Alicia Brunskill
Bio
Alicia writes about her experiences with anxiety and depression, teaching and learning languages, education and cats. She also shares her poetry and fiction from time to time.
Find her on Twitter: @aliciabrunskill
Stories (40/0)
Phone Assessments Are the Worst for Anxiety Disorders
For some reason earlier today my mind was thrown back to excruciating telephone assessments with the NHS for help with my mental health. I can only assume that my depression had decided that I needed to ruminate on those unpleasant experiences and that my anxiety was in cahoots and had picked right then for me to think endlessly about the stupid answers I gave.
By Alicia Brunskill5 years ago in Psyche
My Experience of Mental Health Support in Schools
I recently read an article about what needs to be done in schools to make sure children are better equipped to manage their mental health. The article prompted me to write about my own experiences of mental health support in schools. The link to the article I read is below.
By Alicia Brunskill5 years ago in Psyche
How Does Yoga Help My Anxiety and Depression?
Yoga is not a cure-all for depression or anxiety. Don’t worry, I’m not about to say that twenty minutes of yoga a day will fix you. It certainly doesn’t fix me, but it makes a terrible day easier to bear, gives those flat days a boost and makes a good day that bit better.
By Alicia Brunskill5 years ago in Longevity
Learn a Foreign Language at Home - Part Three
When you read this, you probably think I’m going to tell you that you need to spend a significant amount of time in a country that speaks the language that you’re learning. Whilst that would be the perfect way to immerse yourself in the language, there are other ways to get the job done.
By Alicia Brunskill5 years ago in Education
Learn a Foreign Language at Home - Part One
I’m that person you know who loves languages, is always learning several at once, and who even made an embarrassing attempt at creating their own language as a child. This love stretches to my own language and, to be honest, words in general.
By Alicia Brunskill6 years ago in Education
Coping with Sleep Deprivation
Not getting your eight hours a night puts you in a strange place, your needs become a little different to those of people who sleep and recharge at night. Your outlook becomes different too, often quite negative because of the constant lack of good, refreshing sleep. After not sleeping well for a long time, I made changes to my daily routine to make the days a little easier and to encourage my body to sleep.
By Alicia Brunskill6 years ago in Longevity
Books That Have Helped Me During Depression
Most of the books that have struck a chord with me during bouts of deep depression have done so because the ruling emotion (or sensation) I was feeling from the disorder was present in that book. I couldn’t read anything else or engage with it as deeply. It was a way for me to explore what I was feeling through someone else’s situation, before seeing it there in my own life. I think when I’m reading books in this state of feeling depression so keenly, I’m looking for answers more than ever. Therefore, I examine scenes in the books over and over and wonder why they resonate so much with me. I wonder, what has happened to make me feel so connected to this book?
By Alicia Brunskill6 years ago in Psyche
- Top Story - October 2018
When Your Chest Feels Like It’s Going to Explode from AnxietyTop Story - October 2018
On days like this it’s a battle to get anything done, make decisions, focus and not lose your temper. Your body is taking you on a ride that you didn’t ask to go on, all because your faulty alarm system has been triggered; and you never have the code to turn it off.
By Alicia Brunskill6 years ago in Psyche
Depression, Anxiety and Travelling
Travelling with mental illness brings a lot of different challenges from being at home but also some of the same familiar ones, too. I have been diagnosed with mixed depression and generalised anxiety disorder so most of the challenges I am going to talk about will relate to the ones I face because of these illnesses.
By Alicia Brunskill6 years ago in Psyche
Losing Your Sense of Urgency to Depression
Despite deadlines looming, barely any food in the fridge, medication dwindling, your depression brain wants to put everything off. Everything can wait. And even when the supplies do finally run out, it’s a mammoth effort to get up and out to re-stock. You reschedule tasks for the next day, and the next day; moving through each one at a snail’s pace that you can’t change. It’s like slogging through mud every day with a tired resignation that this is how it is until the depression begins to lift a little.
By Alicia Brunskill6 years ago in Psyche