HOW TO INCREASE YOUR BLOG’S AUDIENCE | TIP 1 OF 4

“Be worth knowing, not just well-known.”

Melissa Bolton

*This is Part One of a Four Part Series being published daily*

Originally on thinking of this blog post, I was so sure that I would have written something like this before that I went right through my content archive! I found a ton of posts that will be really useful in referring back to in this post; but nothing even remotely similar to everything I’m hoping that this one will be. Upon making this discovery, I started to wonder why I hadn’t written something like this before. I didn’t have to think on it for too long though, before the self-doubt and fear of judgment surrounded my head and, before I knew it, I was questioning what right I had to write a post like this. I mean, who do I think I am telling others how to do something like this?! But I’ll be honest; I just keep coming back to the fact that I’m NOT Disordered has over 1.3 million readers now and shouldn’t that count for something? So, I’m swallowing the low self-esteem, pushing away the nerves, and desperately hoping people will deem this piece to be genuinely helpful and a useful resource… Here goes nothing…

PICKING APART FOUR ABUSE POSTS | MARKING SEVENTEEN YEARS SINCE THE ABUSE ‘ENDED’

“It is through that brokenness that we find courage and strength. It is what empowers us to do great things.”

K. S. Ruff

In deciding to once again mark the anniversary of the ‘end’ of the abuse I experienced (April 20^th but I thought I’d put this post up now), I knew I’d set myself a challenge because with I’m NOT Disordered now being over eleven years old(!), there has been ample amount of time to have created and published numerous posts about the abuse. Which, for thinking about this post, had me asking myself: ‘will there even be any angles left that I haven’t written from?!’ And, when I searched ‘abuse’ in my post archive, I wasn’t at all surprised – and felt completely validated – to see an enormous list of blog posts of various points of view, using different approaches, and with numerous inspirations! As I scanned through them and found myself developing thoughts, feelings, and opinions on each, I finally thought of the idea for this post… I’m going to start with a few tips on how to cope with reading about abuse (for obvious reasons!), and then I’ve chosen the four abuse posts I remember most, and I’ve picked them apart – talked through my favourite bits, parts I’d like to change, any differences between their publication date and today, and things I’ve learnt from the posts…

“WE CAN DEFINITELY SAY YOU’VE RECOVERED FROM THE PERSONALITY DISORDER!” | AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK INSIDE MY DIAGNOSIS REVIEW

 

“It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”

W. C. Fields

Way back in 2009, after two psychiatric hospitalisations, I had run away to a town over an hour away and upon their local Police taking me to their Station for a Mental Health Act assessment, the Psychiatrist went through all these questions. I remember feeling like I was agreeing to and saying yes to everything and afterwards, he told me that for a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), you needed at least five out of nine symptoms and that I exhibited all nine. Afterwards, I was allowed home and when I next saw the Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) I had, I asked her “so are we saying it’s BPD now?” And she turned around and said: “I don’t want to put that label on you yet. No services will touch you once we say you’ve got that; people don’t recover from it…”

AN INSIDE LOOK AT CREATING A MENTAL HEALTH STRATEGY FOR AN NHS TRUST | IN COLLABORATION WITH NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | WORLD HEALTH DAY 2024

“The individual who says it is not possible should move out of the way of those doing it.”

Tricia Cunningham

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Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (newcastle-hospitals.nhs.uk)

Having been a blogger for over eleven years now, there have honestly been so many instances where I’ve found myself genuinely shocked and pleasantly surprised. These have varied from reaching reader milestones to being gifted items or complimentary experiences to being asked to give speeches at events. Also, in that list of shocking things has been landing collaborations with huge organisations such as Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NUTH)! Prior to the opportunity came up to help create and develop the Trust’s new Mental Health Strategy, it had honestly always – literally since Day One of my blogging career! – been a goal of mine to work with NUTH! I was surprised again when, after hearing about I’m NOT Disordered, the Trust asked me to also write some blog posts. So, as the Strategy is finalised this month – and because of it being World Health Day and the theme this year is ‘My Health, My Right’ – it was almost natural and automatic to write a blog post with some of the feedback NUTH’s Patient Experience team asked me and my fellow members of the Strategy’s Expert Reference Group to provide…