Jigsaw are keen to join the existing network of mental health supports in Limerick. As the newest organisation to set up in Limerick the local service is hoping to encourage young people to realise that it is time to start talking about things that affect their lives.
Young people are identifying anxiety as an issue for themselves. Anxiety – fear & worry, personally it takes a conscious effort to remember that even though I might feel stuck with a situation. That I am not, nothing is forever, if I don’t like how a situation or environment makes me feel, I have the power to do something about it. Sure the decision might be hard but at some level you will know what you need to do for you mental health. It might be a school change, course change, job change, coping with difficult house mates or family. All situations that can cause stress and off set your perspective and increase a level of anxiety. Change, whether it’s positive or negative is part of life and growing up, which means learning how to cope with change. So remember that there are services that can offer support and help, if things seem out of perspective or it is too hard to face change.
As we finish up in September it’s that time of year that is cyclical to make friends, you might have
started a new primary, secondary or third level School. There’s a state of flux between keeping old friends and finding space for new ones. It is all part of growing up, how you manage friendships, but keep in mind at this stage you also find yourself. Friends in secondary school might be ones that last for the next couple of years or a lifetime. In the next chapter of your life, whether it is college or your first job, YOU will make new friends. A saying that has lasted over time for me, is that:
‘some people come into your life for a season, reason or life time’.
Even though you might have it in mind to be friends in one way the other half of that friendship might have a different thought on it. So prepare yourself, so that if someone disappoints you in a friendship, it’s ok to be sad about it, it’s ok to grieve for the loss or change in a friendship – and that friendship might be one that lasts a season or for a particular reason or will come back at a different stage in your lifetime.
Tanya O’Sullivan
Youth & Community Engagement Worker
