How I beat overwhelm: I loved Twitter – but Musk and menopause made me quit

‘Every time I opened X, my fingers tingled with an adrenal lurch of dread.’ Composite: Guardian Design; Antonio Olmos/The Guardian

Before it made me lose my mind, I loved X. Some of my happiest times were spent there: I forged lasting bonds, laughed lots and launched a new career.

In 2009, when I joined what was then known as Twitter, I was bored, working a corporate job, blogging on the side, desperate to be a writer. Twitter made that happen: I posted my writing, gradually people started reading it and eventually some of them asked me to write for them, for money. Without hyperbole, it made my professional dreams come true.