One night at university, my friends and I came up with a game. Each of us would tell one lie, and whoever convinced the most people to believe it would win.
I forget what lie everybody else told. But mine went on to become legendary. It was this…
Category: Anxiety
Laughing at Anxiety – Or With It – Or Something
[I originally wrote this article for the Huffington Post – click here to see it in its natural habitat] Laughter is the best medicine. (Unless you’re trying to treat insomnia, in which case laughter is at best highly inconvenient or – more likely – annoying beyond belief.) But how useful is laughter for the anxious? […]
Shoot The Moon (And Aim For Happy)
In the addictive card game, Hearts, the play that scores the most points is known as ‘Shooting the Moon’. I’m greatly in favour of this. The moon has sat there for long enough, arrogantly watching over us. For aeons it has floated judgementally over the Earth, thinking it’s better than us, all ‘romantically’ flying around […]
“We Have Everything We Need”
A claustrophobic attack, an unwrapped birthday present, and a cheesy idea to annoy my inner critic. Do we “have everything we need”?
The Little Virus Who Fell In Love
There once was a virus who fell in love with its host. It drifted around in their bloodstream, dreamily content with its lot in life. Every moment was a joy. It was physically joined with its true love, and it had never wanted anything more. One day, after a spate of joyous multiplying, the virus […]
Exploding Cats & Panic Attacks
Anxiety can get out of control very quickly, but there’s one big idea which reduces its power over us…
(NO CATS WERE HARMED IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS POST, BUT ONE ELDERLY LADY DID FAINT)
It’s Helpful to Seek Fresh Perspectives
Let’s summarise The Story So Far of this initial exploration of anxiety. And because I’m dangerously over-organised, let’s do it as a list: It wasn’t obvious to me that I even had anxiety, despite being constantly anxious forever. My first instinct was to hide it, repress it, and pretend everything was okay… but that just […]
Untangling Anxiety: The First Step
The first thing I had to do after admitting that I had anxiety was to decide to actually do something towards being less anxious. Well, I say the “first” thing. But this decision actually took me several years. In fairness, I was busy! You can’t just drop everything and go ‘deal with anxiety’, can you? […]
I Was Ashamed of Being Anxious
Falling a long way while strapped to a German teaches us a lot about hiding anxiety. There’s no shame in being anxious, and no need to keep anxiety secret.
What Is Anxiety?!
How an encounter with a terrifying ant sort-of helps to explain what anxiety is.
And what does it look like in real life?