Yesterday I put a shout out to readers to send me back one word throughts on what we're doing with the blog - I wanted to turn it into a word cloud, something representative of what it means to them and to me. This is what we came up with:
I love it, I just love it. I've talked a lot about why I'm doing this blog, why I started it and how it's developed. These words capture all of that. What's wonderful about it is the words that came up most often are those that I would have felt myself in terms of what I'm getting back from the blog - acceptance, relief, support. I'm not even sure I could rank those three in order of priority, they're so significant in terms of feeling ok about having a mental illness.
For me, there has been huge relief in being able to talk so openly about depression in all its glory, and to meet such acceptance from people. The support that has come my way, not just on the bad days (although that helped a LOT) but also during good times, has made a world of a difference to me and how I am. I'd like to think that I've been able to do the same, in whatever small way, for the people who read my blog. I hope that in being open, I've helped people to be more accepting of themselves in their own situation. I hope that they have felt relief, as I have, in knowing that they're not the only ones, the depression is just another illness that strikes some people and not others. I hope that they have felt able to ask for help when they need it.
So many other wonderful words came up as well, you can see them all in the image. But those three, they're the big ones. They're the ones that have made the biggest difference for me, and I guess, for you. Thank you!!
Labels: acceptance, blogging, relief, support
