Happy Girl Winter: How to Overcome Seasonal Depressive Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder in the Capital City: My Journey to Finding Clarity in the Chaos of London
It’s difficult to maintain emotional regulation in a city that thrives on chaos. The pressure to say yes to every event with your friends, lest you squander the privilege of being young and free in London, coupled with pressure to never turn down an opportunity at work, plays havoc on the nervous system and often means self-care takes a backseat…
‘Progress is an Irregular Path’: Chronic Fatigue and Learning to Live Life Slowly
Does all of this sound boring and repetitive? That's exactly how it feels for me. This repetitive cycle has been draining my youth one day at a time and I feel like I've missed out on a lot of my younger years already. Friends and acquaintances from school and university appear to have interesting lives; I feel like a failure. However, they may be feeling the same – social media doesn't show the whole picture of people's lives…
‘Grief Comes with Any Long-Term Chronic Illness’: Learning to Slow Down and Live with Autoimmune Disease
I started referring to my time in London as ‘B.C’: before colitis and ‘A.D’: after diagnosis. I mourned for my new life. It was a double-edged sword; I realised that despite my intentions, I practised ableism by default as I’d never had to consider life through the lens of someone chronically ill. I also felt like I didn’t have a right to complain because my invisible illness didn’t totally inhibit my ability to work, socialise and retain my autonomy. I was still deemed ‘productive’ under our capitalist regime…
Happy Girl Winter: How to Overcome Seasonal Depressive Disorder
For many people, it feels like winter comes around faster than any other season. It stays the longest and often makes the most impact on your mental health. The days get shorter, the darkness draws in and it feels impossible to keep up with the routine you mastered during your Hot Girl Summer. This year, I have decided to keep my spirits high and begin my Happy Girl Winter…
‘More Than Just Social Connections’: The Power of Female Friendships as a Source of Strength, Empowerment and Understanding
I’ve always considered myself a girls’ girl. It’s always been easy making friends with other females, but it wasn’t until I entered my thirties that I started to reflect on not only the friendships I was fostering in my life, but which ones truly fulfilled me and empowered me – all my girl friends came to mind. Female friendships are more than just social connections; they are a source of strength, empowerment and understanding…
‘I Didn’t Have My Anchor Anymore’: Navigating Parental Loss in your Twenties and the Power of the Present Moment in Processing Grief
Losing my mother in the period of life often referred to as ‘emerging adulthood’ left me feeling like I had to grow up suddenly. I wasn't what I would class as a young adult by any means. I was 27, a few months away from my 28th birthday in fact, but this rudderless feeling that had been sprung upon me left me thinking that I needed to release myself from ‘emerging adulthood’ and become an actual, fully emerged adult…
‘Women are More Likely to get Thyroid Disease, Is that Why it’s Overlooked?’ My Experience of Primary Care Mismanagement
Surely above all else, the question should be: what price is too high for women to be able to function at optimum health? Do we not have a right to expect to thrive, to live long healthy lives? Would it not in the long term serve both our National Health Service as well as ourselves to be able to do so?
Did My Peace Lie in Spirituality, Religion or Science? Trying to Cope with the Death of a Friend
Death is an unexpected visitor, and grief is the house guest that just won't leave. Sometimes loss hits you like a train to the gut at 8 am on a sunny Tuesday morning, the recipient and the messenger of the heartbreaking news blubbering on the phone for five minutes in disbelief and pain. My friend was dead. What was I meant to do now?
‘I Thought Recovery was Supposed to be Permanent’: Mental Health Is Not Binary, Fixed or Linear
There’s still a stigma around mental health. I had no idea how much until I became aware of how I was relating to myself. Somewhere along the way, I decided that if I ever struggled or needed anyone again, I had failed. I thought that recovery was meant to be permanent and that I should be self-sufficient, that I didn’t deserve any more help or love than I’d already had…
‘Too Female’ for Autism and ADHD: Misdiagnosis, Mistreatment and Misogyny
Any hopes I had of a diagnosis didn’t last. Two weeks after the final appointment, I was told I wasn’t autistic because I didn’t fit the criteria. According to these ancient and outdated guidelines, my hobbies were ‘too female’, my eye contact was ‘far too good’ and I was ‘coping too well to be on the spectrum’…
‘Grief is Like Being in Pitch Darkness’: Navigating the Sudden Death of My Mum
In the days and weeks that followed, I noticed that a fundamental part of me had left with her. I felt a permanent shift at the core of who I was. Like countries that were once together that are now forever set apart. A seismic shift. If I only exist because of her, how can I exist without her? Everything I knew about death seemed so confusing…
‘Detachment and Healing Cannot Coexist’: Reflecting on Trauma Responses After Assault
Things have happened to my body, but not to me. My body has been hurt, but I have not. My body has suffered, but I have not. Except obviously this is not true. It can’t be. And obviously, it does not help. It’s so incomplete. It attempts to eliminate so much mental pain and yet, in skating over such fundamental and heartbreaking truths, it only exacerbates it…
‘I Need an Adult!’: Why We’re in Our Thirties with Major Imposter Syndrome
The idea of imposter syndrome has been around since the seventies. It is not an official condition but a collection of bad habits, like perfectionism and valuing yourself by your productivity. In these enlightened times, we know that good mental health should be a priority in the workplace. Yet more than ever, women are struggling…
‘Loneliness is the Ebb and Flow of an Unsettled Tide’: PTSD and its Repercussions on Relationships
Symptoms of the disorder include distressing dreams, flashbacks, hypervigilance, negative beliefs about oneself, reckless behaviour, persistent negative emotional state and dissociation, to name a few. See, my loneliness doesn’t relate to anyone in my social circle; that’s the challenging part to understand. It relates to my trauma. I can be surrounded by people that love me and still feel detached and misunderstood by every single one of them…
How OCD Stole My Early Womanhood
The term itself is thrown around with oblivious disregard, used aimlessly to describe a love for excessive cleanliness and organisation. It has rapidly become the laughingstock of psychiatry, fallen victim to mindless stereotyping and trivialisation. But the honest, unfiltered truth about OCD cannot be found in a bottle of antibacterial handwash. It can be found in the messy rooms and the red-raw hands, the mood stabilisers and the late-night hospital admissions…
The Drugs Don’t Work: Antidepressant Stigma and Why Mental Health Headlines Matter
A headline asserting that medication is ineffective without warning readers that they should not immediately stop taking it is irresponsible, given the severity of withdrawal symptoms associated with SSRIs. This sensationalistic sentiment contributes to the stigma surrounding mental health medication and to a reluctance among those who could benefit from additional medical treatment…
Accepting Your Illness: How Understanding Your Eating Disorder Aids Healing
To begin recovering from your illness, you must be able to accept it. This acceptance can manifest in many ways. You can admit that you are sick (whether you believe it yourself or not). You can open up to others, allowing yourself to be comforted and supported. You can speak on how you feel, in the moment and during stressful trigger moments…