Hello All, My name is Joshua Deegan and I’m a sixteen year old Irish teenager from Mullingar, Co Westmeath. I am also the founder of Brighter Thought’s Ireland, a teenage mental health initiative. I myself have had Mental health issues, I was severely bullied for most of my secondary school life which took its toll on me, I began to become depressed and I isolated myself from my friends and family. Then one day I woke up and said to myself ‘I have a purpose in this world, I am a fighter’. Ever since that day one year ago I’ve been talking to teenagers like myself about Mental Health. I believe that no one should feel like they have to give up or they can’t go on. What I want to say is that you have survived 100% of everything in your life so far so don’t give up on whatever life throws at you next. Remember you are lovely, you are loveable and you are loved!
Mental health, it’s been made clear to us over the last few years in particular, that mental health is the most important thing that belongs to us, the one thing that truly keeps us going, the thing that makes us get up every morning at 7:00 am when sometimes you really would rather just hide away and pretend you don’t exist, having good mental health makes you stop and think “I’m okay, I can do this”. So why ,if this value is the only thing keeping us going, gets pushed to the side, why is so many unnecessarily unimportant things put before it? It’s not about money, or what job you have, or what school you sit your junior cert in, or if you’ve to repeat your leaving cert for the job you really want to do even if it is too much pressure for you. It’s not about what sally next door or tom round the block thinks about you, or what lies or truths your exes are spreading, none of that even comes close to mental health. Mental health is the one priority in our lives that we 100% have to keep healthy and okay. Yes, don’t get me wrong it’s most certainty okay not to be okay. But it’s not okay not to talk about it, to hide it away, put your thoughts and feelings into the back of your head and hope for the best.. because it’s not going to go away.
Not everybody has great self-confidence, some people find it difficult to open up to a school counsellor or any guidance counsellor. So that’s where the home team comes in. Your home team is the people who love and unconditionally adore you no matter what gets in the way. It’s the people who’ll come get you when your tire is flat at 1 in the morning, it’s the people who’ll show up at your door with a hug and a smile when you haven’t had a good day, the people whose small gestures make a big and good impact on mental health. Good Mental health is vital, so if you’re not feeling okay, don’t think that it’ll go away without help or guidance, talk to someone.
To date as of 04/05/18 I have carried out 30+ mental health talks and have reached over seven thousand teenagers. For me it’s a way of coping, it’s my way of giving back. I am your ordinary teenager, I go to school and I hang out with friends but what I have been told by the people I have spoken to is, that I’m a life saver, I’m a hero. In no way shape or form would I describe myself as any of those. I’m just a person with a big heart and a person that wants to change this dynamic world piece by piece, I want to let teenagers, let you know, that there is hope.
Brighter thoughts Ireland’s main goal is to help. Help teenagers who believe that they can’t be helped, teenagers who’ve decided they’re gonna give up, teenagers who believe their problems are not important enough to be heard or dealt with. 800 precious lives are taken each year by suicide on the island of Ireland . Our main goal, is to keep lowering these numbers. We help them, encourage them, to look on the brighter side of life with brighter thoughts Ireland.
