If you broke your leg you’d talk about it right? See a doctor, get some rest, take it easy. Well mental health is the same. Talking about it has always made it less overwhelming and isolating for me. Take comfort in we’re all imperfect and just doing our best. Be kind.
‘If only in my dreams’ is a beautiful and poignant lyric. There is nothing worse than empty chairs around the Christmas table; reminders of those you’ve loved and lost. It might be your first Christmas, your fifth, your twenty-fifth, without them. Flashed by in a sparkly tinsel blur. It’s our seventh Christmas this year without […]
Read More
Trigger Publishing asked if I wanted to get involved with their Dear Mind campaign for Mental Health Awareness week. Dear Mind, You are my worst critic. You are my meanest friend. Why do you become clouded so often? Why do you trick me into believing that I am alone? Fat? Worthless? Stupid? I try to […]
Read More
A lot of people say to me “you’re so brave, for having lost your Dad and doing x and y and z” or the revised version of “You’re so brave.” I can listen to strangers or friends talk about their Dad, or cancer, or tumours. I can go into a hospital, a ward, a hospice. […]
Read More
This is a personal essay I wrote as a presentation for my Masters in Creative Writing. It focuses on my experience of depression, or as it called it, my brain clouds or brain fog. Clearing the Clouds “I can always tell the type of day you’re having by your hair.” My stiff student support officer […]
Read More
In life you have to make your own luck. If you achieve your dream career, or can afford a beautiful home, or achieve something you’ve been striving for you’re often told that you’re lucky. Out of millions of people trying to be or do x or y, you’ve done it. You’re the lucky one, or […]
Read More
The most important thing on Valentine’s Day is to love yourself. Yes, like it or not, it’s Valentine’s Day. I personally love Valentine’s when I’m single or in a relationship, it is a time to treat yourself to some love, and it’s also a strong reminder to appreciate the people you love. Yes, we shouldn’t […]
Read More
January is the month we dive head first into everything; fitness, health, work, personal goals, organising and decluttering our life. It’s the time when we all simultaneously try and do everything we want to. For me, this is what that has looked like so far: work, gym, essay work for my Masters, notes on a […]
Read More
University brought wonderful things into my life, but I also developed anxiety especially as a graduate. I’d never really had anxiety beforehand, not like I’d experienced at university anyway. And I always managed to control it, because my main anxiety would occur before an exam but then my philosophy of whatever happens, happens, would pipe […]
Read More
For me the hardest thing about feeling lonely is admitting it to myself, and to others. I can never bring myself to say, “please could we meet up today, as I’m feeling quite lonely”. I avoid doing it at all costs, even though I know from experience it always helps. I don’t like to admit […]
Read More