A WOMAN has shared her mental health battle and how a Worcester based charity transformed her outlook on life.
Lorna Wilkes 38 from Perdiswell said: “I was signed off from work and felt like I was in some kind of alternative universe. It wasn’t a nice place to be and can be hard to understand unless you have experienced it yourself.
“A lot of things added up and up until daily life no longer felt manageable. I was anxious about anything and everything. I didn’t have any confidence or self-belief.
“I enrolled onto a twelve week course called Mood Matters through Onside. I found that it was just normal people that were in a situation very similar to myself. It was really nerve wracking the first time, it is a strange environment to be in I was so nervous but I am so glad I did it.
“The course was fantastic. I learnt so much about myself and my anxiety. I can’t recommend it enough. I learnt coping strategies and management techniques that have completely transformed my life.
“I was so inspired by the change I saw in myself and others who did the course alongside me that I wanted to give something back. I spent a while raising money for the charity and teaching what I had learnt to family and friends. At the beginning of December, a job opened up in Onside and it just made sense to take it up.
“I am so proud of the work that onside do, they are such an inspiring bunch of people. I want to let people know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that with help they don’t have to feel how I did.”
Onside is a 25 year old charity based in Worcester that works with around 4 and a half thousand people per year. CEO, Kate Harvey said: We use social prescribing to link patients with non-medical support to address people’s needs in a holistic way.
“It recognises that people’s health is determined primarily by a range of social, economic and environmental factors and aims to support people to address and deal with issues relating to these factors.” See www.onside-advocacy.org.uk/