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Mental Health

National Relaxation Day aims to promote stress relief through practicing relaxation techniques. This is turn can lead to being able to develop a calmer & clearer sense of mind, which can help us hugely in our lives, especially when dealing with chronic illness. Like myself, I'm sure there are times where you find relaxation impossible and wonder how actually is it even possible the way you are feeling?! Take it from a professional over thinker, it's okay if it doesn't come easy & it's not something to beat yourself up over. 

I started blogging about having a little one with a stoma in 2016. I used Instagram as a platform to share my story in the hope of helping in the way many had for me by sharing the highs and the lows of having a baby with Hirschsprungs Disease. The bowel disease which affects 1 in 5000 babies a year in the UK, is caused by the nerve cells in the intestines needed to move stool along into the rectum for toileting (known as ganglion cells) not being present. This causes the body unable to remove its own waste, with the tummy starting to distend and very little to no poo being passed.   Surgery is essential with bowel washouts...

Men's Health Week has nearly come to an end (14th - 20th June). Obviously from my blog posts here with Comfizz, you read a lot about how life is for me as a female with IBD and a stoma. It's widely known that women often seem to be a lot more forthcoming in talking our their struggles & experiences in general, let alone with something so personal, so it's been really nice to hear from Neil, Andy, Lee, Sean & Keith about their experiences. Thank you so much guys for being so open & sharing your stories & tips.

May is National Teen Self Esteem month. As I'm sure many of you can unfortunately relate to, having Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) as anyone of any age, let alone being a teenager, definitely can come with impacts on self esteem to varying extents. That being said, there is thankfully a lot of treatments for IBD and coping mechanisms to put in place to help that, but still, it can be quite the minefield to work through when you're right in the midst of it.

Today is National Hug Day. For nearly a year now, like so many of us, I’ve missed being able to hug loved ones. Being able to hug boosts people in so many ways & does so much for a lot of people mentally. Although I completely understand why we can’t and it’s better to be safe, it’s also okay to be sad at the fact that we can’t. Things are definitely feeling strained and difficult again at the moment. Throw not being able to hug people in the mix which often helps me when I’m feeling low and it can get overbearing. Thankfully, there are other things that you can do, especially in the current climate, to make someone’s day....

I have always been one of those people that adores the great outdoors but not so fond of just sitting about in the garden I need to be doing something outside. Due to my multiple chronic health conditions I always had some anxiety in the back of my head regarding solo treks; this year I decided to break that fear and go off by myself, don’t get me wrong having Kobe helps plus the odd friend who will join me on occasion too. Having an ileostomy certainly hasn’t stopped me from going off and enjoying myself.

Today is world mental health day and I just want to say I am not okay. I don’t need to share with you pictures of me at my lowest because that was last year and I managed to write to you all every week and pretend everything is okay. That’s what we do isn’t it? Fake it till we make it? Social media is full of unhappy people trying to make other people think they are happy or that their life is perfect. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Take my life for example…. If you take out the fact I’m ill give or take always have been and will always be ill, the fact 00Steve is always...

As you may have seen in last weeks post about Ostomy Surgery Appointments and how COVID had messed them about you may remember I said I would keep you updated on it. Well obviously my appointment hasn’t happened yet as it isn’t until December but it doesn’t mean it isn’t playing heavily on my mind. It isn’t something I like talking about being wary of surgery which in itself is entirely stupid as it shouldn’t matter if I am an advocate for positively (most of the time) living with an ostomy I am still human and I am allowed to worry and heck even be scared. No doubt some of it will be completely inconsequential  or just stupid vain stuff; but regardless...

Male mental health week starts on Monday and this is something that means a lot to me as I have lost two incredibly good friends and one I was close to in primary school to suicide. I honestly don’t know if talking to professionals would have helped two of them as they both had gone through some pretty awful stuff during their 27 years. If nothing else Josh and Ste definitely lived rock star style lives and they say rock stars die at 27.  I know many blokes that live their lives bottling their thoughts and feelings up for the fear of “not being man enough” through toxic masculinity. Men are humans and they have feelings too; we should all...

You may, or may not, have seen the recent news last week regarding a male Inflammatory Bowel Disease patient, aged 34, at Barnsley hospital being given the right to die because he didn’t want to live with a permanent stoma bag. Before I go any further with this blog post, I am going to say that I am in no way making this about me and taking anything away from the man’s struggles & the struggles of his loved ones having to see him get to this dark place in his life. I am merely expressing my opinion & in no way is my opinion fact. It is what I feel and I believe we should all have the right...