Today marked the end of my sessions with Natalie at Access Community Mental Health. This is a MH service which offers talking therapy for 6 weekly sessions and I think it’s important to share because I genuinely didn’t know it existed until I was at a point of asking to be sectioned.
I started with Natalie at the beginning of December, and I’m in a much healthier and safer place now. Just having that weekly outlet, but also someone who makes you feel like you’re talking to a friend; Sharing relatable experiences along with helping me reframe my mindset in many areas.
During our closing questionnaire, I gave a 1-7 rating for various areas of my life. We also compared them to my first answers at the start and some are hugely improved.
It’s been a big start to the year for me, and largely this is thanks to Natalie and our sessions. I’ve spent so long feeling isolated, inadequate and restricted, and truthfully there are probably still areas that I feel this.
I ended 2025 feeling so lonely and like I just couldn’t enjoy the fun things everyone else did over the festive period. So on NYE, I wrote a list of things I want to do this year and I really have hit the ground running.
Last week I had a taster session at the local rock choir, and I immediately signed up for the rest of the term. It was exhausting but exhilarating, I felt so much joy and lightness that I knew I would gladly navigate my diary and energy around making this achievable for me to do.
I also spoke to all my friends about this list and my goals for this year and was met with the greatest reactions from them all – they all added plans and ideas to my list!
Another thing on my list was that I want to generate an income, so this week I’ve signed up for a course to learn how to do something. If it works out to be manageable, you’ll know!!
This is all only possible by reframing my mindset. It’s easy to get stuck in the thought pattern of “I can’t do that”. Or worse, chastising myself for not being able to do things I could before. I’ve spent 4.5 years in that thought pattern and all it does it make you focus on the unachievable. Instead my current mindset is “but I could do that” or “if I adjusted that it would make that manageable”. Like choir – I have to make adjustments to make it manageable.
So instead of me being sick of all the rest I have to have and how few things I can do within those rest periods that don’t drain my energy, I’m looking at things I can do while still resting. Things that I can make achievable so I can bring more life into my little world without upsetting the precariously balanced spinning plates that are my health.
I’m sad my sessions with Natalie are over, but I’m beyond grateful to have been paired with her to get me out of what truly was my darkest hole yet. I never thought I’d find a therapist that I gelled with as much as Lee, but I’m grateful that fear proved to be unfounded.
Access Community Mental Health is a free service, available to those in need and they’ll work with you during your sessions to improve areas of your life that are causing the most difficulty for you. I wish more people know about these services before they hit rock bottom, but I hope my little post here helps in some way to achieve that.
For now, it’s back to resting, because I might have hit 2026 with a little too much gusto. But for once it’s a content rest, knowing I have a great year ahead of me, despite my limitations.