Abi's Story - Music as comfort

Abi, 18, tells us her story of growing up caring, the difficulties she faced, and how music helps her to get through.

I was about 8 when I started caring for my mum who has mental illness.

My caring role involves a lot of different things, from taking care of her physical and mental needs as well as helping her with tasks which other people may find easy, such as getting dressed and cooking a meal.

Even things like getting the washing done is a hard task which my mum will often require my help with.

Some of the difficulties I have faced while being a carer is struggling to manage higher education work with a caring role, setting time away for myself has helped but each hour I spend studying is less time for me to take care of myself. I don't have a social life either due to my caring role. I make do with messaging friends and watching people’s social media feeds of them going out and having a good time, but it does get lonely.

What has helped me as a carer is being able to manage different things and still be able to get up the next day without fearing what that day might bring. I turn to music a lot for a comfort songs from Ed Sheeran to the rock songs by Guns n Roses all of them have a message and help me continue fighting through to the next day.

If you are looking after someone, find info, advice and support on YACbook.co.uk. And if you would like to share your story, contact us here.