When life turns its back on us we all need somewhere safe to retreat.

During the times I struggled with Anxiety the world felt like a terrifying place as my thoughts spun out of control. It was exhausting and distressing to watch the person I thought I was decay in front of my own eyes. As I would discover, time and time again, there is no respite in a mind that punishes you with the invisible anxiety battle that wages on the inside; unseen and unheard by anyone else.

If Anxiety were a place, there would be no sunlight. It would be cold, dark and lonely and nothing would grow there.

And for many years I drifted as a lost soul - crumbling in my teens at school and feeling ground down during stressful spells as I completed Uni. It would be in my late twenties before I would experience the most devastating anxiety with Post Natal Depression. However, if you were to look at my achievements along the way there is little doubt that from the outside I always looked tickety-boo to everyone else. This is because I am someone with high functioning anxiety.

Despite these internal struggles what few people know is that I have had to silently grieve a great deal of loss and pain while I got stuff done.

Where to begin? There would be the years of joy anxiety would snatch from me at the age of 14 when I first started suffering from panic attacks. Then there's the precious time that no mother can ever get back if anxiety goes into over dr

ive post-natally (which mine did - after each of my three pregnancies). Don't get me started with OCD and intrusive thoughts, the odd dose of health anxiety or procrastination and perfectionism.

Writing this now I am mindful that I suffered during a time when awareness isn't what it is today and help from anxiety specialists was practically non-existent. However, I was still lost as a person for far too many years, fading in and out of life and hanging out in the shadows; feeling okay one moment but then terrified I was losing my mind the next.

Thankfully, things for me nowadays are much more peaceful and anxiety no longer hangs around like an unwelcome guest. In fact I have a lot to thank it for as it led me to what I do today which is showing other people that we don't have to live cowering in the shadows of our lives. I offer my clients what I actually needed myself many many years ago: professional anxiety relief with the insight and understanding that only comes from personal experience.

Anxiety is a thief and it will steal chapters of your life if you let it. I don't want that for anyone because life is hard enough to navigate through without it.

During my own recovery I discovered what we, as human beings, need when we experience anxiety in our lives. And it is very different depending on which phase of life we are in and the type of anxiety we have, the triggers and symptoms we, as individuals, experience. After many MANY years of studying, practicing and testing, I know what works (and lots of things that don't).

If you are struggling, please know that there are people like me shining a light ahead for you to see. So, take shelter from the storm because you don't need to do this alone. Whether it's with me or another specialist Anxiety Psychotherapist, please get help today. Your future self will thank you.