Luke's Football blog

This is just talking about my mental health journey and how much talking has helped me from my teenage years. I have struggled with anxiety and self-confidence as I hated the way I looked and got constantly picked on for my eyebrows and other things during high school, and it would create self-doubt in my head. I was a great student and got good marks, but I struggled with a lot in and out of school. 

Mental health is a huge topic among teenagers and young adults. Some of them find it hard to talk about their problems. I was like that, and it’s because back then you thought no one would want to listen to your problems, which led to you bottling your emotions in and just forgetting about them.

For me, I didn’t know much about mental health and the impacts of it till we reached lockdown. I always struggled with anxiety, but I just thought it was normal until we went into lockdown, and then I saw how my behaviour was I just woke up and just wanted the day to end instantly, and it became a general thing. I always just kept that to myself and made sure no one in my family saw that, because why would they care is what I would say I was an introvert but being locked in a confined space made my insecurities and doubts even worse.

Mental health eats at you deep down as you never know what days you could have. Some days you could be happy, but that one thing could just take away from all the good days you have. I know for me, there have been days when I’ve had everything go to plan, but one thing just overrides the good, and it can be mentally frustrating to overcome.

For teenagers, there’s always a stigma that talking about your feelings can be seen as a weakness, and you have to be presented differently, which is not the case at all. I thought the same back then as you are told crying and showing emotion is a weakness, but looking back on it, I feel I should’ve been open and honest with my emotions back then, because holding them in made it worse, as the doubt always eats you up inside. 

For myself, having younger siblings, I always try to set the example and try to be the best role model I can because the world outside can be a hard place, especially growing up as a teenager in this generation. I was lucky when I was 13-15 social media was huge, but not to the scale now where it’s become a more toxic place, especially online, so trying to talk about mental health and being there for them is important, as I don’t want them feeling like they have to bottle their emotions because having that safe space to talk to is important in life. 

Taking to someone saved me because when I was going through depression and mental health issues alone I felt it was eating me up inside, and I just didn’t know what to do, but telling a close friend and family member made me get rid of all the emotional baggage, that I had as they understand what you are going through and will offer you all the support you need in life.

May is mental health awareness month, and it’s important we don’t feel afraid to speak up watching the Crawley game and seeing one of their players lift a shirt saying mental health matters resonated with me and inspired me to write this piece and talk about my journey. I hope people who see this will feel encouraged to talk about their mental health because just talking will help massively and will make a difference.