Welcome to episode 165 with Roxy Longworth.

When Roxy was 13, she was coerced then blackmailed into sending explicit photos, which were spread around her school.

The school blamed all of this on Roxy and the shame and embarrassment that was heaped down on her, by the very establishment that was supposed to be looking after her, took a huge toll on her mental health and eventually led to self-harm and hearing voices.

At 14 she suffered a psychotic breakdown and was hospitalized.

She spent the next four years rebuilding her mental health, and her life, and she wrote about all of this in the memoir ‘When You Lose It’.

The book is an incredibly emotional read. Half is written by Roxy from her perspective, the other half is written by her Mum and it details the impact that mental illness has on both the person experiencing it and the people that love them and have to help them through it.

In this episode I chat to Roxy about being a young person and growing up in this technology driven age. We chat about the events that led to the photos being taken and shared and everything that happened after.

We chat about psychosis, self-harm, being in hospital and working with difficult emotions like anger and shame and we chat about the experience of writing the book, reading her Mum’s side of the story and the complex relationships between teenagers and parents.

I reached out to Roxy after reading her book, which I found incredibly moving and challenging to read. She has a wonderful understanding of everything that happened and her own mental health and it was a privilege to chat to her about all of it.

The book is available in all good book shops and you can follow Roxy on social media @roxylongworth_

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

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If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!

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