Grief is not an emotion or a process, it’s a journey

Trigger warning: Grief, loss, bereavement Over the past couple of years, amongst a vast number of amazing things that have happened to me, I have also had to contend with three tragic losses: two friends I have known for most of my life, and more recently, my Grandad. Whilst I am not, and do not …

The importance of trigger warnings

Trigger Warning: Suicide I recently went to watch a musical with my girlfriend. We had booked the tickets well in advance and were very much looking forward to the production. Usually, I have a vague idea of the plot ahead of the viewing, but this time I went in cold (metaphorically and literally… it was …

How men perceive their body image

Back in August, I wrote a blog about my struggles with a mental illness called Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). According to the NHS, ‘BDD or body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time worrying about flaws in their appearance. These flaws are often unnoticeable to others.’ Since then, …

Check-in time: Now

Throughout lockdown, I’m making an effort to check in on someone every day, usually people I haven’t spoken to in a while. Why? Because now, more than ever, we need to be looking after each other. There is no denying that the first lockdown negatively impacted the nation’s mental health. However, there are some key …

One month offline

Two or three years ago, one of my best mates, Fin (aka @runwithfin), told me that he was going to get rid of his social media. I always knew he was a maverick, but at the time, this seemed crazy to me. Like the majority of my generation, this was largely because I had an …

Break-ups

Break-ups are shit, there’s no other way to describe them. They’re even shitter when you don’t see them coming. Someone close to me recently went through a break-up and it just reinforced this fact. I’ve often wondered why we can’t just be like seahorses and mate for life? I guess some people are like seahorses …

‘What would you like to be when you grow up?’

Remember when you were younger, and your teacher would ask, ‘what would you like to be when you grow up?’ Everyone in your class would blurt out something like, ‘astronaut’, ‘singer’, ‘doctor’. Eventually, it would be your turn and although you had absolutely no idea what you wanted to be (just like the rest of …

‘Nothing in nature blooms all year. Be patient with yourself.’

Having been a frequent partaker in PE with Joe Wicks and having listened to his amazing Desert Island Discs (I would highly recommend), I was thrilled when I found out he was starting a podcast. I was even more excited when I discovered that one of the major themes running through his podcasts was mental …

My experience with Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Following some of the social media posts I have uploaded over the past year, a small number of you may be aware that I previously suffered from a mental health condition called Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). In layman’s terms, this is a form of anxiety whereby someone spends a lot of their time concerned about, …

A black square is not enough: #blackouttuesday and slacktivism

I am in no doubt that my friends and peers taking part in the #blackouttuesday campaign, by posting a picture of a black square on their social media accounts, are doing so with good intentions. I would also like to start by saying that it’s great to see social media being used in such a …