MY ILLNESS (Cambridge Junction)****

 

By Sophie

Link: https://www.junction.co.uk/my-illness

Available until: It might end on 16^th May 2021, at the end of Mental Health Awareness Week.

Warning: This short film has references to self-harm and suicide.

Recommended age guidance: 14+

My Illness is part of a project designed to raise awareness about mental health problems in young people. The video (which shows various images, but not the people speaking) features real young people talking about the feelings they’ve experienced, the help they received and their feelings of hope for the future.

Cambridge Junction has an initiative called Creative Learning, which has been working with young people at the Darwin Centre, an inpatient mental health centre which supports young people aged between twelve and seventeen. The result of that collaboration is My Illness.

While there are sad moments when the young people talk about how they felt and how these feelings affected them, the overwhelming message of the video is very positive. The time they spent at the Darwin Centre with other young people who were struggling with their mental health seems to have been incredibly valuable to them, not just in terms of lifting their mood but in learning there were other people like them, meeting new friends, and giving them the feeling that there was hope, and that life really can improve.

The young people’s descriptions of their mental health problems are really strong and clear. It is extremely difficult to put mental health problems into words, yet they have done it. A lot of the thoughts they share are very general and will consequently be recognised by many people with mental health problems. Equally, the descriptions are so accurate and so powerful, I think this video can be really helpful for the friends, families and colleagues of people with mental health problems - particularly for those who are willing to understand but haven’t yet been able to, but also for people who haven’t shown much desire to understand before but who might suddenly find it all makes a lot more sense after watching this video.

It is important to note that we are all individuals with our own individual brains and this means we won’t all experience mental health problems in the same way or use the same coping methods (or the same methods of showing that we really are not coping), but even if someone doesn’t quite identify with the descriptions in this video, the video might nevertheless prove a helpful starting point.

It is a wonderful idea and it is so positive to learn that there are avenues of help for young people, and that they’re actually helped rather than dismissed and belittled by those who should be helping them. It must be very inspiring for young people to know that there are services which are available and which have genuinely helped the young people who feature in this video. I hope the success of this project and the video the young people have created will inspire other organisations to create something similar.

I would think anyone who lacked support as a child can easily imagine how an organisation like the Darwin Centre, and the chance to make a video with Cambridge Junction, would have benefitted them. I really hope those that are able to will offer Cambridge Junction further support so they can continue to help ensure that more and more young people have a happy and successful life ahead of them.

A very important video offering both validation and education.