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…

BRAVERY & MENTAL HEALTH | FAVOURITE BRAVERY IMAGES | IN COLLABORATION WITH PINTEREST

So, if you’re lucky, you may not remember; but in July 2022, I broke my wrist in a number of places after falling down some stairs (you can read more about the accident here). And it’s been an incredibly long and rocky road since then with the original surgery on the Radius break failing, and then the second surgery to remove the hardware from it, and to add more to the Ulna break because it wasn’t healing. Now, well over one month since that second surgery, I’m still in so much pain on the Ulna break and an x-ray on the 16^th January has showed that despite the pins they’ve put in, the break still hasn’t repaired – apparently it’s called a ‘non-union’ – and so I’m facing the prospect of a third surgery. This time, my incredible surgeon plans to remove the metal in there, add some wires, and do a bone graft from my hip into the break (which I think just sounds painful never mind how it might actually feel!). Needless to say, I cried a lot, and it is that which has inspired this blog post, where I’ve chosen my five favourite images from Pinterest that – for me – inspire bravery…

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…

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…

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! 

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.

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.

BLOGMAS 2020 WITH I’M NOT DISORDERED | RECOMMENDATION TWELVE: CHRISTMAS DRINKS

Hello and welcome to recommendation number twelve of Blogmas 2020 with I’m NOT Disordered!

Today, I’ll be recommending some festive beverages for you to enjoy, with contribution from Pinterest!

 

The Grinch Punch 

ü  7-Up or Sprite

ü  Lime Sherbert

ü  Pineapple Juice

 

Bailey’s Chocolatini

WHY YOU NEED TO WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE IN MENTAL HEALTH

1.    ‘Superficial’

When I recently self-harmed I told the Nurse that I’d scared myself with how bad it was because all of mine are usually – then she said ‘superficial.’ And I agreed but told her how much I hate that word and she explained that she uses it in terms of how deep a cut is and not that it’s ‘nothing’ important. I explained that it’s a person’s interpretation of the word and it probably comes from their experience of it being used. I, personally, have always used superficial alongside words like ‘shallow’ or ‘silly’ so it becomes an insult to use it to describe my desperate coping mechanism of self-harm but I now understand that she was using it as more of a medical term than a derogatory one. I think that my interpretation is evidence that firstly, it has previously been used as an offensive comment by professionals who were being dismissive of my self-harm and secondly, that it’s so easy to misinterpret this one word.

FIVE TIPS FOR ORIGINAL CONTENT

I’ve basically just wrote over six hundred words about forgiveness and the act of apologizing to find that I’d already posted something along very similar lines only three months ago! And the way I finally made that discovery inspired me to come up with some tips for other Bloggers to avoid making the same mistake:

1.       Use ‘labels’ or ‘tags’

On Blogger (I’m unsure if it’s the same on other Blogging sites) it allows you the option to choose keywords around the subject of each of your blog posts. You can make this list as extensive or as limited as you like but it allows for your post to show in Google searches on the words you’ve included. The other bonus of this (which I’ve just discovered) is that you can search for all posts featuring a particular label which means that you can ensure that your content is actually original to anything you’ve ever posted.