Gum on My Shoe

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. Breaking the Silence: Talking About Suicide to Create Hope I Can See Clearly: Celebrating My New Glasses from Grey St. Opticians Erich Brenn Would Be Proud: How I Keep My Plates Spinning (Mostly) The Guest at Your Table: A Jumbo Selection of My Writing on Other People’s Blogs Our Top Posts of the Month (August 2023) Free Books for World Suicide Prevention Day Six Times I Felt Proud This Week My Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) How to Use a Spreadsheet for Wellness and Self-Care Effective Strategies to Manage Paranoia in Bipolar Disorder and Schizoaffective Disorder Our most visited pages were: Contact Us Resources About Us Our books News and Appearances Testimonials   Photo by Luke Porter at Unsplash.  

I see you. I see your strength and courage, your hesitations and fears. I see the way you love others, and your struggle to love yourself. I see how hard you work to grow, and your dedication to heal. (Scott Stabile) A couple of years ago in I’m Proud of You: Four Words That Mean So Much I talked about feeling proud of other people and ourselves. Picking up on that theme, I’d like to share six times I’ve felt proud in the past week. 1. Completing my blog post for World Mental Health Day World Mental Health Day falls each year on October 10 and I’m happy (and proud!) to say I finished my blog post early this year. That was partly because I’d been invited to write something for WMHD for the disability network at work (shout out to Debbie for inviting me to contribute!) and I needed to submit in plenty of time. A slightly modified version will go up here on our blog too, so getting it finished this week means I’m ahead of the game here too. No spoilers, but the piece is sl...

Fran and I are immensely grateful for the opportunities we’ve had to share our story and message to a wider audience. In this post I’ve brought together a selection of articles hosted on other people’s blogs and websites. Check out our news and appearances page for more, including our books, reviews, interviews, and podcast appearances. I’m always open to invitations so if you have a blog or project and would like me to contribute please get in touch . Likewise, we love having guest bloggers here at Gum on My Shoe. Check our contact page for submission guidelines. Hosted by bp Magazine 5 Must-Read Rules to Help Your Friend with Anxiety & Bipolar Disorder 11 Simple Ways to Help a Loved One Living with Bipolar Disorder How to Spot Bipolar Red Flags — and What to Do about Them Casting the Glamour: The Enchantment of Euphoric Mania Planning for Wellness by Using Structure to Help Manage Bipolar Symptoms How to Support Your Friend from Afar 5 Things My Friend’s Bipolar ...

As regular readers will know, I recently bought a new pair of glasses . I couldn’t be happier but there were a few issues at first. New glasses can lead to headaches until your eyes adjust. The frames sit differently on my face too and I had some pain across the bridge of my nose as they settled into place. They’re fine now but for the first week or two I occasionally reverted to wearing my old glasses for a few hours. Doing so was a trade-off between seeing clearly, and seeing less clearly but with less discomfort. It got me thinking about how life is often a compromise between caring for some aspects of our health and wellbeing at the expense of others. The trick is not to ignore any one aspect for so long so that it becomes critical. It’s an ongoing challenge to keep all my plates spinning, to borrow an analogy from my friend Maya. If you’re unfamiliar with the reference, check out this video of plate spinning maestro Erich Brenn. My plates are many and varied but I can grou...

To mark World Suicide Prevention Day 2023 Fran and I are offering our book HIGH TIDE LOW TIDE for FREE on Kindle for five days between Sunday September 10 and Thursday September 14, inclusive. Once the offer is over the prices will return to normal. In High Tide, Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder we share what we’ve learned about growing a supportive, mutually rewarding friendship between a “well one” and an “ill one.” With no-nonsense advice from the caring friend’s point of view, original approaches, and practical tips, our book is illustrated with real-life conversations and examples. Buy it here . World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) was established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention in conjunction with the World Health Organisation. This year’s theme is Creating Hope Through Action . Creating Hope Through Action serves as a powerful call to action and reminder that there is an alternative to suicide and ...

Suicidal ideation has less power when it is verbalised. — Fran Houston To mark World Suicide Prevention Day our book High Tide Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder will be free on Kindle between September 10–14, 2023. Established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention in conjunction with the World Health Organisation, World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is observed each year on September 10. The theme for WSPD 2021–2023 is Creating Hope Through Action . According to the World Health Organisation, this “serves as a powerful call to action and reminder that there is an alternative to suicide and that through our actions we can encourage hope and strengthen prevention. By creating hope through action, we can signal to people experiencing suicidal thoughts that there is hope and that we care and want to support them. It also suggests that our actions, no matter how big or small, may provide hope to those who are struggli...

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. To See and Be Seen: My Visit to Grey St. Opticians I Can See Clearly: Celebrating My New Glasses from Grey St. Opticians Six Reasons Your Friend or Loved One May Hide the Truth From You About their Mental Health Our Top Posts of the Month (July 2023) 40 Mental Health Blog Topics From the Caring Friend’s Perspective Just Don’t: Ten Reasons Not to Do the Thing How to Write the Best Acknowledgement Page for Your Book 10 Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your Friend That Don'’t Involve Talking about Mental Health How to Use a Spreadsheet for Wellness and Self-Care How Do You Put Up With Me? Our most visited pages were: Contact Us Resources Our books About Us News and Appearances Testimonials