We all know how crazy 2020 was and for someone like me who was already in a mental health dip, it was a very gruelling year. I know many people were in the same boat as me over the last twelve months, and now we have an enormous amount of boats surrounding us. There's almost too many to count.

So, I thought it might be useful if I shared some of the things that have helped me over the last twelve months as I've worked on my anxiety, depression and PTSD.

I was inspired to write this post after something one of my church pastor's text me this week; "We can all start to feel alone, but we are all still together even when apart, zoom really helps with this ;)" It resonated so much with me and shook me out of my feelings of woe is me that I was getting stuck in that day.

I posted about my sleep routine here back in August 2019. That post was published the month before I asked my doctor to put me back on antidepressants because I wasn't coping well on my own while I was waiting for some more therapy. A lot has obviously happened between then and now.

It's been a few weeks since I've been back at work and out onto the world after the second UK lockdown. My anxiety ramped up the few days leading up coming out of it with a couple of bad nights sleep, increased heart rate and feeling like I couldn't catch my breath. It helped me to know why I was more anxious after the four weeks off work and the prospect of being back out in the world.

It's been a while again since I posted on my blog. If you've read any of my recent posts or follow me over on Instagram here you will be aware that I've been struggling with my mental health again for the last year and that I'm also currently undergoing CBT sessions with a therapist.

We all know what virus I mean ... I was trying to not write about it as it's all we see on the news, whatever social media we use and via countless texts and emails from whatever businesses have our details. The week before the UK lockdown (from Monday, March 23rd) I was off taking some holiday days so by the time of this being posted I would have been off work for about two and a half weeks.

I wasn't sure if I would have a blog post for this weekend as I was struggling to decide what to write about. There are a couple of ideas that have been floating around my head this week, but they've not formed into a full blog post ideas as of yet. Here in the UK this weekend, our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is possibly going to announce the start of lifting some of the lockdown restrictions from Monday.

I've mentioned in a few of my last posts about some of the things that I've done and am doing to help me while the UK is in lockdown. I don't think I've mentioned them all in one place however so I'm doing that now in case some of them may help you or give you some ideas of things to help yourself until we are able to start to emerge back out into the world again, however that world may look.

It’s been a crazy last few months and I’ve really been struggling. I suffer from seasonal depression and because my moods were already low from my depression, anxiety and PTSD flashbacks, I’ve been finding it a real battle to be motivated to do anything the past few months.