Hairy Toes and Anxiety Woes

Hello again :) It's been a while since my last blog but I have spent so much of the last few months on a quest, which no doubt is a quest many of you have also faced…. yes, I am officially at ‘that’ age where I start to sprout hair from very random places…. upper lips, big toes, chin, boobs the list goes on. Seriously, what has happened and, more importantly, what IS the best way to get rid of them? Hence my quest….

I am certainly not alone in this, as a night out with my friends evidenced, out of 12 of us 6 had hairy big toes… we also discussed, hairy noses, ears, cheeks, nipples, bellies and chins and they are just the areas I can discuss in a blog.

I’ve even googled why…the answer is hormone related and apparently, it’s just an age thing….so how do we take back control and stop looking like Nanny McPhee!

Well, loads of options but a friend recommended a little electric shaver that works brilliantly but shaving my face as part of a beauty routine is definitely not something I saw coming, especially as I’ve never had to wax my upper lip before – so I now have a new found respect for all my dark-haired, hairy-lipped girl friends who have been having to deal with this problem from puberty – I salute you!

From Hairy Toes to Anxiety Woes…

Getting older definitely makes you a little more nostalgic, makes me pine for the days of having nothing (really, absolutely nothing!) to worry about and thinking about the saying that ‘youth is wasted on the young’. It also made me think about was I a worrier as a kid or did I just grow into it?

So…. anxiety, when did this all start and how I’m managing it?

I consider myself a very glass half-full kinda girl, outwardly very social, with a can-do attitude, but inside I have worried about EVERYTHING for as long as I can remember. I know it’s ‘normal’ to worry a little, especially once you have kids, but I knew my worrying was starting to affect me day-to-day and make me dread events I’d previously loved – skiing, going out in large groups, being out late…so I decided to take the bull by the horns and do something about it.

I had 3 sessions of something called ‘Timeline Therapy’ and, although I understand the principal (as Mike my therapist explained it all brilliantly), I didn’t understand how and why it would help – but help it did. I went skiing shortly after these sessions and I actually enjoyed the flight (usually spent it thinking of ‘if we crash now is it water/land?’) and checking out the nearest exit again and again and again… I also skied really quite brilliantly as I relaxed and actually enjoyed it – I also enjoyed the lifts, views and, although my fear of heights hasn’t vanished, it’s much more manageable.

So – why did I decide to share this with you all? Because I’ve felt like this for years and I know lots of you feel the same - so my 2nd quest is to get people to talk more about their mental health and to know it’s ok not to be ok. Talking to my hubby, friends and family has been a turning point along with seeing a professional – not because I’m barking mad but because I want to understand and feel better about myself and to not be consumed by ‘worry’. I know we all have an inner bitch telling us we aren’t good enough, thin enough, clever enough… and I think that the bitch just naturally gets more ear time as we get older and maybe more insecure!

So, I’ve been working on embracing my superhero (just me, but I’m super) and shutting up my inner bitch and the bitch, along with my hairy toes, are now a thing of the past!