Mental Health Awareness 2026 - An Update
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Update 24 March 2026:
Wow! Thank you so much for your comments, sharing struggles, words of encouragement and general loveliness - I appreciate you all and feel very grateful for your encouragement.
I have now emailed everyone who asked for a pin requesting postal addresses - if you have not received an email please check your spam folders. To those who simply commented and didn't ask for a pin but would like one, get in touch - hello@chiswickgiftco.co.uk
I haven't managed to respond to all who have commented because even though your kind words have made my heart sing, my lungs are filled with virus and my stomach is filled with lemon and honey and I ran out of time to respond to everyone individually before giving up on the day to return to bed. But I am genuinely so very gateful. Thank you!
This is not an email collecting exercise - you're not registering by commenting/entering, you're simply commenting - your email address is only attached to your blogpost comment behind the scenes and not added to any list. So if you would like your name to be anonymous, just make up a name... perhaps one you'd have preferred in life 😀
I'd be Maude Mathers (just saying). That's my 'on the run' cover name which I've now blown. Will have to find another now.
So! Mental Health - what a lot of it there is!
Firstly, links to my previous blogs:
Being a Vacuum of Joy (Bi-Polar Disorder)
There are other posts of random facts on the site (oversharing)... if you've read them all, you probably know more about me than most!
I have been working very hard these past few years on living a life that I'd like. Expanding that comfort zone... reporting on social media on the adventures; getting on the London Underground, going on planes, on trains and just generally being mindful of how restricting anxiety can be and beginning to believe that a comfort zone may just be me, my bodily form and it can move around this planet without fear (haha, if only it were so simple but I'm working on it).
I've been situationally using a very strong tranquilliser for the past three or four years and I've found I can do most things I'd like to - reducing the dose has been cathartic and there are now situations in which I've found myself entirely anxiety free which is honestly utterly joyous.
I've had panic attacks during this comfort zone expanding period but I no longer spend months, weeks, days and hours before doing something scary being hyper-focused and anxious about it. And this is the biggest progress I've made. The debilitation of a panic attack is more about everything around it than the actual 30 second pulses of terror. I feel that my life of fear has meant that I have missed out on so much that most take for granted. Anxiety sucks so hard and it's insidious hold is underestimated by anyone who can just get on with life.
If you've never had a panic attack please do not underestimate the atomic bomb kinda power it has - just because the terrifying incident isn't evident to you doesn't mean my mind and body aren't reacting to it.
And through a lifetime of them, the comfort zone shrank.
A few years ago I realised that it was time to try and break free of it.... which is a hell of alot easier to say than do!!
My periodic return to psychiatric cover happened late last year, checking up on everything bi-polariness and to see if there had been any further developments in the treatment of panic disorder... turns out not really.
There have, however, been strides in other aspects of psychiatry in the last year or so and much labelling has been issued. As I've said before, I'm not enormously comfortable with labels but have now collected so many abbreviated 'conditions' that should they be placed after my name on a letterhead I'd look more qualified than a NASA physicist (although I suspect most of them would just be able to add these letters to their own names and still have the academic qualifications).
The big take-out has been sensory processing issues and cPTSD which, I feel explains much. None of these diagnoses have made me feel any better. But EMDR was highly recommended for the cPTSD which I figured would be worth a go.
So in the past couple of months I have worked with an amazing therapist who has been using "Blast Therapy." Which has got to be the worst, most cod [not authentic/fake] sounding treatment ever devised for a therapy. Seriously, you may as well call it something like 'join this expensive cult now' and have done with it. If you are wondering, it is a form of EMDR which is... here's the link to the MIND page about it. They're much more succinct 😁.
Still...
It's been transformative.
Four exhausting snot-filled breathtaking sessions later and I'm ready for more of life. I can only describe it as 'taking the sting out of the tail of a poisonous past.' It's not taken the memories but it has taken the entrenched emotional responses, the coping strategies of a five, seven, 10, 14 year old child that are no longer relevant to the life of a perfectly capable mother of three.
It isn't cheap but I understand that EMDR is available on the NHS so do ask your GP about it.
I'm not 'cured' but I do have a new sense of adventure - a freedom that I've not felt for a very long time, if ever. Watch this space (or, more likely, my socials) for future adventuring... I want a panic free life. But if living a fuller life involves the odd hellish panic attack, then I'm starting to believe it might be a small price to pay. #FuckFear
There, I said it.
And I want to celebrate this new found freedom! And I want other sufferers to take some comfort from knowing there's a way out. Even after decades of avoidance. This is a perfect example of 'if I can do it... so can you!'
So I thought sending some pins out to folk who might just need it to remind them it's possible to walk to the postbox alone, to get on a bus, to walk into a room of people, to do any one of a million things that panic disorder has robbed from them might be a good start.
Depending on how many responses I get, I'll cap at 10 - I have no idea if anyone will ever read this! And if you'd like a pin anyway, just use code Brave for £3 off - you can purchase as many as you like and the code will work for them all.
Link to the pin is here
Would you like me to send you this pin? For you or for someone else? What would expanding your comfort zone look like? It takes tiny steps...
Sitting in the car in some traffic the other day I remembered that only five years ago I'd have been having a panic attack as I wasn't able to do a U-Turn and get away. I just smiled and turned the radio on.
What would you like to do as the first step? The Second Step? The complete freedom step? Confide as little or as much as you'd like in the comment below.
Sarah 🖤
44 comments
When I got to the passage in your blog where you mentioned postbox, I was suddenly transported back to an incident a few years ago.
I’d just been diagnosed – on my birthday – with a rather severe case of pneumonia. I was told not to go to work for three weeks, and that I wasn’t to leave the house for at least two weeks. Living alone, I spent what felt more like a month staring at four walls and probably talking to myself (I may even have lost the odd argument). As someone who enjoys the outdoors, it was challenging.
A few days after solitary confinement ended, I had a birthday card to post. There’s a postbox only five minutes’ walk from my front door. To get to it I had to cross a busy road, where I got the biggest shock of my life. There were cars, vans, buses and trucks roaring along in both directions. There were cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians aplenty. I was petrified! I had been confined to four walls and my own company for only two weeks, and yet my comfort zone had shrunk to the size of a modest two-bed semi. Muttering to myself about ‘manning-up,’ I made it to the postbox, but couldn’t wait to get back indoors.
If this could happen to someone who, mostly, doesn’t suffer anxiety any more than the ‘average’ person, just how difficult must it be for folks who have been hospitalised or institutionalised for weeks, months or longer? I realise how lucky I am that this was just one incident, and I don’t have to deal with anxiety or panic attacks on a regular basis (I’ve had a few, but that’s another story). Strange as it may seem, I am grateful for this incident, because it means I have the tiniest insight, and can at least begin to understand when someone talks to me about their anxiety and experience with panic attacks.
As for one’s comfort zone, you’re right: small steps. And don’t forget to celebrate even the smallest of victories.
Talking about our mental health is so important, but so hard. I’ve had depression and anxiety disorder for years. I used to get panic attacks too, really fun on the tube during rush hour (not). It stopped me from doing things all the time, I couldn’t face going out and trying to enjoy myself, because I was worrying all the time. Thankfully medication and some helpful CBT therapy has made all the difference. My advice for anyone thinking about therapy of any sort – know that you can ask for a different therapist if you don’t feel the one you’re assigned is a good fit. They won’t be offended. I wish I’d known that the first time round, which was a disaster.
I would love a pin if possible, I do need to remind myself sometimes that I can stay where my brain is ok, I don’t need to rush into things that make me panic or even just that horrible low level, never quite gone, anxiety that suddenly explodes into shaking and crying. I can take it slow and expand my comfort zone in my own time. I’m glad you found the right help for you, I love your badges (I have several), they make me laugh.
I love reading your blogs. I love that you are encouraging others to live a wonderful life. It’s so incredibly brave of you. I have suffered anxiety in my life, had a breakdown and am the daughter of a mother who was bi-polar. She was given barbaric shock treatment and you can only imagine the effect on her and her young daughter. I was lucky enough to have an amazing Step dad (my birth father being an utter selfish shit). I’m fine now, social and having a ball in my retirement (even if I pull apart every conversation I’ve had that day. That’s normal right?)
Anyhoo, my oldest step daughter has battled crippling anxiety over the years, not wanting to leave her home, not feeling worthy, despite being a person totally in love with being with people. She now spends so much time ferrying her daughter to football, rugby etc with the support of her Mum and oldest daughter that she is living the life she should. There are hiccups but I am so proud of her. I don’t want to take one of your pins – there are others who need it more. Just wanted you to know how inspirational you are xxx
It really helps to read what you have to say. I support a little boy with severe anxiety (to the point where he becomes situationally mute). One of these badges might help adults to be a bit more patient when we are out and about in the world.
I love reading your blogs and posts on Facebook, and it’s actually inspirational (sounds so silly but it is 🤷🏻♀️) to me -how you put yourself in those positions. I’d love to be able to do that. I’m working on getting more confidence to do more things. Hopefully, I’ve managed to persuade my husband to buy a motorised attachment that will go onto my wheelchair. They are crazy money so its taken years 🤣Hopefully I’ll be able to do far more things now. I want to get on a train (that’s my ultimate goal – I used to commute daily to London but haven’t been for 13 years now. However, baby steps!)
We’ll see if I actually do more or not, or whether I chicken out. The expense might make me 🤣🤣Anyway, fingers crossed. There’s lots of things I’d like to be able to do now, so I would certainly be expanding my comfort zone. Please put my name ‘in the hat’ for a pin x