When 2020 became 2021 A year felt lost, another hardly yet begun. Disappointments, stay home and don't you dare moan - There are others worse off, "Keep Calm and Carry On"! But for you the hours blur within each week, Each month seeming harder, your anxiety peaks. It's hard to stay positive, you try your very best To focus on what you can control, no more and no less. Everywhere you turn the doom seems to follow, Your efforts to swim, falter, weighed down by an invisible holl

Dear Friend, Just a note to say thank you so much for your patience and understanding the other day. I realise that you hadn’t seen me in that state for a while (if ever) and I just wanted to let you know what it meant to me that you just listened, didn’t judge me for feeling overwhelmed or make me feel stupid for not being able to explain why. You gave me space to talk things over if I wanted to, or to just sit and get some calm. And you didn’t remind me that plenty others

More days than not, I experience low mood, excessive worry and difficult intrusive thoughts. My illness (some kind of combo of anxiety & depression & OCD) seems always present, although some days are better than others. Today is a good day, as I feel quite calm, despite today being identical to yesterday (literally, given lock down) which was terrible with day-long constant nausea, a physical weight on my chest coupled with an aching feeling of dread (about what I don’t know)

Why I believe it’s important to talk about mental health I am not a person of few words. Most of my writing on this blog literally overflows! So today in order to contain and capture my thoughts I have set a timer of 20 minutes to write about why I believe it’s important to talk about mental health. Please forgive my directness, it’s not always a strength of mine but as I balance home-school, work and my own mental health, needs must as thanks to the virus, time is more my ma

Yes we are washing our hands, social distancing, mask wearing and practicing hygiene like never before. However, I reckon the general population at large are fairly safe from ‘being a bit OCD’ even in a pandemic. This is not to say some people are not at risk of developing obsessions and compulsions that they may need support to deal with as a result of the current crisis (see below). But for someone to *be* the disorder that is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a metap

I am so pleased that this poem I wrote after volunteering at my local football club for Time to Change last year is going to be shared with followers of the national campaign. Every time I have something to say about unhelpful attitudes towards talking about mental health and mental illness (and feel myself losing compassion) I will refer to the wiser me who was able to step back and write this. It's Time to Change It’s time to change The way we talk About what’s in our heads

Remember a while back I told you about my wellness strategies involving social media? There are a proliferation of memes today, videos, slogans and hashtags which will hopefully trend and increase awareness of mental health. Unfortunately, this does not always lead to a greater understanding or action to help elevate mental health to an equal position as physical health as seen by continuing stigma of the severely affected and the decreasing quality and quantity of mental hea