Finding Myself in Menopause

I don't feel like myself lately. Is it menopause, or is it me?

Perhaps you lose your train of thought in a meeting and think about it all the way home. Perhaps the clothes you used to reach for feel different on you, or you find yourself wondering why an ordinary request feels like one thing too many.

Finding Myself in Menopause is an illustrated, trauma-informed guide to the emotional side of menopause. It makes space for changes in how you feel about your body, your confidence and who you are, with reflections you can work through privately and at your own pace.

Dr Anastasia Petrake is an NHS Principal Clinical psychologist with an interest in how we find our footing during life transitions and how we speak to ourselves when things feel unfamiliar. She brings that perspective to this book with a simple question: what might it be like to speak to yourself as you would to someone you care about?

Through quiet illustrations, fictional examples and practical prompts, you'll explore how to:

• Notice changes in your mood and attention alongside what else is happening in your life.
• Make sense of changes in body image, confidence and identity.
• Reflect on the expectations you carry at work, at home and in relationships.
• Find words for what you need and decide what you'd like to share with someone you trust.

The book closes with three full-page illustrated reflection cards: Noticing My Emotional Weather, Living in a Changing Body and Making Room for Myself. Each offers three short questions you can return to whenever you want a moment to yourself.

Start with the chapter that feels closest to your experience. On days when reading a whole chapter feels like a lot, you can spend a moment with an illustration or take one question with you.