THE 12 BIGGEST MOMENTS IN MY BLOGGING CAREER & A WHOLE NEW LOOK | HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY, I’M NOT DISORDERED!!!

I’m going to start in a very stereotypical way right now; I cannot believe I’m writing a blog post for I’m NOT Disordered’s TWELTH Birthday! Like, where did the years go?! How did they whiz by so fast that I feel like I barely even noticed them? Yet, at the same time, I remember how very hard I’ve worked and how many amazing opportunities I’ve had/done. Whilst this twelfth Birthday has me feeling quite old, I’m also very grateful for it being a chance to reflect on my blogging career and pick out twelve amazing moments that I feel have really contributed to my blog’s success and my own skills, talents, and experience. You might also notice; the blog has a whole new look and a brand-new logo! This has been in the planning for a while now and a lot of thought has gone into it, so I really hope you all like it…

MY SPEECH AT THE NORTH TYNESIDE WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY 2024 EVENT IS NOW LIVE!!

 

MY SPEECH FOR THE WAYTHROUGH LAUNCH IS LIVE!!!

“I love that one of the Waythrough values is about supporting you until you feel like you’re ready to move on…”

My speech for the Waythrough launch is LIVE:

Waythrough Links:

Instagram: @waythrough_UK

Twitter: @waythrough_UK

Facebook: WaythroughUK

Website: www.waythrough.org.uk

You can watch my Instagram reel for the day of the launch here:

Aimee Wilson (@aimes_wilson) • Instagram photos and videos

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...

THE INS AND OUTS OF GIVING A SPEECH | MY EXPERIENCES, TIPS, & RESOURCES | IN COLLABORATION WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE, AND WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

So, I delivered a speech to some of the Peer Support Workers from Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS FoundationTrust (CNTW) and decided to upload videos of clips of my twenty-minute speech to social media. I received a lovely response and was sent a few private messages asking more about the bits that you don’t see – the behind-the-scenes parts of giving a speech, so I thought it’d make for a good blog post…

My first speech:

I think that my first real speech was for a Time To Change event named Story Camp in 2015 (you can read about it here) – and it was requested after I had volunteered at one of their events in 2014 (which you can also read about here).

With it being my first opportunity to do something like that, I obviously had a lot of nerves and fear at the thought of standing before a ton of complete strangers and talking about my mental illness and other experiences that most people would deem ‘personal’ and ‘private.’

I think that the fact my first speech had been requested could have had a negative impact on me and cause me stress if I felt as though there was pressure on me to do it. But actually, it really helped me in providing motivation to do it because I felt sort-of obliged. As though if Time To Change (a big organisation centred around challenging mental health stigma) could go through the process it would have taken to choose me, the least I could do was take them up on their offer!