Happiful September 2020

TRUE LIFE
The breakthrough
after my breakdown
Lifesaving surgery at four months old led Flo to a
mental breakdown when she was just eight, and
resulted in a childhood defined by mental health.
As a teenager, Flo had the lightbulb moment to stop
letting her mental illnesses define her, and started
sharing her story to empower and inspire others
Writing | Flo Sharman
While my birth
was pretty
straightforward,
when I was four months
old everything changed.
I stopped breathing on
many occasions, and my
incredible mother had
to resuscitate me several
times – including on the
day of my christening.
I needed a life-saving
operation to remove parts
of my stomach to treat
serious acid reflux, which
was affecting my ability to
breathe, and I had to stay
in hospital for months.
I had slow development,
and remember needing a
special chair and shoes,
but apart from that things
were looking up – we all
thought that once life had
dealt me that big, old card,
surely I wouldn’t have to
deal with another one.
I really wish that was the
case, but unfortunately
it wasn’t. I remember
the night that my life
changed forever as if it
was yesterday. This is
my reminder to you all
to cherish everything
you have, and live in the
moment, because you
really don’t know what’s
around the corner.
My mental breakdown
didn’t come gradually, it
happened pretty much
overnight, when I was just
eight years old – and for
me it came out as physical
illness symptoms, not
those of a classic mental
breakdown. I woke up in
the middle of the night in
May 2008 blind, paralysed,
hallucinating, my lip had
dropped, I couldn’t talk,
I was retching, and had a
headache. I was rushed to
hospital and they thought
that I had a bleed on the
brain or a brain infection,
but how wrong they were.
I stayed in overnight and
was discharged the next
morning with doctors
saying it was a fluke, and
would never happen again.
But in 2017 I found out
that the reason I had my
mental breakdown, and
the reason it showed itself
in this way, is due to my
traumatic experience in
hospital during the early
parts of my life, and this
is the main root cause
of my mental illnesses –
PTSD, OCD, depression,
and panic attacks. I truly
believe that if, at the time
of my mental breakdown
in 2008, more research
had been done to find
the links between mental
health breakdowns due
to trauma as a baby, my
journey would have been
very different. That is
why I’m so proud to be an
ambassador for MQ, who
are the UK’s leading mental
health research charity. >>>
September 2020 • happiful.com • 87