Age 53
Nurse
At the vintage emporium in Ramsgate
After a sunrise dip with Mercy
I had an acute stress response, so I had a full breakdown in – I think it was February 2019 – and I’ve always been someone who’s really liked stress, and thrived on it, and I just became someone who couldn’t cope with stress, everything became too much, and I had a breakdown. It’s only looking into it myself, that I realised that I think this was probably the menopause affecting my mental health, and I was offered anti-depressants and I had to do my own research to find HRT, I have to say that the best thing that a GP did for me that time was give me a book about mindfulness. So it’s through my own processes that I’ve dealt with the menopause.
I stopped drinking, on January 1st 2020, just before the pandemic. Laughs. Good timing. Something to focus on. So I’m nearly 22 months sober now. It’s had a massive impact actually, not drinking – for anxiety and I think just inflammation in the body And I take HRTgel, just a little bit – one squirt – a day. I exercise a lot, I cold water swim, and I cold water shower, I’m very into Whim Hoff. I do things like, I walk and listen to podcasts, and I do breathing and mindful exercises so I’ve kind of changed how I am to do with the menopause.
I often say to people that I’m not the person I was before the menopause. I’m a completely different person now, and at first it felt quite negative, but now it’s been this massive positive shift in my life and it’s almost like I’ve been re born – sounds a bit dramatic – reborn into a different calmer person and I manage my life differently and how I deal with things is now a positive experience. I’ve made so many new friends – not just menopausal women – but lots of them are, lots of the sea swimming society, and those little gangs. It’s just been life changing.