“I pledge my commitment to the Blog for Mental Health 2014 Project. I will blog about mental health topics not only for myself, but for others. By displaying this badge, I show my pride, dedication, and acceptance for mental health. I use this to promote mental health education in the struggle to erase stigma.”
When I began writing this blog in 2007 I had no idea that I’d still be writing it seven years later. Truth be told, with everything that was happening to me at the time, I genuinely thought I’d be dead by now! But I’m not. I’m still here, still wandering the seemingly endless road to recovery and still rambling on about all things mental health related.
Sometimes I do question why I continue to write this blog. Back in those early days there were very few mental health blogs, and hardly any of them were written by people living with mental illness. Today there are hundreds upon thousands upon millions of people making their voices heard; all of whom with far more clarity and panache than I’m able to muster.
But whenever I begin questioning my little corner of the internet, I remind myself of the reasons why I began blogging in the first place; so that other people experiencing mental health problems would not feel alone, so that those prejudiced against mental illness could learn about what people have to live with and so that I could explore myself through the therapeutic act of writing. All causes I am still committed to.
This is a blog about mental illness, but it’s also a blog about me; a valiant (if futile) attempt to tell the world that no one thing defines who a person is, that they are so much more than their mental illness, homelessness, sexual predilection or social standing.
So as a new year dawns, I once again commit to write about all the topics that the mainstream media have labelled ‘taboo’; self-harm, suicide, poverty, homelessness, discrimination, abuse, sexual predilections and mental health in general. I once again vow to be as honest and open as it’s possible to be. And I once again pledge to give stigma the spanking it so richly deserves.
~ You can learn more about (and take) the Blog for Mental Health pledge here ~
All that I am, all that I ever was... 
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April 9, 2014 at 3:56 pm
“I genuinely thought I would be dead”
I know what you mean. Seriously, how much crap can one person withstand. I guess quite a bit or many of us would be dead. It takes a heck of a lot of fortitude to survive some of the things people with mental illnesses go through.
Anyway, thanks for writing this blog. I think it is good for people without mental defects to see that people with them are not much different than they are. Many of them feel the things we do but they do not feel them as intensely. More importantly, they don’t feel them day after day for years. The sharpness of the pain stings but the duration it lasts is crushing.
Anyway, if greed and selfishness were classified as mental illnesses than 95% of America would be sick.
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November 10, 2014 at 4:23 pm
Just came upon your post in the list for Blog for Mental health 2014. I really enjoyed this post. You have been blogging for 7, going on 8 years! Way to go. Keep wandering the road to recovery. Best wishes. David Joel Miller
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March 26, 2015 at 3:06 am
Keep writing! We need all the voices we can get to keep moving us all forward.
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