TL;DR

Suicide prevention week was just last month, on the 6th - 12th of September. World Suicide Prevention Day was on Thursday the 10th of September. World Mental Health Day was the 10th of this month One month on from Suicide Prevention week, three days after world Mental Health Day, on Wednesday the 16th of October 2019 my younger brother took his own life. He was 38.  It took me quite a few days to figure out what I wanted this blog to say, why I was writing it, and I think I have it finally figured out. There are three reasons I am writing this  I want to talk about grief  I want to talk about suicide awareness and prevention  I want to use this painful loss to try to help others and for me, all three of these are done in writing.  Right now you may be asking 'how can you be writing a blog at a time like this?', well, writing is how I process things. I talk and write them out. One of the problems with grief is we don't know what's 'normal'. We ...

On the 18th of September 2014, I was part of something amazing In Scotland. I felt amazing. In the weeks leading up to the vote there was a festival atmosphere everywhere - the streets of Glasgow had people smiling, laughing, dancing and singing as if we were enjoying a permanent party. I had never seen anything like it  before in my entire life. It was a political awakening for many of us in Scotland. And I will never forget it. And yet, the 5 year anniversary of this meaningful movement came and went, and I, well I had nothing to say on it. I didn't look back at the day with any reverence, or optimism, or hope. To be honest, I didn't look back at it at all. What happened in those 5 years to change me from one of the most yessiest yessers you'd ever meet (as most people who met or knew me in 2014 can attest) to someone so apathetic about it? Well, the YES movement changed, or maybe I did, or maybe both of us did. Honestly, I'm not quite sure. In 2014 we all ...

This is a post I have wanted to write for a long time As a cisgender woman, who is one of the people whose rights are said to be affected by the inclusion of trans and nonbinary people in women's spaces, I feel I have a valuable voice right now. And, when so many people are being unheard, I feel it's on me to speak up. Not to speak up FOR them, but in support of them To do this, I want to discuss a few of my own recent online experiences, as a trans and non binary supporting cis woman. This last few months the moral panic around transphobia has seemingly gotten even worse than it has been in the last few years. During my time online, as an open supporter of trans and nonbinary people, I have faced an inordinate amount of verbal abuse. I have been called all manner of names, I have been told I am stupid, I  hate women, I've been accused of being middle class and hating poor women, I've been told I must be young, I was even asked what my mum ...

Hi there, I'm Jo   . This will be my first ever blog post, on my first ever blog. I have never written a blog before. I have written a lot online and on paper. I have been writing poetry for over 2 decades, writing is something I enjoy. I have, however, been in a bit of a creative and writing funk for the last few years, uni definitely made an impact in that, you don't have the same time or energy to expend on creative projects when you are balancing your own physical and mental health with being at university. I have been thinking about writing a blog for a while now, I have also started a few other projects, including my own autobiography, and I have got back into writing poetry again. I spend a lot of time online, whether on various social media platforms or for the business and I enjoy interacting with other people, but as someone who has both an anxiety disorder and agoraphobia, I find that social interaction for me consists mostly of online interaction. So my wri...