To work through trauma, you have to revisit the trauma. That brings up old memories and body sensations from when you were in that traumatic moment. As a result, I have been looking at ways to look after myself in all aspects of my life.

I’m making many changes this year in many different areas, at least for this first part of it, and I will see if anything else changes later in the year post-therapy.

I'm getting better at noticing when I’m hiding myself away and I have a few friends that check on me if they’ve not heard from me for a little bit. I think that it’s because my anxiety is rising and I’m feeling so overwhelmed by it that I can't deal with normal day-to-day things. So instead of dealing with and facing it, I avoid it. Which isn’t healthy and it certainly isn’t helpful.

One of the main tools in my mental health toolbox that I've used for over thirteen years now, is to take it day by day. One day everything is amazing and then another day nothing is good, so it makes life easier to handle if we break it down into smaller chunks of time. In the last few weeks during this third lockdown, I've begun focusing on the day and week I'm in. Anything more than that and I'm far too overwhelmed.