Welcome to #Write31Days, a writing challenge in which bloggers pick a topic to write about each October and write about this topic everday during the month. This is my first time participating in this challenge. I still
don’t have an editorial calendar, so though I’ve been thinking of things to

post about, I still don’t have anything scheduled. I hope that won’t prove to be a huge problem.

My topic for this year’s #Write31Days will be mental health. As regular readers of my blog will know, I have lived with mental illness for a long time and currently reside in a psychiatric institution. I have written quite a few informative posts on mental illness already, as well as a number of posts chronicling my journey towards recovery. During this month’s challenge, I am simply going to expand my collection of mental health-related posts. Since like I said, I don’t have an editorial calendar, there probably isn’t going to be a particular order to my posts. I like it that, apart from choosing a topic, there isn’t a requirement to follow any guidelines such as those in the #AtoZChallenge back in April.

I currently have only one mental health diagnosis, but have had many in the past. I also happen to be a psychology student, so I know a bit about the gamut of mental health conditions. I will take the opportunity during this challenge to share some about conditions and symptoms I do experience, but also about things I don’t. In short, I’d like to educate my readers on the spectrum of mental illness and mental health.

Because it may get boring writing all types of dull posts on mental health conditions (and it may get boring reading them), I will be sharing tips for coping with mental illness, as well as posts inspired by my own journey of recovery, too. I hope you’ll learn from and be inspired by my posts.

This is the landing post for this year’s #Write31Days challenge. This means it serves as an index for all my posts that I write during this month. I will post my button in every post, too. If I did it correctly, clicking on the button should take you back to this post.

Click below on the post you’d like to view.

• Day 1: Defining Mental Illness


• Day 2: Mental Health Recovery


• Day 3: Seeking Mental Health Help for the First Time


• Day 4: How Far I’ve Come on My Mental Health Journey


• Day 5: Deciding to Go on Psychiatric Medication


• Day 6: How I Feel About My Mental Health Diagnoses


• Day 7: Mental Illness: Nature or Nurture?


• Day 8: Life Events and My Mental Illness


• Day 9: Mental Illness and Attitude


• Day 10: What Are Personality Disorders?


• Day 11: Faith and Mental Illness


• Day 12: Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD)


• Day 13: Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disorders


• Day 14: Mental Health and Resilience


• Day 15: Mental Health and Art Therapy


• Day 16: Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD)


• Day 17: Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD)


• Day 18: Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)


• Day 19: Dual Diagnosis: Addiction and Mental Illness


• Day 20: How Mental Illness Has Impacted My Life


• Day 21: Animals and Mental Health


• Day 22: Mental Health Care in the Netherlands


• Day 23: My Experience With Therapy and Counseling


• Day 24: Schizophrenia and Psychosis


• Day 25: My (Somewhat Hypocritical) Opinion on Force in Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services


• Day 26: Mental Health Goal: Move In with My Husband


• Day 27: A Typical Day


• Day 28: Dissociation


• Day 29: What My Mental Illness Feels Like


• Day 30: Breakdown: My Crisis of 2007


• Day 31: What to Do If You Think You May Have a Mental Health Issue