Sophie's World

I haven't written a blog in a long time because, to be honest, I haven't really had much to write about. So I was sitting at home (as I have for the last month) and thinking about what I could possibly write about when I'm doing nothing. Then it hit me. I've seen a lot of posts on people's timelines and social media - and I can totally relate - about how anxieties have been rising and mental health struggles are exacerbated. I figured that even if it isn't much, a post filled with positivity and ideas for how to destress in a time of high anxiety could come in handy! **As a note, it is useful for all of these methods to find a quiet or peaceful place to practice these in, but I know with whole families at home that can be hard sometimes so that is not a necessity. 543231 Grounding Technique: One of the first techniques I ever learnt about is this grounding technique useful in combatting panic attacks and general stress. In your current surroundings identify...

Hello hello, hope everybody has been doing ok and having a great summer! One of the last times that you heard from me was about how I just finished treatment and everything was rainbows and unicorns. I would love to tell you I still live in that magical world but unfortunately, life is never really like that. Things haven’t been great and I wanted to share my experience with that as it is part of my gap year. Previously I think I unintentionally sent a false message that mental health sucks but if you get treatment then everything goes straight back to being great again. That isn’t my experience though, and not the experience of almost everybody I know so I wanted to do a follow-up post about that. About what a relapse is in terms of mental illness, and what that has been like for me personally. It hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure.  When you read the word relapse, one of the first things that come to mind is probably about drugs. Am I right? I think we tend to get very stuck ...

Here it is, the elusive blog post about my trip to Sri Lanka. It's been a long time coming and I'm excited to finally share the experiences I had. My original plan was to summarise the most memorable moments of my trip. That proved impossible because it would include the entirety of the time there, it was all just too good. With my last post about mental health being such a success, I decided this post would be better served sharing the real reasons I was there - on a volunteer placement to promote positive mental health. What better to write a post about, than everything I learnt about it while over there :) I do, however, want to share the highlights with you all in sooome way, so I decided that the best option was to create a video. If you make it all the way through this long post, the video will be at the end! The educational aspect of the trip was really interesting to me. I have been teaching about depression, stress, and suicide in schools across Oregon for the pas...

I posted on Facebook a couple of weeks ago that I would be publishing my Sri Lanka blog soon, but obviously that has not happened yet and I felt like I should exlpain the circumstances behind that. As I am so open about mental health and mental health advocacy I feel as though it is only right if I share the journey I have recently been on with whoever might be reading these blogs. Before I left for Sri Lanka it was a bit of a turbulent time for me. I felt very overwhelmed and almost as if my trip were a test to see how I'd do when I leave for school in Scotland soon. Even though the trip itself didn't intimidate me, it was the change that did. As I've discovered about myself, I do not deal well with major changes or the end of relationships - as I'm sure most people can relate to. I've said in the past that Youthline has been such an amazing part of my life, and this continues to stand true in every aspect. When I was experiencing these overwhelming emotions befo...

I'm not even sure how to start this because I just don't have to words to describe how magical and amazing Disneyland was. I cried 3 times if that puts it into perspective for you. Amazing. I arrived in LA on Wednesday night at 11:30PM and took an Uber to meet up with Calum at USC. That night (because it was so late already) was pretty chill. We got some food, met up with a couple of Calum's friends, and chatted for a bit. Pretty uneventful. The next  day, however, was Disneyland day, so definitely a contrast to the night before. It was a very busy day. The reason I'm in LA is to pick up my visa for going to Sri Lanka (in 7 days omg!!!), so that was my first priority on Thursday morning. It worked out well because Calum had class from 9 until 10 and the Sri Lankan embassy didn't open until 9 anyway. On the website with instructions for the visa, it said it normally takes a couple hours to process so I was expecting to have to go back the next day (Friday) ...

Soooo as many of you may know, two weeks ago on the 15th of February, I got a super cool opportunity to meet one of Oregon's Senators - Senator Wyden. It was super awesome so I thought I should write a blog post about it :) I've mentioned Youthline before, but for those of you who aren't too familiar with it, it's the teen to teen crisis line that I volunteer at. Teens from all over the US and also internationally text, online chat, or call in and other teens (like myself) answer. I find it super awesome, and although I may be biased, think that it bridges the mental health gap that a lot of teens face. Anyways, so Senator Wyden is looking to pass a bill or legislature that will hopefully designate a 3-digit mental health crisis number. Countries already have numbers like this, be it 911 or 999, where there is a line to call in emergencies. But what about mental health emergencies? In the US there is a national crisis line, but do you know what it is? The answer...

Hello everybody! I can't believe it's February already, the time has flown! As you can probably tell by the title of the blog, I got a new job recently which has been super fun and exciting. After working at Topgolf for about two and a half years, I finally gave it up and decided it was time to pursue something that I'm more passionate about. My passion for helping people led me to the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) here in Portland. What's been cool so far is that I've never really worked with any kids with autism before, and it's been so fun playing with them and seeing how differently autism affects every person. These last two weeks... or was it three? I don't really remember, but anyway, for the last couple of weeks, I've just been doing training. I did about 40 hours of e-learning in the office last week and the week before, while this week I have started my overlaps. The overlaps are basically where I shadow the other therapists ...