Ever feel like you have to make something real before it’ll move forward?
Just me?
These aren’t in the Bibliography page yet because we don’t have firm dates for their release and while I’m happily talking about them as books that are ‘happening’ what I’m not sure of is ‘when’.
Mental health and wellness
Mental health is really important to me – I’ve been ‘living with’ and running sites about living with (with varying levels of success) my mental health challenges since I was a small child. I was formally diagnosed from age 19 or so, with various mental health disorders, but I currently ‘carry’ ‘somewhere on the autistic spectrum, CPTSD with EUPD features, anxiety, psychosis, historic bipolar.’. It’s a mouthful that basically translates to ‘oh, I’ve had those meds, want the skinny’ (literally, been on two of the worst meds ever -lithium and Haloperidol and came out the other side by choosing to stop them (well, actually, the lithium was stopped because I couldn’t tolerate it)/ I’m so sorry you’re going through that, here’s what I could suggest if you haven’t tried it.
I’ve been through 29 conversations about my sleep hygiene (since it became ‘a thing’), I’ve been in hundreds of appointments discussing all of the reasons why/why not ‘xyz’ treatment isn’t a good fit. I’ve had nurses suggest abstinence, alcohol and that if I reacted this way to the meds, maybe I didn’t need them. I’ve sat in an ER and argued that I’m not a drug addict, I just know how to get me out of there super fast, and that unfortunately, I only get on with a very narrow band of drugs (that do come across as drug-seeking and I understand that, but…again, a story for another time, or book).
So…I write books. I’m very much of the mind that my advice IS NOT in any way, shape or form medical, even if I ever did get my psych degree, but I’m not exactly a lay writer either in some ways – living with a disorder for over 20 years and running a mental health website for almost as long as being a mother has put me in a place where I get to research, ask questions and learn.
With that in mind…these are my ‘at some point’ books. There’s one missing, the one that was dubbed ‘Kai’s manual’ when I was writing it in 2004, and is called “Pictures in the Dark”.
But here are the rest, coming soon!
I guess it goes without saying that the covers are still kinda in flux or holder covers for projects, but this is the current plan for the next 12 months. There’s also a book about journaling, a guide to no-nonsense mindfulness, and the one I’m really excited to finally just get out there, a women’s health book that tells you everything I can think of that no one told me about living through being a woman with really heavy menstrual cycles.
And of them, Anthem and Live, survive, thrive are probably the most important books to me. Anthem is an acronym, but again, that’s worth sharing later.
The one book without a cover
There’s a few that don’t actually have covers, but, one book, ‘We need to talk about Psychosis’ is one of the books missing a cover right now. A lot of that is down to the person that asked me to write the book. One in four of us (I think the statistic will be higher post-pandemic) live with mental health disorders and conditions, with varying levels of functionality and success, but, the stat that has me rather rattled right now si my ‘very rare’ psychosis issue actually affects *at least* three in a hundred, just in the US. And that’s if it’s reported – many of us are ashamed to talk about it, or fear, as I did for a very long time, that I’d lose my kids because I thought I’d be judged. And I was, though, actually, I’m mostly questioned by people that aren’t my doctors now.
That final book ‘we need to talk about’ might end up in a set of funding projects, so I can donate profits to charity, instead of needing to fund out myself, I don’t know.
It’s something though that’s worth thinking about. Mental health and wellness, in all of its forms, is something that needs to be looked at more than ever. If the pandemic hadn’t happened, we’d still be facing quite the crisis in the UK in my opinion. My story, about my treatment, isn’t typical, but it’s not exactly uncommon either.
But that’s a conversation for another time.
It’s not always going to be this busy on this blog, but, I hope this sets the groundwork for some really exciting, interesting and amazing things to share with you guys. And if you’ve got questions, please do just ask!
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