The next step- blogging for mental health sites, publications and online journals

I suffer from paranoid schizophrenia, and have done for twelve years.

The way my “suffering” manifests has changed over the years; I no longer experience full blown hallucinations and the intense delusional thinking and experience of my early years with this diagnosis, but I do still deal with invasive voices, mild invasive thoughts, mildly delusional periods, and experiences which I can only class as weird.

This illness has morphed and shifted and evolved, but it still has the power to shock and terrify the s*** out of me at times. The intensity, of what this illness can make you think, feel and experience is unparalleled; which is one of the many reasons it can be so hard to move past and leave behind, the experiences burn into you like fire.

I am using this blog to raise awareness of mental illness, and the reality behind such serious conditions as schizophrenia, manic depression and bi-polar; hopefully this will also work to challenge stigma and the misunderstanding surrounding these strange and extreme conditions.

I also want to see if I can get some of my articles posted on other mental health related websites. I’m currently writing a book, on “how to recover from severe mental illness,” and hope to find an agent and get it published in the next year: this has been my dream for about five years now.

So it would be really useful to develop some kind of web platform, and web presence, before I start sending my manuscript off to agents.

I found a website called BeyondYourBlog.com, which is basically a site where people can work to connect with other sites separate from their original blog, related to their specific area of expertise and the topics they are interested in.

There was a great article called “18 places that might be a good fit for your writing on mental health,” which I have gone through with a highlighter, and used to specify 9 sites to focus upon and look into.

I figured I may as well put the list up here, as they will likely be useful for other people besides myself.

So these are the 9 sites I found to be the most appropriate for my needs:

1. http://stigmafighters.com/
2. https://mentalhealthwritersguild.wordpress.com/
3. http://www.awakeningsproject.org/
4. http://www.openmindsquarterly.com/
5. http://www.healthyplace.com/
6. https://psychcentral.com/
7. https://beautifulmindsmagazine.org/
8. http://cmha.calgary.ab.ca/balance-blog/
9. http://www.moodsmag.com/moods/index.php

This is quite a list!

Each of these are sites focus on promoting positive and realistic information and representations of mental illness, and providing practical strategies and advice for people who have been affected.

I am feeling psyched about checking each one out, and then working to put together some articles and posts which might be appropriate for some of them.

If anybody else knows of any sites which also might be useful then please let me know, I’m sure there are other ones I haven’t included here. I know there are big charities in this country (England), such as Mind, Sane and Rethink; and I plan on checking these out as well.

My next task is to explore these websites and work out which of the articles I have already written would be suitable for each of them. I have loads of idea for more essays and posts, and am always open to new ideas, view-points, and ways of discussing mental health and mental illness.

So lots more work ahead.. Wish me luck!

 

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