Rachel Waddingham - Behind The Label
Recovery from psychosis, trauma & dissociation
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Grief

It's there in the crunch of the autumn leaves: living with my friend's suicide

It’s there in the crunch of the autumn leaves: living with my friend’s suicide

Today marks the 18-year anniversary of the suicide of one of my closest friends – Susan. As I type these words my eyes sting and my heart feels heavy. I was walking my dog earlier and found my heart beating in two times. In the first I am walking in 2020, noticing the crunch of the autumn leaves beneath my feet. In the second it is 2002. The leaves are different – they crunch underneath my feet as I’m walking to her flat.

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Tags: Grief, Suicide, Surviving

The only photo we have of Space Baby before the scans began to look less promising

Their heart just stopped: Living through a Missed Miscarriage

I started this article trying to write about the day I found out Space Baby had died, only to realise that I did not have a landmark moment to articulate. There was no definitive scan, no blood and no kindly professional sitting me down to tell me of our loss. I do not know when our baby died, only that I accepted their death in small increments with each consecutive appointment. The day hope left, more than a week before the physical miscarriage itself, I remember leaving Joel at the train station and heading up to Manchester to speak at a mental health conference as if everything was OK. That night I sat in isolation amongst friends and allies, drinking my first beer in months.

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Tags: Birth, Grief, Healing, Loss, Miscarriage, Pregnancy

Tonight The Grief Is With Me

Tonight The Grief Is With Me

Today I walk through the world with a deep and open wound. It’s a pain that leaves me feeling both full to breaking point with a deep sadness and curiously empty. It is as if my feelings are huddled in the corner, snuggled up with Schrödinger’s Cat – simultaneously there and not there. As I […]

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Tags: Acceptance, Grief, Healing, Loss, Suicide

40,000 Feet And One Decade Later

40,000 Feet And One Decade Later

10 years ago today I found the body of one of my closest friends and allies – Susan. Another casualty of a mental health system ill equipped to support voice hearers overwhelmed by past traumas, Susan died before she fully found her wings. Under the circumstances it seems strangely poignant that I’m writing this whilst […]

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Tags: Grief, Healing, Hearing Voices, Hearing Voices Groups, Personal Experience, Trauma, Travels

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About Me

Hi. My name’s Rai. I hear voices, see visions and have a whole host of unusual experiences that have, at times, overwhelmed me. Once labelled as ‘severely & enduringly mentally ill’, I am now an independent trainer specialising in innovative ways of supporting people who struggle with extreme states (including ‘psychosis’, ‘dissociation’ and post traumatic reactions).

Recent Updates

  • Reaching for starsDon’t Pity Me: Psychosis Gave Me Mad Skills
  • Mad Tunes: My New Podcast on Music & Mental Health
  • Working with Self-Harm: A Relational Approach
  • VT. Me as an ‘inspirational mom’ diagnosed with schizophrenia

Recent Comments

  • Rai on Their heart just stopped: Living through a Missed Miscarriage
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