The lovely Quiet Borderline recently made this award called the Strong Person Award. And the lovely S Howard just presented it to me. I’m honoured and so glad to be recognised as a part of the blogging community with so many other great writers/people out there.
A bit about the award:
Here are the rules for accepting the Strong Person Award:
1. Make sure to add in the text (below) and image (above) to spread the love and add how little or how much you want!
You heard me right! You are not weak, you are strong. You are not a failure, you are a fighter! This goes out to all mentalists. And it’s a gift from The Quiet Borderline to you all – Please spread the love. Mental health is not something to be sneered at and it deserves much more respect. Stop the stigmatising.
2. Name your diagnoses – Stand loud and proud! You can tell us a little about them also if you’d like. How you’re affected by these diagnoses and how you are fighting your way out of them. (see below)
3. Add a photo of yourself, or some abstract picture that represents you, anything you like! (below)
4. Send this on to as many, yes, as many, people that you like. It can be five, ten, fifty. (below)
OK, here goes!
My diagnoses: Originally depression and anxiety way back about 8 years ago, agoraphobia developed around 6 years ago, Bipolar diagnosed in Feb 2009. Possible complex PTSD mainly as a result of childhood abuse and losing my one and only baby to stillbirth in 2007.
How am I fighting them? Gosh, it’s been a long and bumpy ride that has included being sectioned, lots of admissions to the mental health hospital, an attempt at a few sessions of bereavement counselling (that I thought I was ready for, but wasn’t), dabbling with drugs and alcohol, moments of trying to watch inspirational and positive videos, attempting to learn mindfulness to keep myself calmer. Needing (unashamedly) various medications to get me to where I am today. My wonderful, non judgemental parents who have always been by my side helping me through the shit and their endless love towards me. And finally, by starting to believe in myself again and recently making the decision to start a college course which begins next month to give myself a positive focus for the future.
A photo of myself: Well after my recent video I haven’t got much to hide, but all the same I’d like to pick a reasonably flattering one of me! So here goes, this is me – the person behind My Crazy Bipolar Life.
Happy me
And not so happy me at my little boy’s headstone:
Not so happy me
Who am I sending this award on to?
Well a few of you might have already received it, but I’m sending it again to make sure!
http://werehorse.blogspot.co.uk/
http://willfindhope.wordpress.com/
http://conversationswithmyhead.blogspot.co.uk/
http://doyourememberthattime.wordpress.com/
http://madmatters.wordpress.com/
http://www.thebipolardiva.com/
And I also wanted to send to Purple Noise but for some reason can’t access her blog at the moment.
Thank you again for this award, I wear it with pride, it means a lot 
No I haven’t received one yet to my knowledge so thank you Em! The top photo is a nice photo of you
x
What a story. You are beautiful in so many ways. I didn’t know you lost your son. I lost my grandson and I still have trouble visiting him even though he’s not even five minutes from my house. It hurts too much. After reading this, maybe I’ll go see him today. Thanks for sharing.
I lost him back in 2007, five years on it still hurts as much as it did the day I lost him. They say time is a great healer but sometimes that just isn’t the case. I do feel some sense of being closer to him when I go up to his little headstone and do the small things that I can for him, like polishing his stone, making sure he has fresh flowers, taking little toys up to sit there. I hate to think of him as being buried there, that’s just a little place I go to feel close to him, I much prefer to think of him as a beautiful little angel up in Heaven, playing happily with all the other angels who left this earth far too soon. I’m so sorry to hear of your loss as well, I hope you can find a way to feel closer to him in a gentle way for you, no child should ever go to Heaven before their Mum’s or Gran’s, it’s one of the hardest things in the world to deal with but thinking he is happy wherever he is, whether that be as an angel, the brightest star in the sky or that beautiful butterfly that follows me as I go for a walk one random day all help just the tiniest bit.xx
What an amazingly strong woman you are. I’ve just literally started blogging about my experienes of bipolar disorder. Finding it heard to get my head round it all but determined to do it. Your blog is an inspiration. X