Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford | Patient Advocacy

Inflammatory bowel disease, ostomy, chronic pain, PTSD, and mental wellbeing.

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Author: Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

13th May 20153rd Feb 2026 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

Do you suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety or depression due to IBD?

19th Apr 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

Poem | A battle called ibd

2nd Apr 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

Always keep going

18th Mar 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

So I just keep going, the scenery never changing.

18th Mar 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

Just complaining about IBD, my Jpouch, and everything else

4th Feb 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

My IBD diagnosis saved me from myself

2nd Feb 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

The rules I TRY to live my life by

2nd Feb 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

IBD | This is your life

1st Feb 201524th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

Sometimes the world is just too loud

22nd Nov 201424th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

Ostomy reversal surgery – in pictures

5th Nov 201424th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

An open letter to my fellow IBD sufferers

2nd Nov 201411th Apr 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

How IBD is like an unwanted house guest

22nd Oct 201424th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

A book to remember

21st Oct 201424th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

Lockdown for mental health clarity

9th Sep 201424th Mar 2023 Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford

To reverse or not to reverse…

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My #ADHD diagnosis was one week today, and while I’ve spent that time processing, a few things are starting to click into place. It’s a big piece of the puzzle. For a long time, #ChronicPain and #PTSD have been viewed as two VERY separate battles, but some recent research confirms a deep link. My latest blog post, The PTSD and pain link: What the research says, explores how medical trauma from emergency surgeries, hospital stays, or not being believed actually changes our nervous system - link in bio. Since finishing my #reiki training last month, I’ve been following my morning yoga practice with a "strengthening my light" meditation and some mini self-reiki. It’s been a lovely addition to the routine, but it turns out I was much more tired than I realised this morning. 😂 Yikes! 🙈 Spring must be on its way because I was out of the house today, without a hat! ☀️ The increase in people diagnosed with #ADHD in recent years made it impossible not to learn about it, just "in passing". Plus, some people around me have a keen interest in neurodivergence, too. It's not a rabbit hole I went down, but the more second-hand thing's I've learnt, the more I began to wonder whether it could be me. Then I wondered whether everyone thinks that about themselves? If you've ever looked at a restaurant menu and felt like you were staring at a list of potential landmines, you aren't being "difficult". I'm sharing how new research validates the food fear so many of us in the #IBD community live with for #EatingDisordersAwarenessWeek. SOME surgeries can impact fertility, but finding the facts and figures for your specific surgery can be difficult 🤯 It took me seven years after my #UlcerativeColitis diagnosis to finally talk about the emergency surgery, the sepsis, and the complications that followed. When I started sharing in 2014, I was doing it from a place of anger because I was tired of being misjudged. At the time, I didn't have the language for the grief I was carrying, and even the word "feelings" made me cringe. Not much of a roasting 😂😂 I'd love that! 🌿 Grief is a word we usually associate with losing someone, but when you are diagnosed with a lifelong #ChronicIllness, you are grieving too. You are grieving the loss of your healthy self, the person you were in your best memories, and the future you thought you would have. Don't worry, I haven't gone to the "dark side" 🙈
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Sahara Fleetwood-Beresford | Patient Advocacy
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