Can you thrive in business with PTSD?

On March 28th 2023 I wrote my first blog on my website "How I turned a PTSD diagnosis into a business" I've received so much love on this post over the past 2 years (thank you) I felt it was time to give you all an update.

So, a lot has happened in almost 2 years!

Let's kick off with personal life:

In that last post in March 2023, our son was only 6 months post op. Just 6 months from the major neuro surgery he had that disconnected the left side of his tiny wee brain (he was 2 years old at the time) in a bid to stop the epileptic seizures that were threatening his life.

I'm delighted to report that as of right now when I write this (14th Jan 2025) he is still indeed seizure free and has just very recently came off the last of the 4 anti-seizure medications he was on. He is thriving. It feels to us like he has just burst into life since coming off his seizure meds. These are strong medications we're talking about, brain altering, mood altering, tiring medications and we are just thrilled to be meeting our wee boy for the first time un-medicated.

His surgery has left him with permanent physical disabilities and permanent visual impairment though. We knew that would happen. A right hemiplegia with no function in his right hand and a 50% vision loss on the right side of both eyes. This was the trade off, there's always a trade off with epilepsy, that's just another layer of the cruelty of the condition. Thankfully, we are well supported by a whole network of a medical team from Neurologists to Occupational Therapists, they're like part of our family now. Despite the physical challenges his physical and visual disabilities bring, he is an active and happy 4 year old, making friends and being the boisterous 4 year old we feared he would never be and for that we are forever and ever thankful.

Our daughter, Archers twin sister is also thriving. She had gone through a lot as a baby too living in hospital for weeks and months on end, seeing us all upset and worried so often and having long periods separated from her brother and parents when we were in surgery and ICU. I just hope that neither of them are able to recall any of it.

Sadly, John and I will never ever be able to forget it but slowly but surely we are regaining some sort of normal life. We are off to NYC for a long weekend this week for example, leaving the kids in the capable hands of our family. Something we would never ever have been able to do whilst seizures were still a part of our lives, we could barely leave our front door never mind the country.

Business wise..

I was a bit of a mess after everything we went through, to put put it mildly, and had just recently been diagnosed with PTSD when I wrote my first blog in 2023. As part of managing my PTSD my Dr suggested I did something that brought me joy and expected nothing in return, for me this was photography. I took her advice and ran with it all the way into turning it into a new business.

Was it easy starting a new business whilst managing PTSD and young twins - one recovering from neuro surgery and navigating physical disability and visual impairment, erm no. I'd be lying if I said that it was.

The kids were only 2 and a bit, not in nursery and Archer had a LOT of medical appointments to attend weekly. But, it was something I knew I needed to do for me and so, I did. I got help, I hired a babysitter who had the kids one day per week to allow me to work or just have some breathing space. She was a godsend, thank you Chloe. I worked during nap time and in the evenings too. Building the business helped me so much in managing my PTSD, it was a distraction but also gave me a sense of me again. I love being self employed, I love everything about it, it was important to me that I got that side of myself back again.

Fast forward to now, 2 years on and nap time is long gone (that was a tough transition!) but the kids are in nursery Mon-Fri and my business is very much up and running and in fact has entered a whole new era!

I launched a brand photography membership where you pay monthly and have 2 shoots per year, a great way to keep your photography current! This membership model sky rocketed to the point where 2025 was at full capacity when 2024 was only mid way through. Crazy grateful for that, and one off shoots were filling up nicely too. However something else I noticed was that conversations with my brand photography clients were becoming about way more than just their photos. Clients wanted to know how best to use them on Instagram afterwards, and I was more than happy to help. This often sparked conversations about knowing your ideal client, having a strategy on Instagram and how to really show up confidently to make sales in your business. I was loving offering this advice using the knowledge that I had gathered over my 10 years of using Instagram to grow not one, but two small businesses. Clients were truly benefiting from it too as more and more of them were asking me if I would ever consider being a business mentor so at that point, I also launched a podcast The Growth Addicts Podcast - a platform to share more small business advice AND the first episode landed a spot in the top 50 of the Apple podcast charts!

I was also asked constantly about my Instagram planning process. I take an hour every Sunday night to plan my content for the week ahead to ensure it aligns with my business priorities. I was inundated with questions about what process I used that I turned it into a paper planner, The Sunday Club Social Media Planner - that became an Amazon no.1 bestseller within hours of it's launch!

I took some time out behind the scenes in 2024 to really have a think about the direction my business was going and it became so clear to me where I wanted to take it. I ADORE photography, always have and always will but, it's not something I want to be crazy busy with. I worry that will take my love of it away. So I knew I wanted to scale that right back and have my brand photography membership as the only option. This meant that I could get closer to my clients and their business, really understanding their needs and be able to provide them with photography that matched those needs.

Following on from the brand photography membership doing so well and the launch of the planner (oh and 2 eBooks too!) it was clear to me that helping fellow small business owners really grow was something I was passionate about, particularly on the Instagram platform. And so the idea of "Get Seen Get Sales on Instagram" was born, my new Instagram group mentorship which opened in Oct 2024 and as we speak in Jan 2025 has 30 thriving members!

Phew, I guess I've been busy.

And my PTSD? Oh it's still there. Whenever the phone rings and it's an NHS number (I know them all) or whenever we have to attend one of the big hospitals like Glasgow or Edinburgh, I literally break into a sweat. My mind starts to prepare me for a long stay as soon as I enter the door of a Children's hospital even though my rational brain knows we're just there for a check up and will be in and out in half an hour (I can feel my heart racing just typing this and thinking this)

Whenever our neurologist gives us good news like reducing another med I am completely torn by sheer delight and sheer terror. We were in Lapland with Make a Wish foundation in Dec 2024 which was an incredible experience but did I panic every time Archer touched the snow, yup. My mind instantly went back to a trip to Aviemore when he was around 1 year old and touching the cold of the snow was enough to trigger a series of seizures that required emergency meds. Will this ever leave me? Maybe, one day, maybe not. I'm not sure but I know I'm well supported by my incredible Husband, family and medical team for now and, like most things in life, it's one day at a time.