the way back - nervous breakdown and all that

In May of this year, I signed off work after a nervous breakdown. Or as my French friends call it: ‘burnout’! I have frequently felt as if I am in a sort of no-mans-land. It genuinely does at times feel like ‘ an uninhabited or desolate area’ (wikipedia) within my mind.   I am used to interacting with, teaching and nurturing a class of thirty lively children - and love things that way. However, I have had mainly myself as company for the past four months. And I’m not especially good at nurturing myself. Especially when there are so many battles in my life. I’m tired of battles: perpetually being on my guard. I need the interaction with my pupils, need to keep my mind active by helping them to learn. But that part of my life has been put on hold. I have suffered and not been treated well.   ***   I was in Paris this weekend. It has been good to take a break from London and enjoy the city of my youth: visiting a lovely restaurant, bookshops, going for a run around the Bois ...

I have not written on the blog for a while. I have been off work for a few months now and now is not the right time to be going into that aspect of my life. I can however have a moan about life in general and the fact that it has been a challenging few months. To be honest, it's been a tough few years: victimisation at my previous school, grief, betrayal, disappointment, and two nervous breakdowns have all played their part in my rocky mental health. I apologise: some of you will have already read about this in my previous posts. Accident Things came to another head this Wednesday (02.10.24) when our car was rammed by a reckless driver. We were pulling out of a side street. The third party was desperate to get through some lights which had just turned green. He wanted to turn right before oncoming traffic could start moving. He overtook the lane we were pulling out of. He was significantly over the 20mph speed and ploughed straight into us - driver side. I was driving. Luckily, ai...