#mhacourtney

[mental-health-advice]

I'm just wondering where has Courtney gone i have noticed she hasn't been here for a while is she ok

Hey lovely,

Courtney is okay! She has left the blog to focus on herself and other things in her life! It was sweet of you to ask if she’s okay. Thank you for caring for her! <3Best wishes,

-Trish

[mental-health-advice]

Do you know if PTSD can lead to hearing voices?

Hello.

Hearing voices is a common symptom regarding PTSD. Hearing voices is associated with traumatic experiences. People who have PTSD may hear voices or sounds. This usually happens in terms of a flashback and you may hear sounds at the time of the trauma or voices reminding you of what happened.

Now if this does not sound familiar to you or you think it may be something else entirely unrelated to PTSD then please don’t be afraid to go to your doctor and have it checked out. They will be able to let you know if what you are experiencing is in fact due to PTSD or something else entirely. They will then be able to get you the correct help for the way you are feeling and help you deal with these voices.

Courtney♥

[mental-health-advice]

how do u tell the difference of someone having a crush on you vs just being nice to you?

Hello.

This is such a hard question to answer because different people express things differently and what we may perceive to be one thing is in fact another. For example I am always an over friendly person and really bubbly and sometimes that can come across as flirty or as if I like someone when in fact I am just being friendly and I do not like that person.

Here are some signs that someone likes you..

Flirty behaviour- Do they constantly tease you, have banter with you etc

Touch- Are they affectionate like touching you when they speak etc

Mentioning you to others- Do they mention you to others and say things about you to them?

Staring at you

Going shy whenever they talk to you

Complimenting you

Always messaging you

Again this does not necessary mean that they like you as I do some of these things and I am just being friendly.

The only way to know for sure if someone likes you is to ask them or wait for them to admit it. I would definitely ask them if they like you, if you are currently in this situation. That way you know exactly how they feel and aren’t feeling confused. 

Courtney♥

[mental-health-advice]

Hi. I get really uncomfortable showing my arms & legs because i have keratosis pilaris which basically means my legs & arms always have these red bumps on them & i feel like they look really gross & nobody will ever want to date me because of them

Hello.

I have keratosis pilaris, known as chicken skin (which makes it worse) I suffer with it really badly and it looks like I have goose bumps all over my skin. I used to feel the same way as you and have really bad confidence issues because of them up until a few months ago. 

I know they aren’t very appealing and they can really drag you down but you need to remember that you are beautiful no matter what and keratosis pilaris does not define you as a person. What matters is the kind of person you are on the inside, we all have flaws and things we don’t like about ourselves so instead of focusing on that focus on the things you do like. You need to love yourself before anyone else can love you. Otherwise you’ll accept the kind of love that you don’t deserve (people treating you horrible etc) when you start to love yourself you recognise your worth and trust me you are worth a lot. 

Trust me when I say that you’ll find someone who loves you for you despite the fact you have keratosis pilaris. We all deserve love and there is a person out there for everyone. Just because you are unhappy or think that way about yourself due to keratosis pilaris it doesn’t mean someone else will think that way. The right person for you will accept you for who you are and would not think twice about loving you whether you have keratosis pilaris or not. My keratosis pilaris are very obvious but not once has anyone said anything about them or made me feel uncomfortable about them, the only person who has done that is me. They have treated me and loved me despite me having these bumps on my legs. 

I know they are horrible but you can find love like I said there is someone out there for everyone and you are beautiful! I was in such a low place due to my depression and keratosis pilaris added another problem to the list and brought my confidence right down. I saw my therapist and she was amazing in helping me deal with my confidence issues due to keratosis pilaris. So I really recommend you seeing one even if its for 1 or 2 sessions, they are so helpful in helping you overcome the way you feel.

Here are some things I have found that has helped them not be so obvious..

Drink water- I know this is a weird one but drinking water seems to keep them at bay and they don’t look so red but the moment I drink fizzy drinks they seem worse.

E45 and bio oil- Both these products seem to work wonders, obviously they don’t go away but they seem to reduce in appearance.

Exfoliating- Doing this once a week has also helped.

Courtney♥

[mental-health-advice]

I had to call childline for a friend without them knowing. They're mad at me and don't talk to me anymore, and I feel like I did something wrong. I miss them, and I feel selfish for feeling like I shouldn't have done what I did. It's all I think about, I lose sleep over it, and I'm just really upset about it.

Hello.

I am so sorry that you and your friend aren’t speaking anymore and that the situation has caused you to feel this way. It has obviously affected you a lot and I hope I can help you in some way.

Calling childline for your friend without them knowing was obviously a hard thing to do. You obviously thought your friend was in danger or was in a situation that wasn’t safe so you thought ringing childline was the best option. You were worried about your friend and acted like any good friend would have. We all probably would have rang them if we were in your situation as none of us want to see our friends in situations like yours was in. You were just being a good friend and trying to help. 

However it is hard when someone is in a situation like that to see it from your point of view. They probably weren’t ready for you to do that and didn’t want childline to get involved, even if deep down that is the right thing to do. They probably wanted to make that decision themselves when they were ready to and not have it made for them. Getting other people involved in certain situations can make things worse and obviously they weren’t ready to deal with the aftermath. 

They probably thought you ringing childline and going behind their back was like some kind of betrayal. They told you all this in confidence for you to then go behind their back and do something they weren’t ready for or didn’t want you to do. They reacted in the way they did because they were hurt or felt deceived and whilst it wasn’t the best way to go about it because it was obviously a hard thing for you to do, sometimes we act on emotions. 

I can see this has affected you a lot because you are really upset and are losing sleep. But please don’t feel guilty about this, you haven’t done anything wrong. You were just being a good friend and looking out for your friend. You probably wouldn’t have forgiven yourself if something happened to them, so ringing childline probably took off some of the worry. It is hard to know how to react in these situations but what you did came from a good place and I don’t think you should be mad at yourself for that. 

Is there anyway you can get in contact with your friend and open up to them about how you are feeling. Maybe now they have had time to calm down and are able to see that you was just being a good friend and you did it with good intentions. I would see if you could explain yourself and see if they are ready to forgive you in some way. Let them know you miss their friendship and not speaking to them has made you feel really upset as you didn’t mean to make them mad. All you were doing was looking out for them and you can see why they reacted the way you did but you wanted them to know it was coming from a good place and hope they can forgive you. 

Courtney♥

[mental-health-advice]

I want to write a few paragraphs to someone on here because I think I might have ASPD but I don't want to see a professional yet.Is there anyway I can anonymously talk to you guys? Or send you a message and you could give me feedback?Or can I submit?

Hello lovely.

You can definitely talk to us and we will help you! You can either send us an ask anonymously through here (just like you’ve done) or you can submit an ask via submission if your ask is longer than 3 parts and we can answer it that way. We will make sure that you remain anonymous so that no one knows it is you asking.

Courtney♥

[mental-health-advice]

Is the ocd chat still planned?

Hello.

Sorry that we have only just gotten to this. I know it is a bit late to answer this for you as the chat you were referring to is obviously been but I just wanted to let you know that in the future we will post to let you know if the chat isn’t able to run and we will also post if/when the chat is running :) 

Courtney♥

[mental-health-advice]

Iv been having a lot of problems lately and I need to talk to someone about it.I want to ask a certain someone who is like a brother to me for advice but I'm scared he might judge/think I'm over dramatic.i don't know how to open a Convo. Advice?

Hello.

I am so sorry to hear that you’ve been having a lot of problems lately. But I am glad that you are considering talking to someone about what you are going through. Going through things alone makes things harder to deal with and can make things worse. I know opening up is super hard and scary but trust me you’ll feel better once you have done it. It is so important to open up and speak to someone about what is going on, like I said it can improve the way we feel. 

I think feeling that someone is going to judge us or think we are exaggerating is a pretty common thing when we decide to open up to someone. We don’t want them thinking differently of us or thinking that we are being dramatic about things but the truth is if they care for you and they are your friend then they won’t think that. All they will want to do is be there for you and give you the advice you need. True friends will listen and support you through everything and if this person cares for you they will do exactly the same. We should be able to tell our friends anything without the fear that they will judge us or think we are being dramatic. 

You have a lot of things going on and you should be able to open up and speak about those. Everyone goes through different things and everyone needs someone who can support them and I am sure this person will do the same for you. 

The hardest thing is finding exactly what to say and how to start the conversation which is what I struggle with. I think you should start by writing what you want to say down on a piece of paper, so get all the things you want to tell him and ask him out on this piece of paper. That way you have a guide of all the things you need mentioning and its easier as you know you aren’t forgetting anything when you talk to them. 

Another thing I would decide is how you are going to talk to him is it going to be face to face or is it going to be via message. You have to pick what is most comfortable for you, some people prefer messaging the person as it enables them to read over what they have said so they aren’t forgetting things or saying things that they don’t need to. Other people prefer face to face as it allows things not to get lost in the land of text, you know how miscommunication happens during texts. 

I think the easiest way to bring it up is say ‘Do you mind if we talk because I am going through a lot lately and I would really appreciate your advice’ Then I am sure he would say yes sure and then that allows you to unload what you need to say. Keeping it simple and just asking if you could ask him for advice is the easiest thing to start. Plus you know if he is giving you permission to ask him that he isn’t going to judge you.

Courtney♥