Roman I guess the first signs that I was struggling were not speaking to my parents as much you know I kind of felt like I was, I felt like someone had unplugged me from the fun circuit and I felt like I wanted to have fun but I couldn’t, and I felt like I would wake up and there would be this kind of grey cloud above me.
TITLE: Roman Kemp: My mental health at school
Roman When I was an early teenager was the first time I ever started to experience anxiety, it was always that moment of waking up in the morning worried about what the day was going to be like, even if it was going to be a great day having that feeling of, of worry and doubt I guess was the main thing that I started to realise and that was pretty early on as I say, early teens.
What are the signs?
Roman My poor mental health when I was young I think would manifest itself by you know me not wanting to talk to many people, me not wanting to go to you know parties, or going round a friends house, most of the time it was because when I would come home from school, I wouldn’t even want to talk to my family and I felt like I just wanted to go and do my own thing, I wanted to get away I didn’t want people to ask questions.
How can I start a mental health chat?
Roman Starting one is really difficult, I would say going for a walk, going in the car, any activity that doesn’t require face to face conversation is really brilliant, my mum always used to do it with me she would sit me in the car and that would be where we’d have difficult chats. Eye contact just makes things so much more awkward and sometimes you can focus on what you’re saying a little bit more when you’re not looking at someone.
Are you any better at dealing with these issues now?
Roman I certainly feel better equipped now as an adult to deal with you know difficulties in life but that’s because you go through them. The only way that you become better at dealing with the things is after you’ve unfortunately gone through it.
What would you say to young people who are struggling?
Roman Keep going, just keep going. There’s so much out there that can happen and that can change so quickly for the better and life can change so fast and that idea that if it feels like it’s not worth living anymore really can change. The best thing to do is talk and the more you normalise that with your friends and you have those conversations to realise that you’re not alone. Sometimes that’s all you need. You just need that one person that you can talk to about it to instantly relieve that pressure.