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[M3gs]

Hi, I am feeling a little lost right now. I am not one to reach out to people, and tend to bottle a lot up. I always have. It’s now taken a toll on my mental health and in turn my relationship is almost at ends. I need to learn how to express my feelings and thoughts without feeling like I will be judged. I need help and I just don’t know what to do. I want to make my relationship better, I just need to become a better person myself. I don’t know where to start.

[Nimi]

Hi M3gs, welcome!

I am sorry to hear that you are feeling lost right now and that your relationship is almost at ends. I would like to send you my strength and support, the fear of judgement is huge and really terrifying. Please feel free to share what you feel comfortable sharing. You had a lot of courage to post here.

~ Lazy

[Emmen]

Welcome to the forum, M3gs!

Bottling up does seem like the easier option when you aren't one for reaching out, but it can fill you with a lot of negative emotions that impact other aspects of your life. I wonder if you can try expressing your emotions in a manner that you find easier, in writing perhaps? You could start by keeping a private journal. As you get more confident expressing yourself, you may find it easier to reach out for help as well.

Posting on this forum is already a great start. I hope you keep sharing here.

Take care,
M

[Jesicca]

Hi M3gs,

I can totally relate to struggling to express your feelings and thoughts. Something that helps me is writing my thoughts down. Sometimes this could be journalling when I notice I have a lot in my head or when something has bothered me and I can't seem to stop thinking about it. Sometimes I just jot down some thoughts in the notes section of my phone if I'm out and about and can't write in my journal. These steps help me to bring to the surface of my mind what the problem i'm facing actually is.

Sometimes I'll start my journal with a question like "What is on my mind?" and then I will write a whole bunch of things down before I'm able to really notice what it is that is the discomforting thought at the current time.

When I was going through a really challenging time and decided I wanted to talk to a GP about my symptoms I wrote these symptoms down on a piece of paper and brought it into the doctor and told her I was too nervous to talk about it to begin with and after reading this she was able to prompt the conversation. I have even thought about trying this with my boyfriend when I am really struggling, this is something you could even do with a GP or a close friend, partner or loved one.

I hope this gives you an idea of how you can start becoming confident to open the lines of conversation with those around you.