1/ **Mental Health & Friendships - A Thread**

People often ask me how friends can be there for people with mental illness. The honest answer is I don't know

But I did have friends who stayed by my side. Here are examples of how they helped me. Hopefully they can inspire others

2/ A few days ago, I gave a talk on my experiences with mental illness. During the talk, I mentioned very negative examples of some of my peers. I failed to appreciate those who were there for me.

That wasn't fair at all. So here are some examples describing them.

3/ When I became really depressed, there were times in which I didn't leave my room or even eat.

I had a friend who, everyday, would walk all the way from lectures to my halls and bring me food. Not only did she give me much needed company but she also ensured I didn't starve

4/ In my halls, I had a friend living a few floors below me. She would periodically walk upstairs to check up on me while I was living there. She'd get me my post, bring me water (as I'd not even get that for myself) and gently encourage me to go out for some fresh air with her.

5/ Once, I found myself in A&E after a mental health crisis. In despair, I let a couple of people know. Immediately, they made their way to A&E. One of them held my hand gently as they arrived.

A&E is so scary as a mental health patient. These people made it less scary.

6/ After the A&E situation I described in the previous Tweet, I was asked to urgently see my GP the next day

One of my friends who stayed up with me all night in A&E took me to this appointment. He literally had no sleep and must've been exhausted. But it didn't stop him.

7/ After hearing how utterly miserable I felt at Medical School, one of my friends came all the way from Leeds to see me. He was busy doing a PhD and it took him hours to get to London.

He took me out after a long, long time to try to help me fit into the outside world.

8/ A few months later, I was sitting in lectures when my psychosis started to play up. One of these friends noticed this and helped get me out discreetly and safely without anyone else noticing.

Without making me feel patronised, she helped get me safely to A&E.

9/ In fact, this whole Twitter account and my blog was started on the recommendation of one of these friends. She was the first person to suggest to me that I start something like this because she thought it might help me.

And boy was she right.

10/ The thing is...despite all of this kindness (and these are only a very small number of examples), I didn't see it at the time.

I was so focused on all the negative responses I was getting from everyone else that I didn't so much as say a 'thank you' on many occasions.

11/ But it was even worse than that. I was getting more and more frustrated with everything. Losing insight, my mood being low no matter what and other people around me who I didn't even know gossiping.

At times - I'm ashamed to say - I would take it out on these friends.

12/ Imagine - doing all you can to help someone, day in and day out, but that person only taking out their frustrations on you

But this didn't stop these friends from helping. Today, despite seeing me at my most vulnerable, these friends talk to me as though it was nothing

13/ But it wasn't nothing. These friends literally saved my life. It took me years and years to finally see it.

But this never bothered these friends. To them, the only thing that mattered the most was my ultimate recovery from everything.

14/ Even now, I have a tendency to focus on the negatives rather than celebrate how much my friends helped me. I guess mental illness can be so, so traumatising that you only remember the negatives.

But I'm trying to stop doing this. We can learn so much from these people.

15/ If you're currently helping a friend going through a bad patch of mental illness, you're doing a fantastic job.

Even if you feel like you're not, I can almost guarantee that just being there for them will mean the world to them. Be sure to look after yourselves as well.

16/ And to my friends - you know who you are. Thank you.