About Steph

Who is Steph? 💜

Welcome to my website and thanks for visiting. If you’re here, then you’re wondering who I am and why I’m doing all this, so I wrote this little overview about me.

First, I’m a writer and illustrator specialising in mental illness, mental health and being a chronic pain survivor (or spoonie). 

Through my website and blog I promote physical and mental well-being and I talk honestly about my own decade-long journey with multiple mental illnesses as well as being a mum for a special needs child, living with Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome ((H)eds), Long Covid, and life as an ambulatory wheelchair user.

In 2023 I was awarded twice for my mental health advocacy and campaigning work by the mental health charity, Mind.

I’m proud to be a regular artist/writer contributor to the national creative charity Disability Arts Online blog.

In April 2022 I was chuffed to reveal my status as the first ‘Creative Volunteer and Mental Health Advocate‘ for Cruse (South East) – the UK’s national bereavement support charity. Having used their services in the past, their support is invaluable at a time when it’s desperately needed. Becoming part of the team in a creative capacity gives me the chance to give something back for the times they helped me, but also be part of the change in the mental health narrative, especially for those grappling with grief.

This website is pledged to the Mental Health Media Charter and it’s been placed in Feedspots top 25 Mental Health sites in the UK for over a year.

My illustrations have been used as cover art for magazines and I have an online exhibition with the creative disability charity OutsideIn. I’m also a regular artistic contributor to the online mental illness gallery, Mental Inkness and in 2022 I provided artwork for the National Survisor User Network Exhibition.

My Creative Coping Strategies Campaign grew significantly in 2023, and has since been renamed COPE – Creativity Opposing Painful Existence. The COPE Campaign  promotes creative ideas to support physical AND mental wellbeing and tells anyone who needs a distraction just how simple and fun creativity can be. 

The COPE campaign promotes silly, fun, distracting, enjoyable creativity that’s available to anyone, anytime and you can do anything…legal and safe, of course. I use writing, illustration and now Crap Poems, Haiku Hope, and Weird Words have become ways of coping for me too (yes, unfortunately I need several!). But ‘Creativity’ is the umbrella for a million things that can distract you from a stressful or anxious moment and I highly recommend finding your creative bliss and having the tools ready and waiting for when that time comes. Visit the COPE campaign page for more information.

I’m studying for an Open Degree covering Mental Health, Creative Writing and Design. I am about to start year 6 and am so far able to include ‘Cert HE (Open)’ after my name. As someone with limited previous academic achievements, I’m incredibly proud of this.

I’m a grief expert, having been through a series of 6 grief episodes, all close to me, in the space of a few years. This is something that I carry with me every day and the principal reason for my own mental illnesses and the resulting challenges.

Unfortunately, the thing that makes me most interesting to people is my housebound status. EDS and continuing symptoms of Long Covid combined with agoraphobia have currently kept me indoors for 2.5 years.

I’m a mum and a partner – these people are the reason I do what I do and wake up, get up and try, every single day.

I also have a lot of opinions. You’ll find most of them on this site somewhere!

“Look in the mirror and realise that the person facing you will always be there, knowing the things that make you amazing, kind, worthy of love and (most importantly) incredibly sexy 💋.“

Steph C, CreativeSteph.co.uk, https://creativesteph.co.uk/2022/01/14/rejection-and-the-fear-of-rejection/ January 2022

Steph’s health

While I’m really proud of the things I’ve achieved on here so far, they’re all a result of my declining health and a desire to help anyone else struggling with similar debilitating symptoms.

I have multiple physical diagnosis including Sacroilitis (arthritis in the sacrum), and degenerative disc disease. These problems alone cause me difficulty mobilising and, when I do venture outside again, there is a wheelchair I’ll need to use. At home I use crutches and furniture surf when I need to, But most of the time you’ll find me sat in thie same spot on the bed.

In 2021 I had my first covid infection, and I’ve managed to catch it twice since without ever leaving home (bloody annoying). Those infections lead to a diagnosis of Long Covid at the end of 2022. LC is an umbrella term for a selection of symptoms and diagnosis that covid seems to cause, but things aren’t concrete of simple yet. For me, I already know that it’s caused M.E./CFS, POTS, Dysautonomia, hairloss, tinnitus, hearing loss, increased fatigue and pain, insomnia, appetite loss, weight loss (followed by weight gain) and quite a nasty version of depression, which is causing me a lot of pain too. Having post covid also uncovered a genetic disease called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), the symptoms of which became more prevelant after my Covid-19 infections.

I also have multiple Mental Illness diagnoses including BPD (borderline personality disorder), panic disorder, mild Tourette’s, acute agoraphobia, depression and severe social anxiety.

It’s important to be open about my mental illnesses and poor mental health. I hope my honesty might help someone else one day. I hope this website helps people find lots of mini distractions if they need them.

Secrets about Steph

If you got this far then congratulations! You deserve a treat… here are a few secrets about me most people don’t know.

1. I can’t touch buttons, and have to leave the room if I see one. I only wear clothes that don’t have them. It raises a lot of laughs when people hear about it, but it’s a real phobia called ‘koumpounophobia’!
2. Although I love writing and illustrating, when I’m fatigued and need to truly REST, you’ll find me watching trashy TV or comedy. I love series that I can get lost in such as Selling Sunset, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Catfish UK or USA, Travel shows and videos about illustration.
3. I have a dog called Pepper. Shes 10 years old, and in 2015 she saved my life (true story).
4. I’ve been with my current partner for 10 years, and we have a 7 year old energetic, kind, neurodivergent kid. Prior to this relationship I was married for a decade!
5. My life indoors has cost me everything except what I’ve mentioned above. I have no friends and my family are all now passed away. This makes life very insular and upsetting, and it’s one of the main reasons I do this work and try to help others and achieve more when I know I should really be resting.

Thanks so much for visiting. If you have any questions or want to know more then you can email me directly. Go to the contact me page for more information.

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