And so another adventure begins...

This is a little post to simply mark another milestone. Today, I'm moving back to London and this time I think I am doing it right. Not only am I in the best place mentally but I am also moving in with my best friend and starting a new job in a week's time that I am SO excited about - plus the hours are good enough that I can still work on writing and my books in my spare time. When I last moved to London towards the end of 2015, I'd only just recovered from TSW and was thrown in at the deep end with a job that was just too intense, not giving myself any time to deal with what I had been through for the last two years.

I also realised something rather strange the other day. Last summer was a really bad time for me - not only was my anxiety at an all-time high but personally there was a lot going on in my life. I started doing a lot of thinking and I very quickly realised that how I was feeling and how I reacted to things all pointed back to my experience at secondary school. Secondary school was a place that changed who I was as a person and left me with pretty much next to no self-esteem - I became a shell of my former self. I also developed Trichotillomania and Dermatillomania and my original (non-steroid induced) eczema was so bad that I now believe it was down to all the stress I was under at school.

A year ago on Friday 8th July 2016, I decided to visit my old secondary school and write it a letter in a bid to try and find some kind of closure, which I then threw in the bin of one of my old common rooms and walked away without looking back (I wrote an Instagram post all about it *here*). Exactly one year later, I am moving to London and in that time I have not only got to the best place with my Trichotillomania and Dermatillomania but written and self-published a book about my experience, written another 100,000+ word draft of a potential novel I'm excited about, started work on a book about my TSW experience, handed in my notice to my old job, moved back home and learnt so much about myself as a person.

In the last two years of my journey I have dealt with, at times, crippling anxiety and a definite case of PTSD but I think through a mix of meeting others going through TSW, tackling issues head on instead of burying them and a lot of deep thinking, I am truly healing.

Right, my next post will be coming to you from London so bye bye beautiful countryside and hello to pollution and overcrowding ... I can't wait!
Cara xxxx

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