10th September - Apologies, Sad Goodbyes, Welcome Hellos and general rambllings....

It feels like it's been forever since I've written a blog post and for that I'm sorry, but so much has been happening both in my own personal life and in the life of DealingWithDepression In fact so much has happened that I'm not really sure where to start, so forgive me if this doesn't make much sense or is in much order, but I know that you'll all understand.

Personally my husband has been struggling with his depression, anxiety, paranoia and social phobia and it's all been really hard to cope with as well as our eldest starting secondary school. I am so proud of our son as he has Aspergers Syndrome and finds change and new things really difficult to cope with. I hope he's settling in OK, although there appear to be a few teething issues, but I am sure we'll get there as long as he starts talking to me!

DWD has gone global in a really big way almost overnight and whilst I am thrilled with that, I'm scared by the responsibility I feel to so many - to give the right advice, to be online enough to make a difference and that I can handle it all. Our Facebook Page has shot up from struggling to get to 200 "likes" to now having over 6,600 worldwide members. It's really hard to know how much to post on there and I know that I haven't got that balance quite right yet, but I am working on it.
To cope with the huge increase in demand I've been really lucky at recruiting a number of "staff" to help monitor the page, answer the sometimes 10s, sometimes 100s of private messages we get every day as well as posting interesting or relavant items to the page to keep interest and to help reach out and break that terrible stigma which so many are struggling with on a daily basis.  The staff are fantastic and knowing that they are all working around their own lives, families, work commitments and mental health issues they are the unsung heros of DWD and they make it all possible. I just couldn't do it alone.
I'm trying hard to learn how different countries see mental health and how their systems work, it's hard and it's complicated, but most people are genuinely understanding when I suggest something which doesn't quite work for them, and for that I'm really grateful.

I've had to increase the staffing on the forum too as we have sadly lost our wonderful Aspasia to a teaching postion teaching English as a Foreign Language in Cairo. Whilst I am thrilled that she's doing something she has always wanted to do, it's no secret that Im going to miss having her around to text! She's not only an awesome moderator and someone who can always put into words what I'm thinking but she's become a great friend over the years too. I know that although this is a massive life change for her, it's going to be a great one for her and will be nothing short of awesome for those whose lives she will change.  So a sad goodbye to Aspasia for the time being, but she will be back ;)
The upside of us becoming much busier is that we've changed some staffing too. Emmie who is nothing short of miraculous with a wicked sense of humour, owner of her own business and Mum to the wonderful "Midget" has stepped up to the post of Assistant Admin which I'm really pleased about.
The lovely Jarre and Squishymama have both stepped up as Moderators which is wonderful as they are both perfect for the role and I know they will help shape and push DWD onwards and upwards.

Today has been a wierd day. It is "suicide prevention day" and yesterday was the 4 year anniversary of the passing of my lovely Dad. I've kind of therefore been thinking about grief a lot today and tried to be reaching out and reminding people of all the wonderful organisations who are out there to help when someone is in crisis. Samaritans are one such organisation who do such amazing work 24 hours a day, 7 days of the week, 52 weeks of the year. They are trained to talk to people over the phone/text or email.  Never forget that you are never alone, there is ALWAYS someone you can talk to.

I've promised myself that I'm going to do more blog posts and hope to share some more of the wonderful things that our members of the forum and facebook group do. We have some amazing artists, writers, posts, photographers and everything inbetween.
If you want to submit something creative or a link to your own business/site to be posted on this blog, please don't hesitate to CONTACT ME

I know this is a really long post (sorry) but once I started typing I just couldn't stop!

I normally do a couple of plugs for wonderful businesses which support DWD through their owners giving up their time to help with the technical/moderating/admin of either or both the forum or the FB page, but I know this is really long and it's the first in a while, so I'll keep it short:

Hills Handicrafts - Handmade beautifully crafted items
Kangarinos - Slings and baby carriers
Templedene Consultants - Website design, hosting and CMS
Precious Jewels Gems - Handmade beautiful jewellery
Alison George - Independent Trader for Phoenix Cards

Thanks for reading, I do appreciate it! :)

Suzi

Welcome!

This is the www.dealingwithdepression.co.uk blog for the second time. The first time that I created one (using something other than blogger) the blog was taken down for "spamming!" I was shocked and still am that something which is purely there to help to raise awareness of mental health illness and depression in particular could be removed for spamming. Well each to their own! 

So, welcome to the DWD blog. I aim to show off what our members achieve, the good things - yes there ARE good things when speaking to people with depression and mental health illness! These are the things which so many people underestimate or just don't even think about. People with depression and mental health illness are just as capable of "functioning" and being "productive members of society". 

One of our members runs two online radio shows, one for children called "Kidszone"  on a Saturday Morning  and one called Musical Memories playing songs from the shows and movies on a Sunday evening. I would suggest you have a listen! The link is: www.southdevonsound.co.uk/new

The same member also is the assistant Guider at a Rainbow and Brownie Unit in Stevenage whilst also having a young child and many other things to keep her busy! 

One of our wonderful Moderators runs her own business selling slings and baby carriers. She is also a breastfeeding supporter, organises sessions where people can go and try out slings, as well as having "munchkin" and "himself" to look after too! Her new business is just fabulous and we wish her all the luck with that! Take a peek at her website: http://www.kangarinos.co.uk/

Many of our members are keen craftspeople with knitting, crochet, papercrafts being amongst some of the amazing talents that can be demonstrated if you flick through the "arts and crafts" part of our forum. 

This is a blanket made by another of our moderators Mummyhill:

This was made by one of our American members:

People with depression and mental health illness should never be overlooked. They are volunteers as can be seen through our members who volunteer their time for fund raising for various charities, for the "Street Angels" organisation, to running our forum, to looking out for people around them whilst struggling with their own "demons."

One in Four people will suffer with depression or another mental health illness during their lifetime. It's time that the stigma associated was destroyed. Come and join us to talk about the good times and the not so good times..