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I remember vividly the first time I was called fat. I remember the name of the person who said it, where it was and what I was wearing....

I was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease in 2015. Ulcerative colitis, to be precise, which is a form of IBD that causes severe inflammation in your colon and sometimes, rectum. When I was nineteen, my bowel perforated. I had been going to the doctors for a year before this happened; concerned that something was truly wrong. I had been losing an excessive amount of weight, had experienced horrendous stomach cramps, and eventually, chronic constipation, and rectal bleedi

All my teeth are going to fall out. All my teeth are going to fall out. All. My. Teeth. Are. Going. To. Fall. Out. For approximately...

When I got pregnant, my whole life turned around. I was feeling as healthy as I’d ever been, despite a diagnosis of gestational diabetes halfway through my pregnancy. Mentally, I was feeling on top of the world — not euphoric or manic, but mentally healthy. I had suffered from mental illness since my teens, and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I reached adulthood. It was for this reason that I was put under the perinatal mental health team, because I was told I w

The beneficial effects of exercise on both mind and body have been public knowledge for years. Some of these benefits can be seen in...

Six months after graduating from University and starting my career at BMW UK, my world was torn apart when I found out a close friend...

How A Humble TV Theme Saved My Life Trigger warning: The following blog contains mention of suicidal thoughts and ideation, which some...

Trigger warning: The following column contains discussions on self-harm, which some readers may find distressing. I self-harmed for years. It started with my hips. I would wait until everyone in the house was asleep, to take out the tools I would use to harm myself. I was fifteen and I had an eating disorder. Bulimia. I was so poorly that my lung ended up collapsing as vomit got stuck in my chest cavity. I was so mentally unwell that the only way I felt like I could take cont

A huge issue facing us following the outbreak of COVID-19 is the number of people suffering from ongoing symptoms or long-COVID. Over...

Giving away everything in search of something more I tossed my backpack into the back and climbed into the passenger seat. It was a...

And several important lessons it taught me. 2020 was one of the most challenging years we’ve ever faced not only here in the UK, but...

This article is a double debut, both in discussing my OCD as a journalist, and writing about the disorder in relation to my poetry....

Trigger warning: this blog discusses mental health struggles and suicidal thoughts. Even though I’m a journalist by trade, until now, I...

Many people are scared to speak up about their mental illness. Perhaps it’s because they haven’t processed the fact that they have a mental health issue — but often it’s because they’re scared of the reaction. I remember years ago, when I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, experiencing worries about telling people that I had been diagnosed. I was worried that I wouldn’t be believed, and I was worried that people would just tell me to “get over it”. I was also worried

I can’t remember when I first started worrying about the idea of ‘going mad’, but by my late teens it had become such a deep-rooted fear...

My mental health issues started when I was young. When I was four years old, I experienced seeing things that were not there, and hearing voices. At the time, for reasons unknown; and my teens were filled with mood swings. I was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. I also live with a chronic illness called ulcerative colitis; a form of inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the colon and rec

I was first introduced to musical theatre when I was about 8 by my Papa — he had the Les Misérables soundtrack and after finding myself...

I was working as an assistant teacher in English in my hometown Qingdao, in China’s eastern Shandong province, during the summer before...

Sharing a part of yourself is never easy. Raising awareness for matters that are not widely discussed, especially amongst young women,...

Aristotele once said that “the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance; for this,...

From a young age, I always wanted to perform. As a toddler, my mum put me in all of the ‘little girl’ classes — ballet, gym-bunnies, the...

Modelling is exciting until you experience it yourself. There are many hidden agendas that made me question the industry itself. I...

I was very unwell with bulimia nervosa as a teenager. I felt insignificant next to my friends. I received comments on the size of my legs from horrible boys and I’d hate getting changed in the same room as my mates because I’d constantly compare myself to them. It was a feeling that had followed me my whole life, receiving comments on my weight from as early as four years old. I was always the bigger sister, in age and in size, and for me, the way my body looked had always st

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental health condition that severely affects a person’s mood. It is a relapsing-remitting condition. It...