Taking my depression recovery public. Nervous!

Just looking for some advice.

I recovered from depression awhile ago. It was such a life changing experience I started blogging about it a few months ago. I just want to share the experience about what I learned if it could help anyone else rise up too.

My blog is growing and I created a facebook page for it yesterday. I want to share it with my friends and family, but I'm nervous. Most of them never even knew about my depression and a lot of them I only know casually. I'm pretty introverted and reserved. I'm afraid they'll judge me or think I'm silly. Only my boyfriend and my best friend know about the blog so far.

Do you think I should risk it? I really think this might be the direction my life is supposed to go. I'm not ashamed, I'm just not sure everyone will understand.

The account is at www.facebook.com/winterbritt.blog if anyone might have an opinion about it, I would really appreciate it.

And if anyone wants to like the page, it would help me get the message out to strangers also.

thanks you
*deep breaths*

Nice page. I think it's great that you came out

Your blog looks great. I'll read through it properly when concentration allows.

Well done. That's quite an achievement. I'm not particularly open about my own issues, but I do think it is the way to go.

Good luck with it.

I think your pursuit is a noble one, and that you should continue on the path of destigmatizing your depression.

One thing I want to mention - 'judgement' (with the first 'e') is a poor spelling. Changing it to 'judgment' looks so much more literate. (Judgment vs. judgement - Grammarist)

Good luck!

I really liked your blog. You are doing something very brave & supportive to others. Embrace it.

In the U.K. we would only spell it ‘judgement ‘ as in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Ah, but the OP is not in the UK

Hi thanks everyone for the kind comments!
Thanks for the heads up on that spelling. I will fix those.

Looks good!

I congratulate you for finding the courage to be open about your mental illness.

I guess you could say that I myself wear my illness on my shirt sleeve. Frankly I can't imagine having to hide it and realise with sorrow that there are those who have no choice to but do so. Thank goodness the people in my life are caring and understanding. I don't think I've lost any acquaintances or had a negative reaction. I don't blast it out or wear a billboard over my head but I am very open about it.

Most often the reaction is to ask me about my mental illness. Often, on finding out, I will then have an individual approach and confide in me about their concern for a friend or family member. They are eager to hear some positive information on account of the struggle they see in their loved one. So, in a way I have become an advocate.

Again, I think it great you choose to be public with your depression. I am sure you will see a positive reaction from most. You may just be surprised to see who rallies about you.

I would still argue (tongue in cheek) because it is ‘English’ we are talking about! us Brits do love to tease the Americans over spellings of the ‘English’ language. Centre & colour to name but a few.

Good on you, you're doing a great job and I enjoyed reading your blog.
I know it can be tough but try not to worry what people will think, this is
your journey and your life, do what you need to do to remain healthy and happy.

I think it's a great idea and really brave to share your experience like that! <3 It could help other people too.

Winterbritt, you have a really great blog!

you're so brave!

Thank you! All the encouragement really helped. I'm glad you enjoy it. Writing it is so theraputic!

Thank you! I appreciate it

i am trying

I will access it from my phone....this old iPad acts wonky with FB.

I think it's important to be able to talk about your experience & recovery. My personal experience was moving away from the environment I had lived in all my growing up life & 33 years of married life to a place 2100 miles away where I knew no one & no one knew my past.

Had some awesome therapy & came to understand why my depression had been so horrible & why so many suicide attempts & why the depression didn't follow me when I moved (that was really mystifying to me initially)

I don't blog but I am also not quiet about my past & when something comes up in discussion, I am open to tell the parts of my experience that apply to the discussion. If people ask, I am more than willing to share more. It's important because those feelings we experienced are part of who we have become now, living through those feelings & surviving them & in my case learning what the contributing factors were.....not JUST the loss of my career like all the mental health professionals thought while I was still living in the bad environment. Sharing helps people understand some of the struggles I still have learning how to connect with people & it helps then get to know me better while I am getting to know them.

I think personally it is harder for people who have known us to be open minded about what we went through because there are times they have preconceived ideas as to WHY we went through the depression & changing a preconceived notion is more difficult than getting to know a new person we never knew before. BUT IT IS JUST AS IMPORTANT for them to understand your REALITY as it is for anyone else.

I think what you are doing is wonderful. Not only does it get your reality of your depression experience out there for people to understand but it helps you organize your own understanding so that you can express it in ways that help others understand too.

It may take a little more work with family & those who have known you through your depression time....but don't give up, just have patience & slowly keep adding the pieces as most times if we dump too much information on them all at once it's difficult for them to process & to correlate with their possible preconceived thinking that they have been living with for awhile.

Keep up the good work & sharing & it will increase your ability to organize & share your experience even more. It is a continuing growing process

Thank you, this makes so much sense!! I hadn't thought about it that way, but it is really helping me mentally organize the experience and flesh it out in new ways. The blog was born when I started writing paper letters to myself everyday to remind me what life without depression was like that I could open down the road if depression returned. All those concepts started linking together in my brain and I started writing public posts out of them. And the more I write the more I understand. Thank you for your response.

So interesting to think that maybe some of those people who overcame depression and wrote those self-help books overcame depression partly by writing self-help books!

I’ve recently thought about writing a memoir on my experiences with MH issues, but I haven’t gotten around to it just yet. Congrats to you though for getting “it” out there

I also am thinking of doing what you are trying to accomplish. I am filming
And documenting my recovery from my fourth depression (bipolar1) and my
Facebook is filled with people that are clueless about my illness. It all stems
Down to do you actually care about what others think? Or are you stigmatized
By having a mental illness? Eventually everyone should speak out about their
Struggles and recovery stories and not have to hide. I’ll check out your page . Good luck ,

Medz

Hi Winterbritt,

Congrats on your FB page and blog!! This is fantastic!!!!! I applaud you for this.

I will tell you -- I did the same exact thing but with a happiness FB page and blog -- the whole purpose is to help people to become happier in life, which also helps me, too.

On my blog, initially I admitted that I had been in therapy for years, then later deleted that portion because I didn't want all of my family and friends to know about my problems. I did approach some friends and a few family members to like my page and blog. My aunt said "Oh, interesting". She hadn't known about my therapy, I don't think.
And I was a little embarrassed.

Anyways, what I did instead of spreading the word to every friend and family member, is Facebook advertising to gain a following for my page and blog. I now have over 2,300 followers on my FB page and a growing blog readership.

I post my blog articles on my FB page, like you do, but I "boost" the posts to get more readership and shares of my articles. You can choose your audience and target those who are interested in mental health, depression, personal development, recovery, etc. If you have any ad spend, even just a few dollars per month, you can boost your article posts and also do a FB page advertisement to get followers. I boost posts for $5 at a time.

Anyways, that's what I do to spread the word. It's true that some family and friends may not understand & may even judge, so I understand your hesitation. (((((((((hugs))))))))))

Hello, thank you for all the info! I'm still figuring out who to target to boost posts. On one I reached like 2300 people but the next only reached like 200. I really want to share it with people it will help, but I'm not at all looking for attention from people who don't need it, so this sounds like a really good idea. Thank you!

You're very welcome! Yes, try keyword searches to find the audiences you want to target. ((((hugs)))))