Food Blogging and Mental Health

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As a creative entrepreneur, food bloggers face a lot of struggles, including isolation, comparison and more. For food bloggers dealing with mental health issues, there’s an added layer of difficulty with this chosen career. Today’s guest, Jennifer Farley, is talking about food blogging and mental health. There’s a lot that goes into the everyday treatment for mental health issues. However, sometimes the first step is simply saying the words and having a conversation. That’s what today’s episode is all about.

A photo of Jennifer Farley has text indicating she's the next guest on the Chopped Podcast.

More about Jennifer

Jennifer is a trained chef. Not only did she graduate from culinary school, she also worked as a pastry chef and cooking instructor. She’s quite accomplished when it comes to food. Jennifer even previously wrote for the Washington Post Food Section. Her food photography is stunning and she’s even taught courses on food photography as well.

Food Blogging and Mental Health

Jennifer talks in today’s episode about her bipolar diagnosis. Keep that to yourself. That’s what she was told for years. Some even speculated it could hurt her career.

Maybe that’s because we have a stigma in this society about people with mental health issues. They must be deranged, difficult to work with, or lazy. Of course, that can be true of anyone, mental health diagnosis or not.

I grew up with an older brother who had schizophrenia and manic depression. So, I’m aware of the stigma around this topic. After my brother eventually lost his life to the illness, my family didn’t really want to talk about it anymore.

I think this is how society as a whole feels about mental health — keep it to yourself. However, not talking is a terrible cure to just about any disease, especially mental health.

As Jennifer notes, food blogging presents some particularly poignant challenges for people with mental health issues. It can be an isolating career, full of self criticism and comparison traps. That’s one reason Jennifer came on the show to talk so openly about her own condition.

Have a Plan

Jennifer created a plan that helps her stay on track when things get bad. We all could use a plan like this to help us stay on track, but it’s particularly helpful for people experiencing symptoms related to a particular mental health condition.

For example, individuals with certain types of bipolar conditions may experience times when they’re extraordinarily productive. Conversely, there can be times when it feels impossible to do anything.

Jennifer describes how she’s come to know herself and her condition and has found ways to help to sort of coach her way through the down times.

Finally, Jennifer created a resource to help other bloggers called Just One Post (see link below). On Just One Post you can find resources for dealing with mental health, read stories, and even share your own!

A woman holds a coffee mug. The text reads Food Blogger Mental Health. Podcast.

Show Notes

Looking for resources for today’s podcast? Here’s what we discussed in today’s episode on Food Blogging and Mental Health with Jennifer Farley.

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Posted in Food Blog Resources, Food Blogging, Mindset, Podcast, Uncategorized