I have felt anxious, lonely and depressed for many years. Never having yet fully recovered or gained the support I need. I have been through many counsellors, medications and GP’s. Highs and lows, new starts, rock bottoms. It’s easy to feel nothing has worked and it’s all hopeless I am the way I am and life will just always be harder for me than others. But I have learnt something that after nearly 20 years has only just become clear to me.

I can change my life, I can overcome all my anxieties. I just haven’t had the consistent, ongoing support I need to do so yet.

What happens when you don’t get this? You go around and around in cycles like I have until your whole life is affected in some way. A social anxiety can spread to other areas of your life, unnoticed and avoided but then suddenly eating is a problem, or certain sounds cause anxiety and then you avoid certain places and activities. You limit your world and have no idea how to get yourself out of it all.

I want to share my experiences and ideas in the hope of helping others. I would like to one day realise the dream of everybody being able to access support they need when they need it. To stop the cycles of anxiety and depression I have experienced. To stop anyone else from 20 years of suffering before they even realise anxiety is not a personality trait or a lifelong companion it’s just a thought or feeling that can be overcome and kept away. Life can be enjoyed, I promise it can. I am not there yet but I am realising I have had the wrong perception of it all in my head. No matter how deep I am within it I can change it. I am certain I am not alone and if by baring my soul like this I help one other person feel better then this will have been worth it.