Blog For Mental Health 2014: The Prologue

It’s official, loves.  2013 is over, 2014 is here.  We’ve all survived one more trip around the sun on this wild, spinning ball we call a planet.  It was a rough year for many of us, but it was a great year for a lot of us, too.  Whether you feel you had the former or the latter (or maybe a bit of each), you should be very proud of yourself, because you did make it through, and that’s not always as easy an accomplishment as one might think.

In any case, I’m proud of you, and I’m grateful for you, too.

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Lines and Colours

In my mind, I am normal. This is because I live with me twenty-four seven (OK, not always twenty-four seven because some of those hours I am asleep).

I have BPD. In the past, I never realised that I feel emotions more easily, more deeply, and for longer than others do. I thought the intensity of my emotions was normal. Turns out, it’s not. I read somewhere that in non-BPD people an emotion typically fires for 12 seconds. In BPD’ers it can last up to 20 percent longer. BPD’ers emotions also repeatedly re-fire, or re-live, or recur, however you want to say it, so emotional reactions occur for even longer. I do. I go over and over and over the emotions, pinging from one to another like a steel ball in a pinball machine.

Coming Out

An important note from Ruby:  These words are not my own.  I did not write this piece.  I may wish (very much) that I had, but this is something written by Cate Reddell, who has an amazing gift with not just how she puts her words together, but how each one of them is imbued with her beautiful voice, and her beautiful conviction.  Some of you may be familiar with Cate’s blog, Infinite Sadness… or hope?  If you aren’t, have a look, it is well worth your time.  

We’ve never done any “guest posts” on Canvas, and that’s not what this is meant to be at all.

Here WEGO!

I was sitting around last Wednesday, I can’t exactly recall what I was doing with precision, when what should I get alerted to in my Twitter feed but this little gem:

Look, we’re a Finalist in the category of Best Ensemble Cast!

Blog For Mental Health 2013

Here we are, still within the first month of 2013.  A few days into it, but it is never too late to get something like this rolling.

Last year’s badge

Something like what?  Why, it’s time to unveil the Blog for Mental Health 2013 Badge!  Lulu started this amazing campaign last year, and it caught on like wildfire with mental health bloggers everywhere.  They proudly took the pledge, spread the word to other bloggers, and displayed the badge prominently on their blogs.  You’ve seen it in our sidebar, I’ve seen it on nearly every mental health site I visit.  It has truly been an unprecedented show of solidarity.

Awards Show Jitters

A post about awards?  Well, we’ve done these posts before, so why should I have jitters?

These awards are something quite different from the lovely honors given to us by our fellow bloggers in the past.  These are actually nominations for the 2012 WEGO Health Activist Awards.  After being nominated, we have to go through the semifinals and finals before a winner is chosen.  If we make it to those rounds, that is.

I Am Not Entirely Who I Appear To Be

I am also not ready to tell you the gory details of my whole story, not directly nor explicitly, but something is pressing me to do this.  And I can leave it up to all of you to read or not read and judge or not judge and form your own opinions.

I haven’t lied to all of you.  I haven’t pretended to be someone I am not.  I have, however, refrained from directing everyone to a crucial piece of my past and my history.

Stigma? What Stigma?

Yes, everyone.  It’s me.  Again.  Ruby had to jet off to paradise and I promised her I’d pick up the slack while she was away.  Lucky you.  😉

The title of this post may seem a bit odd, or at least it will after you read on and realize that I am not being facetious or sarcastic with it.