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Roots, Stars, and Coming Home
This weekend was meant to be a bit of an escape. A chance to get out of the house, forget everything that’s constantly worrying me, spend time with people I care about, browse a queer market, attend a social, and remind myself that there is still a world outside my…
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Navigating Exhaustion: My Week of Healing and Reflection
It’s been a strange week of exhaustion, endless naps, and slowly finding my way back to myself. I’m not okay yet, but for the first time in a while, I can honestly say I feel hopeful. And this weekend, friendship and the leather community are giving me something to look…
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Sometimes Surviving Is Enough
Anxiety doesn’t always feel like sadness. Sometimes it feels like fear. Fear of failure, fear of letting people down and fear of losing everything. After a difficult couple of days, I’m trying to remember that recovery isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes simply making it through the next twenty-four hours is enough.
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Recovery Isn’t Linear. Bloody Inconvenient, Isn’t It?
Some days recovery feels hopeful. Other days it feels frustrating, exhausting and painfully slow. Today’s Operation Restoration update is an honest reminder that rest isn’t failure, low days aren’t the same as going backwards, and healing rarely happens in a straight line. Sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is giving…
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Embracing New Experiences: A Step on The Journey of Trust and Self-Discovery
Sometimes recovery comes in unexpected forms. What started as curiosity became an evening built on trust, friendship and discovering that perhaps my anxious brain isn’t always right. Operation Restoration continues to surprise me.
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The Trial in My Head
Sometimes the hardest battles aren’t with other people—they’re with ourselves. For years I’ve acted as both prosecutor and defence in an endless trial over who I should be, what I should want, and whether I’m allowed to change. Maybe recovery isn’t about fixing myself. Maybe it’s about finally accepting all…
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The Voice in the Room
The dreams keep changing. Witches, thorns, impossible cities, hidden worlds and now a room infected from within. But underneath all of them seems to be the same message. Stay put. Don’t risk anything. Don’t change. And honestly? I’m getting pretty bloody tired of listening to it.
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The Thorn Bush, The Beacon, and Letting Life Happen
Somewhere between the nightmares, the strange dream worlds, the loneliness and the slow process of recovery, I’ve realised that what I’m looking for isn’t really change. It’s trust, friendship, connection, and permission to stop fighting myself quite so hard.
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Noticing Life: Finding Joy in Small Moments
Today felt a little different. I’ve only recently started getting back into the gym, and while my strength isn’t where it used to be, I’m enjoying the process. There’s something reassuring about focusing on the basics again: good form, completing the set, and accepting that progress takes time. One thing…
