Is it B12?

I was age eleven when I started collapsing at school. I ate a good diet and I was very active in squash, swimming, and various other sports.
I was a quiet studious girl and was often picked on for not being normal. Mainly being called a ghost due to any lack of colour in my complexion.
I had been feeling unwell for some time and had started my periods at the age of ten, early really. I had lots of problems with pain, fainting, and anaemia with an admission to the hospital for a blood transfusion. I suffered from chronic IBS. “Typical teenager” I here you say.
I do believe that my journey with B12 deficiency started here. However, my parents had no idea that B12 deficiency existed let alone Pernicious anaemia, no one tested for it and I was not offered any treatment so on it went. I was constantly tired, I couldn’t concentrate at school where once I was a brilliant sportsperson I became lazy and where I once always wanted to win I didn’t care anymore.
I was unengaging and my teachers were concerned enough to send for my mother, I truanted regularly. At the age of twelve, I decided I didn’t want to live like this anymore. I felt constantly unwell in a fog I couldn’t achieve what I wanted neither academically nor socially.
I went home from school at lunch and drank two bottles of cough mixture. Did I want to die? No, I don’t think so. I just wanted to be normal. I returned to mid-day registration very light-headed and feeling very sick. My Teacher was looking directly at me calling my name but I could not answer. I was rushed to the nurses’ room, and I could hear my mother weeping. An ambulance was called and I was taken to the hospital. They proceeded to pump out my stomach and give me charcoal to drink. I was once again labelled a troubled teenager and given antidepressants, sleeping tablets and, my parents were given a number of a counsellor. At the first appointment, I was asked why I had wanted to take an overdose. I answered,

“there is something wrong with me and no one was listening”.

I had six of these counselling sessions and not once did I feel that I was being listened to. And so it continued……………

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This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.