The Real Neat Blog Award

Nathan Smith8 Comments

Something exciting happened this week! I was nominated by Caz over at Mental Health From The Other Side for the Real Neat Blog Award! I love following my UK bloggers, and Caz’s blog that shares her experience not only personally but professionally is a treat to read and an inspiring story!

I hope you can pop over and give her posts a read. As someone who doesn’t work in the healthcare world, I think there’s a ton of value to people who experience mental illness while also having to be in that professional setting.

The Real Neat Blog Award Rules

Here are the rules:

  1. Accept the nomination and thank the person who nominated you, leaving a link to their blog.
  2. Answer the 10 questions
  3. Nominate your chosen bloggers and send them a link to let them know they’ve been nominated.
  4. Ask your nominees to participate by answering the same questions.

Now that I’ve accepted the nomination and thanked the awesome blogger who nominated me, time to answer the questions!

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What Mental Health Looks Like

Nathan Smith2 Comments

When I wrote my post earlier this week, I wasn’t expecting to get as angry as I did. Not only did it get in the way of what I wanted to write about, but it frustrated me. I know it’s complicated to properly define mental health, but I didn’t think it was complicated because the dictionary doesn’t know how to define it. But we’re moving on…

A question that’s just as complicated to answer as ‘how do you define mental health’ is similar: what does mental health look like? I don’t mean yours specifically (though that IS the Mental Health Month Challenge!), but what the concept looks like. So I created a short photo essay to answer this question.

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What’s the Right Definition of Mental Health?

Nathan Smith6 Comments

I’ll be honest – I had a totally different idea for today’s blog post. I was going to talk about how we define mental health and, using some definitions I found, introduce ways that we can recognize the practice of mental health in our lives. But after looking up those definitions, I couldn’t. Because after looking at two differing definitions for even a moment, it was clear why there’s confusion about what mental health actually is.

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A Mental Health Month Challenge

Nathan Smith1 Comment

In case you missed it, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I like to start off the month by writing about some of the organizations and resources that are available for people to learn more about mental health. Whether you’re learning more about your own mental health or its prevalence in your country and community, there’s plenty of information out there that shows how important mental wellness is in this day and age.

But this year, I also wanted to help encourage others to explore their own mental health –  however that looks. And I think I found a few good ways.

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Mental Health Awareness Month 2020

Nathan Smith8 Comments

The month of May is a big deal for MBNB because it’s Mental Health Awareness Month! I write about Mental Health Awareness Month every year, not only because this is a mental health blog (duh!) but because I like to share the themes leading mental health organizations focus on each year. Continue reading →

Defining Success During A Pandemic

Nathan Smith2 Comments

When someone asks what it means to be successful, the same words come up often. Wealth, fame, finding love, living a comfortable life. There so many seemingly obvious answers to this question, and sometimes it seems objective in the way we define success. Whether or not you agree with these answers (personally, I don’t), that definition isn’t relevant right now – and we need to get used to that for the time being.

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What I Learned From “Angst,” A Documentary About Anxiety

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Last week I virtually attended a screening of a documentary called Angst. Less than an hour long, the film’s main purpose is raise awareness around and anxiety and start the candid discussion about what anxiety is, what it looks like and how to get help. Even though the documentary seemed like it could be geared more toward people who want to learn more about anxiety disorders (i.e. not me), I still took a lot of away from the screening and I wanted to share why that was.

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Supporting Children And Their Mental Health Right Now

Nathan Smith1 Comment

Since this blog is more based on personal experience than anything else, I’ve always felt more comfortable writing about what I know. Whether that’s something I’ve experienced or an experience that’s been shared with me, understanding what someone is thinking or feeling has always been important to me as a basis for a post. But I’ve been reading more news about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting children who now have to stay at home for school, and it’s got me thinking a lot about kid’s mental health during this difficult time.

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COVID-19’s Impact on the Mental Health Community

Nathan Smith1 Comment

At this point in the coronavirus pandemic, the general public is well aware of who is most at risk to be hit hardest by COVID-19. Older adults and people who have underlying health conditions are those that we need to keep a close eye on and we need to make sure they’re getting all the care they need and maintain an extremely safe distance. But as we’ve learned, other groups are also at risk to be hit hard by this pandemic – including those who suffer from mental illness.

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Understanding Where We’re All Coming From

Nathan Smith1 Comment

There are so many new difficulties we’re facing these days. Trouble sleeping. Finding things to do while we’re staying at home. Making sure we can handle feeling more alone than usual. It’s a whirlwind just to prepare mentally, physically and emotionally to live in a world that’s very different from what we’ve come to know. With that preparation comes learning new things about people, systems and everything else. And it can be extremely frustrating.

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