ABOUT

If you clicked on this thinking it would be a whimsical read and insight into the life of someone famous going through a rough patch and squandering their millions on flowers and Ferrari’s, I suggest you look for another blog by someone who people, other than their husband and children have heard of. No, sorry to disappoint I’m just Jo average married with 2 children and living in an ex-council semi-detached house in a quiet village approximately 30 miles outside of London.  I grew up about 5 miles from where I now reside. I went to a Catholic primary school and Catholic secondary school. I went on holidays to Spain with my family. My dad was a builder and my mum worked in a Creche. I used to go to a club in Watford (when I could get in), called Destiny, or if I was staying more local Winkers, with a carpet that tried to suck your shoes off as you walked over it due to the unholy sticky filth on it. Nothing glamorous. I am 5 foot 5'' and a half with brown hair and blue/green eyes.  I am no expert in what I write about other than being an expert on myself (though this may be questioned now I’m going through therapy) and what I experienced. I am no Psychologist though at times I wished I had studied this.  I am the mum you see in the playground and we hurry past each other and say ‘hello’. I’m the therapist you see when you have a bad knee. I’m the lady (apparently, I question this term on a regular basis though, there’s nothing delicate about me) in the shops trying not to let her 3year old drag his hand across the chocolate shelf as we pass and then trying not to look embarrassed as he dissolves into tears as I refuse to let him fill his ever-hungry mouth with chocolate. So, there you go, there’s no famous faces to mention in here, no academia to underpin my thoughts (other than listening to Podcasts, reading). Really this is just my little collection of experiences and thoughts on a time that changed the world for pretty much everyone on the planet, except maybe those living in Dudas? It changed the big wide world and the little world in Hertfordshire which I inhabit, and on an even smaller scale the world inside my head. If you are looking for a blog that offers a magic recipe for ‘fixing’ your anxiety or other mental health concerns, again please move on. In my opinion there is no such thing. There is an abundance of collective works that can inspire you and help you to change your focus or challenge you to change habits but there is no magic book, no recipe, no exercise or key supplement that on its own will fix mental health (and I bought quite a few books and spent a shed load of money on supplements).  This blog is not about me normalising my behaviour and the patterns I adopted throughout this year, don’t shoot me down, hear me out, if you still disagree, top right for x on bar and click on something else. I don’t want to normalise my non-optimal behaviour when going through my anxious periods because they are most definitely not normal for me. They are restrictive, they are energy zapping and soul crushing as they remove me from enjoying the ‘normality’ that is simply getting up and having breakfast with my kids. There were few things more upsetting in this period than hearing my kids laughing with their father (thank god for him) whilst I was upstairs cleaning the toilet and floor because of ‘germs’, stuff that could have waited pre-COVID-19 now had to be dealt with straight away and robbed me of precious time and moments with my family. So, no I am not writing this to normalise my anxiety driven behaviour, and nor do I apologise as this is my opinion and my perspective on my experiences. What the idea behind this blog is is simpler. It is to normalise talking about mental health issues like anxiety, OCD, (fill in the blank with your own issue if need be) and the behaviours associated with it. It’s about normalising a conversation when asking someone ‘How are you?’ and really meaning, 'how are you?' and they reply ‘Actually I’m struggling at the moment.’ It’s about normalising people’s experience and opening up conversations about it so that people know they are not alone. So that they don’t have to suffer on their own. It's about seeing that outstrecthed hand and offering one back to help.