The Life of Rachel

When I started my job back in April 2019, I had no idea (well, none of us had any idea) that a year later our economy and everything else would suffer under the hands of a Covid-19 pandemic. I remember sitting at my kitchen table with my Mum one day before work and she asked: "Has this been labelled a pandemic yet?" I just shrugged. A few days later and it had been officially labelled a pandemic. Little did I know though that things were about to get worse from there on..... March 2020: Every single day coming into work was filled with dread and fear of the unknown. This was before people started wearing masks, but the odd customer would come in with a scarf wrapped around their nose and mouth. On a normal day, a customer wouldn't mind you standing extra close to them while you packed the stock on the shelf beside them, but since Covid-19 had hit Ireland, people literally jumped away from you. It felt very strange, but people were scared and that's understandable, but...

The self conscious part of myself is telling me not to share this online, that you can't make people understand what you are going through, but that isn't the goal here; the goal is to reach out to those who suffer in silence and extend a virtual hand and ear to listen to. There are others out there who need to know they aren't alone in this world, how they aren't travelling down the road alone of suffering with a mental illness. I read somewhere that we live in a world where people will rush to sign your cast if you've broken an arm or a leg, but when it comes to telling people how you feel on the inside they will indiscreetly turn the other way and run. C'mon guys, can't you be a little more discreet than that? However, we should all try to erase the negative stigma that surrounds the whole topic of mental health and replace it with a more positive stigma. Which reminds me, today's topic is panic attacks! Yay!  I was only eight years old when I suffere...