MY ULTIMATE GUIDE TO STARTING OFF IN THE COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING INDUSTRY | MARKING 2.7 MILLION READERS!!!

“It is better to do little things with love than big things without love.”
Lailah Gifty Akita

When my mental health was really terrible (2009 – 2013) a huge mindset which exacerbated my suicidal thoughts and feelings – which led to very genuine attempts – was around the idea that my purpose in life was to kill myself young so as to bring attention to the failures in mental health services. For at least four years, I honestly believed that’s why I’d been put on this earth. And it made me feel hopeless, uninspired, and unmotivated to try to do anything different with my life. Finally, as a sectioned psychiatric hospital inpatient, I had therapy around the mindset (I blogged about it at the time too, you can read it here) and having started blogging just over one year earlier, I found myself able to overcome the mindset and replace it with the notion I’d slowly developed; that my blogging career – and all the good I was achieving with it – was why I’d survived everything. Communications and marketing, that was my passion and my purpose and having that opinion of the industry has led to me being passionate, dedicated, and determined to do well in it. So, as I’m NOT Disordered reaches the 2.7 million readers mark, I thought I’d finally share some of my knowledge and experience in the form of advice about starting off in this industry…

HOW TRAINING, EDUCATION, & RESEARCH HELPED ME TO PREPARE TO WORK AT A HUGE NHS EVENT

"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning."

Thomas Edison

On a bi-monthly basis, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), host a Service User and Carer Reference Group (which you can read more about on their website; here). For October’s, I attended as a Lived Experience Reporter for the first time and with the idea that I’m NOT Disordered probably has hundreds of readers who attend big events, I have put together this blog post, where I’ll talk through all the ways – emotional and practical – in which I’ve prepared for this NHS event, as well as some advice…

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2018 WITH I'M NOT DISORDERED | INTRO/WHAT TO EXPECT

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week

Welcome to Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) 2018 with I’m NOT Disordered!

This year, the focus of MHAW is stress, so for every day this week (14^th – 20^th May) there’ll be a post on this topic!

I’ve been toying with the idea of whether to tell you all what to expect from I’m NOT Disordered during this time, and whether to keep it a total secret and let you see day by day… But I couldn’t face publishing a post so short!

I'M NOT DISORDERED TAKES PART IN THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD RESEARCH STUDY | AD

The University of Sheffield have developed a questionnaire called ReQoL (Recovering Quality of Life) to help understand feelings and monitor the progress of recovery and quality of life for people who have different mental health conditions.

The research is being carried out by the University of Sheffield and is funded by the Department of Health.

It involves a quick (5-10 minutes) multiple choice questionnaire that does not affect your care.

For more information on the study please contact Dr Anju Keetharuth at the University of Sheffield by email at reqol@sheffield.ac.uk or by telephone on: 0114 222 0884

You can also read about the findings of the study and more details on the website: http://www.reqol.org.uk

NATIONAL SERVICE USER AWARDS 2018 | #NSUA2018

[Note to see who won each category; follow #NSUA2018 on Twitter!]

I remember when I was in Cygnet Hospital Bierley and they first mentioned the National ServiceUser Awards (NSUAs) and I couldn’t have been more interested! It was only the second time that Cygnet Healthcare had hosted the NSUAs and so there wasn’t much experience or knowledge when it came to the invitations I was involved – and by that I mean that I hand-made every single one!

The following year, I attended as a finalist alongside YoungMinds in one of the categories and we won!

So, this year, when I got told that I could have a spot doing the social media for the 2018 NSUAs I was over the moon and very excited! After many talks I was finally named the Event Blogger and then the Head of Social Media took poorly on the actual day of the Awards, I stepped up and attempted to fill his shoes with a barrage of tweets (each with the #NSUA2018 hashtag!).

WOMEN'S MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS UNDERESTIMATED | PRESS RELEASE

Nine out of ten people do not realise women are more likely to have poor mental health than men, a new survey has shown.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is also more likely to be seen as a male condition than female, according to the poll from Agenda and Opinium.

Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk, is raising awareness about mental health as part of its Women in Mind campaign.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, Director of Agenda, said: “There is growing evidence that more and more women and girls are facing mental health problems. 

“But despite greater awareness of mental health in general, women’s mental health is still underestimated and misunderstood.