It's a New World ...

It's a new world after the pandemic. Go and explore ...

I think it’s safe to say that the Pandemic has had an immense impact on the way we live our lives. Although a lot of focus has been on the physical side of the virus, i.e. lockdowns, social distancing, vaccines and the compulsory wearing of face masks in shops, an entire sector has been forgotten in the rush.

"In adults, the proportion of individuals showing symptoms of depression has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic according to Office for National Statistics." - BBC

With scientists giving statistical predictions about infection rates, something that didn’t seem to cross people’s minds initially was the effects that would later take place on a global scale concerning mental health. It became clearer when charities such as SHOUT and Samaritans began revealing the dramatic increase they had received in phone calls to their helplines. For those of you who don’t know, both Samaritans and SHOUT are mental health charities that work towards supporting those suffering with their mental health. You don’t have to have an official diagnosis to call them, anyone can call if they are just feeling down and needing someone to talk things through with. They offer support lines, which I will list below, and are available to call 24/7. They are both free and confidential so if you need someone to talk to and perhaps are not in a situation currently where you can get mental health support, give them a call and remember that it’s always best to talk or write down how you’re feeling - it helps breakdown barriers that you may not have seen before.

Rediscovering You

As someone who saw a lot of people I care about struggle through the pandemic, including myself, it made me think of ways I could help myself to find myself again after the pandemic. A big concern for many has been a fear of becoming ill or a fear of being in large crowds because it’s something we haven’t seen in quite a while. Some people I know have even struggled with communication and just talking to other human beings who they don’t live with because they haven’t practiced that type of communication in a while.

On this blog, I’m not hear to judge or doubt you, I’m just here to help you find yourself again, perhaps the parts you’ve missed while in lockdown. I’m also hear to be on that journey with you as I rediscover myself as well. I’m only 19 and so self discovery is still a big part of my life as I move from teenage years into adulthood, but self discovery shouldn’t be something that is limited to young people, it should be something we all do constantly as a way of bettering ourselves and making our lives more enjoyable and personalised to us.

One thing you may have already noticed about me is that I’m a tomboy. Being someone who has a style that deviates from the norm, I went through a long period of self discovery when choosing my clothing style and what it meant to me. I guess the idea behind the title of this blog is that the making of a tomboy is the making of me and just like I’m in the process of making a version of me I’m proud of, I’d love you to tag along, if you’d like, and let me be the witness to the making of you as you would like and not how any one else would define you.

I hope that this blog can help you, and I’m going to start with a series called “Rediscovering You” which is going to be a series of blogs helping us redefine and add to who we are, who we were, and who we want to be after the Pandemic.

All the best.

Eight

SHOUT call line: 85258

Samaritans call line: 116 123