*Are Bloggers Looking After Their Mental Health?

Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Mental health is an important topic of conversation recently as an increased number of individuals have confided they have been affected or are affected by mental health struggles. Mental health issues and illness can affect anyone in society regardless of profession, ethnicity, income etc so it's nothing to be ashamed of. So now more than ever, we should be showing support to each other and even checking in. Although life can get busy, sometimes we might find ourselves feeling out of touch or isolated, especially when working or staying at home on a regular basis.

Bloggers, in particular, can spend a huge amount of time keeping their blog updated and networking on social media, but while online conversations are great and lead to new friends, human contact is necessary for a healthy life.

While the stay/work from home lifestyles are nothing new in society, with people have worked in partial isolation in some circumstances for centuries, there has been an increase in individuals adopting a work from home life, including bloggers, freelance artists, marketers and independent business owners, to name a few. In response, a number of studies were carried out to confirm that “social isolation” was detrimental to our mental health, including a study that saw 42% of home workers report they had suffered from insomnia during their work from home, remote working lifestyle.

Can Bloggers and Freelancers Combat Social Isolation? 
There are plenty of things that can bloggers and work from home freelancers can do to practice good self-care including regular networking, working to a daily schedule and ensuring they eat a well-balanced diet (quite underestimated by many work-at-homers who sometimes revert to unhealthy snacking). Here are some other tips for bloggers who want to make better connections and scratch their social itch;

Voice Chat - Networking between freelancers tends to happen over social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter or even industry related forums and message boards in texts, posts or direct messages. Platforms that offer voice chat can help networkers forge better bonds and contribute to combating social isolation. Skype and Discord are popular examples of voice platforms and offer voice chat rooms for large amounts of people.

Build a Community - If you’ve been blogging for a while, you might belong to a community of bloggers already. If not, joining a community can be great for swapping stories about working from home struggles with others that have experienced it themselves, in addition to getting advice for seasoned work from home freelancers who have been doing it longer.

Organise an Event - Getting together is the best way to combat social isolation but going over to someone's home or inviting someone into your home can be uncomfortable or awkward or you might not have the space to invite all the bloggers you network frequently with into your space. An alternative idea is to organise an event between your group of bloggers, whether taking on responsibilities between each other, or seeking out a company to take care of the details or arrange an activity, like the services offered by team building organisation Team Challenge Company.

Taking on Part Time or Casual Work - Not only a positive contribution to combating social isolation but an opportunity to make some money on the side. Where time allows, working a part time or casual job can be a great way to connect with others and get you out the house for a bit in a new environment. It could even offer you inspiration or subjects for content creation, through writing or vlogging about what you do at work and the things you have experienced.

In conclusion, bloggers and freelancers should put more consideration into their positive mental health and self-care and work towards proactively being social with others regularly so they don’t find themselves falling into a negative self-care routine that could potentially have a negative effect on their mental and physical health.

Do you have any tips to stay connected while working from home? 

*This is a sponsored post

15 comments

  1. I definitely feel incredibly lonely sometimes because I work from home. I'm looking for a part time job at the moment so I can get the best of both worlds.

    Jenny
    http://www.jennyinneverland.com

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  2. If I ever had the opportunity to work from home (which I would love), I think I would still pop in to where I currently work and see everyone! It's my dad's company which makes it a lot easier and means that I have known most of the people working there for ages xo

    Char | www.charslittleblog.co.uk

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  3. I work from home and it's very isolating but I find the notion of blogging and not working from home to be the problem: there's just so much nastiness between bloggers these days x

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  4. I have no idea how anyone can work from home, I am SO useless at it. REALLY bad.

    Erin || MakeErinOver

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  5. This post was definitely good for thought and some interesting pointers raised x

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  6. Blogging is a hobby for me, but sometimes juggling a 9-5 job and a blog can also affect my mental wellbeing.
    Pam xo/ Pam Scalfi♥

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  7. I totally agree with this one! It can be so isolating working from home!

    Love, Amie ❤
    The Curvaceous Vegan

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  8. It's a very difficult situation, you need to be alone to create and plan and then on the other hand feel very alone. I try too schedule some me time and not always fully focus 100% of my time during the day on my blog.

    Joyce ♥ @ Joyce Lau

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  9. Working at home can feel very isolating sometimes. These are some great tips.

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  10. I find I socialize so much better in blogging situations lol

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  11. Mental health is so important and these are some useful tips.

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  12. Great post! I sometimes find getting the balance right quite tough.

    http://littlemissmelanie.com

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  13. Really enjoyed this post thanks for sharing. X

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  14. This is such an important topic, thank you for sharing!

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  15. I've been thinking about this alot recently

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