Outspoken Mental Health
For years Nicola was too ashamed to talk openly about the anxiety that she has experienced on and off since she was a child. Then in 2022, after the pandemic and two bouts of undiagnosed Post Natal Depression, Nicola experienced what she describes as an “anxiety breakdown”. It was her first experience of a fully blown anxiety disorder and it shook her to the core.
For a while Nicola was so overwhelmed and scared that she found it hard to leave her bedroom. She struggled with something called disassociation that made her feel like she wasn’t really there. This is a protective mechanism that your body uses when you are very stressed but it made her feel like she was going mad and would need to be sectioned.
Even though Nicola was in a near constant loop of anxious thoughts and feelings, she knew that she would stop at nothing to feel better. She contacted Joshua Fletcher (Anxiety Josh) and a psychiatrist that she trusted plus was introduced to the incredible psychologist Tanya Byron who was instrumental in her recovery.
Through medication, support and learning that the only way out of anxiety was to learn to tolerate it, Nicola began her road to recovery. She now knows that you never stop experiencing anxiety (it’s an emotion like any other) but that you CAN learn to live with it.
Nicola is making it her mission to help others by sharing what she has learnt. Every Monday Nicola publishes Outspoken Mental Health on the podcast and she recently did a partnership with the beauty brand Dr Paw Paw, which saw them launch Outspoken Beauty Lip Balms, a special event and a 4 part podcast series around kids’ mental health. Through the partnership they’ve not only increased awareness and educated people but have raised money for the incredible charity Young Minds (100% of profits from the lip balm went to charity).
Recently Nicola launched Beautiful Conversations, which are events that use beauty as a starting point and then lead to empowering and inspiring conversations about mental health where all are encouraged to take part.