Shanice has grown a lot during her time on One You. Her blogs a reflection of her One You journey and just how far she has come. Shanice is compassionate, caring and goes above and beyond for her family and animals! Shanice would like to help others and give back, she is hoping that by sharing her story it will inspire and help others to change and make their first step
- Sophie Stansfield, Shanice's Coach
Hi everyone, my name is Shanice I’m 23 years old and would like to share my One You journey. I love animals and have 3 pets - Milo my dog, Oliver who is my Leopard Gecko and Charlie my hamster. I love to spend time with family, family are the most important aspect in my life.
I got involved with One You as I was struggling with severe anxiety and agoraphobia. I ended up leaving my job due to this and began locking myself away in the house every day afraid to even go for a walk around the block, or out with family. This lasted for around 6 months before I gained the courage to leave the house. I still struggle now to leave the house without company, but I am working on this as I have just attended a second job interview since being on One You. The most recent one was a work trial with Pets at Home, I found this overwhelming, tough but I had the support from Sophie who really helped. It is my dream to work with animals. I joined One You and started to battle with my mental health every day. I really enjoyed having the support, which I still have after completing One You. I enjoyed working as part of a team and getting to know everybody on the programme. They were all lovely and helped me so much.
My favourite moment on One You had to be when I decided to turn on my video camera, as I joined for the first two weeks with my camera off due to my low self-esteem and fear of others judging me as I was bullied all throughout school. Once I turned my camera on, I realised that everybody was there for a reason, and nobody was there to judge me. When I realised that I came out of my shell and started to get involved a lot more with the programme, answering questions, getting involved with group discussions and I began sharing my story and life experiences with the group.
How I manage my anxiety now and what I’m working towards…
Anxiety is the worst feeling in the world. I know how it feels and its okay to be scared and overwhelmed but one thing that I learned while being on One You is that I am not alone. Whilst I was suffering bad with my anxiety, I made small steps, going to the local shops with my mum and my nan. A few weeks later I was going to the pictures, Knowsley safari park, walking the dog on my own which were all massive achievements for me. I get bad symptoms with my anxiety which is why I began to become agoraphobic such as feeling faint, spaced out, and a over whelming sense of fear and need to escape, sweaty palms, ringing in my ears, a pounding heart and sometimes severe chest pain. The thing that keeps me going is a sense of achievement I get every time I push myself to leave the house. I began journaling writing down achievements I had made, and when I am feeling low, I read over and realise just how far I have come, and I wish for anyone else suffering to take that first step onto a brighter future.
I would just like to say that I am here if anybody would like to ask me some questions or needs advice on moving forward and battling with their mental health. I decided to volunteer to help others as when I first joined One You, I felt like there was no way of moving forward, and now I have learned how to deal with things more, I would like to be there for others and support them the best way I can in helping themselves towards being happy, I am still on my journey and have a long way to go, but I hope that I can at least help one person who needs a helping hand.