Gum on My Shoe

Trigger warning: some of the linked articles contain references to suicide and suicidal thinking. In the second in our series of themed posts I’ve selected articles that mark various mental health awareness days and events. Scroll through or click the link to jump to the relevant section. Time to Talk Day (February) World Bipolar Day (March 30) Mental Health Awareness Week (May) Mental Health Awareness Month (May) World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10) World Mental Health Day (October 10) International Men’s Day (November 19) Other Dates and Events I’ve provided a short excerpt from each post, with a link to the original article. I will update the list as relevant posts are published in the future. For a list of other awareness days and events check out the calendar at Mental Health UK . Time to Talk Day Time to Talk Day is an awareness event observed each year in early February. It was launched in 2014 by Time to Change, a campaign run in England to ...

By Fran Houston Joy not jealousy. Not so long ago being jealous was part of my repertoire. I saw people eating deliciously. I saw warm luxurious homes. I saw travels that made me ache. Mostly I just ached for simple invitations which never came. Not liking how I felt I decided to be glad for everyone in all their blessings and endeavors. When jealousy came I invited joy. I began doing things by myself, then inviting others, then planning trips. I found myself in a life I love. I found myself in joy.   Originally posted on Facebook Aug 12, 2016. Photo by Preslie Hirsch at Unsplash.  

There are places you haven’t been where you already belong. (Unknown) This article was inspired by a recent Instagram post by Rachel Kelly. Rachel is the author of five books on mental health and wellbeing. She’s also a respected public speaker, and official ambassador for mental health charities including Rethink Mental Illness and SANE. Her post included photographs of the English Lake District. “Being there,” she said, “never fails to put a smile on my face.” Rachel was in the Lake District when she wrote the foreword for our book High Tide Low Tide . I love thinking that she was in her happy place when she did so. Where are my happy places, though? Where is my heart most at ease? Where do I feel most at home? I settled on four places: Memory Lane, Langrigg; Wateredge Inn, Ambleside; Stack Newcastle; and Costa Coffee, Kingston Park. This selection will come as no surprise to close friends and attentive readers, because I’ve talked about them on several previous occas...

In the first of a series of themed posts , I’ve compiled a selection of my open letters, plus two letters and a poem written to me by other people. The open letter format can be useful, not merely to share what we’d like to say — or have said — to someone, but also as a novel approach for presenting other content. I’ve provided a brief introduction and quoted from each letter, but I encourage you to read them in full. An Open Letter to My Father My father died when I was eighteen. This open letter to him was the first time I’d written publicly about my childhood and family life. It was first published in June 2016 by The Good Men Project . I grew up accepting disability and illness as things you put up with without making a fuss about them. But Dad, that wasn’t enough. I didn’t learn how much it fucking hurts to live in chronic pain. I didn’t learn how someone can rail against the injustice of it all, scream at the universe — and then move past that and...

Blogging isn’t rocket science. It’s about being yourself and putting what you have into it. (Anonymous) I’m grateful to my friend and fellow mental health blogger Aimee Wilson for suggesting this collaboration. Over one hundred questions were submitted by readers and social media followers, from which Aimee compiled the twenty we’ve each answered. My answers are below. You can find Aimee’s on her blog I’m NOT Disordered . We’d like to thank everyone who contributed, whether your question made the final list or not. They brought back a lot of great memories and did what all good questions do; they challenged us and made us think! I can imagine some serving as jumping off points for future articles. Our blogs were founded a few months apart in 2013. Aimee’s blog I’m NOT Disordered is amongst the most popular for borderline personality disorder (BPD) and in 2022 was top UK blog for BPD at feedspot.com . Her book Everything Disordered: A Practical Guide to Blogging was published...

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. 10 Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your Friend That Don’t Involve Talking about Mental Health Our Top Posts of the Month (May 2022) Our Top Posts of the Month (June 2022) Exploring Bipolar Disorder and the Sister Diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder. Is My Friend or Sibling Underdiagnosed? 40 Mental Health Blog Topics From the Caring Friend’s Perspective 21 Image Prompts for the Mental Health Blogger How Can I Best Help My Bipolar Friend? Brass Taps and Watering Cans: a Few Thoughts on Friendship, Duty, and Sacrifice Medicine, Morality, Personal Growth: Three Models of Illness and Wellness This Is My Body Our most visited pages were: Contact Us Resources About Us News and Appearances Our books Testimonials   Photo by meriç tuna at Unsplash.  

When I compiled my list of 21 Image Prompts for the Mental Health Blogger , one image in particular caught my attention. Taken by hannah grace , its call to write without fear and edit without mercy inspired me to draw up a short Q&A for anyone wanting to explore their honesty as a writer. Do you tailor your writing for your audience? Are there topics you’d never write about? What are you afraid of? Describe something intensely personal that you’ve blogged about. How did it feel? Do you always tell the truth in your blogging? How important is editing and proofreading to you? Describe your blogging approach or process. What makes a good blogger? Whether you publish your answers on your blog or not (if you do, a link back to this article would be appreciated) it can be a very useful exercise to keep your writing genuine and on track. Are you up for the challenge? My answers are below. 1. Do You Tailor Your Writing for Your Audience? The focus of our b...