I can still remember the first time I encountered an anxiety attack. I don’t mean general anxiety from sitting an exam or a job interview. I mean the type of anxiety that – out of nowhere and for no reason whatsoever – presses its thumbs down on the ball in your throat.
We all have things that terrify us – spiders, street performers in Covent Garden, flying. When I tell people I go on holiday alone they often say “that’s my worst nightmare”.
There’s nothing worse. You walk into the work/house/dinner party and you make eye contact with someone. They greet you warmly. You have no way of knowing if this is a friendly person or if it’s someone you’ve met before.
It was a hot, sultry summer, the summer of Kendrick’s Humble, and I was waiting for a Canadian outside a kebab shop. “C’mon.” A strong Glaswegian accent. “C’mon. He’s focking boring.”
Summer is just around the corner. You’ve booked your ten-day getaway to a sunny spot on the continent. You’ve avoided the school holidays cos you’re not a teacher lol. You’ve bought a nice new hat and […]
Yes, it is as horrific as it sounds. Five days consuming nothing but water with the only variation being the water can be hot, cold, tepid or if I want to go absolutely nuts – sparkling. […]
As you may have noticed it is now 2018 and we still don’t know what the fuck we’re doing. We ain’t famous, rich, thin, in a decent relationship and we don’t have any savings because it […]
By Alice Austin Reading time 5 mins Ruben is 28 and is in the 5th year of his double PhD in Computer Science. He is studying between Ghent University and TU Berlin. Ruben saw studying a […]
By Alice Austin Reading time: 5 mins Irene is 31, from Madrid and completed her PhD in Palestinian Theatre at SOAS in 2017. When I spoke to Irene it was the day before she handed in […]
By Alice Austin Most people will never have the luxury of living alone because it’s expensive and/or you’ll be in a relationship most of your life, so I’ve taken the liberty of sharing my top 5 […]
Alice Austin Reading time: 5 mins This week I wrote an article for The I about why studying for a PhD can be bad for mental health. The article was a summary of a series of […]
By Alice Austin Working from home is, for many people, a daily struggle. It’s you vs. you. You are battling only with yourself. No one is watching as you stop doing that important work at 10am […]