I’m aware that I'm lucky to have made it to my late twenties without having suffered any major mental health setbacks. For the most part, I’m fairly even-keeled, but shortly after the clocks turn back each winter, I notice my mood shifts. There's something about the shorter days, the amped up social plans, the dark, gloomy mornings, the creeping pre-Christmas money stress and the race to meet end-of-year deadlines that often leaves me feeling like a frayed knot, one pull away from snapping.
I'm not alone in my feeling of overwhelm. A UK-wide stress survey found that 74% of adults have felt so stressed at some point over the past year that they felt unable to cope, with 81% of women reportedly feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope due to stress, compared to 67% of men.
