Following on from our Bloggers About Town visit to Newcastle’s Life Science Centre in January, and a jaunt to the Blue Reef Aquarium at Tynemouth, I met up with fellow mental health blogger Aimee Wilson last weekend in Blyth, Northumberland. This involved an hour long bus ride for me, which made it quite the adventure!
Aimee met me from my bus (“I feel like a celebrity!” “Lmao you’re a VIP!”) and we wandered down to the quayside to look at the boats (pretty sure that blooming big one was a ship, actually!) and a fascinating sculpture, The Spirit of the Staithes by artist Simon Packard.
After taking photos we retired to the Commissioners Quay Inn for lunch. We were soon deep in conversation — and both checking our phones!
Marty: I like that we can both be on our phones and we “get it.”
Aimee: Yeah, everyone else just thinks you’re being rude! That’s why I’m so glad I have a friend who blogs — blogging is such a big part of my life that it makes a big difference to have someone who can…
Marty: Identify?
Aimee: Yes! Someone who I can identify with. Actually, I want to pick your brain about something… So, I got a message off another blogger the other day — Peter McDonnell, you know him I think — saying he’s meeting up with a Police Officer after being inspired by my work with Northumbria Police. I asked where he lived, in case I knew the Officer. He told me — he doesn’t live up here so it’s fine — and asked why it mattered to me.
Marty: Sure I know Peter, he’s a great guy. And why did it matter to you?
Aimee: It’s nothing to do with Peter at all. It’s more to do with whether I knew the Officer he was planning to see.
Marty: Let’s see if I have got this right. Let’s say I’m the Police Officer and I’ve done a post for your blog and then another blogger approaches me wanting to work with me... is that what you mean?
Aimee: Yeah! I think it’s more about my insecurities; like, I’d be worried I wasn’t good enough. You know? Like, maybe my work and my blog weren’t enough for them.
Marty: I can see where you’re coming from.
Aimee: But then I try and look at it like, “well it’s not a competition!”
Marty nods and gives a thumbs up whilst drinking his pint.
Aimee: I mean, on the one hand, we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to other bloggers. But on the other hand, the comparison can help us to improve what we do. If you see someone’s content you like, you can take inspiration from that and use it to push yourself further.
Marty: Like, when you look at a blog with loads of readers — like yours! —
Aimee: Thanks!
Marty: It makes you ask yourself what you can do to get your blog to the same level.
Aimee: Yeah! I think it’s natural to have some sort of competitiveness — it’s a good thing — but it’s important to not let that get you down and cause you to put too much pressure on yourself.
Marty: And I think it’s important to remember what we’re trying to say through our blogs too.
Aimee: Yeah, like in this case the important thing is to get the message out that the Police are working with mental health services to better their own capabilities when they’re called to attend a mental health crisis. That message is more important than worrying about someone being “better” than you.
Marty: I think so, yes. I do get your concern, though. This is your work. You have worked hard to network and grow connections with individual people and with organisations, like with Northumbria Police. You don’t want someone else taking advantage of your hard work. But Peter isn’t doing that, he has been inspired by your work to do something similar in his own area.
Aimee: Definitely! It’s a compliment, really.
Marty: It is, yes. Bottom line, working with other bloggers to counter stigma is more important than worrying about someone picking up on your good ideas and doing their own thing with them.
Aimee: I’m thinking this would make a good blog post. Feel free to shoot me down but what about if we did it like a script layout?
Marty: Works for me!
And that’s what we did! Aimee checked in with Peter McDonnell, the mental health blogger who’d asked her about working with the Police. She wanted to make sure he was ok with us using the feelings that came up for her as the inspiration for this article. She also wanted him to know how much she appreciated the respect he’d shown by letting her know he intended to do the police piece. Peter was very generous about it and gave permission for us to mention him by name. He also said this, which Aimee found really helpful:
I think if your police friend started working with other bloggers after he’d already worked with you, it’d be because he had a nice experience with you, a blogger, and wanted to do it again, with the next blogger that gave him an opportunity.
Thank you, Peter.
Aimee Wilson is a 28-year-old mental health blogger who has used her personal experiences to develop a popular online profile. Her blog I’m NOT Disordered has close to half a million readers. Aimee’s first book, When All Is Said & Typed, is available at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, and in other regions.
Peter McDonnell, 36, is an author, woodworker and mental health advocate from Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK. You can find him and his website at www.petesmentalhealthtravel.com.
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