Sugar Filled Emotions will be starting up the Mental Health Blogger of the week feature again. With everything going on in my life right around the same time I was doing the feature, I had to let it go. I am happy to be starting it up again, because I really enjoyed getting to know other Mental Health bloggers and seeing what they blogged about.

The Mental Health Blogger Of The Week feature highlights one mental health blogger for a whole week at a time. This gives us a chance to get to know them better, and also gives them an opportunity at a bit more exposure.

The following is an outline of what you will be seeing from the Mental Health Blogger of the Week.

• Monday – The blogger of the week has two options, 1. answer a few interview questions, with a link back to their blog  or 2. to write a guest post for me to post on my blog, with a link back to their blog.
• Tuesday – The blogger of the week provides me with a list of their favorite mental health sources – they will be used for Tuesday’s post – again with a link back to their blog.
• Wednesday – Blogger of the week provides me a list of their favorite sources of inspiration, could be blogs, could be websites, newspapers, books, bible, they choose – they will be used for Wednesday’s post –  as always with a link back to their site.
• Thursday – The blogger of the week provides me with a link to their personal favorite blog post.  Something they either did in the recent past or long ago. This will be used for Thursday’s post and there will be a link back to their blog.
• Friday – strictly optional –  Does the blogger of the week have an easy meal that they like to prepare when they are having a bad mental health day, or just a bad day in general?  Or something so easy to prepare that even their husband and/or children could manage it?  Again this is optional, and there will be a link back to their site.

I will also highlight all Mental Health Bloggers Of The Week in the Sugar Filled Emotions newsletter.

If you are interested in obtaining more information about Mental Health Blogger of the Week, or if you are interested in being highlighted as a Mental Health Blogger of the Week please contact me using this Contact Form I will be scheduling time slots immediately, so please be sure to reserve your week ASAP.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Melissa Shell

Do you have a blog of your own, but do not always feel free to vent the way you want because of friends and/or family reading it?

Maybe you do not have a blog, but would love a place to be able to speak your mind without the responsibility of maintaining your own site?

Let me introduce you to Go Wild Wednesdays!

You can have your very own spot, here on Sugar Filled Emotions to get what you need off of your chest. Some things you might want to vent about are family, friends, their reactions to your mental health issue/mental illness. Vent about your own issues, mental health, diabetes, asthma are just to name a few. Rant about your children making you crazy.  Even post pictures or graphics that represent something meaningful you.

Think of Go Wild Wednesdays as your very own personal soap box that will afford you a little more freedom than you might have on your own blog, real life, or in any social media outlet you are currently a part of .

If you are interested in participating in Go Wild Wednesdays, using your real name, fill out this contact form to let me know. Contact Me

Once you contacted me, we can decide if you want to use your real name for Go Wild Wednesdays or write under a pseudonym.

Posts with an over abundance of strong language, or contain racial or stigmatizing ideas will not be allowed publication.

I am looking forward to all sorts of creativity on Wednesdays!

I found a thought provoking post written by Jen Reimer on Practice Of Madness today.  It was about people who choose to blog anonymously, and why they do, as well as why she chose to no longer be an anonymous blogger.  In her post she proposes that those people who are still blogging anonymously should consider revealing themselves to their fellow bloggers.  Using her own words the following quote sums up her opinion about anonymous blogging.

“I say screw anonymity”

To be quite frank, I have a huge problem with that statement, and the opinion it represents.  I think it disrespects those bloggers who choose to blog anonymously.  Jen Reimer justifies her opinion based on the  thought that the only thing a blogger has to fear when blogging under their real name is the government and cyber cops.  In my opinion, for many bloggers this simply is not true.

Most of my blogging friends, are in my online mental health community.  Some choose to blog anonymously, while others, like me, choose to blog under their own name.  Neither way is right or wrong.  It is nothing more than our personal choices.

I choose to blog under my real name, while discussing potentially delicate subject matter because I probably have less risk involved than many of my friends in the mental health community.  I do not have a job, and will probably never be able to work a full time job again.  My husband is not ashamed of me or my mental illness and understands the importance that I place on trying to be a mental health advocate.  We do not sit in fear that someone one day might google our names and it will cause the loss of my husband’s job.

However, there are many people who are not in that position.  Either they are the one with the mental health issues or someone in their family is and because of the stigma that surrounds people with a mental health issue they are not comfortable completely exposing themselves or their family to that kind of transparency. They have very real fears of losing jobs, being denied housing, and losing relationships with friends and family.  Not to mention, they may not be ready for the whole world to know who they really are. Blogging offers them some sort of peace, and anonymous blogging allows them to achieve that peace without being uncomfortable.

I want to believe that Jen Reimer did not mean to be disrespectful to the people who choose to blog anonymously.  Maybe she did not understand that some bloggers do have very valid reasons for keeping their real identities private.

What is your opinion about anonymous blogging?  Do you blog with your real name or do you choose to blog anonymously? If you blog anonymously, can you share with us why you have made that choice?