Faded Spring

    How A Caress Gave Me Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

    A Guest Post By Elizabeth Brico When I was 20 years old, I was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an intrusive mental health condition that causes a host of disruptive symptoms. Many of them are debilitating. Imagine wanting to go out and get a slice of pizza down the street, but instead staying in and having a PB&J because the idea of being around people makes you too anxious. That happened to me last night. Imagine staying up until dawn because your sleep is haunted by nightmares that re-enact the worst moments of your life. That was how I spent my summer. Imagine having to quit your job because every time you saw a six-foot white guy, you hallucinated the ... read more

    Nailing The A/W 2017 Boot Trend With Public Desire

    As the skies transform into a cloudless grey and the nights turn into an endless solitude, the crunch of nearby leaves is the only sound that I can hear outside my window. I pick the leaves up and marvel at how the green blooms from summer have now marbled into a greenish orange and I let them fall underneath my high heeled boots, delirious at the feel of autumn underfoot. For autumn is the season where I sip on pumpkin soup and watch the steam rise from my bowl, enveloping me in a heady comforting aura, autumn is the season where I pull on my knee high socks and put on my warm velvet boots to keep me stylish during the cold and autumn is the season where fashion comes alive, where like the ... read more

    Its 2017: So Why Aren’t We Period Positive Yet?

    I never had what I would call a 'positive relationship' with periods growing and after getting my first period aged 14, I found it hard to embrace my unwelcome visitor. But here's the thing, I was never taught that 'having periods' was a 'good thing' and when my periods would last weeks, sometimes months - yes that is a thing, I felt 'gross'. And when I would hear my friends moaning about how they had to endure a '5 day period' I felt like asking them how they would feel if their vagina never stopped bleeding. Heck when I told them that the average length of my 'period' was 14 days and heavy, even on the last day they looked at me like I was some sort of freak and truth is I felt like I was ... read more

    How To Deal With Debt After University

    It was at university that I found I didn't need a boyfriend to make me happy, it was at university that I made friends that I would keep for life and it was at university that I learned how to be more self-sufficient on a budget. But if you had asked me five years ago whether I wanted to go to university, I would have laughed in your face. The sixteen year old me was taught that life after school did not mean further education, but it meant that I would have to buck my ideas up and go into full time work. You see, my role models were quite traditionalist and believed that education was only beneficial until a certain point-that being GSCES- and that full time work was the pathway I should ... read more

    Faded Spring’s London Fashion Week Lookbook

    A few days ago, I was all set to fly out to my holiday in Tuscany, when the unthinkable happened and I was forced to cancel my first holiday in five years. Sure I was upset at first and my mental health was at an all time low, but a talk with good friends and some much needed laughter soothed my wounded spirit. But it struck me that all the events and shows I had turned down because of my holiday, might have been a blessing in disguise and I set about re-contacting the event management teams to explain that circumstances had changed. I am a firm believer that 'things happen for a reason' and 'what is meant to be, will be', so perhaps the holiday not going ahead was a sign that maybe this ... read more

    It’s Ok To Have Mental Health Issues

    We all go through life being told to ‘chin up and smile’ because positive thinking can cure all your troubles. Depressed? You will be right as rain in no time, lost a loved one don’t worry time is a great healer. No matter your predicament there appears to be a solution for everything. The truth is ultimately a lot darker and when it comes to grieving, mental health or other related issues I believe that society chooses to turn the other cheek. Now hear me out, how many of you have been told to smile because it will make you feel better only to realize that you are just acting out the part of a character that is not ‘you’. How many of you are forced to pretend you are something you are not, ... read more

    Feel Good With Prezzybox This Autumn

    Regular readers of my blog will know that I am open with my struggles with depression and anxiety and as much as I would like to pretend that I have been 'completely fine' recently, the truth is I am not.  I have been struggling to stay happy and it frustrates me that I feel this way. After all I have so much to be thankful for; I am in a job that I love, have readers who I adore and was placed as 33 in the top UK Blogs. I should be grateful that I have had so many opportunities come my way but I am struggling to show gratitude, especially when my life seems to be falling apart at the seams. I am overwhelmed and struggling to stay afloat but those who know me understand how I still fight ... read more

    4 Reasons Why You Should Quit Smoking For Stoptober

    I remember aged 14, surrounded by friends in a circle playing a game of truth or dare. A 'ciggie' was lit and passed around the circle and we were all dared to take a 'puff'. I remember rolling it through my fingers and taking it in my mouth, feeling the dustiness of its open flame cascading away from the circle. It was the first and only time I ever tried smoking and in my own words at the time it was 'f**king disgusting' and I never touched a cigarette again. But for some it's not that simple, friends who were in that circle, nearly 10 years later are still smoking, while some people have been smoking like a chimney from a young age and even now, aged 75 is a woman, who says that 'she ... read more

    Finding New Places To Eat And Drink At With Hollabox

    The night began like this; it was a cold blustery evening and the night was still young. As I put on my dancing shoes and stepped into the big city, I could feel the air charged with promise. It was going to be a good night, I could feel it in my bones. I grabbed my lipstick and ran into the darkness, excited at the thought of new beginnings. You see, me and my friend G, were off on our first dating adventure together to a 'wonderful, magical night' of what we hoped would be filled with romance and roses. Except unlike the romance novels, where every tale had a happy ending, we stepped into-and I kid you not- the worst dating event I have ever been to in my life. As I cringed inwardly at ... read more

    A True Story About Alcohol Addiction

    Two lovers were married for all eternity and promised to stay together til' death do us part and true to word, they died within 2 years of each other. The grandad went first, bedridden and battling cancer, while the grandma became his carer, changing his dressings and attending to her husband with love in her eyes. When he died she was heartbroken and within a year deteriorated until she was bedridden herself. This proud, independent but giving woman had spent all her life caring for the man that she had loved and when he died she had no chance to live out the rest of her days with happiness in her heart. Instead, two years later she too died of (bowel) cancer and had regressed into ... read more