In 2014 I witnessed a man get knocked over by a bus despite my best attempts to save the man as I am a nurse he sadly passed away a couple of days later. After witnessing the incident I had re-current nightmares and I often had panic attacks when I was driving down the road where the accident happened. A couple of months later my marriage breakdown and I really struggled with panic attacks and had a constant feeling of anxiety. I constantly felt that something bad was going to happen to myself or a family member. I found it extremely hard to lift the negative thoughts. I felt consistently tired despite getting more than enough sleep. I really believed that if I gave it time I would begin to feel better and my mood would pick up. However, as the months went on I continued to feel anxious.
At the end of 2015 I was still struggling I came across an article about running helping with mental health. I decided to download the couch to 5k and nervously joined a gym. At first I felt self conscious on my second outing to the gym I fell off the treadmill which actually made me feel better as I figured there is nothing more I can do to embarrass myself ha ha. I entered the Sunderland 10k which gave me a really good goal but deep down I never thought I could do it; as I had lost all my self worth.
Thanks to Jaime for sharing this story. As part of #MilesForMind we want to raise money for Mind and also awareness of mental health issues.
