A few days ago, I returned to Bristol to find that my medal for RED January 2019 had arrived. For those of you who have never heard of RED January, it is a month-long fundraising event where the participant does some kind of physical activity every day throughout January. People sponsor you for this, helping … More How fundraising for Mind helped my mental health
As if struggling with one mental illness isn’t enough, it is common for individuals to be struggling with several disorders at once. Alongside my OCD, I struggle with a little known disorder known as Dermatillomania. Dermatillomania is a skin picking disorder, where the sufferer repeatedly picks at their skin, often leaving visible marks and scars. … More Co-morbidity in OCD: Dermatillomania
I recently became aware of a really useful podcast for OCD sufferers published by the Mental Health Foundation, and I definitely recommend giving it a listen (the link can be found at the bottom of this post). At 18.33 minutes long, it can be listened to on the daily commute, on your lunch break or … More A Useful Podcast for OCD sufferers
Doing a PhD is a highly stimulating and intellectually challenging experience, one which I feel an immense amount of privilege to be doing. But doing such a research intensive degree can be incredibly isolating. It is so easy to become so focused on your research that you lose sight of the fact that there’s a … More Managing PhD isolation
Working at a corporate event was the last place I expected to find out about mental health support services in Bristol. However, the chosen charity of the attendees was ‘Off the Record’, which supports 11-25 year olds with mental health problems. It also campaigns to raise awareness about mental health rights and to reduce the … More ‘Off the Record’: An unsung hero
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a highly varied and personal disorder, which affects different people in very different ways. For me, it is also something that I have found to have evolved and changed over time. The excessive hand-washing of my teenage self has given way to struggles with more study based activities like reading books … More How OCD affects my PhD
Like many others struggling with OCD, I take medication to manage the disorder. I am on Sertraline, also known as a ‘Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor’. This means that if I suddenly stop taking the medication, I will get something called Serotonin withdrawal which by all accounts can be pretty nasty. That is why, when coming … More What to do when you forget to pack your medication
Doing a PhD is exciting, challenging and engaging. It is a unique opportunity to conduct in depth research on an area that you find absolutely fascinating, and (hopefully) at the end of the research you will have a new perspective to contribute to your discipline. But the intensive nature of a PhD means that it … More The importance of mental health days
When I did my first aid training a few years ago, there was disappointingly little focus given to mental health first aid. Brief mention was given of panic attacks, before the focus was moved swiftly back to injuries in the workplace. Whilst doing the training, I became aware that St John Ambulance offered a separate … More Mental Health First Aid
On International Women’s Day, I came across a list of recommended feminist literature on The Tab website. Included on this list was The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath. As a book that addresses both the difficulties of being female and struggling with mental health problems in the 1950s, I decided to give it a read. … More Reading The Bell Jar
OCD, the PhD and Me 