AN AMAZON MENTAL HEALTH CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE FOR YOU | IN COLLABORATION WITH AMAZON UK

 “When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.”

Jean Shinoda Bolen

Now, something a bit different to the typical Christmas Gift Guides that are likely all over the blogs you read/follow. I’ve said before, I recognise that I’m NOT Disordered readers don’t come here for Gift Guides and I’m 100% confident that there are Bloggers who do Gift Guides a hell of a lot better than I do! I do, however, also recognise that a Gift Guide like this – items and products which I believe could help your mental health – is so relevant and appropriate for readers and that it could very well prove to actually be helpful for a lot of people! So, I’ve scoured Amazon and have gotten creative with some insight and ideas into the variety of things that people find helpful for their mental health; but I recommend you consider purchasing something from this post for yourself. And know that this isn’t, at all, being selfish; it's about self-care and recognising the importance of your own emotional wellbeing, especially at this time of Year…

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2020 POST SIX | BUILDING ON PASSIONS & HOBBIES AS KINDNESS

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

Harriet Tubman

Welcome to the penultimate post in Mental Health Awareness Week here on I’m NOT Disordered!


Today, I thought I’d talk about how beneficial hobbies and passions can be and how building on them can be an act of kindness!


I wouldn’t say that I really have a ‘hobby’… but I used to! I used to absolutely love horse riding after going to a friend’s Birthday party at some stables, and I’d go for lessons every weekend at a local farm. I was obsessed with horses so when I wasn’t riding one, I was pretending that I was. Unfortunately though, I had a bit of a scare whilst riding one time – the horse I was on decided to gallop and when he finally obeyed my commands to slow down, he came to an abrupt stop at a jump and I almost went straight over his head! It was enough to dissuade me from riding ever again and so my one real hobby dwindled.


It didn’t seem like long without riding when the abuse began, and I stopped noticing or caring that I didn’t have a hobby or any real passion. Looking back, not many people I knew had a hobby then, so I really didn’t stand out for it; it wasn’t as though it was another sign of abuse that people missed… 

BLOGMAS 2019 – POST SIX : CHRISTMAS DRINKS WITH THE CREATIVE WRITING CLASS

Thanks to a poll on my Twitter back in November, my wonderful followers decided that I should publish a blog post and film a vlog every day for the entirety of December!

So welcome to December 6th…

A little while ago, I enrolled on a Creative Writing course through Northumberland County Council and have been thoroughly enjoying it – to the point where I was genuinely devastated when the Tutor called in sick one week!

I took a Creative Writing course at Bradford College while I was an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital down there and really enjoyed it and not just because it was much-needed time off the ward; but because it gave me the chance to do something I really enjoyed with like-minded people.

Ever since I was really young, I’ve enjoyed writing; obviously at first it was more about short stories with horses in every single one than deep and meaningful mental health blog posts but still, it was writing! Even before the abuse - in my happy, innocent childhood – I enjoyed the escapism and having the ability to get lost, or even just distracted, with the life of someone or something else. I actually enjoyed writing so much that one of Middle School teachers predicted that I’d be a Journalist when I grew up!

WHEN DO YOU NEED TO ‘GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER’?

The other day, at my Digital Marketing internship with Docere and SS Healthfoods, I was talking to one of the Marketing Executives about my long-term goals and all things Universities and careers. It made me think about how long it has taken for me to finally have those dreams/goals, and then I started to consider why I felt there should have been an age for me to have all these things decided. 


I don’t remember even thinking about a ‘dream job’ when I was younger until Middle School when a teacher told my Mum that she thought I’d end up being a Journalist (do you think ‘Blogger’ is close?) but I never really held onto that so much. When I came to the point of choosing my GCSE subjects, I didn’t really have a career in mind then either; I just chose the ones I was interested in – History, Media Studies, and Textiles. Then, when I was excluded from High School, I met a Lawyer specializing in Education and that became my goal – to be like her. I wanted to help children avoid experiencing everything that I had, when I was at School. 


So, at A Level, I took Law, Philosophy, and History, and with the abuse having ‘finished’ months before Sixth Form started, I threw myself into my schoolwork in a desperate bid to block out the memories of it. I also started working at my local Primark store in Newcastle city center but in the end, my mental health deteriorated to the point where there was no blocking anything out and I missed all of my final exams and quit my job because I attempted suicide. Even though I had an offer to study Law at Newcastle University, being sectioned under the Mental Health Act, I instantly didn’t want to work in anything to do with the law and after two weeks in a psychiatric hospital I decided to pursue my other interest; fashion and enrolled on a Summer course. Before I had a chance to attend the induction session, I was sectioned again. After my second longest admission in October 2009 to February 2010, I became interested in the notion of helping others and attempted to enroll on a childcare course but when my DBS came back with notes of my interactions with Police (occasions when I’d been sectioned or had ran away from Hospital), I was denied access to the course. In the end, I developed the belief that if I couldn’t look after myself then I shouldn’t attempt to look after anyone else.