“I had to choose my mental health”

“Around one year ago I had my toughest decision in front of me. I had to decide if I was going to help myself or make someone else happy. I had a bad relationship with my dad and there came the choice of whether I should move away from home or not. Because of the bad relationship I had with my dad I wanted to move away from home for my own sake even though it was hard to leave my dad when he was so alone. My gut feeling said that I should move away from home to improve my mentally health and it was after that I lost touch with my dad for six months. 

I am so happy that I could stay with my friends and that I could sleep, eat and be with them when my life was the toughest.”

“My friends' support was the most important thing during that time, they have been by my side and always helped me. Without them I don't know how it would have gone with this. One thing that has helped me through this is to be positive and always think of the positive instead of something negative. When a problem has arised, I always take it from a positive perspective. There is no point in thinking about the negative aspects of moving. Instead, I thought about the positive things, I would feel better about it and instead of feeling bad about living with dad it would be better for my mentally health to live alone.”

“I think it was good that I lost contact with my father for a while because I think it made me have a stronger relationship with him today. We lost contact for 6 months which was a terrible time but I am glad we got the contact back today. When I lived with my dad and my sister I had a very good contact and we were very good friends but it was because of the relationship with my dad I could not stay. My dad was disappointed in me because I chose myself over him and moved away from home, which caused us to lose touch with each other. What made us get back in touch was that dad realised that I was important, he realised that I was a big part of his life and that he didn't feel good without me in his life. My dad wanted me back in his life because he only had contact with my sister and not any contact with me. That time he didn't have contact with me was his most terrible time in his life.”

Emma 9A