What’s your name and where do you come from?
My name is Angela McCrimmon and I am from Livingston, West Lothian.
Why are you interested in mental wellbeing?
Firstly because I believe in taking responsibility for my own mental health and having a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder means I have to have a lot of self awareness to recognise if an episode may be coming on. Secondly, I want to share what I’ve learned with others in hope that it might make their own journey a little easier.
What can we expect from you?
To fight for mental health to be understood and to be a voice for people who haven’t yet found their own. I speak at conferences to mental health professionals to try and help them understand how things are from a lived experience kind of things so it’s things like this I hope to continue. My writing is a huge wellness tool so I shall continue to do that and share it with others online too as I know how much it would’ve helped me to have read something and thought “That’s EXACTLY how I feel” Just knowing someone else understands in itself makes you feel a little better.
What makes you angry?
Dishonesty makes me angry to the point I can be holding back tears and also not being believed about things can make me angry because it can take so much courage to speak up and then to feel questioned and doubted is the worst feeling in the world and it makes me angry with myself for putting myself in a position for them to make me feel that way.
What makes you feel good?
Helping others. It also makes me feel good when I know that I’ve made a healthy choice for myself that perhaps I wouldn’t have had the courage to do so before. An example of this is that I really struggle in personal group gatherings and I’ve been known to self harm just to calm me down enough to be able to cope with the situation. Social anxiety has impacted my life to the point I’ve missed all my friends weddings, christenings, etc….I even missed my own brothers wedding!! I can cope 1-1 no problem, and I can cope if I’m there for something “official” like mental health but put me in a personal social situation with more than 2 or 3 people and it makes me panic. I feel good because these days I just say “thank you so much for the invite but I won’t be able to make it.” In days gone by I would have done what’s best for them, eg attended their event but there would have been consequences for me. Now it makes me feel good that I am learning I need to put myself first sometimes…..and that’s okay.
Where is your happy place?
My happy place is simply anywhere with a pen and paper or my laptop to type on. I have so many words swimming around in my head that being able to write them in the form of poetry I would go as far as saying is saving my life. I’ve also been known to give a poem I’ve written to a medical professional if I’ve felt too unwell to articulate what I was saying in person and they have responded very well because it has allowed them to understand how things are for me and help me appropriately.
Read Angela’s posts:
Do you know a #SelfManagement hero? Get your nominations in before August 2
I missed out on so many important things like weddings, parties… I can be part of that now #recovery
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