About Me

 

Welcome, I am the Founder of AMHA. The idea behind this project started quite a few years ago inspired by my own experiences of mental health on the Autistic Spectrum and being dumped by the NHS Mental Health system. Along the way my medical CV has expanded to include physical disabilities something i will further blog about in the future. In 2016, during a very difficult period in my life, the charity Fixers helped me build my vision and expand my original idea to create this share platform. What you see now is only the first phase of AMHA which launched on the 12th September 2017.

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Currently im working on phase two for AMHA (as im sure you have notice we have outgrown our original site) and expanding our anti-stigma clothing and accessories brand Whatlabel. If you would like further information about AMHA, please see our about us page below or in the main menu. 

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Well i guess I should give a brief bit about myself, before i do, an important note, much of my background and experience with mental illness involves my family and the situation we struggled with alone without the appropriate support and intervention of our local services. Our situation is very complex and very sensitive especially as it's still ongoing. To protect their identity as its my choice to share my story, and not theirs, I am going to try and keep my blog about my experiences and generalise any situation that may involve my family. This does mean I will skip over certain things or may not explain in full details so i hope readers will understand.

 

I was born with Autism and associated learning difficulties including Dyslexia, however nor myself or my family knew I had Autism until i was in my twenties having to fight for a diagnosis for years. Although obvious looking back I was on the spectrum. I was always categorised by people around me as either very shy, or quiet or withdrawn. Any difficulties i had was put down to mental illness brought on by my family difficulties.  As for Mental illness, I have suffered with anxiety and depression since I was around 8-9 years old, having to become a young carer to my family who also have various mental and physical health difficulties. During my teens i was diagnosed with an Eating Disorder, Body Dysmorphia and OCD. Then along with my Autism diagnosis I was found to have hyper mobility in my joints, Fibromyalgia throughout my body and suspected Erlos Danlos Syndrome. 

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So why blog? I didnt create AMHA to sell you a sob story, or to become a martyr. I'm not doing this for money nor do I really want the attention. Not only do i want to help others share their stories, I want to use my own unique story with perspectives of both autism, mental illnesses and physical disabilities from a sufferer, carer and professional point of view to raise awareness. If I can help even one person via AMHA, I will be thrilled, but i hope in some ways I can reach out to the masses using a combination of blogging, videos and various advertising. I want to educate and inform people about my conditions whom hundreds of thousands of people suffer.

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If you would like to stay upto date, please check out the news blog where i share all the important bits of AMHA.