Gum on My Shoe

To mark this year’s World Bipolar Day (March 30) Fran and I are offering our books for FREE on Kindle for five days between Sunday March 29 and Thursday April 2, inclusive. 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, illustrated with real-life conversations and examples. Buy it here . Friendship is a beautiful part of life and an important component of long-term wellness. No One Is Too Far Away: Notes from a Transatlantic Friendship is a collection of articles from our blog which shows that mental illness needn’t be a barrier to meaningful connection; indeed it can be the glue that holds people together. Buy it here . Once the free offer is over the prices will go back to normal. World Bipolar Day is celebrated e...

World Bipolar Day is celebrated each year on March 30, the birthday of painter Vincent Van Gogh who is thought to have lived with a bipolar condition. To mark the occasion our books will be available to download free from March 29 through April 2. Details will be posted here on our blog on March 28. Check back, follow our social media, or subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss out. The theme for World Bipolar Day 2026 is Bipolar Strong. I want to take the opportunity to explore what those words means to me as a friend and ally. I have no first-hand experience of living with a mental health condition. Everything I know about mental illness in general and bipolar disorder in particular is second-hand. It’s based on books I’ve read and courses I’ve taken, including Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). Most of all it’s based on what I’ve learned from friends who know only too well what it means to live with illness. I would never ...

TW: Mention of overdose, self-harm, and suicidal thinking

By Charity Megan Riley The following is taken from the introduction to my 2025 novel Bipolar Dreamer . In the late 1990s, many young women wanted to be Felicity Porter, a character on a TV show called Felicity , which aired from fall 1998 until spring 2002. The pilot episode reveals a socially awkward, intelligent girl named Felicity, in Palo Alto, California, asking her high school crush, Ben, to sign her yearbook. He writes a note saying that although he never got to know her, he always wondered what she was about and he admired her. After she reads his message, she changes her college plans. The main character in Bipolar Dreamer , Phoebe, is part Felicity — the hopeless romantic part — but she is mostly me. Like me, she is a big fan of the show Felicity and dreams to have the life of the star character — to be on her own, far away from home, and to be doted on by several young men. She is smart but suffers from problems she can’t clearly define. Phoebe’s stressors are main...

This post was inspired by a recent conversation with Fran. We were talking about some of the things she’s done lately. These include joining Finding Female Friends >50 , a nonprofit organisation dedicated to fostering friendship connections for women. (“Welcome! Your new BFF’s [sic] are waiting to greet you.”) Fran’s already attended a number of their online sessions. Some she found valuable, others less so. She mentioned two in particular, one of which she’d loved and one that hadn’t resonated for her. “That’s cool, though,” I said. “You gave yourself the opportunity to hate them!” I love that she’s open to trying things out to see what works for her and what doesn’t. It can be uncomfortable discovering you don’t quite fit in with a particular situation or group. Fran nevertheless recognises it’s not a failure if she decides not to continue with something. I’m not good at this myself. I tend to only try things I’m likely to enjoy or find valuable. That more or less rules out ...

Check out our top blog posts for the past month. Posts are listed by the number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. — Napoleon Hill In my final post of 2025 I commented that while I was happy to assert my identity as a writer and blogger I wasn’t ready to accept the label of “influencer” despite it having been suggested on several occasions. That all changed when I learned (via this guest post by my friend and fellow blogger Aimee Wilson) that there are different categories of influencer. The article Aimee cited was Types of Influencers: Mega, Macro, Micro, and Nano Explained by The Viral Union (TVU). The types are distinguished by their respective number of followers and thus their perceived influence. Mega Influencers (1M+ followers) Macro Influencers (100k to 1M) Micro Influencers (10k to 100k) Nano Influencers: (under 10k) That last category caught my attention. I’m pretty sure I have fewer than ten thousand followers. Does that make me a nano influencer? It sounded kind of cool, especially when I read that TVU — w...

You don’t need to do this perfectly. You just need to keep choosing yourself often enough that life remains liveable. That’s the work. And you’re already doing it. — Cheryl Stott I recently shared my thoughts inspired by William Styron’s “Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness.” Since then I’ve been reading a very different yet no less engaging book on mental health. Living with Bipolar and other mood disorders by Cheryl Stott was published in paperback on January 26 this year. This review is based on the Kindle edition which came out a few days later. I was immediately drawn to the clean presentation of the text. There’s little to get in the way of the content itself. This is in keeping with the author’s aim to help people newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder understand what their diagnosis means — and what it doesn’t mean. Living with Bipolar is not a clinical manual and it’s not a Memoir. It’s the conversation many people never get when they are diagnosed. This Extended E...

It all happened so quickly. One moment I was walking to the car after a meal out with friends. The next I was lying face down in the dirt. It took a few seconds for me to realise what had happened. My life didn’t pass before my eyes — no Chicken Run “it was really boring” revelation — but as I lay there my priorities were surprisingly clear. I was most concerned for my (rather expensive) glasses. Then my beloved tweed jacket. Then whether I’d dropped anything out of my pockets. Then that I must be covered in mud. It was a while before I realised my left hand was hurting quite badly where I’d extended it to break my fall. As I got slowly to my feet I figured I probably hadn’t broken anything but I had no clear idea how I’d ended up on the floor. My friends were no less bemused. Jack and Aimee had been on the opposite side of the car and saw nothing. Walking behind me, Spencer had seen everything. Except there’d been nothing to see. A stumble, then me flat on my face. They were all ...

TW: Mention of suicidality and self-harm

Check out our top blog posts for the past month. Posts are listed by the number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first.

This is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time. — Libba Bray I love to share content I find interesting and relevant. In a recent post about coffee shop conversations I mentioned two friends whose craft and creativity deserve a wider audience. I’ve previously shared ten content creators who make me happy . This time I’m sharing ten artists and creators who inspire, motivate, and challenge me in different ways. Their areas of interest and engagement vary widely. Topics include physical and mental health, suicide awareness, women’s autonomy, gender identity, trans rights, animal welfare, and body positivism. More than anything they explore and express what it means to be human. What it means to be unique. What it means to be alive. In no particular order they are: Marisa Ramirez Fraser Morgan Riona O Connor Mali and Joe Emily Kimelman Mark Hogben Man Who Has It All Rocky Kanaka Closer To Truth Andrea Gibson Marisa Ramirez (Kimmel) ...

If you’re a regular visitor to Gum on My Shoe you might notice things look rather different today. We’ve given our website a new look which we believe is fresh, clean, and easier to find your way around. We hope you agree. Rest assured, our mission, values, and goals haven’t changed. We’re still focused on sharing honest conversations about mental health and the power of supportive friendships. Those moments of showing up, listening, and reminding each other we’re not alone. What’s Changed? All our main pages have been reviewed and updated. The contact page has information for guest bloggers. Get in touch if you’d like to write for us. We’d love to hear from you. The old News and Appearances page has been renamed Portfolio to better reflect its contents. The old keyword cloud has been moved to a dedicated Topics section in the side menu. There’s a new disclaimer page. Where Is Everything? Top of the Page You’ll find links to the main pages (Home, About, Res...

TW: Mention of suicide and suicidality

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations A few weeks ago I was on one of my regular video calls with Fran. It was seven o’clock in the morning for her. Midday for me, three thousand miles away on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Fran described her morning routine. Afterwards, I captured a few notes, knowing I’d want to explore the idea further. Blog post: How I Start My Day. Inspired by Fran describing her early morning activities. Her start is gentle, flowing, all quiet movement. Plumping her pillows and making her bed when she gets up. Putting her coffee machine on. Turning on her fairy lights. A twenty second pause as she turns on her artificial fish tank and watches their dance. Collecting her coffee. Moving to the couch for our first call of the day. Mine is nowhere near as relaxed or contemplative. I smile at that final line in my notes. I’d hesita...

By Aimee Wilson What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us. — Helen Keller Hello! I’m Aimee, fellow mental health blogger (at www.imnotdisordered.co.uk ). My guest post today, however, is to mark the official launch of my huge new project, Gracie’s Way. I decided to use this guest post to write about all the things — big, small, technical, emotional, and practical; EVERYTHING! — I’ve needed in the creation journey. Experience and Inspiration Of course, the most obviously helpful thing to have in creating this project, was the horrible experience of losing my youngest bunny, Gracie. For around two days I had noticed wet stools (a symptom of Gut Stasis which my first rabbit died from) but because I had two rabbits (Luna being the name of the eldest) I couldn’t tell who was doing it. So, it wasn’t until October 31 that Gracie finally started showing all the other symptoms of Gut Stasis. She stopped eating, she sta...