South Asians Rising
S1 EP2 - Farish Lakhani: Overcoming the Stigma of Having Ulcerative Colitis
When you're faced with an illness that flips your world upside down, the path forward can seem daunting. In this episode, Farish shares firsthand his experience of being diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and undergoing surgery to attach a stoma bag. Farish's journey through the physical and emotional challenges of his condition shines a light on the importance of support systems and the courage to embrace vulnerability.
Listeners will hear about how Farish mentally dealt with his diagnosis, tackled the stigma around having a stoma bag and found strength to be open about what he was going through in order to break cycles and spread awareness.
When you're faced with an illness that flips your world upside down, the path forward can seem daunting. In this episode, Farish shares firsthand his experience of being diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and undergoing surgery to attach a stoma bag. Farish's journey through the physical and emotional challenges of his condition shines a light on the importance of support systems and the courage to embrace vulnerability.
Listeners will hear about how Farish mentally dealt with his diagnosis, tackled the stigma around having a stoma bag and found strength to be open about what he was going through in order to break cycles and spread awareness.
Welcome everyone to today's episode on the call. We have Farish today. Farish, would you like to introduce yourself to anyone who may be listening?
Speaker 2:Hi guys, I'm Farish, based in Hemelhemstead, just outside Watford. Originally from Leicester, I've been down south for around 12 years. I'm married for the last 10 years and I have two wonderful children, aged 6 and 4, and I'm an ambassador for Stonerbags, which is part of the discussion that we'll have today.
Speaker 1:Great thanks, farish. Really nice to have you on today. I'm really excited to hear about your story. So, as you know, this podcast is all about people sharing their stories or challenges that they've been through. Is there a particular challenge that you've been through that you found really tough, that you've overcome?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let me let's go back around 12 odd years now. So it's basically to do with your stool. So I was getting a lot of blood in my stool and to the fact whereby I was going toilet 10 to 15 times a day and these were kind of rushed. I was like walking out the house and I literally have to go straight away and this was obviously. It was really hard. I was in a job I'm in sales, so I was in a job where I was travelling quite a bit into London to see clients abroad and go see clients in Europe. So it was really really hard and you had to really work out when you can leave the house, where the next toilet is and things like that. So mentally it was kind of really hard, but also it's kind of quite you're talking stigma against talking about stool. So I was going toilet 15 times a day.
Speaker 2:My wife was really supportive. We went to the doctors many, many times. We got in touch with the right consultant and there were a lot of medication that I had. We tried lots of steroids and this was a prolonged period for four, five years. We tried a lot of things and we came to the fact whereby it was getting so bad that there was nowhere to really go. It wasn't easy. Your life depended on it, whereas when you're going out you have to think about things, if you're going on holiday, your relationships with your partner, with people around you said there was a lot to it and both mentally is hard, but also kind of physically it's very, very draining as well, on my body as well. And then we came to the conclusion around just before my eldest side was born and we were like I think this would be the best time to kind of go and go under the knife and go for surgery, because that was the last option and we thought if we do it before I was born it would be less impact on my child and on my wife. It's because obviously the recovery etc.
Speaker 2:So yes, so just over six and a half years ago had surgery to remove my large bowels and to have a stoma bag. So essentially a stoma bag is whereby no stool would come out your backside and it will come out of the front into a bag onto your stomach and you would empty it three or four times a day. And essentially it was major surgery. You got 20 stitches down your stomach, they remove your large intestines and they attach, and they bring out your small bow onto the surface of your stomach and you attach a stoma bag on there and that's where all your stool comes out four, five, six times a day, etc. So we decided to do that. The surgery went very well. I was off for work for two to three months recovery. I lost a lot of weight at first because I couldn't eat, couldn't drink, I wasn't walking and eventually, yeah, and that's where we are today.
Speaker 2:It was very hard to adjust to. It's a different lifestyle. You have to be careful with what you eat. Especially within being Asian, there's a lot of spicy food, a lot of spices. Certain foods can trigger your condition as well. So we've had that surgery around six and a half years ago.
Speaker 2:Since then I've had another two more surgeries after that, one in March this year and I'm going to have another one in a couple of weeks, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 2:However, how I look at it is, whereas how was I before surgery and how was I after surgery, and you kind of weigh up the options, some people are really lucky and they don't have to have any surgeries.
Speaker 2:I'm just hoping the next one in a few weeks time is kind of the last one for a good, really good 10, 15 years really. So, yeah, it has been hard, and it's not just kind of I'm suffering. I feel that the family is suffering as well, sometimes because they have to take the burden on. Sometimes, when I'm in recovery, when I'm in pain, a lot of times I can't do heavy lifting, so there's certain restrictions. When I'm playing with kids have to be careful where they're like, if they're not kicking me or punching me or playing with me, be careful because I've got a bag. However, I really just think that it is something I had to do and it is where I am today, and it's a battle, but I'm I believe I'm winning the battle now. So, and that's, yeah, that's the journey I've had for the last 10 to 12 years of my medical life.
Speaker 1:Really wow, that sounds really intense. I'd love to go back to the beginning, where you realized you were going to the toilet a lot during the day. During that time, what was going through your mind? You know, you obviously noticed this pattern. Did you feel comfortable talking to others about it or seeking help for?
Speaker 2:it? I would say no, because it really is kind of that kind of subject where you think, oh, my god, I'm talking about the stool and blood and kind of, yeah, it's one of those things where you think maybe it was just past, maybe it was just something I air or something like that, and you just carry on for a few weeks, months and you think actually something doesn't seem right and it just plays on your mind every time you go. Toilet at the beginning was only maybe four, five times, and then slowly, slowly increases and you think actually having blood in your stool doesn't seem normal. So it's kind of you look at Google, your Google symptoms.
Speaker 2:It could be this, it could be that before speaking to a doctor and you don't really speak to your parents about it or your partner about you think actually this is really not kind of something I want to talk about and you just think it'll go away and kind of just yeah, you just ignore it, but then slowly, slowly, you think it does play on your mind. So you just kind of just carry on and then something. Then you ideally want something to click, but he didn't click for quite a few months really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you think was the thing that made it click for you? What made you seek help?
Speaker 2:I think it got to that point where I really kind of had to really think about it and think, actually this isn't right, and I was in a lot of pain Mentally. You're kind of always wary about where the toilets are, what other people would think yes. However, people can then start to notice that you're not quite right. Like you're going shopping I'd go walk into Tesco as Dan. I'm like wow, I'm going literally straight to, I'm literally running to the toilet so badly that something wasn't right. So I think it took a while. Like I said, I was looking on. You always look at Google and you always see the worst whenever you look at Google and you're going.
Speaker 1:Google is the worst when it comes to everything else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you just like think, oh, my god, could it be this, could it be that, could it be whatever. And then, obviously, as an Asian, you always have that kind of stigma as well and think, talking about stool or going to the doctor, you have to, you have to show your body, you have to do certain tests, you have to do colonoscopies, you love to do stool tests and I think what change really is that support that you have from your family. So my partner said let's go, and I think that's what kind of encourages you. You then think about your partner, how you want life to kind of go. You want, you want a good life for your family and etc. So you just think, actually you do get support from your family. I think that's really important. You're not alone. You're not alone. Doctors do want to help you. And, yes, we may think, oh no, we need to go to a GP book. An appointment is going to be another three, four weeks until we get an appointment, but at the end of the day, there are people out there that want to help, want to care for you, and the main thing is to get better.
Speaker 2:And the longer you leave it, the worse it gets, and I think that that was my kind of push to see actually it's been a few months now if nothing's getting better, paracetamol or Neurofen is definitely not working and it's not food.
Speaker 2:And it was that kind of realization eventually thought, actually, let's go see a doctor, let's see what they say, let's do the tests. Yeah, it wasn't easy, for sure, it definitely wasn't easy. Like I said, you always think the worst, but once you start doing the tests, it can take weeks and weeks and weeks and then you get your kind of diagnosis, diagnosis and then you start start medical, different medical interventions that can help you start looking at diet, what people think you should eat, what you shouldn't eat, do a food diary to see if there are any triggers. So it is definitely a huge lifestyle change. However, it's a lifestyle change. It could have been a lot, lot worse, for sure, and I think that's where I am today and that's how I see it today yeah, I can imagine for people when they know that something's not quite right and they probably should seek help for it.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people may feel hesitant to go and seek help, and what's behind that is probably the fear, the fear of you know. You know what? Could it be? What if it's something really bad? And it sounds like when you were googling and trying to find things out, you, you know, you were going down that rabbit hole and perhaps you may have had some fears. What was the journey like for you in terms of taking that plunge to go and see the doctor, even though you were feeling all these things? Regarding what you've been seeing on Google?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think it's that kind of the mindset of people, kind of you hear one thing in your head saying you shouldn't go and you just can't. You can go ahead and you can, just you can do it yourself to take medicine and just like look after yourself. And on the other side you have the other kind of person saying, actually you do need kind of medical help, that's the only way forward, by doing these tests and then having so I think it's all about the stigma nowadays what will people think? Like even now, when I talk about my life and what I've been through in terms of my medical problems, you still people think, oh, kind of that's a bit yuck and kind of things like that. So I think it's just having that kind of strong mindset. It's not easy, for sure, because things like this you always think when you go to the doctor that they're going to tell you something bad and it's about the unknown, right. So if you see, whenever you look at a sitcom or you watch EastEnders and Coronation Street and they go to the doctor, you always, they always kind of it's quite dramatic and you think, oh no, you know what they're going to say that you're going to die in four weeks and you've got this and that. So you just always think the bad, the worst, that will happen.
Speaker 2:And I think it's just making that first initial jump to say I'm going to do it, I'm going to get better. And there needs to be a reason why you want to get better. Firstly, it needs to be for yourself. For sure, you want to get better for yourself, but secondly, there's people around you that kind of rely on you as well. So I find it, I want to get better. It shouldn't. I don't want to be selfish. I want to get better for now, when I think about it, I want to get better for my kids, for my wife. I want to be there for them, I want to make memories. So, yeah, it's about being not selfish and I was pushing. I was really pushing myself to say actually, farage, you need to go to the doctor and you need to get better for yourself first and then for everybody else after that. So, like I said, it wasn't easy for sure, and I think it was just really really pushing myself to go out there and kind of seek help for myself.
Speaker 2:I still do a lot of charity work in my temple and you kind of get surrounded by South Asian people, indian people from different cultures, young and old, and you kind of get that pressure to think, actually, because they always say, farage, you look so well, you look so well. But like they don't see mentally what I'm going through, and physically as well, because I kind of hide it. Well, yeah, I go through a lot of pain and also I go through a lot of pain on a daily basis. Even now, since I've had my surgeries and things like that, I would say I don't think there is a day gone past where I'm not in pain. But you try and hide it, not just for myself but kind of for the family, for my wife and kids, because I don't want them to see that I'm always in pain, and kind of you just go along with it, so like we'll go on holiday and you'll just try and carry on with life.
Speaker 2:Even if you go through a really bad episode of pain, you kind of just carry on with it and kind of ignore I want to say ignore the pain.
Speaker 2:I would keep the pain to myself, so I wouldn't kind of express my pain where you would love to express it, but then if you're expressing your pain all the time I would be sitting in bed all the time or I won't be doing a lot of things and you just go along with the pain, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:But it's kind of that stigma really, I would say not just within the Asian culture, I would say generally within life. Having a stool problem is definitely a huge stigma. And I think what I really want to do is and what I like to do is because I've been through my problems and I'm still going through them, which I'll carry on going through for life is make people aware that it should be natural for people to go to the see a doctor and get help and seek advice because, honestly, you can save your life. And I know some people have gone through what I have and have been kind of totally normal, no problems at all. But I've seen people also who have gone through this, who have really, really have suffered and kind of stayed in the house, stayed in their room and kind of not talked about it, and it can go both ways really.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that you tend to hide the pain because you want to express it, that you feel that you don't want it to affect those around you. What impact does that have on you, if any?
Speaker 2:I would say I'm strong. I feel that I'm quite strong, kind of minded. However, it does impact me internally and you feel sometimes you go into your own space and you just want to cry it all out and think why did I have this disease? Why kind of? Why do I have to have the pain? Why me, why me, why me? But then you kind of you look at the kids and think, actually I'm doing it because of you. Okay, I'm taking all this pain internally. I don't want to show the pain that I have because I don't want my kids to suffer. In a way I don't want them to miss out on anything.
Speaker 2:And I think I've really got immune to that kind of pain. It's so strange, that kind of yeah, you have ups and downs, especially in the morning when you're getting up, and you feel that pain, but you kind of really get immune to it. It's really strange. At first it was kind of really hard and I couldn't really kind of hide that pain. You just feel really lazy, like with this condition, with ulcerative colitis and with a bag, you kind of the side effects are kind of you feel really lethargic pain, headaches, you get low in sugar and things like that. So you kind of just absorb all of that and it just fizzles out for some reason and I think, yeah, mentally I've been in a good place. It hasn't really kind of affected me as much as I've seen others Maybe other people may see it and I don't see it as much and on one of these people in life, that kind of If I get, if I go through something, I feel I can help others, and that's how I kind of motivate myself. I feel like I've been through all these experiences in life. Then if I can help one person or two people or whatever, then that's kind of my goal really. So, yeah, I work, I have my normal job, I do my charity work at temples, but also if I can talk about stool, if I can talk about colitis, if I can talk about Stoma bag to as many people as possible, then I think that's a good thing and that's kind of what motivates me.
Speaker 2:Before having a stoma bag I'd never heard of a stoma bag. I'd never known anyone to have a stoma bag. Now there is a community out there that actually there is a lot of people who have stoma bags. You still don't hear about it because it's not something. You kind of flash your stoma back to everybody and kind of you show everybody. However, people do know me, especially I is that guy who, the one who's got the stoma bag, so it's kind of just. I think that's how I kind of overcome the kind of the downs of having a disease and in what we say is an invisible disease, because you generally can't see it. So I think that's the way I kind of Approach it, and if I'm getting sad I look at the bright side, whereas I can help somebody, whether it's somebody young, somebody old, and and that's I kind of that's how I kind of deal with it, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really powerful and I agree, I think, very similar to you. I, before I met you, actually, I didn't really know much about stoma bags and the impact that it has. So I think this would be really useful for us all here your story and become more aware about it. And Before I move on to the stigma side of things, because I'm really interested in how you handle that I guess one question maybe I could pose to you, and you don't need to answer it right now, but it's something that you could think about.
Speaker 1:I know that you mentioned you prefer to sort of hide your pain and you've sort of become immune to it now and I'm wondering, instead of, you know, expressing it to your family members, because you don't want them to see you in pain, are there any other ways you could express your pain so you don't hold it in? And maybe that's just something for you to think about, because sometimes, when we don't process that and we hold it in, we may not consciously feel it, but it can go into our subconscious and be there underlying. So it is good for us to feel it so that we can get it passed through, and there are many ways and and go through that. But I would love to tap into what you said earlier on the stigma aspect. Tell me a little bit about how you well certainly did you experience that. Did you feel comfortable to share within the community and your Outside of your immediate family members about what you were going through? And tell me a little bit about that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when it first kind of when I first got colitis, I didn't really kind of talk about it to anybody and I think the the first time I started to talk about it was when I had to go under the knife and people were like I was like telling people, I'm going for surgery, I'm gonna be out of action for at least a couple of months, I'm gonna be in hospital for a few weeks. So it's quite major surgery and yeah, people didn't really understand kind of what it was, because you don't really come. Like I said, you don't really come across it. Often too you do get. So, just to give you context, sometimes you get a stoma bag if you've got cancer. So if you've got cancer in your large bowels, they can kind of they'll get, they'll remove your large bowels and they'll give you a bag to remove. So they would have removed the tumor or the cancer within your bowels. So that's quite often that that does happen quite often and obviously with Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease there is a long kind of disease. So people had to know about it. People think, oh no, you got. You get problems when you eat food or you can't eat certain foods and kind of when you say you've got like you got bowel problems, they just think it's just like you can't have chili food or kind of gluten or whatever.
Speaker 2:But I think it was more about educating people because I hadn't heard of it before that, so I don't expect other people to have heard about it. So it's kind of you just expect, oh, if I've got a disease, I've got an illness, you just expect everybody out there to kind of understand what it's about. But it's, it isn't. So I was in that situation where I was learning as well. So it's about kind of teaching people other people within my community, within my family, that kind of what it entails, what happens when you do go toilet, what the kind of pain is, so and and it did really help other people as well to understand kind of what I was going through, but also for them to be educated and then to teach other people that and and it really has helped other people. So I've got other family members or the cousins and things like that, who have gone through similar kind of. They get blood in their stool, so they understand it a little bit as well now, a lot more, and they kind of I've pushed them to go to the doctors, to go to the GP, so it kind of has helped other people as well. And then when you start talking about it you see actually that person who's my auntie or whatever, actually they went through it many, many years ago. So it's kind of they weren't telling me this, they we never heard about it. But you then it starts unraveling that other people actually have been through this and maybe my second or third uncle, and that they've gone through it.
Speaker 2:And then it slowly, slowly comes out and yeah, there is that stigma, especially within the South Asian culture, to talk about stool. But like I was at that point at the beginning where I wasn't talking about it and eventually, when I started talking about it, I was like actually, who cares? We all, we all go toilet and we all see people at a time we change children's nappies and if people don't like it, then tough. But I was a kind of person who was like, yeah, let's talk about it. Let's, I'll tell you my symptoms. I'll say I went, I've just been toilet, there was lots of blood in it, I was in a lot of pain and things like that. So let's talk about it, let's make it more kind of prevalent in the South Asian culture because it shouldn't be.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure a lot more people out there have the symptoms that don't talk about it. You never hear about it, with kind of famous people or celebrities having this. But I am sure for a fact that there are a lot of people out there that have symptoms and that don't do anything about it and it just really just kind of makes it a lot worse for themselves. I really understand that. I really understand that people don't want to talk about it and people don't want to admit to themselves that there is kind of an underlying issue within themselves and they need to kind of get medical help. And I've spoken to some people in the past where they literally haven't been out of their house for a good three, four years because they're scared that they would have to rush to a toilet and things like that. And and these are people who are younger than me and it's really kind of not easy to process it because it is really a life-changing thing. But, like I said, I was really lucky where I was kind of quite strong in what I had in my head whereby I would have a disease, and my kind of way of dealing with it was talking about it to other people. After once I found out the problem and dealing with it by helping other people. And that's how I really really dealt with it by helping others and, at the back of my mind, doing it for the kids, because that's ultimately.
Speaker 2:I want to get better for the kids so I can make memories with them and not kind of restrict them. So if we're gonna go on holiday, let's go beside the pool and, okay, I've got a bag. People are gonna look but kind of, we still, who cares? That's my magic power in essence. So I call it a magic power. Even the kids like call it a magic power now, because I could.
Speaker 2:I could be eating, I could be talking to you and I could be my stalls coming out, it could be, but I don't know because I can't feel it. So that's the magic power. So I could be eating and I could be essentially pooing at the same time. So that's like it doesn't sound nice, but essentially that's what essentially I'm doing. I could be pooing now, but you can't feel it. You can't feel it coming out into your bag. So it's my magic power, right? So and I'm one of these kind of people who see now the positives behind it. I never need to sit down on a public toilet. I never need to sit down on a public toilet which is a, which is a huge, which is a huge bank of fit in life really, especially in the UK.
Speaker 1:So it's my magic power yeah, and that's so powerful, isn't it? I mean, you could look at a situation and it's either negative or positive based on the meaning you give it.
Speaker 1:So some people may look at that situation and just see the worst and see the negative, but you're assigning a positive means and seeing the positives around it, which is helping you look at it differently, and I think that's so powerful. And another thing that you highlighted which I think is really important is when you mention that you know, with a stigma around it. As you started sharing what you were going through, it became apparent that people within your family second, third, aunties and uncles they had actually been to it but they hadn't spoken to anyone about it because they felt that stigma and they kept quiet. But because you're now breaking that cycle and you're sharing your story, you're actually indirectly now you're helping other people that you know who may be feeling those symptoms and know to go straight to the doctor, whereas otherwise they may not have. And I think that's so powerful because it goes with everything.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people in our community and that's why I've created this podcast because I feel like everyone is sort of going through something, that they probably know someone who's been through the same thing, but because of the stigma, they don't talk about it. So it's really important that we do share our stories and open up and be vulnerable, because you just don't know who you may be helping, and it sounds like you've helped a lot of people through your story and bringing awareness to this. I'm sure it's going to have a massive impact to those around you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's definitely important because at the end of the day, there's so much on the internet you can go see a doctor. However, if you're living through kind of what I'm living through, it's so much easier to speak to somebody and explain to them that, yeah, it's not going to be easy, you're going to get these problems, these problems, these problems. However, the upside is this, this and this. I think by living through it, if I can't help somebody, I'm going through the pain and everything. If I can't help anybody, then I don't see the point of really kind of being on this planet. Really. It's really about kind of helping people who I've been through it and I can make a voice with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of people don't feel comfortable about it, which is really fair enough. I understand it's not easy talking about it. Luckily, I'm quite confident. My profession is sales, so I'm quite open If I can walk into a room and kind of pitch to a thousand people at different levels and I don't mind doing that. And even at work I've been to HR. I've told them look, I have this problem. If there's anything we can do in terms of from the HR function or the PR side of it. By all means. Let's do it because I want to help others and I want people at work to understand. Yeah, I do have this problem. I still carry on.
Speaker 1:So if there's somebody out there right now who wants to talk about something or wants to tell someone something, but they just can't, they feel this stigma, they feel the shame. They may be really introverted, they may be really shy, whatever the reason is, they just can't get over that hurdle of speaking to someone about something. What advice would you give to them?
Speaker 2:I would definitely say, yeah, it's definitely not easy. Sometimes I still find it hard to tell people what, like some of my conditions. But what I always look in the back of my head is that if I do open up, it can kind of most probably help them, but also they'll be able to help somebody else. So if that person kind of can open up a little bit because, like I said, especially within the South Asian culture, they'll kind of you always hear this stuff about people gossiping and things like that and you kind of get upset, like when somebody's gossiping about you and not saying nice things about you. So I would say life's too short nowadays. You see a lot of things that happen and you just think I wish I'd done this.
Speaker 2:So I would say, kind of try and open up to somebody, at least one person, about what you're going through. Like you said earlier, it can really release that pain. If you're keeping it to yourself. You just need to release it somehow. Like, yes, I go through a lot of pain. I would say my wife definitely understands the pain I'm going through, but I try and hide it from my kids. I don't want them to know. So it's the kind of you've got that one person who knows what you're going through, but still I don't want my wife to know all the pain I'm going through, because it's not fair on her as well. So all I would say is to somebody is kind of, please try and open up to somebody, to one person Also definitely go see a doctor, don't be ashamed.
Speaker 2:Really don't be ashamed. This is your body. The doctor's not bothered whether they see your bum. They see parts of your body. This is their job. They see everything on a daily basis, so nothing is kind of abnormal to them. Don't be ashamed, really don't be ashamed.
Speaker 2:I've been to doctors many times and you think, oh no, it's a lady doctor, oh it's a male doctor, and you think, actually don't worry about it, they've seen it or they've seen a lot worse. They're not laughing at you or anything like that. They honestly, they really just want you to get better and I would say kind of, yeah, just try and open as much as you can as possible. You don't need to be like me and talk about it openly. But even if you told one person that actually I've got this pain, I do get bloody muster. What should I do? And I think that's the first kind of realization really, and they'll definitely kind of, once you do it, once it'll really really open up for you.
Speaker 2:I think it's just really important both for yourself mentally to kind of let it out as well. I think that's really important Because mentally any kind of disease or anything can really get to you and it can affect not just your physical health. If your physical health is not good, it can really impact you mentally, and I think nowadays it's more prevalent. And opening up can really prevent you mentally kind of not going in the right direction. So really just kind of open up to somebody and just help, just really try and help yourself as much as you can.
Speaker 1:Great. And one last question for you what is one thing that you've learned about yourself during your journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, good question. I think what's quite prevalent is I really thought I wasn't strong in myself and I think it's not why it's what I've learned and it's what I'm learning as well. At the same time, I'm still learning that kind of I didn't feel I was that strong and kind of quite open about things like that, and I think that's quite prevalent, that I am quite strong. Actually, I can be strong. I can be vulnerable as well, but I am learning to be a lot stronger within myself, both mentally and physically, and I think that's really important. And I'm still learning. It can still be very hard at times. However, I'm learning and I think, just with support from friends and family and kind of helping others. That's how I kind of go forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's such an important point. It's not a quick fix or one-stop thing. You're not gonna go suddenly from not being able to talk to anyone to suddenly being able to talk to everyone. I think it's a work in progress and you just take little steps and eventually, before you know it, you will reach a stage where you feel comfortable to share and speak openly. But don't be disheartened if you don't feel that immediately. Just take baby steps towards that, so we're all still worth the progress.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a journey, it's a journey, it's a journey for me, it's a journey for everybody. Really, it's small steps, for sure, is the kind of key, really, I would say.
Speaker 1:Farish, thank you so much for being on today's episode. It's been so powerful to hear your story. It's been great to hear your healing journey and your journey to becoming more strong mentally and physically and spreading awareness of what you're going through. If anyone would like to hear more about your story or reach out for some support or just someone to talk to, if they maybe go through similar, is it okay if they contact you?
Speaker 2:100%. Yeah, please do share my Instagram and I'm more than happy to help speak to anybody, just to say hello as well, and sometimes that can help. So please do follow me and reach out.
Speaker 1:Great. Thank you so much. I'll share Farish's details in the description box and that's it. Thank you so much for being a part of the episode. I've really enjoyed hearing about your story.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much.