Your stories

As a child, I did not look like what most people picture as a kid with ADHD. I was shy and quiet. In school, I would daydream, only partially listening to my second-grade teacher drone on about long division. That year, my teacher told my mother that, when she made eye contact with me, she got a “flat affect”. Then, in the summer of 1990, my stepfather was diagnosed with a brain...

At around 8.15pm on 6th February 2013, my eldest daughter, Abi, suddenly complained she felt ill and woozy. Within 45 minutes she had collapsed on our bed with me and her dad with her. Her younger sister and brother were in their bedrooms, listening to us scream, cry and panic as we watched her fade away before our eyes. It was the most terrifying night of our lives. Abi had suffered a...

I decided I needed to see someone and found a lady on the Counselling Directory website. As a live-in-carer I never managed the time to look after myself. I realised I was very low and made the appointment. I connected with my counsellor within five minutes and she has done wonders for me. I had a huge sense of guilt over a bereavement that happened 23 years ago and had been carrying it ever...

I decided to look at the Counselling Directory website after being on a waiting list, and time was running out. I studied all the therapists, and found photos of them made it easier to make a decision as well as the profile, and their description of expertise. Often speaking to family and friends about problems isn't enough to address the issue in hand, and this is where only professional help...

I lost my husband last year, we had been married for 42 years. I met my counsellor and from the first meeting I felt very comfortable with her as she was a good listener and I found I could easily open up to her. Without her help I wouldn't be where I am today.

I started counselling during an absolutely terrible year; I experienced bullying in the workplace that led to me losing my job, and at the same time that my mother became very ill and died which put a great strain on my terminally ill, severely impaired step father. At the end of the year, just before I lost my job, my partner of four years split from me. I am a disabled, single parent and would...

I have been in therapy for 12 years working through the physical, emotional and sexual abuse I experienced as a child and as an adult. During that time one therapist died from cancer so I had grief to deal with as well. I have been with my current therapist for two years, and it has been tough but also rewarding to finally find a relationship that I feel safe in and I can allow myself to...