THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO NETWORKING | IN COLLABORATION WITH TYNESIDE CATS PROTECTION | SUMMER OPEN DAY 2025

“Social networking is playing a huge role in creating awareness and mobilizing support for all kinds of common interests. What better way to use this remarkable tool than to change the world?”

Natalie Portman

You may remember a few weeks ago, I published a blog post titled: ‘The Importance of Peer Support in Mental Health’ (you can read it here) as pre-event content in the run-up to the Summer Open Day of my local Cat Protection’s Adoption Centre (Tyneside). Well, I promised you all another collaboration piece after the event so that you could see the photos and videos from the afternoon and read more some of the cats that the charity said myself and my two best-friends (Jack and Spencer) could visit. In this piece, I realised that – according to my search in my content archives – I’ve actually never done a blog post completely about networking (it’s typically just been mentioned in other posts) and I thought it was a great angle to use that would also work in introducing you to the three cats we actually networked(!) with too… Ps. There’s a YouTube video at the end of the piece too!

JOIN A RAPE & ABUSE SURVIVOR AT A HUGE GYNAE APPOINTMENT | VLOG & A COLLABORATION WITH AMAZON UK INCLUDED!

 

I found a strength I've never known
I've been thrown out, I've been burned

When I'm finished, they won't even know your name

You brought the flames, and you put me through hell
I had to learn how to fight for myself

Ke$ha – Praying

On May 2^nd, I had to attend an appointment with Gynaecology to discuss having my smear under a general anaesthetic. I decided to film the day for two reasons: the first, was to provide empathy and advice to other survivors and those in a similar situation. The second reason was to give insight to those who judge people for not having this procedure. My general message from this? Don’t judge a person’s journey, when you haven’t walked in their shoes. In case there are people out there who are interested in this experience and don’t want to or can’t watch videos, I thought I would write a quick blog post about it too and managed to get a collaboration with Amazon UK for it! At the end, however, I’ve still also inserted the entire vlog from YouTube…

DAY SEVEN MHAW | SERIES RE-CAP & REFLECTION

“Always work hard, be honest, and be proud of who you are.”

Patricia Velasquez

Another Mental Health Awareness Week over! I feel like it actually went so quick! So, for anyone who may have missed some of the posts, I’ve added their links, a bit about each one, my thoughts and feelings upon reflection of each of them, other important links, and any lessons learnt from each post…

DAY FIVE MHAW | HOW MY LOCAL NHS MENTAL HEALTH TRUST ARE TACKLING ‘COMMUNITY’ WITH AN ‘INVOLVEMENT BANK’ | MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2025 WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

The Involvement Bank - Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust

“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.”

Henry Ford

I can’t believe Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) 2025 is almost at an end; with today being the penultimate piece of content for the Week! Today’s post is in collaboration with my local NHS mental health Trust; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) and we’ll be looking at the largest points of discussion around this Week’s theme of ‘community’ in particular relation though, to the Trust’s genius creation and incredible operation of their Involvement Bank…

DAY TWO MHAW | HOW WAYTHROUGH ARE TACKLING ‘COMMUNITY’ | MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2025 WITH WAYTHROUGH

“Learn to enjoy and respect each other’s differences.”

Fred Meijer

For the second day of Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, I’ve collaborated with mental health and drug and alcohol support charity; Waythrough. Prior to Richmond Fellowship and Humankind merging, I had been under the care of Richmond Fellowship for almost ten years and was honoured to be a huge part of the communications and marketing aspects to the merger and the creation of Waythrough. In this post, I’ve chatted with another service user and fellow member of the Life Experience Council as well as Waythrough’s Inclusion Manager about how Waythrough have tackled the theme of community…

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…

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED...

You may have noticed a ‘slight’ change to I’m NOT Disordered! This change would be the logo and colour scheme!

There’s going to be a full blog post about the decision to do this, but in the meantime, there’s some lengthy, detailed content about it on my social media…

Twitter: @aimes_wilson

Instagram: @aimes_wilson 

“LET’S REMOVE IT FROM YOUR RECORDS, YOU’VE CLEARLY RECOVERED FROM IT!” | HOW I HAVE OVERCOME 8 SYMPTOMS OF BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER & HOW YOU CAN TOO

With every fall, I learn to stand, In the face of fear, I take command

Through the storms that try to break, I'll rise again, for my own sake

With fire in my soul, I'll light the way, In this journey of life, I'm here to stay

Feel the power, it's building inside, With every heartbeat, I won't hide

No more chains, I'll break them free, In this moment, I am me

I'll rise up stronger, no holding back, With my head held high, I'm on the right track

Rise Up Stronger: Beat-Creative

After around fifteen years of having a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) stuck to my records, I began questioning its validity a year or so ago and began seeing a Psychiatrist from Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). After around one year of appointments, on April 1^st 2025, the Psychiatrist told me he had finally concluded that I was right; I no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for BPD and that it would now be listed as ‘historic’ in all of my records! In ascertaining that I didn’t meet the criteria (which is to have at least 5 of 9 possible symptoms) we established I had just one and when I was diagnosed, it was with the determination that I had all 9! So, considering this meant I’ve recovered from 8 symptoms of BPD, I thought I would do this blog post to chat through how I managed it in the hope that it provides advice for others and also hope for those to know you can overcome BPD…

EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT DISPUTES IN MENTAL HEALTH | INCLUDING ARGUMENTS AMONGST PROFESSIONALS & HELPFUL LINKS

“The only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing.”

Kim Stanley Robinson

 There was a point in my mental health journey – not necessarily the recovery part – where I had this sudden realisation that disputes were becoming so frequent that they were almost natural reactions to anything even slightly worthy of disputing. The development of that automatic response meant that I actually wasn’t even realising or aware that I was doing it half of the time it was happening! Through having Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) as a psychiatric hospital inpatient, I learnt a lot about properly handling yourself to be the best possible version of yourself during a dispute, as well as learning the whole saying of choosing your battles and these are lessons, I still stand by. I – and my mental health in particular – have benefited a lot from this improved understanding and change in attitude and behaviour so I wanted to spread the new-found knowledge to others…

HOW I EARNED THE OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE A SPEECH AT THE EMTA CONFERENCE FOR THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, ALL THE ADVICE I’D GIVE, & A HUGE THANK YOU | #EMTA2025

"Action will delineate and define you."

Thomas Jefferson

When the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) asked me to write another blog post after the event (I published one before the Conference; which you can read, here), I struggled to think what angle or theme I would use for it. So, I thought about why people come to I’m NOT Disordered anyway, and really, it’s typically about looking for advice and accounts of situations they’ve been in too – accounts which bring hope of recovery and tips on coping. But I also wanted to recognise that my life – and that of so many others – doesn’t revolve around trauma and mental illness. So, I created this post which contains a thank you, a couple of videos from the event, and is also full of advice and thoughts on the three actions I've taken which, I believe, led to me being invited to speak at this prestigious conference hosted by the Emergency Medicine Trainee Association (EMTA)….

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…

FEELING WANTED IN MY JOURNEY WITH CATS PROTECTION | CATS PROTECTION’S CHRISTMAS FAYRE | IN COLLABORATION WITH CATS PROTECTION TYNESIDE ADOPTION CENTRE

“We all choose to receive love and joy at the level of our self-love and self-esteem. So, love yourself a little harder and life will get a lot better.”

Karen Salmansohn

Having collaborated with Cats Protection (and sometimes the Tyneside Adoption Centre specifically), I’m an avid follower of their social media (all links at the end of the post) so when I spotted their Christmas Fayre poster, I spoke with their lovely Community Fundraising Officer, and we began planning this collaboration. I pitched the idea of writing about feeling wanted due to the obvious nature and goal of the Adoption Centre in finding cats their ‘furever’ homes. Then the Fundraising Officer told me the Winter Appeal is actually about abandonment, and I loved the realisation that we’re totally on the same page! In creating that post, I came across seventeen collaboration posts I’ve done with Cats Protection since 2018 and so I wanted to also incorporate my journey with Cats Protection.  So, here it is – a behind-the-scenes of all our collaborations and how my work with Cats Protection has always left me feeling wanted – as well as some super special photos from the Christmas Fayre…

MY AMAZON CHRISTMAS WISHLIST 2024

A little break in Blogvember seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you that you can create your own Christmas Wishlist and various other Lists for the festive season by logging into your account on Amazon UK and clicking on the ‘Account & Lists’ button!

Here’s my entire List on Amazon UK: Aimee’s Wishlist

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…

A QUICK CHAT ABOUT NERVES, ANXIETY, & STAGE FRIGHT IN PUBLIC SPEAKING | CELEBRATING THE LAUNCH OF WAYTHROUGH

“There are always three speeches for every one that you give. There’s the one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.”

Dale Carnegie

A number of months ago, I was in a Working Together Committee meeting with Richmond Fellowship – the organisation who provide my Support Workers – and we were told it would be our penultimate meeting due to their merger with Humankind. I had no clue what they were on about and since Richmond Fellowship are usually good with communication, I was so worried this meant that Humankind had already had a bad influence on things! It wasn’t long later, however, that I received an email from the Humankind Communications and Marketing team, basically saying “we hear you like comms and marketing…?!” And I’ve been involved in the merger’s creation ever since! So, I was absolutely honoured when I was asked to give speeches at two of the launch/reveal events and to even help the Vice Chair with the actual unveiling of the new charity’s identity! With both events now finished, I thought it time I write this blog post...

PICKING APART FOUR ABUSE POSTS | MARKING SEVENTEEN YEARS SINCE THE ABUSE ‘ENDED’

“It is through that brokenness that we find courage and strength. It is what empowers us to do great things.”

K. S. Ruff

In deciding to once again mark the anniversary of the ‘end’ of the abuse I experienced (April 20^th but I thought I’d put this post up now), I knew I’d set myself a challenge because with I’m NOT Disordered now being over eleven years old(!), there has been ample amount of time to have created and published numerous posts about the abuse. Which, for thinking about this post, had me asking myself: ‘will there even be any angles left that I haven’t written from?!’ And, when I searched ‘abuse’ in my post archive, I wasn’t at all surprised – and felt completely validated – to see an enormous list of blog posts of various points of view, using different approaches, and with numerous inspirations! As I scanned through them and found myself developing thoughts, feelings, and opinions on each, I finally thought of the idea for this post… I’m going to start with a few tips on how to cope with reading about abuse (for obvious reasons!), and then I’ve chosen the four abuse posts I remember most, and I’ve picked them apart – talked through my favourite bits, parts I’d like to change, any differences between their publication date and today, and things I’ve learnt from the posts…

EVERYTHING I’VE ACHIEVED SINCE BEING SECTIONED ONE YEAR AGO

On this day (February 18^th) one year ago, it was the beginning of my most recent detention under section 2 of the 1983 Mental Health Act, and so I obviously wanted to create some content to mark the date. I had a huge brainstorm of what angle to take with the blog post, and I was stuck between talking through the complaint I’d put in regarding many different instances through the admission and the polar opposite of looking at all the achievements I’ve made in this past year. Eventually, I decided to do both! But, they’ll be in separate posts because I wanted to post the achievements piece on the actual anniversary of being sectioned so as to really enhance the idea that it’s actually an achievement in itself to have not been sectioned since then too!

PART ONE: PICKING APART MY BIRTHDAY BLOG POSTS | I’M TURNING 33!!!

*This post is part one to a series*

Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you look at it – there’s a huge mental health awareness date (Time To Talk Day) taking place on my actual Birthday of February 1^st, and since I have a really special piece of content already lined up to mark that date; I thought I’d post my Birthday blog post now. I kind of feel like it was a very grown-up decision to make – to prioritise a more career-appropriate post over my Birthday one! And I actually had a ton of ideas of angles for this blog post, but in tracking down the links for every blog post from all my previous Birthdays since creating I’m NOT Disordered, I decided to have a real look through each of them and pick out some bits and pieces that I wanted to reflect on…

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MENTAL HEALTH & TRAVELLING | IN COLLABORATION WITH CATS PROTECTION’S BIG WINTER ROAM CAMPAIGN | NATIONAL HAT DAY 2024

 Join Cats Protection this February for…

Big Winter Roam | Events | Cats Protection

Toward the end of 2023, I was asked by Cats Protection’s lovely Celebrity and Influencer Relationship Manager if I could create some content to publicise their brand-new upcoming campaign, the Big Winter Roam. In this campaign, Cats Protection are setting the challenge of walking, wheeling, or wandering 15-, 50-, or 100-miles during February 2024 in a bid to raise funds for the charity’s admirable and valuable work in continuing to be the UK’s largest feline welfare charity. To take part, you need to register here before February 10^th at a cost of £20 – which will also go toward the charity’s work in helping and supporting in-need cats and kittens. Then you’ll receive one of their exclusive beanie hats (hence why this post comes to you on National Hat Day!) to help you to stay warm on your walk! If you have any questions regarding the Big Winter Roam, there’s an FAQ page that should answer them all here! Obviously, I jumped at the chance of another collaboration (and a beanie!) with Cats Protection, but I was then faced with the challenge to make this campaign relevant to my mental health blog and almost instantly I thought I’d utilise the general theme of travelling and focus on all the ways it can impact your mental health – or the other way around! So, I hope you like it, and please have a serious think about taking part in this extraordinary fundraising activity…

DAY ELEVEN OF BLOGMAS UNBOXED 2023: DISAPPOINTMENT AT CHRISTMASTIME & EDINBURGH CHRISTMAS MARKET PHOTOS & A REEL | IN COLLABORATION WITH PHOENIX COVE

PhoenixCove - Etsy UK

https://www.instagram.com/phoenixcove.co/

https://www.facebook.com/phoenixcove.co

https://www.tiktok.com/@phoenixcove.co

Welcome to Blogmas Unboxed!!

 Today’s post in the Blogmas Unboxed series is inspired by my trip to Edinburgh Christmas Market with my Mum via Gardiners NMC which – I’m sad to say – was a bit of a disappointment (the market; not the entire trip!). In the past, I would have coped with this disappointment in a really unsafe way and I very likely would have found myself searching for someone to blame. On this occasion though, I made the conscious decision to continue to appreciate the trip and the time with my Mum in the city that I actually really like because I’ve visited it a number of times. So, I searched for the good in the day and I focused on making the most of all the things we were able to do that we might not have if the Market had been better (there weren’t many stalls and a lot of them were selling the same items as each other and those items were things you could buy online; they weren’t handmade or really special and one-of-a-kind in anyway). So, here are some photos of the other things we got up to instead, and at the end of the post; there’s a reel from the day…