Hello, I'm Todd, a Fashion Design Student studying at Birmingham City University.\

In this blog, I hope that talking about my own experiences with mental health I can provide advice to current and future students during their studies.

To begin, during my first year at BCU, I had the constant feeling of sadness and anxiety. I could not think of obvious reason of why I was feeling this way, which made it harder to process and understand my emotions. This made Uni life difficult as I found certain situations overwhelming. Looking back, the main reason for this mood was because I was lonely, my life revolved around going to lessons and going home to do more work, for a long time I did not see anyone. My university work became a distraction from the loneliness, and once the work was done, it hit me hard how isolated I had become.

So, what helped me cope with this. Firstly, I surrounded myself with some of the most supporting people I knew. These included friends on the course and my tutors. I must give a special thank you to my tutor Sian, she helped me during some of my darkest moments, and I ¬cannot thank her enough. Secondly, speaking as a creative student, designing allowed me to unleash what I was feeling, because sometimes talking about it became difficult. Thirdly, during this time, I kept a diary, this gave me a safe space to engage with how I was or was not coping.

If I were to give future students some advice, I would say join a society, it will help form relationships with people who have similar interests. Also, if I could go back, I would have asked for support much sooner than I did.

I know this is a dark story, but without darkness there cannot be light. I hope student, staff, anyone who reads this finds it helpful. To finish, no matter how lonely your world gets, there is always someone who feels the same, DON'T GIVE UP!