I was anxious from the womb. It’s who I am. As a child, my thoughts would happen at night-time: I’d struggle to breathe and have stomach aches. Depression came in my late teens. The doctor suggested therapy and I was outraged. “I’m British. We don’t do that.” Then I realised anxiety had spilled over into something else.
My nan called me “Sunshine and Showers”. I was either happy or low, without much in between. It wasn’t until I was older I realised she was right. I got a “Sunshine and Showers” tattoo but she had dementia by then and didn’t remember that’s what she called me. Instead, she told me off for having a tattoo.
