I am participating in this event to raise money and awareness for a great cause - our collective mental health. Please sponsor me and help make a difference. 

My story is likely very similar to many of yours. After losing my mom rather suddenly to cancer, I struggled a lot with grief (mostly, because I was trying to avoid feeling it). A lot of the time, life was good, but a lot of the time it wasn't - I didn't want to get out of bed, spend time with other people (including my husband and children), and had just enough energy to go to work, do my job, and appear 'normal' before coming home to isolate myself in bed binging Netflix and food. I started feeling anxious a lot of the time, struggled to make decisions and manage my responsibilities, and experienced some panic attacks.

I went to see my doctor who referred me to a psychologist. She helped me unpack complex grief, gave me strategies to manage anxious feelings, and helped me to start re-evaluating my expectations of myself (which were usually high). It helped a lot. It got me through a pandemic.

Then life got hard again, and peri-menopause set in which escalated my anxious feelings. I'm still working my way through this round with the skills I learned last time around and am coming to terms with the fact that if I want to feel well most of the time, I need to make changes to my lifestyle so that I am prioritizing myself and my needs while also balancing my responsibilities to family and work. 

If this resonates with you at all feel free to reach out to chat, donate or join me May 31st to Walk to Defeat Depression.