Along with worsening dementia, the ‘client’s’’ loneliness is palpable.
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I had known the word endometriosis since I started to see doctors, from the endless googling I used to do to simply figure out what was wrong. But not one GP had even mentioned this to me until a month ago.
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‘I’m sorry you have what?’, ‘Um, how do you spell that?’, ‘I haven’t heard of that before, what is it?’ These are a few of the common phrases I often hear when I mention I have Adenomyosis. April is Adenomyosis (add-en-o-my-OH-sis) awareness month and boy is this awareness needed.
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Influencers have existed for years, so this is nothing new, right? Wrong. Influencers have always perpetuated a hyper-wealthy, vapid, robotic image of life, love, bodies, and regimes - but now they’re actually showing us their regimes. Before, the pictures were easier to ignore because we understood that they were almost all fake. Now they’re saying, ‘Look, you can be me, too. Just eat this. Eat this, and eat it every day of your life.’ This is sinister, and it is not to be underestimated.
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Speaking from my own experiences, I have avoided getting my smear test done for an array of different reasons but the most prevailing for me has been down to mental health and anxiety.
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“Is it dangerous to admit that I’m feeling relaxed?” he asked. “This feels too good to be true”.
The happiest memory with my family? Perhaps it should be something sensational, the kind of memory that comes with a fanfare of trumpets, bursts of fireworks and a collage of photogenic smiles to line the kitchen wall.
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HPV or Human Papillomavirus is a virus, there are more than 100 different types of HPV, and some can cause cancer. Most of us will have HPV at some point or another, but the great news is that most people will never know, their immune system will fight it off, and within two years, they’ll naturally have cleared it from their system.
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Liam, a 14-year-old trans male has known that he was not born in the body that matched his mind since he was 7 years old. He has told me that he always knew that he was different, but it was only through age that he knew why.
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An invisible disability is a life-altering condition that is not apparent just by looking at someone. Guess what? This covers 1 in 7 of the UK’s population – so we are everywhere, you just don’t know it, because our superpower is being invisible.
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When it comes to transgender people, cis-heteronormativity in healthcare can be particularly damaging: the National Transgender Discrimination Survey shows that 19% respondents were refused care, 28% reported harassment, and 50% had to teach their medical providers about transgender health needs.
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Scars come in all shapes and sizes and most people will have at least one at some point in their lives. For a lot of people, they cause some degree of self-consciousness, particularly if they are in a visible spot on the body, and I was certainly no exception as a teenager.
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Periods. Every woman in my contact book – perhaps every single one on the planet – despises them. They’re messy, painful, and agonising – some ordeals come with extra details uncalled for: from migraines to vomiting episodes.
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My heart ached for the girl, more likely girls, who had ostensibly been caught in the same trap as I had. My partner had an innate knack for making me feel like a rare acquisition, but clearly, this was simply one more talent distributed with abandon. I felt angry for them by proxy, too. They would never, in all probability, have knowledge of the betrayal which ensnared them like flies in a spider’s web.
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Most people have heard of eating disorders but unless you have suffered or have a loved one who has its unlikely you will understand the true damage that they often cause. They are like a tornado spinning uncontrollably through one’s life, destroying everything they touch. There isn’t a single part of my life which hasn’t been impacted by it in some way.
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Humans are social by nature; this isn’t a new concept or hypothesis, we have ‘literally evolved to be social creatures’. So, when a global pandemic forced us to stay away from other people, it inevitably took its toll.
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As there are many alternatives to alcohol, is alcohol as important to us, with the rise of these low and alcohol-free drinks? Let me start by asking the drinkers among you a question… why do you drink?
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It’s a feeling. It’s a quote many have heard often, so often in fact that it sounds like a crappy cliche. But it’s a reality many of us face when we move away from home, whether it’s completely abroad or just a few houses down. Living away from family brings many good and bad situations for each person, but it is never a super easy decision of just taking all our stuff and moving away.
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It’s a question I’ve grown used to hearing since around mid-2020 when after years of identifying as bisexual, I declared to many of my friends something along the lines of: ‘Fuck men. Fuck my multiple heterosexual past relationships (in which I thought I’d met the love of my life in some arguably mediocre men with drug problems). I think I’m probably gay.’
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Disability is something that is still deeply misunderstood and feared. The narratives that surround it are either of victimisation or martyrdom. Disability needs to become normalised. For this to happen disability needs to become an everyday aspect of people’s working lives.
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Genderfluidity, even among trans and non-binary spaces, is frequently misunderstood. “Sometimes a man, sometimes a woman” is a common phrasing and while that is one possibility, it is a gross oversimplification of an enormous breadth of experience.
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