Stay With Me

If someone was struggling wouldn't you ask them to stay with you? Wouldn't you try and save them?

Stay With Me is a collection of three fictional stories focusing on mental health awareness for young people. Each story in this series follows a different person who is battling with a mental health disorder and portrays the journey that they go through with a supportive friend at their side who wants them to stay.

Hate: When two depressed teenagers begin to communicate through paper planes they discuss their differences in an attempt to help each other find a new lease on life.

Sometimes the best way to move on is to move away, or at least that's what Poppy's mum thought when she packed up their bags in an attempt to leave the past behind them. But the move has made Poppy even more isolated from the outside world, to try and help her she signed Poppy up for a local youth club.

This is where she meets Luke: a completely different yet similar in some ways eighteen-year-old. Poppy quickly becomes intrigued by Luke's decision to hate everything and everyone in life, and despite her stark difference in opinion, she wants to help him find a reason to stay.

But will their conversations be enough to save them both?

Cake: When two teenagers are made project partners at school they are forced to make conversation but that could be the exact lifeline needed to save one of them.

Being the new girl at school is never easy, but Riley had hoped that she would've escaped the bullying: she couldn't have been more wrong. In fact, the popular kids there were even worse than those at her old school. It doesn't take her long to develop some bad eating habits that lead to an eating disorder.

The only thing keeping her going is her love for art, so when she is partnered up with Theo for their final projects the opportunity to make a new friend arises. Despite her nerves, she can't ignore his immense kindness and outgoing nature.

But will his support be enough to help her see her self-worth?

Tape: When two teenagers' lives become intertwined after one suffers a sudden anxiety attack an unlikely friendship proves to be what they both need to excel in their talents.

Life is anything but easy for Elizabeth, with a difficult family situation and no friends to lean on, but at least her familiar routine and passion for the stage is able to keep her anxiety at a steady level. So when she returns to school to find out that there is a new drama teacher, her anxiety goes through the roof; and it only continues to skyrocket when she becomes the victim of his verbal abuse.

Luckily, an uninspired music student, Daniel, discovers her in her anxious state and manages to calm her down with his piano. After this chance meeting, he decides that he won't let her struggle alone and goes to great lengths to earn her trust and friendship.

But will his attempt to help re-build her confidence be effective or has too much damage been done to reverse her anxiety?

All stories within the Stay With Me series are original pieces written by Charlotte E. O'Brien who pulled on her own experiences with bullying and mental health disorders to come up with these stories.

She hopes that by speaking openly about her experiences that she might be able to help others who are struggling with their mental health.