Who am I?
I am Gem Hill, I’m in my early 30s and work in Manchester as a Senior Software Tester at the BBC. I met Ryan at a mental health meet up and was really interested in the idea of mhasl.me as I spend some of my non-work time talking about mental health. I’ve got a podcast (Innerpod.co.uk), and do talks about mental health at meetups and conferences. You can see one of my talks here (you’ll need a free account on the site): https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/lessons/aut-anxiety-under-test-gem-hill
My mental health status is that I have Generalised Anxiety Disoder and a mild case of Complex PTSD. I’m medicated and in therapy. I talk openly about these things because I’m not the best liar, because I don’t want to hide a massive part of myself. Because I’ve struggled and I want to help others by helping them realise they’re not alone, by sharing concrete tips I’ve learned. By forming a community.
I’ll be writing about how to keep on top of your mental health, how I use tarot and therapy and cooking and pole dancing to help. I’ll be talking about trauma and how this affects my daily like. I’m hoping I’ll be helpful to someone.
I’m not a trained Mental Health professional (although I am a Mental Health First Aider)
You can find me on twitter @gem_hill