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…

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…

AND THE YEAR 2023 IS COMING TO AN END… | PART TWO

“She remembered who she was, and the game changed.”

Lalah Deliah

*YOU CAN READ PART ONE HERE* 

Pimkie Suede Knee High Boot: £51.00

Embellished Jumper: £40.00

Too Faced Better Than Sex Waterproof Mascara: £13.00

e.l.f Liquid Glitter Eyeshadow: £6.00

Brave Soul Cardigan: £42.00

THE TWO NEW ADDITIONS TO THE FAMILY: GRACIE & RUBY

With my calico rescue cat, Emmy, being put to sleep in October 2022, we started off the year as a family of two with just Luna (my black and white mini-Lionhead lop eared bunny) and I. But when Emmy was put to sleep, I asked the Vet what the best thing would be for Luna and almost without seeming to take the time to think about it, she replied with “get her a friend.” As the weeks went by without Emmy though, I found myself enjoying building a better bond with Luna who had always just spent the majority of her time following Emmy around and had never really been affectionate with me. Without Emmy though, she was now following me around the home (my bunnies are free-roam) and was always stretching up on her back feet to nudge me for a stroke or a cuddle. Then she started taking the cat tunnel in her mouth and running with it in circles; myself and everyone else who either saw when they visited the house or watched my videos of her doing it, laughed and thought it was really cute. But actually; it turned out to have been a form of repetitive behaviour that illustrated boredom and loneliness.

EVERYTHING ALL OF YOU MEAN TO ME | I’M NOT DISORDERED’S 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

For the third time in my blogging career, I hosted another party to celebrate a milestone I’m NOT Disordered and I have reached (the previous two were for reaching 100,000 readers and then reaching 1,000,000), and I have to admit, I think it was actually my favourite one of them all! With the previous two events being quite large and formal, I wanted to do something more informal and intimate. I mean, at the 100k party, I had 100 guests and a few were merely plus one’s for the people who I did know! And then not many people were able to come to my one million party because of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown. So, keeping in mind that nothing ever goes perfectly, I decided to host this party at a local café (Dolly Dimples) for nine of the most important people in my life and it’s that which has inspired this post about how much all of the party attendees, and you (as my readers) mean to me…

A GUIDE TO EVENTS | MY ONE MILLION READERS PARTY!!!

And all that counts,

Is here and now,

My universe will never be the same

I’m glad you came

The Wanted – Glad You Came

 

So, a few days ago I hosted my second blog party! With the first being to celebrate I’m NOT Disordered reaching 100,000 readers, and this time to celebrate one million readers, I’ve learnt a lot over the years – including lessons learnt from actually attending events. So, I thought I’d share my experiences and any advice I’d give on attending and organising an event…

INVITATIONS

So, I guess I’ll start with everything I’ve learnt about pretty much the first step in an event journey – the invitation… Now, don’t go thinking about a piece of paper with fill-in-the-blank text and yellow balloons – this isn’t a child’s Fifth Birthday party! In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever attended an event where there’s been any kind of actual image of the event details that could be labelled an invitation. Despite this though, when I started working on my one million readers party, one of the first things I created for it was a PNG with the basic information for the event because I knew it would be more memorable, appealing, and easier to share in emails and on social media rather than a lengthy bulk of text with the ins and outs.

Mostly though, when I’ve been invited to events (including large conferences/meetings), it’s been through an email – typically just checking whether I’m free on a particular date and then a follow-up to my response with the actual plan and details. But for me – in all honesty – the most important quality to the invitation isn’t its appearance and aesthetics; it’s the meaning behind it.

NINE REASONS TO CELEBRATE | HAPPY NINTH BIRTHDAY, I’M NOT DISORDERED

Having made a suicide attempt that landed me on life support during the first year of I’m NOT Disordered, it wasn’t just about psychologically not being able to imagine my blog to still be going nine years later! So, excuse me while I try to recognise, accept, and celebrate the fact that I’ve now been blogging for NINE YEARS!

One of my most popular blog posts for my own Birthday was when I talked about all the reasons why I was grateful I’d made it to that age; so, I thought I’d do something a bit similar in using this occasion as an opportunity to talk about all the reasons why I’m celebrating …

1.       ALL THE LESSONS LEARNT

Being a ‘look-on-the-bright-side’ kind of person, where I’ve made – what some people may deem to be – mistakes in my blogging career and decisions around my blog; I try to view them as learning curves. It means that rather than be upset and tackling feelings of regret, I feel productive and positive instead!

When I first created, I’m NOT Disordered in 2013, there were really only three well-known mental health blogs out there and none of them were written by a psychiatric hospital inpatient. Whilst, on the plus side, this meant I had instantly and accidentally found a niche for my blog (something which becomes increasingly more and more difficult with the overly saturated blog industry); it also meant that I had no real template for what I was doing. I had no one I could really look to as a guide or a blog to look to as a model and a goal.

Again, looking at the positives; whilst this absence of a traditional/predictable inspiration left me feeling alone a lot, it also meant there was no real pressure in those early years of my blogging career. And experiencing any sort of strain when you first start blogging can have a massive influence on whether you continue. So not feeling the need to ‘keep up’ with everyone else or to ‘be better’ than other bloggers, really allowed me the time to find my footing by myself and really learn and develop everything I want I’m NOT Disordered to represent, the content I want it to be a home to, and the reputation I want it to have.

“IT FEELS SO SURREAL” | EVERYTHING I’M THINKING ABOUT ON THE WAY TO ONE MILLION READERS!!!

Some people may think I’m a bit eager with this blog post, but I think that it’s in my head a lot at the minute because if my daily statistics continue at the very lowest, I’m NOT Disordered should reach one million readers before the end of the year. And figuring this out, meant that I’ve began organizing a private event to celebrate the milestone. Which, again, has drawn my attention to the fact it’s going to happen… When I was telling someone what the party was for, I was asked how it felt – the notion of having one million readers – and I told her it was surreal. But that’s not all that’s in my head around this momentous occasion…

Small beginnings should be recognized and remembered…

Instances like this – getting closer and closer to one million readers – make me so grateful that I can remember the very beginning of I’m NOT Disordered. For those who don’t know the story…

It was January 6^th, 2013 and I had been a psychiatric inpatient since summer 2012 after a suicide attempt left me on life support. I had just had a 1:1 with my Key Nurse and we’d decided that I would start writing a little bit about the abuse I’d experienced when I was younger every night. Agreeing to do this felt like a massive step forward into recovery and it inspired a sense of wanting to document it. So, when I got back to my room from the 1:1 and saw my laptop lying on the bed, I realized that rather than document my progress in one of the many notebooks I wrote in, it might be a better idea to do it online.

I thought that at least that way, my loved ones – family, friends… could join me on the journey and be better placed at understanding what I was experiencing. I hoped that in doing this, they would be able to be even more supportive, they’d be able to help others struggling with their mental health, they’d feel more confident in speaking up about any difficulties they have too, and they’d be better educated in mental illness so as to dispel any stigmatized thoughts and opinions (because even your loved ones can have them!).

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