Freelance Journalist
At about 4pm last Friday, after picking my boys up from school, I crept upstairs and sat by an open window listening to the birds as they wound down for the day. Their song became more intermittent as the light faded, and I cried hard. The first time I’ve cried in months. Long Covid is a term we’re all familiar with now. We know that …
For some reason, I never expected to feel like a fraud when it came to freelancing. I felt like an imposter many times in my previous career as a Higher Education employee, whilst constantly dreaming about setting up my own business. I had so many ideas of things I could do and what I could be, including a personal trainer, a social media manager, and …
As soon as it was announced on Saturday that the UK will be entering another national lockdown on 5 November, all I could think about was beaches, woodland, rolling hills and a strong breeze. I imagined waves lapping at pebbled shores as I greedily gulped sea air; a hundred shades of green enveloping me as I walked lazily through a dense forest. During the first …
I think I’m an app addict. I don’t want to waste time using Google to find the website I need – whether that be to purchase something, read an article or find out information; I want an app to give me what I need directly, right now. Am I alone in being addicted to phone apps? I did a little survey amongst family and friends …
In my sporadic attempts to unearth the root/s of my frequently depressive state I’ve often been asked why I think I might be depressed and what it feels like. This is something I always struggle with because, when I say it out loud (that is, when I’m actually capable of articulating it), it sounds as conceited as it does disingenuous. People always say that depression …
I decided to pursue self-employment after working for ten years with the same organisation. In that ten years, my anxiety and confidence levels fluctuated, but I don’t recall a time when I didn’t feel scared to talk to people at work. My life has been blighted by social anxiety for over two decades, and it saddens me to look back at all the opportunities …
I hadn’t heard of febrile seizures until my seven year old son Dylan had his first one at the age of two, but I certainly know enough about them now. I know the fear of witnessing his little body shaking so violently it looked like he could break apart, and of thinking that my son was going to die in front of my eyes. The …
Have you heard the term ‘doomscrolling?’ It’s the newest catchy phrase doing the rounds online and I can’t think of a word which so aptly sums up the habit it’s describing. Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is “the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing.” It seems that we’ve all been doing a lot more …
Family: the people you love more than anyone and the ones who can hurt you the most. Family dynamics are complicated, and often become more so as we grow older. As children we never stop to question whether we actually like our family. Our parents and siblings are just there and that’s all there is to it. We might argue with them frequently as we …
Recently an incident occurred in which my anger got the better of me and I felt ashamed of myself. This isn’t something I thought I’d be saying at the age of 35, but it’s got me thinking about female anger and how it differs from male anger. The incident It was our first outing to a big shop as a family (that’s my husband Mark …