About

Hi, and welcome to yet another mental health recovery blog!  I know there’s a lot of these floating about on the internet but I haven’t come across many positive but still realistic accounts and after seeing far too many triggering or romanticising Instagram accounts, I set up my own (@rainbows.and.recovery) and this blog is an extension of that.  I have nothing against inspirational or motivating accounts but sometimes I think it’s important to have real life perspective as well and this blog is an attempt to show what it’s like to experience mental health issues from a day-to-day viewpoint.  Yes, it’ll sometimes be frustrating and this account really isn’t positive rainbows and unicorns ALL the time (although they will definitely make an appearance from time to time, as anyone who’s ever met me will know!) but it’s an attempt to show that mental health is just that- mental health.  Everyone has good and bad mental health days just like people get the flu from time to time and mental health is a spectrum.  Mental ‘illness’ is no different to a physical illness and that really is all it is, not a ‘label’ or identity although sometimes it can feel like that.

Anyway, about me…  I’m a 30 year old living in the UK, I am on the autism spectrum and have an eating disorder.  My current diagnosis is atypical anorexia and bulimia but I don’t really identify with either of those.  I experience anxiety and depression to various degrees and which usually translates into obsessive or paranoid thoughts (or both).  I’ve been an inpatient several times a long time ago and currently take sertraline and quetiapine which really do help to stabilise moods.  I’ve seen various mental health professionals on and off for about 17 years and one of the main aims of this blog is to try to bring together things that have worked (or have the potential to work) from different approaches including ‘traditional’ therapy, art therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), creative writing, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and a few approaches I’ve kind of adapted including narrative ideas, using fictional worlds, Harry Potter therapy (I really want to copyright that idea!) and running as therapy.

I’m (anonymously) pretty open about mental health issues and experiences so feel free to contact me!  Email address is rainbowsandrecovery@gmail.com 🙂