Beauty From Pain Blog

So as you will have seen in my previous post (and yes I’m a bit repetitive, but if you’ve not done so, please go back and read that, and help if you can), we won an award!

You can also tell from that shiny new ‘The World of Mentalists 2012 Award Winner’ badge over there ———->

Way back on 26th April 2012 I wrote ‘my first beautyfrompainblog post‘. Now, 110 blog posts, almost 25,000 blog hits and one The World of Mentalists blog award here we are.

For me it’s not about blog number of blog hits and it’s not about awards. For me it’s about making a difference. But maybe, just maybe, a lovely little blog award might be a sign that I am actually making a difference.

I’d been reading The World of Mentalists for quite a while before starting up Beauty From Pain Blog. Since first reading it, I’ve always thought it was a really fantastic resource!

The night I wrote my first blog post here, I never thought for one second that I would win one of that year’s The World of Mentalists blog awards. I think I wrote just because I thought I had something to say. I remember cheating quite a little to begin with. I had done a lot of writing when I was very unwell and I used this as a starting point.

But the more I wrote the more I realised that I had to say. And people responded well. Which motivated me further. And I enjoy it, really really enjoy it.

Here’s what the judges had to say about Beauty From Pain Blog:

“well-written; both recovery, hopeful pieces as well those in the darkest places.”

“[the author focuses on] helping others, being useful, raising awareness and [has] a fantastic load of resources.”

Thank you to the judges for those lovely words and thank you so much for choosing Beauty From Pain Blog.

But thank you most of all to you, my awesome readers. There would be no Beauty From Pain Blog without you. If you hadn’t responded so well it would not have continued. If I hadn’t felt you were benefiting from it, it would not have continued.  If you hadn’t read / commented / shared it wouldn’t have reached so many or have been so well received so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I might be a little biased but I think that Beauty From Pain Blog is pretty awesome. I actually owe so much to it. When I think back to how I was mentally at the end of 2012 compared to the end of 2011, it is just incredible. But I believe that forming Beauty From Pain Blog in 2012 and developing it into what it has become played quite a huge part in that.

While I’m at it I may as well fill you in on a little secret. If you followed the link to read about the blog awards, you’ll have seen that the blog that I won was the: Best personality disorder blog. 

Although I was of course chuffed to receive the award, I realised that it felt somehow wrong. Why? Well, I don’t see Beauty From Pain Blog as a personality disorder blog. I see it as a general mental health blog. It’s not about personality disorders. There are so many great blogs about personality disorders and I don’t see Beauty From Pain Blog as one. And it didn’t feel right to accept a blog award for ‘best personality disorder’ blog, for a blog that I don’t feel is a ‘personality disorder’ blog. Yes, I may have a personality disorder but what does that have to do with anything? After all, does me having a personality disorder make Beauty From Pain Blog a personality disorder blog, and would that apply no matter what I was blogging about?

But then I realised some things:

1. that I was perhaps being silly? These judges were experienced people and they knew what they were doing;
2. that the all-time most read Beauty From Pain Blog post was ‘What borderline personality disorder’ feels like‘. That’s a blog posts that I have shared very little. Variations of ‘what bpd feels like’ is the most common search term to find this blog, and most of the readers of that blog post have come from that. That should maybe tell me something?;
3. That it doesn’t matter what I consider Beauty From Pain Blog to be. It’s you, the reader, who matters. And it’s readers who nominated it in a ‘personality disorder blog’ category, and it is what you thinks that is important here;
4. And finally so what if it is a ‘general mental health blog by someone with a personality disorder’, rather than a ‘blog about personality disorders’ this ‘general mental health blog’ might just be giving others with a personality disorder some hope, some food for thought, some inspiration… and that is something good.

And regardless of what the title of the blog is, I still think it is pretty awesome, so thank you once again to readers and judges alike. Here’s to a fantastic 2013!

Oh I mentioned there that ‘what borderline personality disorder feels like‘ was the most read blog post to date, well here are the other most read posts, in case you are interested:

• Some more thoughts on suicide – family / friends please read;
• Depression versus laziness;
• For Mental Health Awareness Week, I’m making the 1 in 4 aware;
• Feeling suicidal is not something to be ashamed of;
• Self-harm is much more than cutting.

Just a little side note before I head off for tonight – you may have noticed that blog posts have been less frequent lately. If you check the archives over there —-> you might notice that December was the quietest month yet. Well, just to give you some reassurance, that was partly intentional – December was a very busy month with lots of other heavy commitments, so here’s to normal service being resumed soon

Filed under: mental health awareness