Having just celebrated Mental Health Awareness Day, Cherry Farrington shares openly about her battle with depression and how she has found her way through to hope.

'There is always hope.'

As a teenager this phrase grabbed hold of my heart after reading it in an online post from the organisation To Write Love On Her Arms.

I so desperately longed for this statement to be true. Since a young age I had battled with depression and many days I struggled to believe hope was real, when often all I felt was overwhelming hopelessness.

October 10th was Mental Health Awareness Day. I loved that for 24hours my social media was filled with images, blogs and memes all offering advice and support, as friends bravely shared their stories.

However, I am all too aware that the struggle with a mental illness does not begin and end in one day and as the world moves on, it can feel like you are left to deal with it alone.

At my darkest times in depression, my mind was a battlefield with thoughts of suicide relentlessly taunting me. My heart felt so heavy that I would physically struggle to breathe.

I was too ashamed to speak of the pain. I tried to hide it from the world and carried it like an invisible weight around my neck. I began self-harming, but it only made the situation worse. I longed to snap out of it all, but I couldn't. My heart was out of hope and I came to believe this was how life would always be, a daily struggle of survival.

I can't tell you that I had a lightening moment where everything changed. However, through awareness being raised about mental illness, I found comfort in knowing that I wasn't the only one to feel this way. I gradually started to reach out for help from my friends, family and professionals.

Conversations would often begin with deafening silence, as I struggled to string together a sentence. I had to learn to be patient with myself, in finding words to express what was happening in my mind. I had to learn to give myself permission to feel the heaviness in my heart and reach out to those around me on the days when it was all too much.

In time, the darkness that overwhelmed me was slowly replaced with the light and truth that there was hope. My life had a purpose, it was worth living and it was worth the fight. So I pushed myself to find good in each day; even if just a moment of sunshine, hearing my favourite song, or getting a hug from a friend.

Image courtesy of cbenjasuwan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Daily my heart clung to God's hope as I weathered the storm of depression and on the days when I began to feel overwhelmed again, I would whisper to myself:

"For your hope is an anchor for my soul, firm and secure." (Hebrews 12:9)

Mental illness isn't visible like a broken leg, or a bandaged wound. Regularly referred to as the 'invisible illness' it can take many forms; often going unnoticed until the silence is broken and someone bravely reaches out for help to begin the road to recovery.

In the UK one in 10 young people struggle with a mental health illness and so the likelihood is that either yourself, or someone you know, may be affected by this.

As October comes to a close, if you are struggling in silence, please know that you haven't missed your opportunity to speak up and find help. You are not alone or forgotten. There is hope and help for you. Your life is worth living and it is worth the fight.

If you are affected by any of the issues discussed in this article you can speak with someone today at Childline or find online support and advice through To Write Love On Her Arms.