Joe's story: The best version of myself

Joe is positively effervescent when we meet for her interview at West Sussex Mind’s Corner House in Southwick. In just under an hour, she’ll deliver the final installment of our mental health toolkit course for people who get support with us, and her enthusiasm is palpable.

After completing our ten-week peer volunteer training course in December 2024, to equip her to support others with their mental health using her lived experience, Joe is well and truly in her stride, having co-led two of our recovery courses. She’s finding the work rewarding and says it’s given her confidence and boosted her self-esteem and sense of belonging.

“I’ve always wanted to work helping other people, to be able to give something back to society,” says Joe. “When I was being treated for my mental health [in the NHS], I always felt that peer support was the missing element and that clinicians didn’t understand how I felt, because they didn’t have experience of mental health problems themselves. So I knew that I had something different to bring to others.

“By halfway through the peer volunteer course, I had gelled with the other trainees and we had begun to really understand each other. We all have different troubles, experiences and traumas, but it’s such a supportive group and we stay in touch. It’s like a little family.”

A learning opportunity

As well as co-leading mental health workshops for West Sussex Mind, Joe may go on to support people in other ways, including giving one-to-one support. She says that the training was extremely interactive, scenario-based and high-quality and gave her the tools to provide a professional level of support to others. It was also an opportunity to learn about difference and inclusion, as well as about mental health.

“I got so much from listening to others in the group,” says Joe. “I learned that there are lots of other experiences out there, other types of trauma and different ways in which people can feel excluded, for example, for being neurodivergent. So the training opened my eyes in many different ways.”

Increasing confidence

Although Joe was very nervous before she did her first recovery group with West Sussex Mind, she has grown in confidence over time and has felt the support not only of her friends and family for her new area of work, but also from the charity’s staff from her time with them as a service user.

“Before my first recovery course session as a peer, I sat outside Corner House in my car and had to speak to my best friend on the phone, because I was feeling so nervous. She talked me out of my anxiety and said ‘you’re made for this job, just go for it.’ I did some box breathing before I went in to calm myself. Bit by bit, I began feeling more confident and now, if I stumble over a few words while I’m reading aloud for the course or make a mistake, I feel understood and I just carry on. Everyone is so supportive and I can just be me.”

Joe’s mental health journey

Joe’s new-found confidence is a far cry from where she was nine years ago when one of her sisters died and her mental health took a nosedive, resulting in her having to give up her job. With a history of anxiety and depression and with her self-esteem at an all-time low, Joe was referred by her GP to Glebelands Mental Health Centre in Shoreham where she was put under the care of a psychiatrist and had cognitive behavioural therapy. The psychiatrist helped Joe to realise that her problems were rooted in childhood trauma and said that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

After being diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder, PTSD and borderline personality disorder and starting to take medication, she began getting support in the community with West Sussex Mind. Joe says that this was a turning point on her mental health journey.

“Coming to Corner House for one-to-one support felt very different to having CBT in the NHS,” says Joe. “I felt understood for the first time and everyone who helped me showed real empathy for my situation. I felt like people could see my pain and I didn’t feel judged. The support was genuine and human and I felt a real sense of connection.”

Becoming "the best version of myself"

As Joe started coping much better, she began attending West Sussex Mind’s groups for service users in the community. A recovery worker noticed how attentive and supportive Joe was to a person who was reluctant to come into the building and, shortly after that, suggested to Joe that she might be interested in the peer volunteer training. She jumped at the opportunity.

Joe recognises that she has come a very long way over the last nine years. “I used to spend my life in my bedroom and I’ve tried to end my life several times,” says Joe. “So if I can play even a small part in stopping someone else doing that, that’s incredibly gratifying.”

She now wants to use her expertise and experience to bring people together in the community, support them with their issues and help them feel connected and accepted. For her, a sense of belonging and community is about getting involved and helping others rather than sitting back and thinking ‘that’s none of my business’. And how she hopes to make helping others her vocation.

“If it wasn’t for West Sussex Mind, I wouldn’t be here today,” concludes Joe. “They really have encouraged me to be the best version of myself that I can be. And that’s what I want to encourage others to be and to be proud of who they are.”

We thank Joe for sharing her story and wish her the best of luck on her continuing journey.