So I started a Blog…

Welcome to the Overcoming Mountains blog. This is a new adventure for me and I look forward to having you along for the ride. So why overcoming mountains I hear you ask. Well in March 2020 I fulfilled a life long dream to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. This was quite a challenge for me as I have fibromyalgia so physical activity and exertion are difficult at the best of times let alone when climbing a mountain at altitude. But I did it. I climbed Kilimanjaro. I didn’t make it to the summit although I did make it half way but that’s a story for a different day.

So who am I? Well my name is Jennifer and I’m 42. I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in July 1980. I grew up in a little town called Springs in South Africa and moved back to the UK in 2005. I live in Haslemere, Surrey. I worked as an accountant for 15 plus years and in 2017 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. That along with the cumulative effect of some family drama led me to attempt suicide in January 2018. At the time of waking up shortly after the attempt I was quite apathetic to the fact I’d survived but now almost 5 years later I can hand on heart say it was my best failure in life to date.

I’ve always been someone who loves meeting new people and socialising but since my diagnosis of Fibro and in particular having to shield during the very first lockdown I’ve developed social anxiety. Going into lockdown didn’t seem like such a big deal for me at the time, I already worked from home as that’s what suits me and helps to manage the fibro but it made me realise how much being isolated impacted my mental and physical health.

Social environments can be tricky as one of the many side effects of Fibro is sensitivity to environmental stimuli – bright lights, noise, crowds – and so being at home is safe for me. But I also needed to be with people but found that going on my own was completely overwhelming – like full on panic attack body shuts down overwhelming. It was so hard to come to terms with. Prior to my Kili trip I had been speaking to my doctor about having a cat to help me with my mental health as I was struggling after a rather stressful start to 2019 (a week of being homeless certainly didn’t help) and being the amazing human that she is she wrote to my landlord and so the ball had started on my journey to getting an emotional support cat. I had decided to wait until I was home from Kili before getting a kitten so that there wouldn’t be any abandonment issues with me disappearing for two weeks just after kitty arrived. I did do lots of research and when I got back from Tanzania found a litter of kittens that were born in April 2020. And in June 2020, Amani the Ragdoll came home. And my life has been all the better for it.

Amani goes absolutely everywhere with me. We’ve been to hospital and doctors appointments, the hairdressers, the cinema, restaurants, grocery shopping and even a gig or two at The O2. To say she is a life line is to underestimate the impact she has on my life. Amani keeps me grounded, gives me a reason to get out of bed even on my really bad days when the pain is so bad I can barely move and is the reason I am able to go out places on my own. Having been super social pre fibro to being terrified of social situations because I didn’t know what my body was going to do that day was something that took a lot of effort to accept and learn to deal with. Amani is a big part of the healing journey I’ve been on. 

Do I still feel terrified going out? Absolutely! But I do it anyway now with the support of my adorable Manikins.

Anyway, now that I’ve given some back story and context, the reason I’m starting this blog is to hopefully help to inspire not only those living with a chronic illness that anything is possible and we can climb and overcome our mountains whatever they may be but to raise awareness about Emotional Support Animals and help others to realise how big an impact they can have on a persons life.

I hope you’ll join me on this adventure.