An introduction to me.

Hi, I have been wanting to start a blog for a long time, several years in fact. There has never really been a good time to start and I've always been too busy but I now find myself with plenty of time on my hands and the urge to write about my life and maybe give advice to people who are or have been experiencing some things I am going through.

This is me, I am 18 years old and live at home with my family in a small town in Worcestershire, England. I am a creative person and love to be hands on, this is why I was always good at art based subjects at school and sixth form. In September 2015 I started studying Fine Art at university but had to drop out because I couldn't cope living away from home and managing all the work with my disabilities. I have functional Neurological Disorder (FND) and fibromyalgia. I currently don't have the use of my left arm and also have no sensation in it either. This is the result of a fall four years ago, FND means that my brain is telling my arm that its damaged (even though its not anymore) and not sending the signals to my nerves  to tell my arm to move. This gives me constant pain in my shoulder, neck and back and also headaches that can leave me bed ridden for days. This is one of the reasons I dropped out of university. I get a lot of help from my parents at home and I had no help from anyone while living in halls and no one really understood how the FND affected me. The fibromyalgia causes pain in my muscles, especially around my knees and ankles. This also causes extreme tiredness. This being the second reason university wasn't for me.
Because I was suffering at university and had no one to talk to I started to become depressed and anxious. I didn't leave my room in the university halls and stopped eating properly because my anxiety rocketed at the thought of struggling to cook meals in the presence of people I was not yet familiar with. When I went home for the weekends I was angry with my family because they couldn't see how unhappy I was being at university. In early December, after a weeks break from university I broke down in tears and told my mom that I didn't want to go back to university and after that I didn't return. 

This blog is not only a release for me but I hope that by discussing different aspects of my life, like living with a disability, deciding on my future, coping with depression and also some other posts about positive things that happen in my life (just to cheer things up!) I will be able to help other people to feel more positive and to start loving yourself and the life you lead.

If you think someone you know could benefit from my future posts then please share my blog with them. There will be another post very soon, I'm looking forward to hearing what you think. 
Thanks, Charlie x