Mental Health Round-up: PND, PP & Self Harm Awareness

Well hello you, nice to see you here. Pull up a pew and a mug of something of highly caffeinated, I may even share my biscuit stash with you, just make sure the kids aren’t looking.

In the spirit of sharing, I’m including a post of my own – If You’re Still Here, essentially a letter to my future self as I battle through another bout of suicidal thoughts.

Last month saw Time to Change’s #timetotalk campaign, so what better time to do just that and keep the conversation going? While I was organising scrabbling around, pretending to know exactly what I was doing with this round-up I was so completely inundated with bloggers sharing their posts with me about their own mental health which I find very heartening indeed.

While we’re on the subject, GingerSnapBlog wrote a beautifully eloquent post, #TimeToTalk, on just why the campaign is so vital and why we all need to spend five minutes to ask that certain someone if they’re really OK. Perhaps even carefully placing the shame, guilt and self-denial to one side to ask ourselves whether we should ask for some help.

March 1st was Self Harm Awareness day, Clara Unravelled’s (My) Self Harm is so familiar she could have plucked it from my own subconscious and I truly mean everyone must read it, whether you’ve experienced self harm yourself, have a loved one struggling with it or it’s something you’ve never been affected by.

Toby Goes Bananas questions what’s happening to her former self in Am I Normal, an incredibly brave piece where the realisation that postnatal depression is the root cause has just started to creep in. The post quite clearly resonated with many women, myself included, as she went on to post I AM Normal.

Since we’re on PND – The Secret Father has an insightful if bittersweet post – PND and fatherhood – seven tips for dads – I found this such a refreshing post to read. The shockwaves of PND can absolutely devastate everyone involved and fathers often get pushed to the background, left clueless as to what is happening and why.

Leading from PND to PP – or postpartum psychosis as Bumps and Grind shares Everything you always wanted to know about my psychosis, but were afraid to ask – a totally candid post about how a terrifying experience of psychosis can lead to positive endings and helping others.

The Mad House of Cats & Babies opens up about her long battle with anxiety in I got lost while Hodge Podge Days writes about her low self esteem from Rejection.

To finish I thought I’d include Feeling Good from dorkymum – a gorgeously uplifting post about how a bit of sunshine and making positive changes to her lifestyle are having such a beneficial effect on her mental health.

Anyway, enough from me, I’ll see you the same time next month and it’s your turn to buy the biscuits – deal?