“I have struggled with Generalized Anxiety Disorder since I was 16 years old. It started off as mild anxiety and eventually developing into GAD. Due to this anxiety, I also developed an eating disorder. I began having this fear of choking, while also becoming highly sensitive to certain food textures. Because of this, I lost a lot of weight and my GAD started getting worse.

Then came Covid… In Spain, we were in lockdown for about 3 months. I did not leave the house AT ALL those 3 months, so you can imagine how badly I started spiraling… It was during lockdown that I had my first ever panic attack. I still remember it so clearly to this day. It was one of the scariest things I had ever experienced. Eventually I started seeing a therapist. I tried hypnotherapy and a few other things and my mental health started improving slowly, but it was still very up and down.

I would say the one thing that made a huge difference in my recovery was weightlifting. Growing up I DETESTED sports. Everything about exercising was so off putting to me. I was the girl in PE who would find every opportunity (I´d literally fake ankle sprains) to not have to exercise. The thought of running and sweating just did not really appeal to me, but for a while I had come across many fitness girls on my Instagram page and it sparked curiosity in me. I was bored and in need of a hobby, and realised weight training would be a great new thing to start.

I also realised how psychically in secure I was. I disliked how thin I was and wanted to gain some weight/muscle. And there began my journey into the world of fitness. To this day I still workout every week and feel so much better whenever I do!

For the next few years my anxiety was still very up and down. I don´t think I ever had one day where I had 0 anxiety. I started struggling with really bad stomach problems in 2023. I did a few medical tests, and they all came out fine besides some inflammatory markers that suggested inflammation in the body. I was told it was probably IBD or something similar, but turns out it was just a load of inflammation due to stress. So I was put on steroids for 3 months to bring down the inflammation. It was a rough few months lol.

My anxiety would change all the time. Sometimes it would be a painful pinching in my chest or half of my body going numb, intrusive thoughts, health anxiety, heart palpitations, hyperventilating throughout the day, tension headaches, bad stomach pains, numb legs, pins and needles in different parts of my body, nausea, extreme dizziness, and the list goes on…

At the beginning of 2025 I started thinking about medication. I had never really considered medication because I´d tell myself if I can deal with it naturally then that’s what I´ll stick to. But it got to a point where I was doing a lot of the right things and still having daily anxiety attacks, intrusive thoughts and just feeling so exhausted everyday. 

So I booked an appointment with a psychiatrist. I was scared OUT OF MY MIND to go on medication. A lot of what I read online was extremely negative and off putting, but I addressed these concerns with the psychiatrist and she was absolutely great at easing my worries!

I started Zoloft (Setraline), an antidepressant, at the end of January 2025. So far I´ve had a really great experience with this medication. My anxiety has reduced so much and I have been slowly starting to feel like a “normal” person again! If you are curious about my antidepressant journey check out my blog where I post constant updates of my experience.”

“Okay so you might be thinking what does Simply Rat even mean? Well.. it basically just means “simply anxious”.

The rat symbolizes the “monster” that we consider to be anxiety. It’s my way of reminding myself that my anxiety is nothing to fear, it´s just simply a rat, it’s just simply anxiety.

So when I am anxious, I´ll tell myself, I´m feeling simply rat today!

I started Simply Rat because I want to help people see anxiety in a more positive way. I want to help reduce the fear of anxiety. The fear of anxiety itself often causes people to be trapped in this never ending anxious cycle.

Don’t get me wrong, I have to fight daily with my mind to remind myself that anxiety is not a monster, it’s there to protect you, and that is what I want to help remind people.”