In recent decades, the decline in mental well-being for young adults has been astounding. With the rise in social media and the constant self-comparison it causes, this is hardly a surprise. Not to mention the constant anxieties of climate change, global warming and all personal stresses going on in your day-to-day life. I know that when I turned 18, this was not a moment of celebration as you may expect; while my friends cheered, 'You're an adult now, you're free!', my first thought was 'taxes, mortgage, work'. It is incredibly unfair that mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and robbing us of the days of our youth, so this is where we fight back, and THIS is how I did it in my life... ​

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I took to making a daily journal, taking one positive thing that happened to me every day and writing about it. Don't get me wrong, it was full of bad things too! Like when I left the window open and the torrential rain flooded the living room, or when my Grandad was admitted to hospital with a new tumour. Making a journal doesn't magically make things better, but it reminds you that every cloud has a silver lining.​

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Next, I did a purge - no, not like the film where they go on a killing spree as they want. I went through every single draw and cupboard, every nook and cranny in my flat over the course of a year and threw out all the reminders of the painful memories I held onto because I was deluding myself with hopes that things would get better. So bye, bye the photos of me and my ex plastering smiles on our faces taken moments after an argument. Goodbye the shopping list of chocolate and ice cream I wrote the day I first left home. Hello the memoirs of my first trip abroad, of the day my little sister was born, of the first time I pulled an all nighter with my best friend.​

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And last, but not least, remember the people who care about you. It's easy to convince yourself that associating with the people with the most followers on Instagram are the key to your happiness and I must admit I fell into that trap for a long time too. It wasn't until I was sat on my own crying after they decided I wasn't pretty enough anymore that I realised who my true friends were. Sam from english came and sat with me; didn't say anything, just sat and listened. He gave me time and that was something I wasn't used to. 

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So the main message to take from all of this is...

Do what makes you happy!