MY ULTIMATE GUIDE TO STARTING OFF IN THE COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING INDUSTRY | MARKING 2.7 MILLION READERS!!!

“It is better to do little things with love than big things without love.”
Lailah Gifty Akita

When my mental health was really terrible (2009 – 2013) a huge mindset which exacerbated my suicidal thoughts and feelings – which led to very genuine attempts – was around the idea that my purpose in life was to kill myself young so as to bring attention to the failures in mental health services. For at least four years, I honestly believed that’s why I’d been put on this earth. And it made me feel hopeless, uninspired, and unmotivated to try to do anything different with my life. Finally, as a sectioned psychiatric hospital inpatient, I had therapy around the mindset (I blogged about it at the time too, you can read it here) and having started blogging just over one year earlier, I found myself able to overcome the mindset and replace it with the notion I’d slowly developed; that my blogging career – and all the good I was achieving with it – was why I’d survived everything. Communications and marketing, that was my passion and my purpose and having that opinion of the industry has led to me being passionate, dedicated, and determined to do well in it. So, as I’m NOT Disordered reaches the 2.7 million readers mark, I thought I’d finally share some of my knowledge and experience in the form of advice about starting off in this industry…

A TREASURE TROVE BLOG POST: MAID OF HONOUR INSIGHT INTO THE BEST-FRIEND’S PRE-WEDDING WARM-UP!!! | IN COLLABORATION WITH TURTLE BAY NEWCASTLE

“There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now okay to express ourselves publicly. We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.”

Tammy Baldwin

For more info and to make a booking:

Turtle Bay Newcastle | Caribbean Restaurant & Bar - Turtle Bay UK

I’m very pleased and proud to say that this blog post is in collaboration with Turtle Bay Newcastle – the venue for my best-friend’s Wedding Warm-Up! To determine where to host it, we – the Best Man; Jesse, and I made some enquiries and in talking to Turtle Bay Manager; Abbie, about a booking, they allowed us to come to the restaurant early to decorate the table etc and gave us an extra half an hour at the table (typically you’re given 1.5 hours at your table) in return for some mentions on I’m NOT Disordered and on my social media (@aimes_wilson on Twitter and Instagram - please check them out for the videos from this event!). So, I’ve put together this blog post which is basically a little ‘treasure trove’ of memories, photos, advice, links, and ideas…

EXCLUSIVE INSIGHT INTO THE HISTORY OF TIME TO TALK DAY ON I’M NOT DISORDERED | TIME TO TALK DAY 2026

‘Time to Talk Day 2026 will be held on 5 February 2026. This event is a significant initiative aimed at promoting open conversations about mental health and wellbeing, encouraging individuals to listen and share their experiences. It is a day for everyone to come together to break down stigma and support one another's mental health.’

Time to Talk Day - Mind

You won’t believe how stressful this post has been! So, it usually takes me about a week to create a blog post of a decent length and the graphics to accompany it, but it wasn’t until February 3^rd that I realised Time To Talk Day was coming up very soon and I had no content for it! At first, I messaged fellow mental health Blogger Martin Baker (of www.gumonmyshoe.com) and I said it was only two days – but when I started writing content that was about prioritising and the fact that my Mum’s Birthday is the same day of Time To Talk Day I realised that’s actually three days (Mum’s Birthday is February 6^th). Then, I googled and it turns out Time To Talk Day is just the first Thursday of February and that yes, this usually lands on the 6^th but this year it is actually the 5^th – so my maths ended up, sadly, being correct and I was back to not only rushing the content but also, finding a new topic because it is, in fact, not on my Mum’s Birthday(!). So, with two days’ notice, the best I could do was to run through the archive of previous Time To Talk Day posts and providing some insider, exclusive insight into each one…

35: AN AGE NO ONE THOUGHT I’D REACH | HOW REPORTING MY TRAUMA WAS MORE LIFE-SAVING THAN MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES | IT’S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!

“The best revenge is the massive success.”

Frank Sinatra

It sounds dramatic to say that I can’t believe I made it to 35, but when I tell you that, on numerous occasions, even the professionals – mostly Psychiatrists, but also two ICU Doctors – made comments that they couldn’t envision me making it to my ‘next’ Birthday (mostly between the ages of 18 and 23!) … perhaps now you’ll see the rationale to my surprise that I’m still here?! It meant that I was originally going to centre this Birthday blog post around reasons why I believe I managed to make it to this age, but I found out that I’d done something incredibly similar for my 28^th Birthday (you can read it here) and my 31^st (which you can read here)! In thinking about the reasons, I made it, I realised that I’d list reporting my trauma as the first one – even though I had interactions with mental health services before that which most would probably assume should getting help and support, should have been the first life-saving thing to happen. So, I decided to focus on that…

A POEM FOR MY (ALMOST) STEP-DAD! | HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY BEAR!