You, Me & Anxiety is a platform and community to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health and is a very personal project to me.

The idea for the website came after reminiscing about my previous experiences with mental health difficulties. I realised that although they weren't enjoyable at the time, with the power of hindsight, they were actually quite entertaining to look back on. This got me thinking, I realised a great way to reduce stigma around anything is through humour.

So, I started writing blogs on my experiences, focusing on the funny and the lessons I learnt. This soon expanded, with people from across the world sending me their own stories and learnings to upload. Since its creation, the website and its format has transferred to podcasting and seen strong organic growth across social media.

What started as a personal journey, soon expanded to a project owned and championed by writers across the world.

Initially all blogs were written by me but within a few months I was finding myself acting as recruiter, manager and editor for a host of individuals who wanted to join You, Me & Anxiety's mission.

From friends of friends, to university graduates, to qualified mental health professionals, I had the privilege of supporting and guiding these wonderful people in sharing their own stories.

Launching on all major social platforms, the aim of You, Me & Anxiety was to build a community of mental health advocates. Through entirely organic growth, that community now stands at over 7,500 followers and is used as a platform to share blogs, tips and news on the world of mental health.

With the growth of the website and its social channels, a podcast was launched in 2019 and ran until 2021. The podcast was built upon the initial aims of the project - reducing the stigma surrounding mental health with honesty, humour and (on occasion) some experts offering advice.

To edit the podcast I used Adobe Audition, creating graphics and social media imagery with Photoshop. Prior to its launch I had no experience in hosting, running and editing a podcast but soon got to grips with it all, enjoying every minute of it.