Why "mental health month" irritates me ??

I never thought I'd say this, but... I'm experimenting with starting a newsletter. A brutally honest & personal weekly newsletter. From a founder who's battling and bettering her mental health, hoping to help you with yours.

?? "So why start this newsletter?"

Frankly speaking, I'm starting this newsletter out of sheer irritation.

I'm annoyed that people who wrestle with their mental health every single day have to sit through "mental health month"; scrolling through 30 days of businesses capitalising on this "trendy" topic.

Battling and working on your mental health is a gruelling, lonely, everyday process.

Don't turn it into a clickbait commodity with trackable metrics just for the month of May. Please.

?? "Why do you care?"

Some of you know me personally. Some of you know me as a name on a screen. And then, there are some of you who are probably asking, "who the fuck are you?".

To those people, let me introduce myself:

Hi, I'm Mel. I've founded a couple of businesses, been a digital nomad for 10 years, am somehow still alive through leukaemia — but at my core, I am a very flawed human being trying very hard to work on battling and bettering my mental health.

And, I swear a lot. Sorry.

?? "Okay? Tell me more..."

Clearly, 2020 and 2021 so far has been insane. Everyone has had a crap time.

If you know me personally: You might know a little about how especially brutal the last 2 years have been.

Leukaemia during a pandemic. Stem cell transplant. Donors lost to COVID-19. Teetering on the edge of death on numerous occasions. Adjusting to a difficult new normal of meds, lifelong illnesses, side effects and "scanxiety" (fear of relapse while awaiting test results). A literal-hang-on-for-your-life emotional rollercoaster. Oh, while working on Bravely — our bootstrapped #mentalhealth startup.

And if you who know me very well: You might know how difficult the last 2 decades have been. Chronic burnout. Mental health struggles. Suicidal ideation and attempts.

I've needed a lot of help surviving thus far. But 2021 so far has been pivotal for me and my mental health.

I'd like for it to be the same for you too.

?? "How are you actually helping though?"

Working on Bravely has been immensely helpful to my mental health. I'm surrounded by insanely smart, supportive and knowledgeable experts.

Everyday, I learn from our small but seriously awesome team of psychologists, therapists and neuroscientists. I have access to libraries of helpful evidence-based content. I'm learning SO MUCH just from being a part of this mission we're on.

This is too good not to share.

My plan is to trial sharing a weekly newsletter — each week, I'll focus on a topic that contains at least one therapy-based skill or research study I've personally tested and found helpful, that I hope can help you too.

Oh, and it'll run for longer than "mental health month".

?? "So what next?"

If you don't think this will be useful to you, you can just ignore this or even unfollow me. There's too much pressure out there to follow, subscribe and turn on notification bells (like we need more notifications). If this helps no one, that's cool, it was an experiment that didn't work out. ?? I'll can it.

If you do think this will become something helpful, then awesome, that makes me really happy. Sign up if you want. On just keep reading on here. I don't need you to do anything more aside from hopefully being able to find this newsletter useful.

Till the next one.

Sincerely, Mel