Last month, I was invited to share my experience of living with anxiety and panic disorder in Essentials Magazine.
Ever since I started blogging my story about anxiety and my journey through it, I've had such amazing feedback from people offering me their tips and advice along with their support, and so many messages from people stating that they've found my posts helpful that I have been so glad I started blogging about this.
So when I was asked to take part in the feature, I was glad to do it as the more become aware of how anxiety can effect people...the better.
The feature focuses on myself and two other ladies who are living with other kinds of mental health problems - both of whom were lovely!
The feature involved traveling to London for the day to be interviewed and to take part in a photo shoot.
I was nervous about this, as my anxiety is such that I struggle to travel out of my area alone (Or even in my own area, tbh!) but I was allowed to bring Jon & Tyne along with me which made me feel more at ease.
The staff were all lovely and very welcoming - I was interviewed by lovely Anna who made me feel very comfortable in telling my story, and the make up and hair lady was lovely to chat to as well which put me at ease.
I had my hair and make up, and the stylist selected an outfit for me...I wasn't mad on the outfit as its not something I'd usually wear but it was necessary to match up the 3 of us taking part for the group shots and with us all being very different ages, it had to be something appropriate for everyone!
We had a bit of a wait during the hair and make up, and lunch was provided...Pret Salads are amazing BTW!
Tyne and Jon were super patient, and Tyne kept everyone entertained as always!
After everything was sorted, it was time for the photos.
It was the first time I'd been photographed professionally for anything like this and it certainly took a while to feel comfortable doing it...I had NO IDEA how much work and effort goes into each shot for a magazine feature!
I have never in my life been so aware of my thumb! I was directed on how to pose right down to which direction to turn in my thumb and exactly where on the window ledge to place it...so surreal!
The photographer was lovely though and did make me laugh a lot which helped me to ease into things and the photo editor was also really encouraging and friendly which was great.
After the solo shots they very kindly offered to get Jon & Tyne involved for some family shots, just for us to keep, which I thought was lovely of them and Tyne enjoyed his five minutes of fame in front of the camera...little poser that he is!
We then had the group shots and that was the day done....it sounds so fleeting but all in all it took about 5 hours and was quite the tiring day!
I'm really happy with how the article has turned out and very pleased to take part in something to raise awareness of living with these kinds of issues.
Our feature is available to read in the current May issue of Essentials Magazine, on sale now! Let me know what you think if you read it!
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