"In therapy before, I have been asked to describe my anxiety as if it is a person or a creature. What does it look like? What colour is it? What is it like? Thinking about your anxiety or mental illness as a creature can help you to separate yourself from your illness. I almost think of it now as a pet that I have to learn to train, to teach, to care for and to look after. Looking at your illness from this perspective can be really helpful in finding your own identity, separate from that of your mental illness. And asking yourself questions such as ‘what does my anxiety like? What does my anxiety dislike?’ can begin the process of separating yourself from your illness. It can be very eye-opening realising ‘maybe it’s not me who doesn’t like this? Maybe it’s my anxiety who doesn’t like it.’ For example, I always thought I liked spending time by myself and I didn’t really like going out and doing new things. As an introvert, I do need time alone, but I still love seeing my friends. It ha...