Let me be honest: I hate exercise. Ever since being the tallest girl in school - and the only one with boobs - exercise has been a scene of self-conscious embarassment that I wanted no part of. And I've never really found a way to move past that. The self-righteous cries of all those lucky... Continue Reading →
Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week: Why parents will be shouting on 5th of May
Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week This week is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, an annual campaign dedicated to talking about mental health problems during and after pregnancy. It’s all about raising public and professional awareness of perinatal mental health problems, advocating for women affected by it, changing attitudes and helping families access the information, care... Continue Reading →
How to teach self-kindness to children
It’s that dreaded time of year when the media is full of ‘new year, new you’ messaging, your social media is awash with Dry January and Veganuary and you can’t escape the ‘what are your resolutions?’ questioning. I can feel myself, totally subconsciously, dialing up the self-hatred to a hundred. It’s what these messages are... Continue Reading →
Sertraline and me
Despite struggling with mental ill health, to greater and lesser degrees for the majority of my life, I've chosen for the most part to stay unmedicated (apart from a relatively short and very badly managed period of Citalopram a good few years ago now). I'd made that decision for so many different reasons - that... Continue Reading →
Guest Post – Dermatillomania and me: the disorder I never knew I had
Mental illness is a complex beast, and anxiety is regularly joined by other disorders. But because anxiety is more widely known (although not necessarily better understood), sufferers often roll all of their issues into the snowball of anxiety, and don't receive proper diagnosis and treatment of other disorders. I've already touched on my own experience... Continue Reading →
The best products to help children’s mental health during lockdown
* Disclaimer: I was gifted products for review, but all opinions are my own. I had a number of submissions for this piece and I handpicked the best and most suitable products to genuinely help children's mental health. All products have been trialled by my own family. Week 10 of lockdown: whilst some businesses are... Continue Reading →
My 7 Days of Self-Kindness Challenge
18-24th May marks Mental Health Awareness Week; 7 days of open conversations around how to support and promote the nations mental health. This year’s theme is kindness and, whilst it’s obviously vital to show kindness to others, as my fave Ru Paul says, “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love... Continue Reading →
COVID-19 and children’s mental health
A new YouGov survey for international children’s charity World Vision shines a light on how the nations children are already struggling I’ve been trying to avoid too much discussion around the dreaded C word here on My Anxious Life, but unfortunately it’s time to face facts – Covid19 isn’t going anywhere soon and, even when... Continue Reading →
PTSD and Aphantasia – coming to terms with my own experience of post traumatic stress disorder
Last week, I went to the doctors to talk about my mental health, and a couple of things came from it that I wanted to talk about. They’re not necessarily easy reading but I started My Anxious Life to encourage and normalise tough conversations and I don’t intend to stop now! First – my doctor... Continue Reading →
Happy birthday to My Anxious Life – a reflection on my first year of blogging
As strange as it seems saying it, it’s my first birthday – 1 year of My Anxious Life. A year since personal trauma saw me resolving to make some major changes. And what a year it’s been. It’s been exhilarating, frustrating, time-consuming, exciting; it’s seen me meet new people and do things I’d never even... Continue Reading →