Abigail's Anxieties

Don't worry, I'm still here! Don't worry everyone, I'm still here, I'm still alive, it's just the case that the last year of my life has been rather action-packed and some things, unfortunately, had to go on the back-burner- including Abigail's Anxieties.    In the past year, I've been finishing my BSc (Hons) Food Development and Innovation degree, helping my family care for a member of the family who's had major surgery, dealing with my fibromyalgia that has been getting worse, dealing with many costochondritis flare-ups. Oh, and dealing with the multitude of changes that have come with this global pandemic while being an "at-risk" person living with another at-risk person. So you know...not much. In all seriousness, my family is starting to get into the swing of things with our "new normal" and having some adaptions in the house now that make life easier. In terms of my fibromyalgia, well it's affected my mobility with extre...

I'm on medication for my mental health, should I tell people? Now the answer to this question is obviously going to be different for each person. Some will say "I have nothing to hide, I'm happy for people to know" while others may say "I don't want to be judged for it, I'd rather not have people know", And honestly, when I first went onto my mental health medication, my answer to this question was a mix of both these answers.  It almost ended up sounding more like this: "I don't want to hide the fact that I'm on medication, but I am quite young so am I going to be judged for it? Is there even a good age to go on medication for mental health? But I don't feel like this is something I can keep to myself so I need to decide who to tell. How many people do I want to know?" and so on and so on... Many of you may be going through the same thing right now, some may just be interested in what can go through the process...

Dear body, why are you working against me? Do you ever feel like something or someone is working against you? Like it/they don't want you to do well or succeed in life? And that it/they will do anything to get in your way? Well, I feel like that right now. And this thing that's getting in my way? My own body. It started when I was diagnosed as asthmatic  which affects me a lot with physical exercise e.g. walking around and extream weather such as very hot and very cold affect my breathing so I have to use my inhaler but I've had it for so long I'm used to it. Then October 2017 happened and I developed costochondritis which I still have to this day. Most cases sort themselves out in less than a year or at least improved. My case has gotten worse over the past near year and my day-to-day life is affected. I have to take multiple breaks during the day just to give my body a chance to recover. I have to use so much more energy just to get through the pa...

My "emergency" kit I have to get me through life So a large part of my anxiety is being surprised by unpleasant situations and that if something goes wrong there is nothing I can do about it.  And when I say emergency I'm not talking about "oh my, someone needs first aid for a broken bone" emergency (however I am looking into doing a first aid course, you know, just in case) but more of a "oh my, my period started unexpectedly" which unfortunately happens far too often for me (ladies, I know some of you can understand me) or "I suddenly have a headache and need some painkillers to get through the rest of the day" which tend to pop up in my life more often then I would like. After being surprised and made anxious one too many times, I decided that enough was enough and that I needed to always have items with me to make sure that no incontinent situation would ever get the best of me again!  With that in mind, I made a list of ...

Coping with exams when you have mental health problems. So I've just completed my first year at university, YAY!!! (insert applause here) and as part of finishing my first year I had to do one of my worst nightmares: sit an exam, dun dun dunnnn!!! Now I have never, ever, EVER liked exams and I want to say to those who do enjoy exams, please teach me your ways. Anyway, while others who don't like exams may just feel a little nervous and unprepared when going in, when you have mental health problems the situation can be very different. In my own personal experience, I can have studied as much as humanly possible, practised as many questions I could get my hands on and watched as many educational youtube videos that I could stay awake for but in the end, my anxiety will provide that nasty little voice in my head telling me that I know nothing and that I've already failed the exam so what is the point of even sitting it. Then my depression decides to join the p...