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Wednesday, 3 December 2025

DAY THREE | A SECRET BLOGMAS 2025

“Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.” 

Rumi

Welcome to A Secret Blogmas 2025!

Today is Day Three and this third post is all about the benefits and impact of balancing the types of content that you create and publish on your social media or blog/platform. In this post I’ll talk through the different types of content, I’ll present a few ideas and resources for each of them, and I’ll look at the benefits to balancing them. Keep reading to find out why balancing content format/type can impact the success and popularity of your content and/or your platform…

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Monday, 12 May 2025

DAY ONE MHAW | LAUNCH POST | MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2025


“Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.”

Horace

I can’t believe Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) 2025 is finally here! It feels like forever ago that I was looking at an Awareness Dates website (this one!), saw MHAW was in the next few weeks, and made the on-the-spot decision to create content for it. As you will know if you’ve seen the Content Agenda graphic on my social media (and at the end of this post), a lot of the other pieces are in collaboration with organisations and another blogger, so I decided to use today’s content, to chat through my decision to do MHAW, my ideas for the actual content I’ve put together, and some advice on coping with the things you may find yourself reading about throughout MHAW…

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Monday, 21 October 2024

HALLOWEEN MUST-HAVES | COSTUME ACCESSORIES, HOMEWARE, PARTY BITS, ITEMS FOR PETS, & PINTEREST HOME INSPO! | IN COLLABORATION WITH PINTEREST

As I usually explain in posts like this; I’m NOT Disordered is first and foremost about me creating content that I enjoy creating and which I benefit from in some way. Whilst the blog’s obvious primary theme is mental health, I really like to create light-hearted, fun, and more ‘easy’ posts that are less overwhelming and emotional. With a post just like that planned for actual Halloween, I thought I’d publish something a bit lighter and more enjoyable now, so here are some must-have items from a whole range of categories and then I’ve teamed up with Pinterest to include some inspirational images of Halloween décor…

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Thursday, 5 October 2023

“HOW DO YOU NEVER RUN OUT OF IDEAS?” | 19 INSPIRATIONS FOR ‘BLOGGER’S BLOCK’

“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.”

Roy T. Bennett

The number of occasions I’ve been asked this question – or had similar questions or comments made to me – has meant it’s no longer one that I find myself having to so much as pause in order to come up with some sort of answer! It’s similar to how I often toy between boredom and enjoyment when I find myself blogging about something I’ve talked about before. I think that being bored is for the obvious reason of writing about something where I feel I’m repeating myself and the pleasant thoughts and feelings come with the easiness and the fact it means I can put the content together more quickly than usual! So, when asked how I don’t run out of ideas for blog content, I’m partly tired with the notion that I’m repeating myself, but then I also feel good about it because I know that my answer is helping someone in some way. However, recently, I’ve found myself enjoying confronting ‘old’ subjects and instances on I’m NOT Disordered and in real life because it’s starting to become a good opportunity to re-consider my thoughts and feelings around these things and to discover what – if any – progress or development I’ve made since the last time I’ve thought/blogged/talked about it. And so, here are some of my latest thoughts in response to those who ask or who only wonder how I don’t run out of ideas for content after ten years of blogging – I hope that they can help other bloggers who might be suffering from ‘blogger’s block’ (a modern day turn of phrase on ‘writer’s block’) and feeling stuck for topics, influences, and inspiration…

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Saturday, 10 December 2022

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY TEN: FAVOURITE FESTIVE ARTS & CRAFTS & PROJECT INSPIRATION| IN COLLABORATION WITH THE WORKS

Welcome to Day Ten of Blogmas 2022

Today, I’m collaborating with The Works to bring to you the greatest arts and crafts products and materials for this festive time of year, alongside a few inspirational images…

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Wednesday, 7 December 2022

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY SEVEN: CHRISTMAS DÉCOR WISH LIST & SOME INSPIRATIONAL IMAGES | IN COLLABORATION WITH PINTEREST

Welcome to Day Seven of Blogmas 2022!

Today I’ll be collaborating with Pinterest to tell you all of my Christmas decor wish lists – complete with the links – and I’ve included some lovely inspirational festive images from Pinterest to suit all manner of different aesthetics…

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Tuesday, 6 December 2022

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY SIX: CREATING A FESTIVE/WINTER WARDROBE FROM ASOS | IN COLLABORATION WITH ASOS

Welcome to Day Six of Blogmas 2022!

Today I’m collaborating with the online retailer; ASOS to bring you my favourite bits from their site for every festive and winter activity you can imagine. Unfortunately, this post won’t be relevant for everyone (so I’ve tried to keep it short!) but I really enjoyed putting it together…

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Monday, 31 October 2022

WHY HAVING NO IDEAS IS ONE OF THE SCARIEST THINGS ABOUT BEING A BLOGGER | HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2022

Whilst I’ve decided to mark Halloween this year, with a piece about one of the elements of being a Blogger that can range on a scale of scary to intimidating to terrifying and back again(!); I still really don’t want this to put people off from joining the industry. And this is something I really want to get across, because I have benefited from blogging in so many ways that it’s left me hopeful that in encouraging others to try blogging, I might enhance the chance of more people being rewarded with those same – or similar – benefits. I just hope that you can be reassured with me telling you that as scary as things have gotten, they have all been totally worth it to mean I have experienced all that I have as a result of I’m NOT Disordered. To help with this, I’ve tried to also include how I cope with and manage when I’m scared…

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Tuesday, 8 March 2022

THE GREATEST FEMALE INSPIRATION IN MY BLOGGING CAREER | VICTORIA MAGRATH AKA INTHEFROW | INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022

I’ve surprised myself in discovering that I actually haven’t written a blog post solely about my biggest inspiration in the blogging world! I mean, this girl – Victoria Magrath – has literally been so influential on my content and my work/blogging career in general; so why haven’t I properly rabbited on about her in all of I’m NOT Disordered’s nine years?! So, I figured if ever there was a time to do so, it’s International Women’s Day…

MY NEED FOR INSPIRATION

Before I started to blog – and for quite a while after I started – I had very little knowledge of technology, the behind-the-scenes of websites, and using social media with more purposeful and professional goals in mind. I knew the basics and I think the fact that I put very little thought or vision into I’m NOT Disordered in those early days, meant that it took a little while to register that I would need some sort of inspiration and guidance.

Unfortunately, though, when I first started blogging in 2013, there were about three well-known mental health blogs and that meant straightforward inspiration was kind of hard to come by. I mean, one of those blogs was written by a discharged mental health services user and I was a psychiatric hospital inpatient. Another was written by a psychiatric nurse, and I had no career prospects after having made a suicide attempt that landed me on life support just months before starting to blog. The third blog had been created by a Police Officer who had an interest in mental health law and – at that point – I had absolutely no respect or gratitude for the Police in general!

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Thursday, 9 December 2021

BUDGET BLOGMAS | DAY NINE: FESTIVE ENVIRONMENT INSPIRATION | IN COLLABORATION WITH PRETTY PERFECT PRODUCTS | AD


Hello and welcome to I’m NOT Disordered’s Budget Blogmas!


So now that I’ve discussed why having a festive, Christmassy home is so important to me, I thought I’d put together a few images of various styles of festive decorations to bring inspiration to anyone stuck for ideas...


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Friday, 29 October 2021

ALL THINGS HALLOWEEN | PUMPKIN DESIGNS, DÉCOR INSPIRATION, & SPECIAL SNACKS & DRINKS RECIPES!


So, there’s already a blog post scheduled for Halloween Sunday, but I was scrolling through Pinterest for another project when it hit me that I hadn’t really done a blog post that was directly about Halloween… So, I thought I’d jam everything into this one! 

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Saturday, 13 March 2021

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PINTEREST & MENTAL HEALTH | PART TWO

Part One:

http://www.imnotdisordered.co.uk/2021/03/the-ultimate-guide-to-pinterest-mental.html

“Do what you can with all you have, wherever you are.”

Theodore Roosevelt

This post has actually become something it wasn’t going to be when I first thought of it and started planning it! Initially, I thought that it would just be a ton of images created on Canva, but in creating the images, I began thinking a lot about what they mean, how important they can be, and how they can impact mental health…

METHOD OF CREATIVITY:

I think I’ve been a creative person since I was little. I used to make collages with my Nana out of torn up catalogues and then I began writing short stories about horses! The writing sort of fizzled out when I got older, but for a few years I wanted to be a fashion designer, so I opted to study Textiles for my exams.

Unfortunately, I had a really terrible subject teacher who would constantly undermine my work and criticise my understanding of the briefing we’d be given to inspire our projects. It was as though – only with me – she couldn’t decide whether she wanted literal interpretations of the topic or imaginative. I couldn’t win. Couldn’t get anything right. And it really knocked all the confidence and passion I had in my creativity, leaving me with absolutely no drive or interest in pursuing some sort of career in the industry.

I don’t think it was until my second psychiatric hospital admission after a suicide attempt that I re-discovered creativity; and more specifically, writing. I think it was a truly pure moment when I just felt that writing how I felt and what I had experienced for the staff, was the most natural and obvious way to get help and support, and to recover.

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Thursday, 11 March 2021

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PINTEREST & MENTAL HEALTH | PART ONE

“Do what you can with all you have, wherever you are.”

Theodore Roosevelt

This post has actually become something it wasn’t going to be when I first thought of it and started planning it! Initially, I thought that it would just be a ton of images created on Canva, but in creating the images, I began thinking a lot about what they mean, how important they can be, and how they can impact mental health…

GOALS:

I think that being able to find an image that you can turn into something you’d like to strive to achieve or aim for, is a big reason for utilising a site like Pinterest.

The first time I can remember having a ‘goal’ in life wasn’t around studying for exams at School and wanting to pass them, it was about the abuse. And yes, it was the obvious goal of wanting it to stop. On the first instance, I think I was 100% sure that it wasn’t going to happen again; that belief wasn’t the reason I didn’t scream or why I didn’t report it. It was the reason why I didn’t feel the need to even hope for that or to set a goal for there to be no more instances. I think it was maybe the third or fourth time when I stepped out of the denial I’d been using as a coping mechanism and realised this was something, I was going to have to aim to find a way to end it.

I had so many reasons why I wasn’t reporting it to anyone (mainly his threats and my belief that I wouldn’t be believed) so I turned to my behaviours. To changing my attitude so dramatically that I believed at least one person would turn around and wonder why I was acting this way. I hadn’t put much thought into it, but I just knew that if I were specifically asked by absolutely anyone, I would tell the truth. Of course, that changed and when my Mum checked I was ok, I lied. I guess that by that time, I’d come up with all sorts of worries that weren’t all about whether I was believed but also, whether I would be judged for it – whether someone would deem me deserving of it or even that they’d think I was the cause of it.

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Tuesday, 1 December 2020

BLOGMAS 2020 WITH I’M NOT DISORDERED | POST ONE: INTRODUCTION



Hello and welcome to the very first post of Blogmas 2020 with I’m NOT Disordered!

When I first started blogging in 2013, it wasn’t that I didn’t think I’m NOT Disordered had the potential to be what it is today, it was just that I hadn’t considered making it into that! My initial intention with my blog was firstly, to provide myself with a place to vent about the drama of a psychiatric inpatient ward, and to process my thoughts as I began recovering from Borderline Personality Disorder. And secondly, I hoped that in writing about my experiences, my family and friends (my target audience) would gain better insight into what I was going through in the hospital I was in over 100 miles away from them.

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Sunday, 8 November 2020

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEING A MENTAL HEALTH BLOGGER | PART ONE


I recently found an image on Pinterest that read ‘be passionate and be involved in what you believe in, and do it as thoroughly and honestly and fearlessly as you can,’ and it really inspired me to write this post. I felt that the words really sum up my thoughts on being a mental health Blogger and advice that I would give to someone debating joining the industry. Then I thought about other things I would want them to know and decided: ‘hey! Let’s blog about it all!’

 

STARTING OUT SIMPLE & SMALL

When I first created, I’m NOT Disordered, it was in its most basic form… I had looked at using WordPress as a platform for it, but quickly saw that Blogger was much more easy and simple; and as someone who only ever really used technology for social media, that’s what I needed. I used a simple template, didn’t alter the layout of it, and asked another inpatient in the psychiatric hospital I had been in for almost a year, to create the header/logo.

It wasn’t just the appearance of my blog that started out simple though, my intentions for I’m NOT Disordered were fairly small too. I really only wanted it to be a place where I could write about both my general life experiences, and those as a psychiatric inpatient too. Blogging was supposed to just be something that I did in the evenings when we had finished our therapeutic group timetable and were allowed our laptops. Another small aspect was my target audience! At the very beginning, I thought of it just being for me, but within days I decided to share it and only intended it to be for my family and friends on my very private Facebook account.

 

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Sunday, 5 January 2020

A LETTER TO YOU | I’M NOT DISORDERED’S UPCOMING BIRTHDAY!!




With I’m NOT Disordered’s seventh Birthday just around the corner (January 6th), and the blog post to celebrate scheduled, it felt only right that I write a little something for you all!




To those who use my blog to feel less alone,


I’m so, so, sorry that you’ve felt alone in the first place – I know what an awful feeling that can be, so I really appreciate that I’m NOT Disordered helps you to feel understood and validated.


Loneliness in mental health is – sadly – a common feeling because our thoughts often lead us to believe that no one else has ever experienced what we are going through and in doing so, we’re left thinking that no one could ever understand how we feel.


When I was abused in 2006, there was very little in the media about rape and sexual abuse and the little sexual education I’d done at School, had been the traditional teaching of how-to-put-a-condom-on-a-banana! So, when the abuse began, I didn’t even know what it was called; never mind know that anyone else had ever been through it! And not knowing others had experienced abuse, meant that I didn’t know it could be survived – that you could come out of it ‘ok’. I didn’t realize that it would end; never mind that it could impact your mental health – let’s be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot in the media about that either – or that you could also come out of it stronger than ever! Perhaps if I’d known this, I might have felt better placed in speaking up against the abuse and reporting it the second it started and not two years later!

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Thursday, 8 August 2019

A QUICK CHAT WITH BIG PINK DRESS AKA COLIN PLEWS


As a six-foot, nineteen stone, Ex-Forces and Rugby player, if someone had told me five years ago that I’d end up running around in a massive dress I’d have laughed in your face!



Five years ago, though, a friend of mine was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and watching her go through Chemotherapy and experience all of the horrendous side effects was life changing. I felt so helpless because I’m no Doctor or Scientist, but I was desperate to make a difference and the Great North Run was just around the corner, so I applied for a place with the Breast Cancer Campaign. 





While working at a Nursing Home, we picked names out of a hat for a Christmas show we named ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ and I picked out Diana Ross. This inspired me to wear a fish-tail dress which caused me to take three hours and forty-two minutes to get around the 13.1 miles! I had hoped – and aimed – to raise £350 but ended up with over £4000 and that, with the amount of support I had, meant that the original plan of this being a one-off run was completely scraped and I aimed for double the distance.
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Tuesday, 19 March 2019

AN OPEN LETTER TO MARTIN BAKER OF 'GUM ON MY SHOE'



Dear Marty,


After reading one of your recent blog posts, I know that you’ve been feeling sort of lost recently and have been questioning your place in the mental health world so I thought that perhaps this letter might motivate you through these doubts and struggles. 


Firstly, I wanted to say how glad I am to have met you at that Time To Change event – it’s always nice and fun to meet someone who you’ve connected with online, in person. But there was something special about you – something different. You were genuine. I think that, these days, it’s incredibly hard to find someone who is the same in person as they are online, not a lot of people are genuine and of course there those who hide behind a keyboard but I feel like you and I are both learning that there’s also a huge number of people on social media who can be of invaluable support online. And you have helped me to see this as I’ve gotten to know you – especially during a recent visit to A&E(!) – I’ve seen how many people you support through social media. Learning that number really did leave me speechless! It’s inspiring to think of the strength you have in order to be there for so many people.

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Friday, 8 March 2019

FIVE WAYS TO BUILD EACH OTHER UP | HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY



For International Women’s Day last year, I wrote a post about my twelve favourite women. Some of those women are no longer in my life so I considered writing a up-to-date one but then, I thought that it might be nice to write something a little different this year. After all, I sing the praises of my favourites so often that I don’t think there are any words left in the world that I haven’t used, to describe and thank them.

So, this year I wanted to focus on some of the ways that people – though women are the focus today - can support one another:

1.      No pressure

With social media being everywhere at the moment, it’s become a very influential platform and the old saying of ‘sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ is becoming less and less true. We’re always inundated with criticisms and the goals for weight, style, health, relationships, etc. are constantly changing. Just when you think you’ve achieved something, it seems that there’s someone there to better it and leave you feeling inferior and insufficient. I think that one of the greatest awareness’s you can gain in life is the insight that there’s consequences for your words and actions. But there needs to be a balance between pressuring a person into being someone they’re not and encouraging a person to grow, develop and take on new challenges.  
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