Guest Post #9 - Mental Health Awareness Month - John - Bipolar Style

• How old were you when you began to experience symptoms of mental
illness?

• Did you have support and seek treatment immediately? If not, why?

• What would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now
about mental illness?

• What do you think are the biggest misconceptions those with mental
illness have to face?

• How do you feel about the stigma surrounding mental illness? Do you
feel we’ve taken positive steps? In your opinion, what needs to be
done in the future?

• What do you do to get through the bad days?

• Do you have any projects that you’re working on that could
benefit the mental health community?

• Please give us some of your social media screen names in case
someone wants to get a hold of you. 

_ _ _ _ 

In hindsight, I experienced feelings I now know to be Bipolar disorder
as early as 6-7 years old. I was starting grade school.

My dad was mostly away at work, and my mom just focused on my school
performance. So, when my emotions got the better of me, all the adults
chalked it up to me just being a “sensitive kid.” All of those
adults kicked me to the curb. By age 14 I was homeless. I went
undiagnosed through another 20 years of mayhem. My mom has a personality
disorder of the narcissistic nature. She was not hearing what any of the
doctors were saying. She still doesn’t fully acknowledge my condition.


The biggest misconception I experience is that many people equate mental
disease with intelligence. They think we’ve gone stupid all of a
sudden. Or maybe deaf. We have not. We hear and process everything
people say. We take mental notes and make lists of the shit-talkers.
Another misconception is that people who have never been to a
psychiatrist must be normal. There are millions of people sicker than I
am who have never seen a doctor. You could be one of them. How would you
know if you don’t see a doctor? 

Stigma is different for each person. Some people have support circles,
resources or government benefits that allow them to survive without fear
of living in a gutter. I don’t. I have lost jobs once people learned
of my Bipolar. It’s easy to say “Fuck Stigma” if you have support.
When you don’t, living with a mental illness could be similar to being
a homosexual in the 1950’s.

A quick search on Twitter shows how much stigma has actually grown for
some in the age of ignorant social media posts. Other groups, like
people with gender dysmorphia syndrome, are more accepted in today’s
society than people with manic syndrome. That’s great for shows like
Drag Race, and it also illustrates how slow society is to accept other
mental conditions. Where is Drag Race for Bipolar people? The stigma is
real. Deny it at your own peril. Unless you have a trust fund or
government benefits.

People with safety nets need to check their entitlement when it comes to
their position on stigma. If it doesn’t affect you that much, good for
you. It almost killed me. Twice. You can’t tell me to ignore it. You
can’t gaslight me into thinking it’s O.K. to be “out” in my
personal situation, in these particular times. If you want to pay all my
bills for life, you can lecture me on stigma.

Ugh. Bad days. If at all possible, I get dressed and go outdoors. The
direct sunlight and kinetic activity of the street people on the block
enliven my senses. On bad days, I try to avoid electronics. I would much
rather talk to one dirty stranger at a bus stop than a dozen sterile
pixels on my Twitter feed. Nature … animals. All those things that
don’t judge me - I try to surround myself in that. I also create;
graphic design, music, podcasts, etc. Sometimes when I think I need some
kind of input to make me feel better, it’s really an output that I
need. 

I always have projects - typical manic. I produce a monthly podcast
called Bipolar Style that’s geared toward the new people diagnosed
with Bipolar every day. The podcasts’ success led to our popular Slack
chat at BipolarParty.com where several of us met and formed a new
project called Psych.Media. That’s intended to be a central
promotional hub for producers with mental illnesses and their blogs,
podcasts, galleries, gaming, and videos. My newest podcast, Manic
Episodes, debuts in May 2018. 

I can be reached through my Twitter accounts @BipolarStyle and
@ManicEpisode or via chat at BipolarParty.com Of course, you could just
go to BipolarStyle.com 

Guest Post #8 - Mental Health Awareness Month - Dyane Harwood

Interview Questions for Mental Health Awareness Month

1)   How old were you when you began to experience symptoms of mental illness? My postpartum bipolar disorder was triggered by childbirth; I was 37 years old. Before then I had dysthymia (chronic depression) but no one, including my father who had bipolar one, thought that I’d have it too.

2)   Did you have support and seek treatment immediately? If not, why? No one knew I was careening into an acute manic episode, including the maternity hospital professionals, my immediate family, and myself. At first I was hypomanic, so I just seemed and felt happy. I was so exhausted after my daughter was born I thought that there wasn’t a problem. Little did I know that a manic-depressive storm was brewing in my brain, and I’d be admitting myself to a psychiatric ward the following month.

3)   What would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now about mental illness?

Do not give up your pursuit of finding the right psychiatrist and meds no matter what.

4)   What do you think are the biggest misconceptions those with mental illness have to face?

That we’re dangerous and/or hopeless when it comes to being productive members of society.

5)   How do you feel about the stigma surrounding mental illness? Do you feel we’ve taken positive steps? In your opinion, what needs to be done in the future? The stigma is alive and well where I live. Despite the national campaigns, on a local level I’m not seeing any positive changes. I live in a mountain valley devoid of free support services to help those with mental illness. Here it’s all about having a medical cannabis dispensary on literally every block (and while I believe those places are essential, every block’s a bit excessive!) and we have lots of liquor stores, but we don’t have a single mental health support group in a large area filled with thousands of people. I ran one free DBSA (Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance) support group for women with mood disorders, but I got burned out doing that after eight years. No one wanted to take my place. However, our population is growing, so this kind of group is needed more than ever.

6)    

7)   On the (much) brighter side, there have definitely been many positive steps taken by numerous individuals and organizations to deal with stigma. I believe we need more people in positions of power and influence, from politics to education to celebrity to sports figures to the medical profession itself--to “come out” with their mental illnesses. 

8)   What do you do to get through the bad days?  I Netflix & Amazon Prime Video binge, I read a little bit, and hang out with my Scottish collie Lucy. If the weather is nice, I try to force myself to go for a walk with Lucy —she begs me with her big brown eyes. Sometimes I’ll go, sometimes I won’t. If we go, I always feel a least a teeny bit better. Always. But it’s VERY hard to even contemplate taking her out when I’m feeling like total crap.

9)   Do you have any projects that you’re working on that could benefit the mental health community? I’m still working on getting the word out about my first book Birth of a New Brain – Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder (Post Hill Press) because it has only been out since October 2017. I’m also working on my second book that will be geared to help those with mental illness in a way that hasn’t been done before.

10)                Please give us some of your social media screen names in case someone wants to get a hold of you.    

11)                Twitter: @DyaneHarwood 

12)                  www.dyaneharwood.com

Blog www.proudlybipolar.wordpress.com

Guest Post #7 - Mental Health Awareness Month - By Martin Baker

Interview Questions for Mental Health Awareness Month

By Martin Baker

I am delighted and proud to contribute to Rebecca and Joe Lombardo’s Advocate All Stars series to mark Mental Health Awareness Month 2018. A few of the questions were written for someone who lives or has lived with a mental health issue or diagnosis. With Beka’s permission I have adapted these to better fit my experience as primary support and caregiver to my best friend Fran Houston, who lives with bipolar disorder.

1. How old were you when you began to appreciate the impact of mental illness on others?

I spent much of my adult life turning my back on the impact of mental illness on those around me. The depth of their crises and need terrified me, mainly because I (wrongly) believed their need was for me to “fix things” or “make everything better.” I felt overwhelmed and scared. Those responses are forgivable. What is less easy for me to forgive is that I made no effort to learn, to educate myself, or even to remain present with those affected. All that changed in 2011 when I met Fran Houston on social media. I was fifty years old. We connected as friends immediately. Fran made no secret of her bipolar disorder, indeed she was highly manic when we met and for six months or so afterwards before falling into a desperate depression. Yet somehow I did not feel afraid. That meeting was transformational for me. Everything else starts from that point.

2. Do you feel you would have mental health support and seek treatment if you needed it?

I have never been diagnosed with a mental health condition, or felt I needed to consult a doctor for a mental health issue. I believe I would seek help if I needed to, and that I would have the support of family and friends in doing so.

3. What would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now about mental illness?

Keep your boundaries healthy but do not turn away from others. Engage openly, honestly, and with curiosity. Pay attention to what is going on around you: personally, locally, globally. Connect. Talk with people. More importantly, really listen to what they are saying. Make a sodding difference.

4. What do you think are the biggest misconceptions those with mental illness have to face?

I think the biggest misconception is the false notion that mental illness marks a person out as compromised in some way, as “less than,” as failing, or broken. Also the equally false idea that mental illness precludes someone having meaningful, long-lasting, and mutually rewarding relationships of all kinds.

5. How do you feel about the stigma surrounding mental illness? Do you feel we’ve taken positive steps? In your opinion, what needs to be done in the future?

I don’t think it is unreasonable for someone with no direct experience to not understand what it means to live with mental illness. That is the position I was in before I met Fran. Not knowing, however, is no excuse for turning your back on people or refusing to educate yourself as I did for so long. It is certainly no excuse for disrespecting someone or treating them poorly. It is no excuse for ignorant “us and them” thinking, which is the root of stigma and discrimination.

What can be done about that? In my case it was Fran’s willingness to engage with me on a one-to-one level which broke through my walls of fear and ignorance. From there it was down to me. I read widely, took courses, and talked (and listened) with people who know what it’s about because they live it every day. That is why memoirs and autobiographies, blogs, podcasts, interviews etc. are so important. Fran and I wrote our book “High Tide, Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder” because we felt the voice and perspective of those in supportive friendships was under-represented.

6) What do you do to get through the bad days?

At first I felt this question was aimed at those who live personally with mental illness but I am going to answer it because well or ill we all have those times. When I am struggling or in any kind of crisis I turn to Fran and a few other close friends. It is at such times that you find out who you need. That’s not necessarily who has known you longest or best, but who you feel safe with. I used to struggle on alone rather than sharing with others. I have learned the value of being able to reach out to someone. Not needing them to fix anything, just to be there, to hear me without judgement. It still isn’t easy for me but I can do it when I need to. It helps.

7) Do you have any projects that you’re working on that could benefit the mental health community?

I recently became a contributing blogger at bp Magazine for Bipolar (www.bphope.com) which I’m passionate about because it means we are reaching a wider audience than ever before and I feel I am contributing meaningfully to the mental health community. I am also increasingly engaged with groups and individuals here in the north east of England, including Time to Change (www.time-to-change.org.uk), Launchpad (www.launchpadncl.org.uk), and OPENM;NDED which is a group of incredibly motivated people based at Northumbria University working to open up the conversation on mental health and suicide prevention.

8) Please give us some of your social media screen names in case someone wants to get a hold of you.

Fran and I blog at www.gumonmyshoe.com. We welcome guest bloggers: see the Guest Guidelines on our website’s contact page. I am active on Twitter (twitter.com/gumonmyshoebook) and Facebook (personal page: www.facebook.com/Marty.Baker.Author). Our book “High Tide, Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder” is published by Nordland Publishing and available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers.

Guest Post #6 - My Story - Mental Health Awareness Month - By Aubrey Good

1)      How old were you when you began to experience symptoms of mental illness?

I believe that I was in elementary school when symptoms first came forward. I was an extreme perfectionist, often having enormous tantrums if one little hair on my head did not sit right or I received a 98% on a test instead of a 99%. I also began going through cycles of “ticks” and phobias. I went through phases of social awkwardness as well. By the time I was 13 it was apparent that I had episodes of depression which is when I was misdiagnosed.

2)      Did you have support and seek treatment immediately? If not, why?

My grandmother worked in the mental health field and my family on both sides have dealt with various mental health issues so I did have a support system in place and was given treatment (for the wrong disorder) when things became severe enough. Unfortunately the antidepressants caused a long, drawn out mania that wasn’t understood and discovered until about 16-18. At 18, after being medicine free for about 2 years and still acting unusually, I was finally diagnosed correctly and was supported moving forward although I do believe that if there had been more willingness to discuss personal mental illness/struggles, I could have received better guidance and care.

3)      What would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now about mental illness?

I would tell myself that the best I can do for myself is to shed the shame and embarrassment I feel and instead own the illness for its role in my life. Acceptance is crucial to moving forward toward a better, more positive self.

4)      What do you think are the biggest misconceptions those with mental illness have to face?

I get frustrated when I hear people using “mental illness” incorrectly to describe individuals who are struggling with their mental health. I believe that referring to a healthy state of mind as “mental health” but a chemical imbalance in the brain as “mental illness” is misleading and offers the misconception that our minds should only be treated with care if it is diseased. I think that a better term to describe mental illness would be “mental disease” because there is an extreme difference between someone with bipolar disorder (the disease) and someone who is having a difficult time mentally due to extreme stress in their life (temporarily ill). I came across this misconception multiple times in the recent reporting surrounding mass shootings, but I see this regularly on a daily basis where people without the chemical imbalance ignore their mental wellbeing in general.

5)      How do you feel about the stigma surrounding mental illness? Do you feel we’ve taken positive steps? In your opinion, what needs to be done in the future?

I believe that where this is a lack of education and understanding, there will always be a certain degree of stigma. I do believe that it is getting better though because I am able to see each day a number of new voices being raised to share their realities living with mental illness. It is a very daunting task to stand up to stigma because despite all of the good and progress made, there will be some pushback and negativity. This is what makes advocacy such a brave act.

I do think that we within the mental illness community need to do a better job of eradicating stigma amongst our peers. We all lose when we begin to compare each other to one another. Mental illness comes in all forms, shapes, sizes, etc. and the experience of it is relative to the individual. Embracing our differences in favor of support of one another is so important.

6)      What do you do to get through the bad days? 

I always looked for a magic routine to use during my bad days. I was convinced that this routine would save me from wasted hours lying in bed. It turns out my bad days vary in intensity and form and that there is no one-fits-all routine. So now I just let myself have them. Sometimes this means staying in bed all day, sometimes it means calling off work. Other days it means refraining from any social activity while others I need to be around people. I have learned to stop fighting the bad day and let my body and mind recover in whatever way is best in that moment.

7)      Do you have any projects that you’re working on that could benefit the mental health community?

I work as the Social Media & Program Coordinator at International Bipolar Foundation. In some ways my whole life has become finding new ways to help the mental health community. Some of the topics I am passionate about and work on at IBPF include: inclusivity from the mental health community in our blogs, webinars, etc, men’s mental health, criminal justice & prison mental health reform, veteran mental health reform, and minority mental health. It is amazing to see some of these topics slowly working their way through our organization to make lasting change. My work here has also inspired me to taking more responsibility in the role of being an advocate in my personal life.

8)   Please give us some of your social media screen names in case someone wants to get a hold of you.

Instagram: agood0825

Twitter: AubreyMGood

Email: agood@ibpf.org

Day 5 - Mental Health Awareness Month - Five Years - By Rebecca Lombardo

It will be five years ago next month since I had a very difficult mental breakdown. I had attempted suicide, and I guess that brings consequences that you aren’t entirely expecting. Nobody likes to be stuck in a hospital, especially since I was on suicide watch and someone had to watch everything I did. The worst part was the state of Michigan having me committed.

They strapped me to a gurney and put me in the back of an ambulance, and I was terrified. Having my husband in the care behind us, just made me sob even more.

I had no idea what I was in store for, or how long I would be gone. When we got there, they wouldn’t let him in to say goodbye to me. We had about 2 seconds for a quick kiss, and they pushed him out the door. They stripped searched me and made me bend over and cough. So humiliating.

The events that took place in the hospital have changed the person that I am. I no longer trust hospitals, or doctors, and forget it if I have to go into a hospital, I’m a nervous wreck.

On the positive side, it has also been five years since the last time I hurt myself as well. I think that’s my biggest accomplishment because there have been times in my life where I felt as if self-injury was my best friend. Even bipolar can at times, feel like my best friend. I’m grateful for the love and support from my husband. My dad passed last year, and I don’t think I could get through all of the losses without him.

My goal is to never set foot inside another hospital as a patient. I finally have the mindset that suicide isn’t the answer to my problems. It’s taken more than 20 years to come to that decision in my life, but such a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders, just knowing that I don’t have to take my own life to prove how much pain I’m in. Communication is vital in any relationship, but I think it’s even more important when one of the participants struggles with a mental illness.

 Am I all better? Oh heck no. I still get really low and sometimes really high. I still spend days feeling like a complete failure because I didn’t accomplish a certain task, but I’m working on it. I guess what I’m most proud of is realizing that no matter how bad life gets, I don’t have to end it all to prove how much pain I was in. For that, I am forever grateful to my husband.

So, we are going to spend my anniversary relaxing and enjoying the fact that I have made leaps and bounds since 2013, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel like it.

Me - 1

Depression – 0

Guest Post #4 - Bipolar Disorder - By Becky of www.thatbword.com

1. My first memories of being "different" are from my very early life.  During grade school, I didn't get along very well with the other children, and was often ostracized.  I think it was because of how intensely I reacted to things.  I would often become angry or cry at the slightest provocation.  My home life was similarly affected - my mother and I would have epic fights.  My sisters and I would have epic fights.  My father - well, there was no fighting with my father.  Only stern words and tears.  I can't say for sure any of this was symptomatic of mental illness, but I do remember being shopped around to doctors and therapists.  They were trying to find out why I was so angry, I think.  We stopped going when talk of medication entered the picture.   I'm not sure what diagnosis, if any, I was given at the time. I only remember my mother saying that one doctor had called me manipulative and that we were never going back.

In my late teens I started exhibiting signs of mania - I would laugh without being able to stop, have so much energy I literally bounced down the hallway.  Even then I was extremely sensitive to criticism.  In college, I experienced debilitating depression in my first semester.  I left school soon after. 

2. I didn't have much support, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have people who would have supported me.  I didn't tell my parents about any of my symptoms - if I even recognized them as such.  I don't think I did.  I didn't seek treatment immediately, or even soon.  It wasn't until my mid-twenties that I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and even then it took a hospitalization and a severe mixed manic episode to get me to a therapist.

3.  Is it fair to say everything?  My younger self was woefully uninformed about mental health and about the associated risks and behaviors. To begin with, I would talk to my high school self and tell her that it's ok to talk to people about how you feel.  So many issues could have been avoided (or maybe lessened) if I wasn't scared of telling people what was going on in my head.  I'd also try to inform myself of the symptoms of depression and mania.  Maybe most importantly, I'd tell myself to tell my parents, that they won't be angry or disappointed.  They just want to help.

4.  Every once in a while I will let a friend know that I'm diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.  More than once, I've heard, "but you're so normal" (not always, though). What were you expecting?  I ask.  Inevitably the answer is, "well, I don't know."  People have a vague idea of what "crazy" looks like - bashing heads against walls, screaming, running in fear of some imagined assailant.  When they learn that someone with mental illness looks more or less like them, I think it scares some people.  It's that fear that really perpetuates a lot of the stigma around mental illness.  "But I'm not like them," some say.  They'll go to amazing lengths to prove that to themselves.

5.  There have been positive steps made in the past few years.  The stigma remains, though.  Even though depression and anxiety seem to have been, to a large extent, de-stigmatized, other mental illnesses like Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and Borderline Personality Disorder are still feared and rejected.  There has been some media that brings these types of disorders to light (like Silver Linings Playbook, for example), but the extent to which these have been successful at De-stigmatizing mental illness is debatable.  The more these  illnesses are portrayed, the better dialogue we can create to educate people on what it really means to live with a mental illness.  That's the best way to lessen stigma - movies and songs are all very well and good, but an open conversation about mental illness is the best way to get rid of the stigma we still face.

6.  How do I get through the bad days?  Any way I can.  I don't say that to be flippant, either.  Some coping skills work on some days and not on others.  The most frequently used tools in my kit are visualization and mindfulness.  Mindfulness is far to complicated to really get into here, but there are some great books that can help toward that end, particularly Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat Zinn.  That 's the first book on the subject I read, and it helped me quite a bit.  Sometimes, the best thing I can do is allow myself the time to let it pass without guilt or judgment.  It sounds like it should be easy, but it's anything but. Like mindfulness, it takes practice.  Slowly, I've gone from 98% guilt on days that I can't work to about 35%.  I doubt I'll ever get to zero, but it gets a little better every time I try. 

7.  There are a few mental health related projects I have my hands in right now.  My favorite is my podcast, That B Word.  With it, I try to raise awareness about different issues that affect the mental health community, from the intersection of mental health and law to having guests on to share their personal stories with mental illness. I hope that by giving people the platform to share we can help lessen the stigma of mental illness.   I also have two other podcasts in the works.  One is a fictional podcast about mental health related topics.  The other is a round table-type discussion regarding our favorite mental health creators.  We're not ready to go fully public - yet - but we're working hard to get there. 

I also blog at my website, www.thatbword.com.

8.  I can be found on Twitter @thatbword1 or @b_word_becky, on Facebook (sometimes) @thatbwordpod and on Pinterest at thatbwordpodcast.  People can also email me at becky@thatbword.com!

Thanks so much for doing this, Rebecca!  It's a great idea for Mental Health Month.  Can't wait to read them!

Guest Post #3 - Mental Health Awareness Month - Talk and Cheese

1. I've displayed symptoms of mental illness from an early age. I think I was around 8 years old when it first became apparent that all was not well. I had dreadful anger issues, and would sink into significant periods of depression. Sometimes they were preceded by a high, which usually featured a degree of OCD tendencies, but sometimes they just descended from nowhere.

2. I didn't seek support or treatment until I was in my teens, as this was 35 years ago when there was far less awareness about mental illness, and even GPs knew far less about it than they do now. Plus I think my parents assumed this behaviour was just my personality, so they bought me an inflatable 'Smurfs' punch bag to try to alleviate my rage, and offered love and cuddles to try to treat the depression! They did what they felt was best at that time.

3. This is a great question! Knowing what I know now I would reassure my younger self that we can explore ways of treating my illness, which although not a cure, will help to lesson the extent of these extreme moods. I'd also reassure the young me that I am not a 'weirdo' and that mental illness, sadly, affects a huge proportion of the population. Plus I'd do my very best to encourage the young me to seek support as soon as there are any signs of either a high or a low coming on, so that I don't feel alone during these vulnerable and frightening episodes. Lastly I'd hammer home the point that my parents actually want to support me and to learn about my illness, so not to push them away.

4. Sadly, there are still huge misconceptions about mental illness. I've been faced with people saying things like, "Yeah I have ups and down too. I think maybe I have bipolar. Do the tablets work?" Either that, or people think it's a load of rubbish and that it's just a trendy label given to weak people. I've heard things like, "If we're all being quite honest here, they just need to pull their socks up like the rest of us and stop feeling sorry for themselves."

5. There is still a serious issue with the stigma surrounding mental health which only serves to alienate those fighting an illness even more. As a result, many people will make an excuse if their mental illness has become so debilitating that they can't go to work. To tell the truth, and explain that you're currently battling a severe depressive low, or severe anxiety is often met with a less than sympathetic response from your employer. Someone with the flu, on the other hand, would be told to get some rest and be wished a speedy recovery. 

There are so many fabulous charities, organizations and initiatives aimed at raising mental health awareness, and therefore reducing the stigma, which is great, but it will take time.

In terms of what needs to be done in the future, I think each and every one of us has a duty to do our bit. If every single person living with a mental illness was open about it, the stigma would disappear overnight as there are so many of us that it would be impossible not to sit up and take notice! I absolutely understand that some people are not comfortable sharing though, and that's absolutely fine. I completely understand that, and in fact I fall into that category at the moment, although am 99% ready to put my name and face to my illness. I still do my best to raise awareness and therefore reduce the stigma under the guise of 'Talk and Cheese'. We're a strong bunch. We can do this.

6. On bad days I sometimes attempt to function and to do whatever I would normally be doing, although it's utterly exhausting, and I'll feel as though I'm not actually present. It's as though I'm an onlooker on my own life.

In all honesty though, I often find myself making up the most elaborate of excuses so that I can cancel all plans and hide out at home. In a deep depressive low, I simply can't function. It's not an excuse for a duvet day, it's the reality of battling with a serious mental illness.

7. I started blogging on my life with bipolar a couple of months ago. I also joined Twitter and Instagram and use these platforms as a means of sharing my experiences in the hope that it may offer some comfort to others, and help make fellow battlers feel less alone.

Having lived with my illness for so many years, I've managed to shape something that resembles a meaningful life. I still get some exhausting highs and pretty devastating lows, but can manage them far better than I used to, so feel strong enough to offer my support to others in the mental health community.

I also guest blog for the charity SANE, and have another potentially very exciting project in the offing, but I don't want to jinx it so won't say any more about that just yet!

8. Instagram: talk_and_cheese

Twitter: @talkandcheese

Website: talkandcheese