Talking about my 2024, my mental health and the beginning of 2025… <3
Posted by Grace Thorley on 19th Feb 2025
So grateful to be returning back to my art in 2025 after a very challenging year in 2024.
In 2024 my mental health hit rock bottom. I was undergoing so many challenges in my personal world which resulted in the absolute downfall of my mental health.
It was after an arduous few months (after seeking help from medical professionals) that I started to get better once taking medication. I am not ashamed to admit I take antidepressants and I think it has changed my life forever in the best possible way. I am so grateful I found strength to get my brain and mental health better.
Society needs to stop looking shamefully upon mental health and get rid of the stigma… if you had a sick heart, you would take medicine and do everything in your power to get it well right?
Then why does society not comprehend that our brain is an organ too which can get sick; it can become unwell from a numerous of factors. Personally for me it was an accumulation of abuse in various forms during the course of my life.
Unfortunately during my short 26 years I have been subject to physical, verbal, mental and sexual abuse - a lot of suppressed memories and threats were coming fresh into my world again last year. I was barely hanging on… you couldn’t get me out of bed (very unlike me) and my art studio was unopened for months on end (very, very unlike me). I was also very suicidal and every breath felt like a struggle.
The scars and bruises have faded on my body but the scars on my brain remain - I cannot change what has happened to me in the past but I can improve how the rest of my life continues. This mindset has resulted in myself becoming estranged from toxic relatives, keeping positive friendships, love and a healthy lifestyle around me.
This was challenging no doubt to face (and awfully scary) but life changing in the best possible way.
From traumatic life experiences, I have experienced anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and I have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) - now when I say OCD, I am not meaning the compulsive cleaning and the constant perfecting of things type; it’s the one where if I didn’t do a certain thing (pick up a wrapper off the ground that was randomly in front of me) myself (or my family) were going to then experience something awful and or suddenly pass… OCD presents in many forms and now that I am better, I have realised that when my anxiety is bad, OCD likes to creep into my mind as well.
Since starting medication, I feel I have finally felt what happiness and peace feel like for the very first time in my life… my world has changed from the inside out and I have never felt so healthy.
When I first reached out for help, unfortunately I had an extremely unprofessional doctor who was disgustingly disrespectful and rude - as challenging as this outcome was (and thanks to the help of my parents and fiancé) I found strength to push through and seek help from another doctor. I also have had numerous challenges of getting into therapy; either they are not taking on new patients, have no availability or are just absolutely terrible to get a response from - it’s shocking. I am still endeavouring however to continue searching for help and find a therapist for me.
You may find my submissions here shocking. Sadly, some may read this and think I am attention seeking by expressing the challenges I have faced - this would be the furthest from the truth if I was alleged of this... I have strong means to why I am sharing my story.
I choose to be open about my life experiences and challenges as I know for a fact I am not the only one… there are many people out there struggling and enduring dreadful things and I send them all my greatest love, light and hope that they will soon too be able to escape these situations and also seek/receive help.
I have welcomed 2025 with open arms and take everyday a step at a time.
I have been so fortunate and blessed to receive a very early birthday gift from my parents and little brother - they surprised me in late January with a brand new iPad! I was in absolute shock! I hadn’t had a working iPad in so long (and missed it sorely) after having found my old one mysteriously shattered in my bag one day a few years back. It was a loss to my art and business and I just couldn’t believe how lucky I was to now be receiving such a generous gift!
My hands are pretty well glued to my new blessing of an iPad (I draw on it using the Procreate app) and it has given me a massive, motivating push to get creative again! If you have been following my socials, hopefully you are enjoying all my new creations as a result of this! I am drawing almost everyday which I am tremendously thankful for after being so unwell last year where I became repulsed at the sight of anything to do with my art.
If you are reading this mum, dad or Brady, I cannot thank you enough for my new iPad and I hope to make you proud with my new creations I am making with it!
New creations have also been popping up on my store since the new year; my most proudest one being my new bio-degradable cards that you can plant in the ground and they grow native Australian wildflowers!
You may also have seen my little range of Valentines/love cards, the returning of many of my prints and soon to be a few more mini candles!
I am sorry to bore you with this mammoth blog input but if you have gotten this far, thank you! I cannot thank you enough for your support towards myself, my art and little business.
Here is hopefully to a much better year! Wishing you all the best too! Hoping to be able to write a blog update every month from now on (let’s see how I go with that)… <3
Here are some resourceful websites in regards to mental health and seeking help here below (these helped me a lot)!
https://whiteribbon.org.au/helplines/
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/