HOW DID WE GET HERE? | 1.4 MILLION READERS

In planning and putting this post together, I realised that my last reader milestone was on my Instagram in February 2024 celebrating 1.3 million readers (you can see the Instagram Reel here) and that this means I’ve had over 100,000 readers in five months… Now, to put into context why I see this as such a WIN(!), when I first started blogging in 2013, I celebrated my first 100,000 (I even had a party, which you can read about here!) after TWO YEARS! These statistics got me thinking about whether this means I’m working harder than I was all those years ago and that became one of the inspirations for this blog post where I’ll be putting a lot more thought into what exactly this increase in readers means and how it has occurred…

INCASE YOU DIDN’T KNOW… AND P.S. THERE’S A NEW PROJECT DATE!!

So, I’m aware that it’s almost one week since the last blog post and in the second prior to it, I promised to attempt to create new content at least once a week because I’m putting so much attention and time into a hugely special project. But, recently; that’s had to take a backseat too when – on Saturday 18^th – I was sectioned under the 1983 Mental Health Act and admitted to a psychiatric hospital… 

I’m actually still currently sectioned, but I’ve been on home leave since Wednesday with a view to discharge tomorrow! I’ve very obviously and predictably started writing a blog post about the entire fiasco of my mental health crisis and how the legal assessment came about; but I found myself getting upset with the reminders of how difficult this past week has been so that’s gone on the backburner until I’m a little bit less vulnerable and ‘delicate’ (as my Mum put it!). But, I still wanted those of you who are only following my journey on here and not social media, to know why there’ll be an extra silence on I’m NOT Disordered…

Finally! The hugely special super-secret project has a new release date of November 18^th, 2023 – let the countdown begin!!

LESSONS LEARNT FROM I'M NOT DISORDERED'S FIRST POSTS | MARKING EIGHT YEARS SINCE BEING SECTIONED FOR 2.5 YEARS

Earlier this month (July 17^th), it was eight years to the date of me being sectioned and beginning a two-and-a-half-year long admission in a psychiatric hospital which specialised in Personality Disorders...

For the three years previously to that admission, I’d been in and out of both psychiatric and medical hospitals because my local NHS mental health Trust had no services specifically for someone with a Personality Disorder diagnosis. The lack of understanding from the professionals who – in my opinion – should have actually been the most knowledgeable people in providing help and support, contributed to a number of other reasons why I had made two suicide attempts and self harmed on a number of occasions. The lack of services in my locality was also a reasons why, when I ended up on life support after a third suicide attempt, the professionals made the decision to admit me to a private hospital over 100 miles away from home, where the ‘average length of admission, was 12 – 18 months.

After around six or seven months in the hospital, I had a really positive 1:1 with my Key Nurse and it felt like such a productive step toward recovery, that I decided I wanted to document it in some way. And so, I’m NOT Disordered was born and my blogging career began.

MY THOUGHTS ON DISCUSSING DISCHARGE IN MENTAL HEALTH

“Are we talking about discharge right now?!”

“Well it has to happen eventually!”

After my recent mental health crisis, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust’s Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team carried out an assessment at my home and I was admitted to their caseload. From the offset, the plan was that I’d be with them until Tuesday (today!) when my Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) returned to work and they would have a discussion to review whether I still needed to be on caseload and it’s made me think about the subject of discharge in mental health…



CLARITY

I’ll be honest, that first year of me being poorly is a bit of a blur; but I do remember that my first admission to a psychiatric hospital was the epitome of confusing and scary. I hadn’t long turned 18 so I was admitted straight into an adult ward and having had no contact with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), I had no understanding of anything mental health - including the Act of law that I was being detained under (Section 2 of the Mental Health Act 1983)! To be fair, I think that everyone was so busy being worried about me that they didn’t have the time to explain anything and inevitably, after two weeks, no one explained the discharge process either. I didn’t know that after being sectioned you have to be allocated a CPN in a Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) and I didn’t know what that even meant - what it would entail.