HEALTH

Tessa Barrie’s views on Health

WRITING AS A COPING MECHANISM

Leave a Comment / HEALTH, LIFE WRITING, Writing / By

I imagine walking down the usually buzzing main shopping street, with the theme from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly ringing in my ears. The only other sound is my boots connecting with the pavement as I walk. It is only me and tumbleweed. It’s a sad fact, and I don’t mean to be flippant, although the reference to tumbleweed is artistic licence. I never thought I would live through a global pandemic. Let’s hope I do; it’s not over yet. The threat of succumbing to COVID-19 is constant, especially now three different variants of the virus have been identified, but I am reliably informed that viruses always mutate. I wish this one wouldn’t!

ALTERNATIVE THERAPY: Writing to Heal – Article for Jersey Life

Leave a Comment / HEALTH, Life, Writing / By

I was delighted to be a contributor for Jersey Life‘s December 2020/January 2021 edition. My brief was to write an article on the benefits of writing for mental health and general well-being, especially in light of COVID-19 and the effects of Lockdown, and I came up with Writing to Heal. It is a very personal account of …

ALTERNATIVE THERAPY: Writing to Heal – Article for Jersey Life Read More »

WEAR A SODDING MASK! IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU!

Leave a Comment / HEALTH, Life / By

Wear a sodding mask! It’s not all about you! If you don’t want to wear a mask to protect yourself, then do it for others who are less robust than you. There are people out there fighting pre-existing conditions whose lives are already a struggle.  The last thing they want is to contract COVID-19.  If they do, the probability is that they won’t survive it.  Do you really want that on your conscious? Is that really YOUR CHOICE?  So, get over it!  Wear a sodding mask!

HIGH CHOLESTEROL? WHAT’S CAUSING IT?

HEALTH / By

Last week, my GP told me I had high cholesterol.  For those of you who don’t know the implications of having high cholesterol, it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. It was the wake-up call I needed, because my GP told me the same thing in December 2019 and, now it’s higher than it was before. I need to find out what’s causing it.

Autoimmune Disease: What factors constitute being on the Severely Vulnerable List?

4 Comments / HEALTH / By

Suffering from Autoimmune Disease doesn’t automatically put you at the top of the COVID-19 severely vulnerable list. However, certain medications prescribed to autoimmune sufferers might.  None-the-less, receiving a letter this week, four months after Lockdown, telling me I was on the severely vulnerable list – I wasn’t before – came as a bit of a shock. I have a …

Autoimmune Disease: What factors constitute being on the Severely Vulnerable List? Read More »

Sclero-what? The Scourge of Scleroderma

6 Comments / HEALTH / By

In 2015, I found out I had scleroderma. I’d known for a while that I might have it but, after the official diagnosis, it turned out I had it for much longer than I initially thought. It is a strange and diverse disease that nobody seems to have heard of, and it manifests itself in …

Sclero-what? The Scourge of Scleroderma Read More »

A Wuss’s Guide to Dentophobia – It’s only When I Say ‘Ahh!’

5 Comments / HEALTH, My Life to Date (and how I've Survived It) / By

I’ve suffered from Dentophobia, ever since I can remember.  My first dental check-up, aged about five, ended in tears.  My mother took me to a revered dentist in Cheltenham called Dr Dagger.  I kid you not. Since my, ‘oh woe is me, I’ve got a Humpty Dumpty face’ post earlier this week, it turns out that …

A Wuss’s Guide to Dentophobia – It’s only When I Say ‘Ahh!’ Read More »

When You Look Like Humpty Dumpty

2 Comments / HEALTH, My Life to Date (and how I've Survived It) / By

I’m a Baby Boomer, it’s Lockdown, and I woke up yesterday with Mumps-like symptoms.  It’s unlikely because I’ve had Mumps. I was about eight-years-old and, surprisingly, I remember my Rubulavirus encounter quite well.  Wandering around in my dressing gown looking like Humpty Dumpty, when I was supposed to be in bed, for what felt like the …

When You Look Like Humpty Dumpty Read More »

Never Give Up (In Memory of Yvette Dislins)

1 Comment / HEALTH, Life, Writing / By

As a wannabe novelist, there have been many times over the last five years when I been ready to quit. When I’ve thrown all my manuscripts into a black bag and headed for the dustbin. I’m sure we’ve all been there, but something inside us keeps niggling. Willing us to carry on. So, this is …

Never Give Up (In Memory of Yvette Dislins) Read More »

LOCKDOWN

1 Comment / HEALTH, Life, Life Under The Coronavirus Cloud, Motivation, Reflective / By

It’s Monday morning, the start of another working week, which was greeted by steely grey clouds at first light and the biting chill of a northeast wind. However, this was no ordinary morning because there was no rush hour, no scrabbling to find a parking place because as of 8.00 a.m. this morning,  the small Island of Jersey, Channel Islands followed the UK’s lead, and officially went into lockdown.  

How to Get My (Writing) Mojo Back

1 Comment / HEALTH, Life, Life Under The Coronavirus Cloud, Reflective, Writing, Writing Fiction / By

In January, I was in full steam ahead writing-mode.  I honestly believed I could finish book number two by the end of April. I was writing with a confidence I had never felt before, and it was a fantastic feeling. Unfortunately, my purple patch fizzled out about 3 weeks ago as the Coronavirus shit really began to hit the fan.

Perhaps I had been blinkered up to that point? Hoping Covid-19 would just go away.

Now just doesn’t feel like the right time to be writing a murder mystery spoof.  So, it’s not actually the curse of the writer’s block that is to blame; it’s the Coronavirus Curse.  The inability to focus on the writing that I love.

The Wind of Change

Leave a Comment / HEALTH, Life, Motivation, Writing / By

We half-ran through the bustling streets, hand in hand. The soft, south-westerly wind carried the pungent smells of cooking meat and bubbling sauces into our faces, reminding us that it’s time to eat, and we are spoilt for choice.   Neon lights flash around us, the pounding heartbeat of the vibrant city.  There are people …

The Wind of Change Read More »

The Boomer Generation

1 Comment / HEALTH, Life, Motivation, Reflective / By

After a week of soaking up the sun, I woke up to what sounded like gravel being hurled against my window this morning.  Only it wasn’t gravel, it was rain/hail.  It was only 5.45 a.m., which was annoying as I didn’t have to go anywhere.  Still, I had five hours of sleep, instead of four. 

Life As We Know It

2 Comments / HEALTH, Life, Motivation, Reflective / By

It’s horribly surreal.  Waking up to another beautiful morning and knowing the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan.

Life as we know it is about to change.

The fields around me were ploughed and planted with potatoes yesterday. Superficially, life as we know it appears to be carrying on as normal, but a big, black underbelly of invisible menace is lurking, waiting to strike.

Bringing out the Worst in People

Leave a Comment / HEALTH, Reflective / By

IS IT TIME TO START ENFORCING FINES FOR PEOPLE WHO FLOUT THE SELF-ISOLATION RULES?

One woman went to a coffee shop yesterday having returned home from a holiday in Teneriffe. Another, in a similar situation, said she had run out of food, so had to go to the supermarket. Which begs the question, and just not here in Jersey, why do people have to flout the self-isolation rules when they know the lives of more vulnerable people are at stake? Does their selfishness know no bounds?

Mental Preparation

2 Comments / HEALTH, Reflective / By

I woke up sneezing this morning and wondered if the bastard-bug had got to me.  However, after two cups of coffee and two pieces of toast later, I am glad to report that the sneezing fit was probably something to do with a stray speck of dust.  Being vigilant is a good thing, but I need to get a grip on automatically assuming that one sneeze means I need to self-isolate.

%d bloggers like this: