Experience 1

I felt a bit of homesickness and also a bit of a fear of what was to come over the next three years. I had feelings of disappointment and all those general emotions, anger at myself about not doing enough, anger at the situation of Covid being all around back then. I had general feelings of being very isolated at that point.

There was one specific time when I was just feeling really bad about things, I'd sort of considered seeking help for a little bit at that time. But yeah, it was starting to really affect me and keep me locked in my room. And it got me really so emotional to the point when I was crying and I just felt really bad about myself. I was talking to my parents and they suggested that it might be a good thing to seek help, and so I looked into it a little bit, and that's why I thought I'll give it a try to see what it can do for me.

I got in touch with some support staff that were specific to my uni accommodation block and asked them what support was available for me because I didn't really know, obviously having just moved to university, what was available even though I'd had a bit of a look. They directed me to the peer students volunteers that help within the college, it's like the welfare team. And then they also advised me to go to the University counselling or to the GP. 

So I first decided to go for the university counselling, because I just thought that was faster, and was probably more tailored to a university student as opposed to the NHS route. And I didn't have to talk to a GP about it as well, and go through all that, I could just do it online. I sent an email to get a form sent and then I completed that. Then I had a consultation fairly quickly, I think it was within a couple of weeks that I was able to book myself online. Then I had to wait, I think it was roughly about a month on the waiting list before any appointments opened up. And I got six sessions of one hour and that made it feel a little bit better - I'd like, talk it out to myself. They were every other week, those ones. So I think about 12 weeks, pretty much the whole of the first term in total.

Then I went on to have some talking therapy through the NHS, through Talking Changes. So Talking Changes had a little longer waiting list, I waited 2 months for that. That was about 5 or 6 sessions over the phone. The first one was on Microsoft teams, so it wasn't in person. But yeah, they both sort of helped me calm down and reflect from my week in a better way than had I not have sought the help. They weren't a fix all, it wasn't gonna fix all my problems, but it managed to keep me in check and keep me focused on what I needed to be focused on.

It has managed to make me feel a little bit better, and has helped me make progress in places that I wanted to make progress. It just gave me more of the ability to stay level headed and stay calm in facing those difficulties. And so I knew that there was something that would be able to help me if I faced difficult times. I'm still on the waiting list to get another talking therapy appointment now, but I still feel a little bit better. I'm going back again because that's been making me feel better. 

Seeking help enabled me to almost look past some of the anxieties that I had, and realise that some of them were almost unjust, and that if I was going to make progress I had to almost go out of my comfort zone a little bit and talk to people and do other things like that. It enabled me to get out of my shell a little bit and I've managed to make friends and do other things because of that.

If I had to offer any advice it would be to not hesitate about anything. Even if you feel like it could help you a little bit, even if you only just started not quite feeling as good as you'd like to. Help is there for a reason so try to use the resources where you can.

More information about NHS talking therapies can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/