 Please note that Tia's story contains references to infant death, bereavement, suicide and depression and may be triggering to some people. In 2021, we released our first ever comic strip, Journeys Through Mental Health, illustrated by Sabah Khan and made in partnership with Richmond Fellowship. The following is an animated version of one of the three stories featured in the comic, based directly on real interviews with young people with lived experience. This story started when there was a tragedy in the family. I'm one of 14 siblings. I'd rank myself in the middle. I'm not the youngest, but I'm also not the oldest. My mum and dad are still together, still married. It is quite unusual, but they're still together. I was really bad in between 2011 and 2012, and ever since then it's just been a struggle. I'm 21 now. The first time I remember when things were starting to go wrong was when I lost my nephew. He was my sister's first, the first nephew out of all the siblings. A couple of days before he passed away, he was running around my mum's front room, jumping from one side of the sofa to the other side. He was only five. I was probably about 11, maybe 12. I remember it like it was yesterday. It's something that's always been over my shoulder, something I can't forget. I remember one of my closest best friends came to see me after school. She had no idea what had happened. I went straight up to my room and she came upstairs with me. I sat down and cried for hours and hours. His name was Jay. I couldn't understand how it had happened and where he had gone. Nothing was registering. Then one day out of the blue, I decided to try and take my life, but I didn't succeed. At the time I thought, well at least someone knows now. My mum booked me an emergency doctor's appointment and I was put on medication for depression and anxiety. Over time I met someone and decided to move away from my whole family. I believed that he would have helped me, could help me. In fact, he did, for a while. But then things started to change within the relationship and I was around when he lost his dad. I was close to his dad. That was another death that I took. And then we split up. A few years back I lost someone else, a best friend of mine. We'd lost touch. We used to call each other wifey. She had decided that she didn't have the courage to stick to life anymore. I blame myself. I blame myself for a while because she wanted my help and I wasn't there for her. Through all of that I didn't get any counselling. I was still back and forth at the doctors, getting medicated for depression and anxiety. Every few weeks they'd try different types and various doses, until the medications stopped having any effect on me whatsoever. It was only then, just the year before last, when they finally referred me to a mental health clinic. It was the mental health clinic that diagnosed me with a borderline personality disorder. There's no medication that can treat a personality disorder. I was given distress tolerance support and I was shown lots of coping mechanisms. But none of them actually helped. I met someone not long ago and we've been together for a little while now. He asked me to marry him a couple of weeks ago. I thought that would have changed things, but I still feel a part of me is not. I guess I don't feel enough for anything. I've tried to walk away so many times. I've tried throwing everything away because I don't feel good enough. But I'm trying to stay supported. I've gone without it for too long. I'm with a BPD support group now. In some ways we can all understand each other. We can all relate to how we feel. It has its ups and downs. Sometimes it can be triggering. But other times it helps to make you feel less alone. It makes you feel like you're part of something. That you're not the only one struggling in this way. And that there are others out there too. I've always had my mum, dad and sister by my side too. Mum has always been there. Wow. She's never given up on me. But sometimes I just like to be on my own. If I'm at my mum's and she has a spare room, I'll just sit up there. They don't understand why I want to be alone. Well, I think if you're in a family of 14 like me, being by yourself can be a healing space sometimes too, right? I'm with the council project now, which is part of Richmond Fellowship. If I could speak to a person who's feeling like I felt, in my honest own opinion, I would advise you to get help before it gets to the point where you can't. We know that finding routes to mental health support is not easy, but there are still ways. Tia found solace and comfort in community groups and in shared experience. The human condition in all of its diversity has so many shared overlaps. Getting support can help us see that. At the very least, it can be comforting to know we are not alone. This comic is based on interviews with young people with lived experience of mental health issues. The names and physical appearance have been changed to protect their privacy. Journeys through mental health is each other's first comic strip created out of conversations we've been having with young people with lived experience of mental health issues. If you or anyone you know are struggling with mental health issues, there are resources on our Spotlight page on young people in mental health. The address is www.eachother.org.uk backslash young-people-and-mental-health.