Gum on My Shoe

I don’t take vacations away from my friends. I take them with me! If not for coronavirus this would be the final day of my week away at the cottage in Langrigg, Cumbria. I’d be having lunch somewhere, quite possibly the Beehive Inn at Eamont Bridge. Veggie lasagne and chips, and a half-pint of something. Instead, I’m sitting in my garden at home. The cottage booking was cancelled, of course. Hire car too. Instead of a week visiting places up and down the east coast — Holy Island, Bamburgh, Alnwick Garden, Morpeth, Belsay, Blyth — and a week in the Lake District, I’ve spent the fortnight at home in lockdown. No car. No trips out. No visiting friends and family. A weekly walk to the supermarket for groceries. Occasional visits to the local corner shop. My daily walk for exercise. The house. The garden. Before the holiday I’d had three weeks working from home. That wasn’t easy and I’m not looking forward to getting back to it. It was all so new, strange, and scary. The country — in...

In this video best-selling mental health author Julie A. Fast talks about living life with bipolar disorder, a psychotic disorder, anxiety and a head injury during the coronavirus pandemic. She shares how being silly and creative helps her get things done even when depression and anxiety make her want to isolate in her room in front of the television. She hopes that her hair bouquet makes you smile and brings some joy to your day. Here are the additional links Julie mentions in her video: Super Strategies for Super Anxiety Ending Bipolar Depression Isolation Mania: Am I Having Too Much Fun? Julie says, “I love Marty and Fran’s work. Their focus on friendship is life-changing. I love the newsletters and the posts from people around the world who remind me that I’m not alone. We are in this together.” Julie is the author of Get it Done When You’re Depressed , Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder , Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder and The Health Cards Treatment System ...

By Daisy Davidson As a young person living in such unprecedented times, I felt empowered to use my free time for the better. I saw on social media and in the news how people are struggling to cope with being isolated and the impact that this pandemic will be having on people’s mental health. It may be easier to cope if you have close family and friends or if you’re tech-savvy with social media. However, a lot of people are isolated in day-to-day life and the most social contact they get is at a local cafe or pub. I wanted to create a website for everybody and therefore, I made it as simple to use as possible. I made sure no email, phone number or any other personal details were necessary. I hope that people can find comfort in the fact that they’re not alone in how they’re feeling. I felt it crucial that the writers’ anonymity is kept, unless they choose otherwise, as people can often fear the judgement of others. My website Letters to the World took around ten days to creat...

We are going through the pandemic together. — Fran Houston In our recent article for Diane Atwood’s award-winning blog Catching Health , Fran and I shared how the coronavirus lockdown is affecting our 3,000 mile friendship. The title we chose — Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Connected — highlights our commitment to staying in touch with each other, other friends and loved ones. Fran: Marty and I meet every day on Skype to hang out and process what is going on in the world and relax watching movies together. I talk with other friends on the phone. Martin: Connection is also really important to me. I can’t meet friends in person but I’m keeping in touch with as many as possible. I have friends I talk or chat to every day, coronavirus or not. But since the lockdown I’ve also been reaching out to folk I contact less frequently, or who I’ve not heard from in a while. Fran is doing the same. I’m sure it’s true for most of us. I was thinking about this the other day. It occurred to me th...

By Andrea Marie Patience, passion and persistence are three of the many great qualities of my friend Martin Baker. Thank you, Marty, for your invitations to contribute to your blog. Thank you for believing, by asking again every so often, that I would not only agree but follow through. That day has come. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to participate and begin to find my voice. This past February I treated myself with a trip to one of my favorite cities, Amsterdam. It was a wonderful time, and less crowded than I am accustomed to due to the season. I made new friends, visited with old friends and walked all over the city that I love. It graced me with some new energy and renewed hopes and dreams for myself after several years of illness, loss, grieving and survival. Finally, that light that had seemed dimmer was radiating once again. I could feel it. It was peace, happiness and hope inside of me. Maybe I could even pursue a dream or two again. I was very excited as I f...

By Daniel Wittler We are in the midst of a very difficult time. Covid-19 has taken away many of the luxuries we have in life and have taken for granted. Of course, many of these things are materialistic and possible to live without. There are certain groups of people that are being much more affected than most. I can’t tell you how many times a day I wonder how people in early recovery are doing while this is going on. I think about myself in early recovery and there were days where the biggest thing I needed was to go to a meeting and talk to somebody about the giant funk I was in that day and what I could do about it. There is a lot of power in simply talking to one another in recovery. Someone in early recovery feeling trapped and stuck from the outside world is a terrifying thought. Thankfully, with all of the advances of technology we are not truly alone. We are able to connect with our friends and family through internet/webcam services. Sure it’s not the same as being w...

Check out our top posts for the past month. Posts are listed by the number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first. How to Use a Spreadsheet for Wellness and Self-Care How to Keep Well during the Coronavirus Outbreak Talking to Your Children about Mental Illness Ten Anthems for Comfort, Celebration, Inspiration, and Healing Coronavirus: How to Look after Your Wellbeing in Uncertain Times Five Things You Should Be Doing during the Coronavirus Pandemic How Do You Put Up With Me? Coronavirus: Why "Stay Home" Is Not a Safe Option for Everyone How to Write the Best Acknowledgement Page for Your Book Our Top Posts of the Month (January 2020) Our most visited pages were: Contact Us Resources About Us Testimonials Our books News and Appearances  

It doesn’t matter who you are or how well things seem to be going, sometimes we all need a hand to hold. Someone to be there, to listen to our story, to let us let it out, let it go, let it flow. It can be hard to trust someone enough to say, hey, actually I’m not doing too good right now, especially if you know they are busy or have issues of their own. But it’s important. That trust is important. It is not only trust in the other person, it is trust in our ourselves, in the belief that our pain matters too, that we matter too. To the other person and to ourselves. Too often we hold back, hold it all inside, when all it might take is a little sharing to lighten the load enough for us to lift our heads and see the path ahead clearly again.   Originally posted March 23, 2014 on Facebook Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash