Third of young people in NI feel hopeless
Prince's Trust reveals shocking extent of mental health issues here
Last updated 5th Apr 2018
A third of young people in Northern Ireland have admitted to feeling hopeless, in a new study by the Prince's Trust.
The research also revealed nearly half have experienced a mental health problem.
The survey of over 2000 16-25-year-olds, found that worries about the future, money and 'not being good enough' contributed to emotional distress.
23-year-old Nadia Sayers told Downtown Cool FM of her struggle with her own mental health.
"It started off with something as simple as I just wouldn't go out of the house to see my friends.
"I kept turning down plans and making excuses and then maybe one day I just couldn't get out of bed because I didn't have the energy," she said.
Nadia was diagnosed with anxiety and depression two years ago and said her symptoms became debilitating.
"Whenever we were at home she (Nadia's mum) saw the extent of how bad I had become.
"She had to dress me in the morning, she had to help me brush my teeth, I just had no interest in looking after myself anymore," she told us.
Nadia had been living in Belfast but moved back to her family home in Omagh where her mum became her full-time carer.
"She came up and checked on me one day and she basically just saw the state I was in.
"I had been taking panic attacks, I was having at least one or two big panic attacks a day.
"I wasn't sleeping properly at nighttime and then wasn't able to get out of bed and wasn't going to class," she revealed.
She opened up to us about her symptoms and revealed her mental illness was a result of a build of issues which leading to emotions she had tried to suppress.
"It was lots of things that were happening and I would just put them to the back of my mind.
"I always say I put them behind a shutter.
"And then it was one simple thing that just couldn't sit behind that shutter anymore and then everything came flooding forward at the one time," she told Downtown Cool FM.
Nadia said things became so bad that she attempted suicide:
"So the doctor whenever they are doing an assessment they'll go through questions and my mum got the confirmation, she always said she kind of knew but she got the confirmation that I had went out to try and end my life one evening," Nadia said.
With the help of charities, a psychologist and medication, Nadia has since turned her life around.
Since suffering from depression and anxiety she was able to get help and is now leading the life she always wanted.
Nadia said: "I didn't think I'd reach my 23rd birthday but here I am now and I've got a job that I love and I'm looking to buy a house.
"I won a beauty pageant last year so I spent January in Egypt so it's the complete opposite to what I thought it would be," she added.
The 25-year-old now works with other young people in Northern Ireland to help deliver a mental health programme alongside the Prince's Trust.
The initiative also runs in partnership with the charity PIPS and is being rolled out in youth groups, schools and colleges across the province.
Nadia says the importance of educating young people about their mental health cannot be underestimated:
"I'll go out and actually deliver the workshops with a group of young people who have been through the same.
"Whenever I... learnt more about what they were doing like going into schools I was like that's something that I really would have needed.
"At any point if anyone had have come into me anytime through school, into my work, into my university and delivered the workshop that we're delivering I think it could have made a massive difference," she said.
And she had a message for other young people who may be struggling with their mental health:
"You need to be able to say no and take it easy and look after your own health, both physical and mental," she said.
"But if there's so many options coming at you and everyone's trying to say yes you're stretching yourself far too thin and I think that is a big problem nowadays."
"A lot of people aren't able to say no, so they're putting a lot of pressure on themselves and I think that definitely was something that I was doing.
"I was a yes man and I was saying yes to everyone because i didn't want to disappoint people and I think that people need to learn that it's not a bad thing to put yourself as your top priority sometimes," she added.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and would like help or support contact AWARE or phone Lifeline on 0808 808 8000.