To ask what your best investment in yourself has been?

[HeyItsPickleRick]

Come on mumsnet, creep my lifestyle!

Inspired by the personal stylist post - I’m wondering what is the best thing you’ve bought for yourself?

Mine has 100% been my peloton and all the dumbbells. First exercise I’ve ever stuck to!

May I ask if it was your thyroid?

May I ask if this was ADHD or thyroid?

Weight loss injections.
Skin care (I use Liz Earle so not mega expensive but a step up from the big blue pots of Nivea I used throughout my 20's and 30's!)

A gym membership at a fancy gym. Some really nice work out clothes. A look fantastic subscription. And something I stopped buying 5 years ago - alcohol

Private HRT specialist. Amazing, changed my life after two years of being fobbed off.

£400 back in 2006 on a private on the day amniocentesis in Harley Street done by the doctor who invented the procedure. He strode in holding a huge needle which he plunged into my womb announcing that all the miscarriage risks are down to doctor error, but that it wouldn’t happen there.

I was pregnant at 42 with my second child and had a very stressful full-time job, and I just needed to know it would be safe with quick results. I’ll never forget the phone call three days later to say it was all ok and in a strong Greek accent that “she was a little girl”. My heart melted.

“She IS a little girl” I meant!

Pair of Doc Martens. Empowering. I can do anything in my Docs. Have given instructions I'm to be buried in them. Not dying btw, just making sure my children are clear.

Weightloss surgery, here in the UK, not cheap but worth every penny as I got rid of health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and improved my mobility and quality of life .

Wow that is mega interesting. I find standing really hurts my hips but if I started doing it more maybe it would help - did you find it uncomfortable to begin with?

My degrees.

My education - incurring my student loan to pay for uni, and then post grad qualifications. (And then being able to pay it back with the career I got as a result).

Neither, an autoimmune disease, although I am now under investigation for a thyroid issue as well.

Another one for psychotherapy. Needs to be a clinical psychologist not counsellor. Both have their own positives but clinical psychologist have years of extensive training, a PhD, usually a specialism and a clinical evidence based extensive and in depth understanding of human behaviour/neuropsychology etc

Looking after my teeth. Private dentistry.

Part time work! Work life balance is so important!

Counselling, private full medical, sessions with a functional practitioner.

@PluckyCheeks no not thyroid but severe vitamin deficiencies due to malabsorption - my IBS was diagnosed as IBD I’ve been gluten free for years but now lactose intolerant and trying FODMAP to see what else affects me
NHS have now agreed that I have long covid but private think it’s more auto immune and a rarer form of connective tissue disorder

I stopped buying throwaway fashion in favour of high-quality pieces that fit better, that I actually wear

I went on life changing psilocybin retreats in the Netherlands, some in a group and 121, they have been truly transformative.

I have been able to connect with my feelings in ways that I just couldn't in therapy. I'm a better parent, partner, friend, colleague and I am so much nicer to myself. I can say that now I love myself and I love the parts of me that I disliked before.

I am so thankful that I was able to go and couldn't have done it without the mushrooms and therapist(s)/facilitators.

Going to vocational school in 2023/2024 (investment in time rather than money as it was free) and retraining in a new career. Now have a job I love.

Also, schema therapy about ten years ago when I was suffering with depression and anxiety, really helped and turned things around for me.

Botox.

I was honestly one of those women who swore they would grow old gracefully without any tweakments. Then I caught myself in the mirror a few times looking really angry and a bit haggard because of my 11s and forehead lines, so after much deliberation, I had botox at 40.

It's made me look so fresh. Not younger, but fresh.

Now if I ever had to choose between botox and eating, I'd happily starve!

Another one for weight loss injections and therapy. Found a therapist by googling what kind if therapy I might want, then finding a group practice near me that offered it, then had an assessment session and clicked with that therapist. I now look back on decisions I made in the first 40 years of my life and think they were made effectively with blinkers on, especially the two men I married and the jobs I chose. Maybe that's youth,and I don't regret some of those decisions, but at least now I understand some fundamental things about how I tick.

Losing 2.5 stone has been absolutely great and I have normal blood pressure.

My Australian visa and passport.

Use counsellingdirectory.co.uk and input your postcode to find a therapist close to you so you don’t have to do online

forcing myself to take up hobbies that get me out the house (work from home). Getting dogs so again I get out every day and get my vitamin D and steps in.

Botox and Aesplla (I can’t have fillers so Aesplla is polylactic acid injected under the skin, has taken years off me)