https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/get-help/stories/story/18/helena-sonar
Apart from taking medication, Helena makes sure that she socialises and is around positive people. She’s joined a hearing voices network and a regional consumer network and recommends others look for support from their local mental health groups.
Doing things she enjoys and interests her also helps.
“I think if you have a passion for something, you should explore the opportunities that are out there and take them on board,” she says.
She’s found that work, whether paid or voluntary, makes a difference. However, she’s careful to keep a balance between her work and her personal life and, most of all, find time to relax.
Somewhere along her recovery journey her voices stopped. And now, seven years on, Helena sees her experience – and her voices – as a gift.
“I didn’t start thinking of my experience of mental distress that way, but now I recognise it as unique. What I am today is a daughter, a sister, a friend, a colleague and now a survivor!”
2019-04-16