When I meet people I like to ask “How are you doing today?” rather than “How are you doing?” as I think it takes away the pressure for the person to find a “satisfying” answer to what can otherwise be an overwhelming question. Especially for people with anxiety like me, when someone asks how I am doing, I immediately panic and try to find a non-upsetting answer. For me this small difference in phrasing makes a huge difference for me.

In primary school I would often spend lunch time play on the bench sitting on my own -  I would get high anxiety thinking about my mum working nights, being scared of going home to my dad, not wanting to play football because I was no good at it, wanting to play hopscotch with the girls but knowing that was not really where I belonged either and the boys would frown upon that... and one game of hopscotch was not worth a week of being teasing about it. Describing how I feel today is like how I used to feel sitting on that bench. I’m watching from afar, wanting to join in, but I’m too worried, and too scared to even look up, because I may look too fem, too ugly, too awkward, too short, and too unable.

'Self-love’, 'loving yourself' urgh... these expressions have always made me absolutely cringe. As a Brit, the idea of 'loving yourself’ really is at odds with everything I’ve ever been taught; swanning about having bubble baths and listing all the nice things about myself...are you joking? But, while getting better acquainted with this whole 'self-love' thing, I discovered firstly, how much I'd misunderstood it, and secondly how little I had of it.