As part of Children's Mental Health Week the LightBulb Team has hit the road and are touring the schools across the county to raise awareness. 

To launch the LightBulb Roadshow, the team visited Thomas Becket Catholic School on Monday where they met the Head Girl Jasmine who talked about her own experiences. 

"I think I first started experiencing difficulties was back in Year 11. Back then it was very difficult for me to speak out and it got to the point where I was feeling very overwhelmed.

I ignored the signs and I didn’t take it seriously. But everything eventually exploded because I was so overwhelmed. Year 11 is very stressful because of exams and it was a lot for me to manage. I regularly had those sorts of days when nothing was going right. It was a struggle and  I was scared to speak out because of what people would think.

Eventually I started talking to my friends. Having someone who will listen and try to understand what your going through was a big relief. I was nervous at first but my friend listened and then they would pick out what was happening and try to help.

Eventually I spoke to some members of staff at the school. They have more experience and gave me some great advice so I could start to find solutions to the things that were stressing me. 

At the time there was a school therapist who I used to have sessions with. We would just go through everything and he would help identify the difficult things I was experiencing. Recently I have struggled with anxiety a lot and I know there are staff who I can speak to. They have sat me down and listened to me, helped me figure out how I can deal with it.

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