What happened when I, someone with an eating disorder, downloaded popular fasting apps.

I had sort of been aware of the fasting apps being advertised on Facebook and Instagram, I suppose. I was aware that they were there, but it hadn’t really twigged because my pages always seem full of advertisements for diets (I guess that this is because I am a twenty-eight year old female who spends […]

Is it time to change the focus of mental health awareness week?

I remember going into the Group Room when I was inpatient and reading some notes from a staff training day which had been left out by accident. On a list of ‘hard things about this job’, someone had written ‘some people will never get better’. It’s true. Some people will never recover from a mental […]

The Power of Listening

It’s Time to Talk day (or, rather, it’s not, but I shared this on my Facebook yesterday and I write precious little at the moment, so every word needs saving). There’s no point in talking unless someone is there to listen. I’ve talked and talked and talked about mental health – and specifically the bullying […]

Triggered

Before I start, I want to say that – if you are living with PTSD – this is not about you. I think you’re brave and strong for coping with such a horrendous illness day in, day out and you deserve all the warnings you need to get through life. Trigger warnings, for the uninitiated, […]

Eating Disorders’ Bragging Week

I am bored. I am bored of Eating Disorders Awareness Week and how it’s just turned into ‘show off your dramatic story with pictures’ week. That’s not the point. The point is to educate people about eating disorders. The point is to educate people so that they can spot them in themselves or others at […]

Reasons Why I Hate the Daily Mail (probably Part I)

I have ‘iffed’ and ‘butted’ about writing this, but it makes me so angry. And what do you do when you’re angry in the twenty-first century? Why, you write a blog post of course. I was scrolling through the Daily Mail because I have a dangerous addiction to reading absolute rubbish when I came across […]

HAVE YOU GOT OCD? TAKE THE TEST NOW!

Can’t wait to tell all your friends that you’ve got an obscure yet trendy mental health problem? Been feeling a bit uncomfortable when you notice your sausage is not central on your plate? Want to find out if you’ve got OCD? Find out here!

My Lowest Weight in kg and stone

Sharing my lowest weight is something I have been thinking about for quite some time. This is the stigma surrounding mental health. Sometimes someone writes something in a newspaper; says something in an interview or posts something on Facebook which isn’t true. As much as it saddens and angers me, I am sure that there […]

14 Things Only Girls With Anxiety Will Understand

Dear Cosmopolitan, I’ve just seen your post, from May 2016 (sorry I’m late), titled ’14 Things Only Girls With Anxiety Will Understand’. First of all, congratulations on your choice of cute, pastel coloured medication as illustration. It completely and entirely sums up what being on medication for anxiety is all about. As someone who is […]

I AM THE SICKEST

Raising awareness is a double-edged sword. I do it because I lived with flesh-scraping anxiety for too long before I realised it were an actual, diagnosable illness, and much longer than that before anyone gave me any help. On the other hand, I am highly aware that, the more I post about living with, through […]