surprised because of so many thoughts that only those in certain situations or who have participated in the traumatic phase can be diagnosed with PTSD and in all people when I was first diagnosed. I now fully understand the true meaning of PTSD and those who can suffer from it. It is one of my most challenging mental illnesses to deal with and it comes in so many forms and hits you at any moment.
I have always been a mature student and I like to better understand my situations and at first I found it frustrating and difficult to deal with the 4 illness case due to my mental illness and the life changing mental breakdown.
It shows that although basic research can change and in fact it can change life, I can’t turn back the clock and go back to my youth, but I can help support research and awareness that can have a positive impact on those who suffer from those who suffer from those who suffer from mental illness.
What is the most upsetting misconception about your illness and mental illness in general?
There is a lot of misconception surrounding mental illness and I think there are three main things:
- People think about it because you look good on the outside everything must be good. That is not the case at all and it is often an undiagnosed mental or physical illness that is very difficult to deal with.
- I have PTSD and people are surprised when I tell them that because many people even today believe that they are the only ones in the military or in critical jobs or who participate in the military. That is not the case and one of the things that I encourage is to make people understand how false PTSD is but they think that people think that they are being attacked and that with labels I still have a mental illness do I no longer have a mental illness; I can’t turn off the light and it disappears. Recovery is lifelong.
- A lot of people think that you can pop a pill, have some therapy and it’s all gone and you’re completely back to mental illness. I’m afraid to say that it can’t be as simple and black and white as that and the measure of it being great is that society understands that everyone’s journey is different for everyone; Even those who are diagnosed with the same mental illness the key to everyone is handled by everyone individually.
What discrimination have you experienced?
I faced a lot of discrimination. I think anyone who is mentally ill will suffer from being trapped sometimes is a sad statement to say but I think it is true.
For me the biggest battle in the pitina that I was facing was that I lost my child because of my mental illness because I was excluded from my primary school because I was an 8-year-old girl in a mental health problem called four mental illnesses. I was told by the teachers that I can no longer go to school and I remember the day my mother was brought into the head teacher’s office to say “Florence cannot be moved to other children and we do not want a child in Florence’s School”. It may have been a very difficult pill to swallow and I will never forget it.
In my opinion the only way to reduce and disappear from society is if mental illness and physical illness are treated equally, that’s my belief and I hope that I can see that happen for the rest of my life.
How has mental health or mental illness changed in society since you first learned about it?
There has been a positive change in how mental health and mental illness is viewed in society since the mental breakdown but there are many more steps that need to be taken. I think one of the things that society needs to be careful about is that because the conversations are more open and because the term mental illness is not believed to be talking about it, people are more open about talking about it themselves, that people are more open about it being used properly.
Often, I hear people say that they are very depressed or a bit obsessive or OCD about my house; Those situations are serious situations, I handle them myself. OCD isn’t just about cleaning it’s more than that.
I think it’s better that the conversations around mental health are open and people talk about mental illness, but it’s important that the right labels are used, and that mental illness labels are not used lightly and are a disabled context that is very difficult to deal with. You wouldn’t just use the example of a more physical illness so the same principles should apply to areas around mental illness.
What do you do day-to-day or week-to-week to manage your symptoms and mental well-being?
I have my four essentials that I use on good days, bad days and difficult times for exercise, getting out, my animals and talking. It is what I call my tool for mental illness and I know it will be with me in my life for a long mental health journey.
Those things are great, and they are my pillars, but those things don’t make my OCD go away they don’t have the magic nose of PTSD or my panic attacks. I can’t just walk and everything will be amazing. My stressful thoughts can come at any time and if I go to do one of these things, look at my horse for example Yes it makes a big difference, but it doesn’t make that mental illness go away.
What lessons have you learned from your experiences with mental illness?
I have learned many things from my mental experience, I am sure I will continue to learn things from what I now know is a lifelong journey of mental illness.
I can say that there are important things for me that I have really learned and taken from this program. In my eyes you can take things and they end up being bad or things turn out to be good. I am a big believer in turning all bad things into good or learning.
My mental illness has given me the belief that I am stronger than I think I am, that someone can look like the happiest person, but they can be hungry inside. You gave me the character to never judge what you see and always be kind. It made me very passionate and how you can find yourself in the darkest times and being able to do that has taught me that it is very important to have good people by your side and benefit from people who fill your cup rather than empty your cup.
One of the lessons I’ve learned from my mental illnesses is that they always fight no matter what.
What is special about MQ?
For me, the reason why I am very special is because they are the leading research organization in psychology, I know from my own personal experience how important they are, and where the research is changing.
Mental health research will help future generations and hopefully one day we will have a cure for mental illness, wouldn’t that?
Our thanks to Flor for sharing her story, which highlights why research matters in mental health and why the work of MQ Mental Health Research must continue.
