Part 2 - Blog Rules

So I figure I should lay out some basic rules for my Blog, which might help in the reading process.

Rule 1. I intend to be brutally honest with this Blog. Everything said here is 100% true, otherwise that would defeat the objective of my Blog. People can’t relate to a story that isn’t true. However, there may be some incidents in my life that I will not go into in an extraordinary amount of detail on. These are events that I have found incredibly painful in my life, so although I will mention, and briefly explain their effects, I may hold back very slightly on step by step reconstruction of events. There is one incident in particular that I am referring to, but I will get to that later. Whenever I am finding the writing process too emotionally difficult, and therefore have to skirt around some the intricate details, I will explain this in the relevant Blog entry.

Rule 2. I think it might be interesting (and a little fun) to at the start of the Blog entry, include a song that I am either listening to at the time of writing, find particularly appropriate for the subject of that Blog, or find myself listening to a lot at that point in time. I may even quote a line of two of lyrics to indicate my point. I’ll start this with the next Blog entry.
I have found music a constant source of relief, support, and at times, very therapeutic, in my journey with depression, and hopefully, people reading this may enjoy my musical selections.

Rule 3. My name is my real name. Emma’s name is her real name. Those are the only real names I will use in the Blog. I do Blog under a pseudonym of Fallen Angel, but the reasons behind this will be explained in future entries. Although this is not going to be truly anonymous, there are some people in my life, who may not want their part in my story to be related back to them. So whenever a person will crop up, I will either use a pretty basic system to hide their names (for example, Mom, Dad, Aunty Number 1), or will use a pseudonym, and highlight this with an asterisks (*), the first time I use the name.

Rule 4. I am not a Doctor, Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Counsellor, or a Therapist. The events, experiences, and incidents related in this Blog, are only my own. I may express opinions concerning my, and other, mental illnesses, but they are only my opinions. I do hope these to be educated opinions (I have read a mountain full of literature on all elements of psychology), but all mental illness experiences and symptoms differ from person to person. I can offer advice, but this cannot be take as the "gospel truth", and should anyone suffering with symptoms they perceive to be related to depression, my first piece of advice would always be to seek medical advice from your GP or a local counselling service. I hope people with depression may be able to see solidarity in my Blog, and hopefully find some comfort in knowing they are not alone in their suffering, but this is only my personal journey and relationship with depression, and cannot be used as a manual on how to survive, manage, or express, depression.

Rule 5. I will include a sort of glossary with the Blog, to explain basic terms that I have used in the Blog that people new to this experience may not understand. I will update this at regular intervals as I take the Blog forward. These definitions/explanations will either be taken from a website, stated at the beginning of the definition, or will be a basic descriptive statement, based on my own knowledge.

Rule 6. I never mean to cause offence to anyone in anything that I write here, or any opinions that I express. If I do accidentally caused offence, I apologise, and hope that people will not think too badly of me for this.
I am very emotive in regards to my illness, and sometimes this may come across as slightly irritating, but I do not mean to be perceived that way. I am only trying to be as open an honest as I can be, in my writing, to make the reading (hopefully) more enjoyable.

Rule 7. It’s not all bad. I’m relatively accepting of this part of my life, and it’s not everything about me, or all of who I am. Future Blog entries may have nothing to do with my on-going battle with depression, because, in general, a lot of the time, it’s only a very tiny part of my day. But when I do feel it has loomed over my life, I’ll try to bring this to the Blog as open and honestly as I can.

Rule 8. Due to length of my journey to date with depression I wrote everything up to Part 24, before beginning to post the entries. This was to insure that I was confident I have included all that I could in the entries, and get me a good start on the whole Blogging issue. Everything from Part 25 onwards was written at the time of occurrence, and posted as soon as possible. To start with, until all parts of the introduction Blogging are uploaded, I will update every three to four days, but once the day to day entries start to kick in, this may slow down somewhat. Please feel free to follow me on Twitter (AmyFallenAngel) as I will Tweet every time a new entry of the Blog is uploaded.

The only thing left to do is to name my Blog. Myself and Emma put great thought into this, and threw around quite a few names, before it just came to me one day. A moment of true revelation. So thank you for reading, and welcome to my Blog: "Monster In Me".
And to celebrate, please enjoy this entry’s song : "Letting Go Of The Monster" by Amy Can Flyy.