My personal experience of living with social and generalised anxiety disorders, seasonal affective disorder, depression, fibromyalgia, joint hypermobility and undiagnosed complex PTSD, and my experience with counselling, therapies and self-help. Challenging the stigma and discrimination around mental illness through sharing of my lived experience. Proud to endorse the Mental Health Media Charter – further info here https://www.natashadevon.com/the-mental-health-media-charter
Roll back to December 20th 2018. I was not in a good way. I've said before that Christmas time is usually not the best time of year for me with my seasonal affective disorder and all but it wasn't just that. My proverbial stress bucket had well and truly overflowed. So many stresses going in … Continue reading Not well, one year on.
No one ever died from talking about mental health, but too many have from feeling like they couldn't talk.
Well it's Thursday 10th October 2019. Another normal day you think. In fact it's a very important day - today is World Mental Health Day. A day to be aware of our own and others mental health. A day to show that mental health and mental illness are in fact different. Mental health is something … Continue reading World Mental Health Day 2019 – Me
As a bit of a follow on from my last post, and the part about my past, the last year has been, at least mental health wise, rather up and down. Anxiety isn't predictable as such, I can't tell if next Wednesday for example I'm going to have 'a bad anxiety day' far in advance … Continue reading History
So it's "Mental Health Awareness week" 2019 . I've been quiet for a while for various reasons,including a distinct lack of motivation and inspiration to post or write a post. I mentioned previously that I'd started some counselling. The first lot of counselling I paid for, and although it wasn't CBT , it was really … Continue reading Mental Health Awareness 2019
Been a while but I'm back again. Had an almost 'lightbulb' moment not long ago when I came across a Facebook post about something called "gaslighting". I don't know what made me read it but I had a sudden moment of realisation. Reading it, I realised this was likely what happened to me. That's kind … Continue reading Bulb 💡
Ok so this is probably not what you would class as a normal blog post from me but I wanted to do something a little different this time, sort of like a letter (hence the title) to you, the person reading this, that I might have unknowingly upset or offended, that I didn't mean to … Continue reading A letter to you…..
Burnout. Something that to be honest, isn't that well understood unless you or someone close has been like that. Personally, I didn't realise how badly I was burned out until I'd had to be signed off work. I was having distinct changes in mood, happy, sad, upset for no reason. I couldn't remember things I'd … Continue reading Mood.
I'm starting to write this on a transpennine express train from Liverpool to York. Technically I'm still supposed to be in Budapest. From my last post you could probably tell that all was not really ok. In fact it did reach the point where the anxiety became so overwhelming that I felt I had to … Continue reading Coming home.
Isn't it nice to go on holiday with someone? Well it is if that someone isn't your own thoughts. I'm currently on holiday flying solo in Budapest and good old anxiety is squeezing it's hand on my shoulder. It's worse because I'm alone in another country that I don't know, a language that I don't … Continue reading On holiday with anxiety.
Anxiety and Me 