August Recap 2019

August has been a pretty good month for me. I haven’t hit any huge milestones in terms of numbers on my blog or over on Instagram, but I feel I’ve definitely been making some progress! I’ve also been working really hard to improve my mental health/stop it from spiralling down, so that’s great. So, here’s what I got up to throughout the month of August..

I switched medication: If you read my August mental health update, you’ll know I wasn’t doing so well. I was suffering with extreme numbness and feelings of uselessness, worthlessness and hopelessness. I honestly just couldn’t see a point to life. August started off pretty badly for me, ending up with a call to the crisis team on a drunken night, but thankfully it ended significantly better than it started. In my mental health update, I explained I wasn’t sure if my depression was beginning to manifest into numbness rather than sadness, or whether my medication was a large factor towards me feeling this way. Turns out, I switched medication from Sertraline back to my original Fluoxetine, and I’m way less numb. I still struggle with feelings of pointlessness, numbness and hopelessness, but it’s not unbearable anymore. Sertraline was good for my anxiety though, so my doctor has put me on Propranolol to take every single morning along with my Fluoxetine. These two medications combined are working well for me at the moment.

My blog engagement and Instagram followers have continued to increase: My social media blog post got around 52 comments, which I’m really proud of! I think that may be the most amount of comments I’ve ever got on a blog post, so I’m super happy with it. I think it’s due to a combination of the topic being something my readers are interested in (it’s not something I usually write about) and how much time and effort I put into continuously sharing the post on Twitter, e.g. in comment threads (these have SAVED my life – if you want a blog post about how I make the most out Twitter for increasing my blog engagement, let me know.) I am also now on around 625 Instagram followers as I write this, which is good considering I started August at 500! An increase of 120+ followers in a month is steady growth that I’m happy with.

I booked 2 weeks off work to focus on my mental health and blog growth: These 2 weeks have been the most my blog has grown in a long time, as well as my Instagram. For these two weeks, I’ve focussed solely on my own happiness and my blog, and I’ve definitely noticed significant results. My followers and engagements have been steadily going up, I’ve made some new blogger friends, and my mental health is definitely improving slightly. I now feel way more refreshed/less burnt out, ready to go back to work and earn that dollaaaa!

I’ve been reading more: You’ve probably seen from my August Reading Wrap-Up blog post that I’ve been reading a lot over the month of august, and I’ve LOVED it! Reading was a huge hobby of mine when I was younger, so rediscovering my love for books has been great for my mental health. Reading gives me a way to escape the stresses of every day life and enter a whole new world, living vicariously through a characters shoes. I’ve been (and will be )posting more book reviews to Instagram and my blog, so be sure to keep an eye out for them! There’s some good ones.. I have an impeccable taste in books, if I do say so myself.

I’ve been going for a short walk every day: Since I’m making a conscious effort to improve my mental health, I’ve been ensuring I got for a short walk every single day for the past month. It has been a wonderful way to clear my head, play Pokemon Go, and has even introduced me to cute places to read my book. I’ve never been a public reader until now, but reading on my local Flower Park and meeting all the cute dogs with their lovely owners has been so wholesome! Speaking to the owners about their dogs makes my day, however sad that may sound.

So, that’s it for August I think?! As you can probably tell, nothing massive has happened this month but it’s been lots of little changes I’ve made that have led to my mental health improving. I’m super proud of how I’ve done this past month, especially compared to June and July. How did your August go? Let me know down in the comments – I’d love to know! 🙂