How to Cope During Lockdown

As I’m writing this, we’re currently on Day 1 of lockdown in the UK. (That’s definitely not a sentence that I ever expected to type in my lifetime!)

While I fully support the lockdown, a lot of people are concerned about the mental impact that staying isolated at home is going to have. And I completely understand.

In fact, I’ve been here before.

After my back operation, I spent a week alone in hospital, followed by a further six weeks stuck at home. Over the next nine months I barely left the house, and I only saw my friends six times in total. It was the loneliest experience of my life – and I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t take a huge toll on my mental health.

But there are bright sides this time around. I’m able to do a lot more, so there’s lots of ways that I can keep busy and entertain myself that I just couldn’t do back then. And this time, I’m not doing it alone. None of us are doing this alone.

My heart truly does hurt for anybody mentally struggling right now, but I just want to promise you that you can get through this, and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. (I’m proof of that!)

But, while we’re stuck in the tunnel, I wanted to share a few tips on how we can all get through this together:

Sex Education's Aimee Represents All of Us

Like anybody with good taste in Netflix shows, I spent this month counting down to the release of Sex Education Season 2, and proceeded to binge-watch the entire thing in one day once it dropped. It was funny, it was joyful, it was relatable, and it was heart-warming – but (spoiler warning) there’s one storyline that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind since.

Witnessing or Experiencing Sexual Assault: What You Can Do

In Season 2 of Sex Education, we see Aimee Gibbs trying to recover from the trauma of a sexual assault that she experienced on the bus to school one morning. It’s an issue that’s all too common, and yet it’s not spoken about nearly enough. So, to tie in with my blog post bout Aimee’s story, this post will cover what you can do if you are a victim or witness of either sexual harassment, or sexual assault.

What Recovery Means to Me

Last month, I wrote a series of blog posts covering some of my experiences with mental illness. They mostly focussed on my experience as a teenager, because that’s when my mental health was at its worst. But that’s not to say that I don’t still struggle.

The struggle is different now, though. Now, I’m trying to fight my mental illnesses, whereas before, I was defeated by them. And while I know that I’ll never completely beat them, there are still little victories, small wins, and that's enough. We're able to co-exist.

A friend of mine who recently blogged about her OCD mentioned how “recovery is a journey, not a destination”. And she’s so right. 

It’s not necessarily about needing a cure; it’s about having the tools you need to be able to cope. It’s about having your illness be a part of you, like your hair or your eye colour – not something that completely defines you. It’s about accepting that there are bad days and bad moments, but recognising that they’re going to pass. 

I have anxiety, but now I see that I’m more than that. It’s a part of my life, but my world is so much more than that.

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My Visit to the Denbigh Asylum

I write a lot about my life on this little blog... the good, the bad and the ugly. But something I’ve never written about is the scary. So, for Halloween, I thought I’d post something a bit different. I’m going to tell you about the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me. 

Whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you. The dialogue might not always be 100% accurate, and little details here and there might be jumbled… but all of these events actually happened. Not too long ago, in fact.

Wedding OOTD

Your early 20s are weird, aren’t they? Some of your friends are settling down and starting families while some can’t even keep a houseplant alive, let alone a relationship or a baby. I admit that I fall into the latter category – but last weekend, I had the pleasure of watching one of my infinitely-more-responsible high school besties getting married, and I may or may not have shed a tear or two. (Or maybe even a few hundred.)

Dress - £31.50 • Jacket - £17.99 • Shoes - sold out • Clutch - sold out • Fascinator - sold out

When You Can't Just Put on a Happy Face

Like pretty much everybody else on planet Earth (a rough estimate), I recently went to see Joker in the cinema, and came away with a million different thoughts and feelings. The film focuses almost entirely on the Joker’s battle with mental illness and, as someone who has also struggled with their mental health, it hit me like a punch to the gut. One of the lines that resonated with me most was something that the Joker wrote in his journal: “The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.”

Fall Seven Times, Stand Up Eight

   
The cliché is true. When you’re depressed, all you can see is darkness. My first ever counsellor described this as the “Depression Veil”. The Depression Veil blocks out the sun, and stops you from seeing that all-important "light at the end of the tunnel". 

Slowly but surely though, in 2012, I started to peel the veil back from my face.

First, there was just a little bit of light – but you'd be amazed by what a difference a little bit can make. Just to see the light – to finally know that it was there… it gave me something to live for.