Monday, November 29, 2010

The penultimate post - NaBloPoMo as therapy

This posting every day business is hard. I hesitated to sign up for NaBloPoMo this year because I haven't been terribly well in the mental health department lately. I'm on anti-depressants and they are helping but I still feel quite fragile and don't have as many spoons as I'd like to spread around. When I'm down I tend not to post as much, my commenting on other people's blogs dries up and eventually my tweet rate slows as well (that's the last to go, 140 characters I can usually manage). I also stop reading books.

Back in August I set myself a goal of posting a decluttering story every day in the hope that it would a) get the house cleaned up and b) bootstrap me out of the depression by forcing me to engage online. A fake it till you make it ploy. The house did get a bit more organised and I did post most days in August, but in September and October with 3 and 6 posts respectively I was right back to hibernating again. The things I had hoped we'd achieve by the end of September are almost all done, a mere 2 months late, but the house doesn't look even a little bit tidy. Moving rooms full of stuff around creates chaos, I'm going to have to start the decluttering and tidying process all over again once we have everything settled in place.

I rather suspect that without the impetus of NaBloPoMo I'd not have been engaging with people online very much at all this last month, it's been a difficult time even without the depression. I'm glad that I was motivated to post about my visiting my Grandma and saying goodbye to her and that I was able to share the story of her life. I've enjoyed looking through old photos and I've even written a few posts that I'm quite proud of: my thoughts on turning 40, the one about swimming and my sentimental tea post.

I love being part of the little corner of the blogging and tweeting community that I've settled in, that there are so many people out there who are full of love and acceptance and caring for others, with whom I can share stupid geeky jokes and from whom I can learn so much and who are so supportive and understanding. It takes a certain amount of effort to reach out and engage and sometimes I don't feel able to do that, but the benefit I get from making that effort is huge. So I'm glad I drove myself to do it this month, even though I didn't feel like it, thank you NaBoPoMo for not letting me give up and an even bigger thank you to everyone who has read my posts, left a comment or chatted with me on Twitter - you're all awesome.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to keep myself going through December...

50 Things post No. 45

4 comments:

tigtog said...

Oh Mim, I hear you on struggling through the mental health issues. My year's been a milder (by the sound of it) version of the same. I am glad you've been posting more frequently recently - I miss your voice when you're not posting, even though I don't come over and comment as much as I should (exactly the same struggle to reach out and engage as you outline above).

Thanks for making the NaBloPoMo effort, and I really hope that it continues to be a therapeutic benefit to share some of your life with the rest of us.

suze2000 said...

I've been struggling a bit myself lately and I know a friend of mine is, because I haven't heard from her in three months. It seems to be the year for it. I'm sure things will turn around soon for all of us.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing you guys when we come up at Xmas. :)

Bri said...

I know your pain hon. I have battled depression and anxiety pretty much my whole life and been on meds for almost 20 years. I like the little corner of the Interwebs that I have carved out (and that includes you!) and it is nice to know people are around even if they aren't always 'around' as such. Basically I would miss you if you went AWOL but I would understand if you needed to (having been there myself).

Now this is where I make myself look really daft, it was you and Ariane that I met at the Fat Studies performance night...wasn't it? Or am I totally up the wrong tree?

mimbles said...

You're all very lovely and I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy right now :-)

Bri - definitely the right tree, that was indeed Ariane and me!