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…

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY TWENTY: A CHAT ABOUT LOSING TIME | YORK CHRISTMAS MARKET | IN COLLABORATION WITH VISIT YORK

Welcome to Day Twenty of Blogmas 2022!

Today, I’ve teamed up with Visit York (all of their links are at the end of the post) to bring you some photos from their Christmas Market which I attended at the beginning of the month, as well as some links for the items I bought at it. The actual content of this post about acknowledging when you’ve lost time and making up for it; was inspired by the fact that I went to the Market with my Mum, and after my experiences with my mental illness, we’ve both voiced the need to ‘make up for lost time’ by wanting to be together more often...

THREE LESSONS I’VE LEARNT FROM MY GOD CHILDREN | MY TRIP TO SEE THEM IN EDINBURGH

I’m forever grateful for the fact that I was so late to my A Level History class that the only empty seat left in the classroom was beside Ellie! Sitting beside her, I didn’t ever imagine we’d be best-friends thirteen years later and that she’d be Mum to my three incredible Godchildren!

Due to work and school opportunities, Ellie and her husband moved the family to a town just outside of Edinburgh and with the UK lockdown pretty much immediately following their move, I’ve not been able to visit until now! And the trip to see them all was my inspiration for this post…

You should always appreciate time spent with loved ones

The initial lockdown regulations meant that I couldn’t see my oldest God Son (Jonas) for his Tenth Birthday so I sent presents and was sent a photo of him with his gifts and the biggest, cheesiest smile on his face! As happy as I was to know he had liked his presents (a Lego Sports Car & American Candy!), losing the ability to see him was really triggering of my memories around being in the psychiatric hospital over 100 miles away for two and a half years. Being in the hospital for so long meant that I missed out on the majority of Jonas’ life aged 2 - 4, and being in and out of hospitals for the last six years has meant that I’ve missed out on some milestones for my God Daughter; Emmy (yes I named my cat after my God Daughter!), and my youngest God Son, Kasper. 

20 WISHES, GOALS, THOUGHTS, & PLANS FOR 2020 | HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I’m always a little hesitant writing new year’s posts because I know you’re probably all snowed under with resolutions in blog posts, so I tried to do something a bit different… This is going to be a real random mix of things that are both about the year that’s just gone and for the year to come!

1.    Thanks to Richmond Fellowship

I’ve collaborated with a number of different organizations through 2019, but I really wanted to pick one that has completely stood out for me as providing me with some incredible experiences and trusting me with a lot of responsibilities. The number of events and meetings I’ve attended this past year with Richmond Fellowship has been huge and the number of roles I’ve played at them is overwhelming and has taught me a lot about myself. Richmond Fellowship have also been so instrumental in my personal mental health recovery and it means so much to me that they trust me with opportunities.

2.    Goodbye CMHT!

The plan this year is that I’ll be discharged from the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) in February! I’ve had various Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPN) from the CMHT and been under their care for the best part of ten years now so it’s about time that discharge was discussed never mind actually planned! The idea of discharge came when my newest CPN devised a care plan as she took over my care following my mental health relapse about six months ago. Having my psychiatric medication increased really stabilized my mental health and has greatly contributed to my safety (it’s been about six months since I last self-harmed!).

 

ALL THINGS TRAVEL & MENTAL HEALTH | IN COLLABORATION WITH LONDON NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY | AD

The Post Inspiration:
A little while ago, I was travelling to London when a cabinet above the sink in the train bathroom swung open and hit me on the head. As an apology, London North Eastern Railway (LNER) issued me with complimentary first-class tickets to any destination on their route! When I got talking to the Communications department though, and they heard about I’m NOT Disordered, we agreed to turn it into a collaboration, so the bestie and I decided to go to York for the day!

It was actually when we were waiting to come home though that we had the conversation which – along with the actual trip - has inspired this blog post. There were no tables outside the pub in York train station so we ended up sitting on a table with a man (Tony) and lady (Nikki). It turned out that Tony worked for Network Rail, so we got talking about my LNER collaboration and the benefits travelling has on your mental health…

Benefits of travelling: 

For a lot of people with a mental health illness, I think that there’s a level of expectation in society that if you behave in a particular way then that must mean you have this diagnosis or if you do that then you must have that diagnosis. This can be especially exacerbated when surrounded by people you know; not just friends but professionals too - there can be pressure in appointments when you feel that you need to seem more well than you feel so as to avoid particular responses from professionals. This pressure from all these different places can obviously become overwhelming and can result in a huge amount of stress which could be slightly alleviated by travelling somewhere different to be surrounded by people who don’t know you… or your mental state! When I temporarily moved down South (where I was born) it felt like a fresh start because was there no one feeling that people were thinking ‘it’s her again.’ I could start new relationships and determine just how much of my mental illness they saw.

MY TOP FIVE PLACES TO VISIT ON THE LNER ROUTE | IN COLLABORATION WITH LNER | AD

I’m very proud to be able to say that I’m collaborating with London North Eastern Railway (LNER) on a series of posts in the run-up to a complimentary first-class trip on June 15^th. 

Here’s my five favourite places (in no particular order) from the LNER route!

1.    Edinburgh

Things to see and do:

Edinburgh Castle – learn about its fascinating, vibrant and grisly history, ensuring you visit the Scottish Crown Jewels while you’re there. Opening hours: 9:30am – 6pm, tickets: adults = £19.50, Concession = £11.50, Children (5-15) = £10.50, free for children under 5

National Museum of Scotland – not only can you explore the exhibits and displays but there’s also an incredible panoramic view of the city from the Museum’s rooftop terrace. Opening hours: 10am – 5pm, free admission, donations welcome

Christmas Market – crepes and waffles, glass baubles and decorations; Edinburgh Christmas Market is visited by thousands of shoppers a year

Shopping – Princes Street for all of your high street stores from Superdrug to Apple to Primark, for luxury shopping; Multrees Walk

TRAVELLING & MENTAL HEALTH | IN COLLABORATION WITH LNER | AD

I’m very proud to be able to say that I’m collaborating with London North Eastern Railway (LNER) on a series of posts in the run-up to a complimentary first-class trip on June 15^th. 

I wanted to chat a bit about what travelling means for me, how it has impacted my life and my mental health, and how it can be beneficial for you!

I was born in Dorset but moved to the North East before I turned one and once my Mum and I were up here, we only moved to a new house twice – I lived in the final home for almost twenty years before being admitted to the Hospital in Bradford.

I only went on a handful of holidays growing up, and my Aunt had moved to Dubai, so we were fortunate enough to be able to visit her a few times and my Mum and I went to Spain once with one of my friend’s and her Mum. I think that one of my only – and definitely my favourite – memories from my holidays was when we swam with Dolphins in Dubai! Travelling made me happy. 

So, from where I stand; – or sit because I’m typing this on my bed(!) – it’s kind of reasonable for me to have turned to travelling when my mental health first deteriorated. I don’t think my fascination with travelling was really cemented until I moved to my Dad’s home in Dorset in 2011. At first, it was brilliant! I did all the sensible things in notifying mental health services back in Northumberland and then I started to make myself a new life. I enrolled at a local College, I got myself a weekend job at the local Primark and my Dad bought me two kittens in an attempt to replace the cat I’d grown up with at my Mum’s. Of course, mental health doesn’t just stay in one postcode or town. It follows you everywhere! So, when my Step-Mum said she couldn’t deal with having me live there permanently and my Dad told me I’d have to leave, my reaction was to overdose on my anti-depressant medication. I became tachycardia (had a fast heart rate) and collapsed. In Hospital, I was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and taken to a psychiatric hospital for a few days before being discharged to go and collect my suitcase from my Dad’s. It was thrown at me and I was taken to a hotel near the airport to catch a flight the following day; my Mum said that when I called her from the hotel room, I was hysterical. 

CELEBRATING TWELVE YEARS WITH LAUREN | MY VISIT TO COLDSTREAM

If you didn’t see my last post, then you may have missed the reason that last weekend was special to me. April 20^th is twelve years since the abuse I suffered, ended. 2007 was also the year that I first met Lauren Dewar. We’ve been best-friends now for twelve years. And I decided that she was one of the few people I wanted to spend such a significant and important day with. Some people might be surprised that I wanted to spend the day with anyone; like I should have taken the day to myself to think about things but twelve years ago, April 20^th was probably the loneliest day of my life. Telling my abusers’ ‘boss’ what he had done and being called a ‘manipulative liar’ resulted in me feeling like I had no one in my corner. Like there was literally no one in the world on my side. So of course, I wanted to spend the anniversary with one of the people I love the most in the world.