Dear Happy Friend Project

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month feels like the right time to share this 🤍

Something I didn’t expect to go through… but I’m glad I can talk about it now.

If this helps even one mam feel less alone, it’s worth it 🥹

✨Saying goodbye to 2025, and walking gently into 2026✨

This time last year, I didn’t know if I’d still be here. Now I’m 32 weeks pregnant, still healing, still growing but finally hopeful.

This isn’t a post about everything being perfect. It’s a post about surviving and slowly learning how to live again.

🖤 New blog now live: Saying Goodbye to 2025 & Walking Gently into 2026

https://dearhappyfriend.com/2025/12/31/saying-goodbye-to-2025-walking-gently-into-2026/

🌍 World Mental Health Day - 10 October 2025

It didn’t feel right to let World Mental Health Day pass without saying something, especially when mental health has shaped so much of my life these past 22 months.

In January 2024, I was diagnosed with depression. The truth is, it had been creeping in long before that, hidden behind smiles, masked with “I’m fine” and buried under the belief that if I just kept going, I’d be okay.

Spoiler: I wasn’t.

Gaslighting myself, dissociating, being signed off work and eventually, medically retired. It was the scariest, most disorienting time of my life. I lost myself completely.

However, somewhere in that darkness, something small and stubborn stayed alive and with therapy (still ongoing), with Nathan (my absolute rock) and with the support of my mam, my dad and the people who love me, I slowly started to find my way back.

Now I know who I am and even when I forget, I know how to come back to her. There are still ups and downs, there always will be but I’m not afraid of them anymore. I’ve learned that I’m stronger than the voice in my head (aka Frank; sorry to all the lovely Franks out there). Frank still tries but I know he’s not me and I know how to fight back now.

2024 was the worst year of my life and the one that gave me my life back. The year I unraveled… and began again.

Now, here I am: five months pregnant. After navigating some of the hardest chapters: depression, grief, trauma, infertility, the future I never thought I’d reach is finally beginning. I’m so thankful I stayed.

If you're reading this and you're in the dark, please know that light exists. You might not see it yet but it's there. Healing is slow, messy and not always linear. But it is possible and you're worth it.

On this World Mental Health Day, I’m just sharing my story in case it helps one person reach out because it’s not weakness to say “I’m not okay.” It’s the beginning of finding your way home.
🖤

About Happy Friend 🩷

About Happy Friend Hello, my dear friend! I’m Marie and for most of my life, I have been the ‘happy friend.’ You know the one, always smiling, always making people laugh, always saying ‘I’m fine’, but behind th…

New blog up: “If I Don’t Laugh, I’ll Cry”

Music has always been where I’ve gone to feel, to process, to escape, to heal.

But when I was in the depths of depression, even music lost its colour. The songs were still playing, but I wasn’t singing. Just white noise in the background of a heavy mind.

This blog is a reflection on the songs that started to bring me back.

The ones that felt like they got it.
That told me I wasn’t broken, just human.

From Anne-Marie's raw honesty in Depression (released today), to Lewis Capaldi's Survive, to the gentle support in Andy Grammer's Don’t Give Up On Me — these lyrics felt like a hug when I needed it most.

If you’ve ever found yourself crying over spilled milk, smiling through the sadness, or trying to explain a feeling you can’t quite name… this one’s for you.

💛 Read the full post at https://dearhappyfriend.com/2025/09/19/if-i-dont-laugh-ill-cry/

(⚠️Trigger warning for themes around depression and mental health.)

Hi, I’m Marie and welcome to Dear Happy Friend.

✏️A blog for the ones who look fine, but aren’t.
The overthinkers. The “strong ones.” The ones who’ve smiled through it, even when it hurt.

Last year, I was diagnosed with depression. Since then, I’ve been healing — slowly, painfully, and (reluctantly) out loud.

I started writing blogs in May. Raw reflections on mental health, trauma, therapy, recovery and now… pregnancy after infertility.
This isn’t a curated highlight reel. It’s messy and honest and quietly hopeful.

It’s the blog I wish I could’ve read when I was deep in the fog, thinking I had to hold it all together.

If you’ve ever been the Happy Friend, the one who everyone leans on; this space is for you.

🔗You can start reading here: https://dearhappyfriend.com

My latest post is live now but honestly, start wherever you land.

You’re not broken. You’re not alone.
And you’re definitely not “too much.”

With love,
Marie 🖤

Dear Happy Friend From high-functioning to healing. For every ‘happy friend’ who felt alone in the dark.