Our Latest Articles

I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are.

ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie

You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it.

I am Simone, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist employed by South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I am both a researcher and a clinician. I work within a National Specialist team that oversees the delivery of an evidence-based intervention to young people and their families, where there are high concerns around the young person’s behaviour. The intervention is called Multisystemic Therapy or MST. The aim of treatment is to prevent the young person from go

Since losing her Uncle Easton, Cara hadn't felt like herself — until she played mas again, dancing to groovy soca in the sun at Notting Hill Carnival. Cara has always been someone who keeps to herself. You could call her a lone wolf by nature — she keeps her emotions close but is the kind of person who is always there to lend a listening ear and a smile to those on their heaviest days. Having first experienced depression at 15, Cara would wander into her dad's room and lie on

In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans

Most of us will know that nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting up to 70% of pregnant women. Less well known is hyperemesis gravidarum, or HG, in which nausea and vomiting reach a severity such that women struggle to eat or drink, often losing weight or becoming dehydrated, sometimes to the extent that they require intravenous fluids. As a neuropsychiatric doctor and researcher at King’s College London, I have a particular interest in the overlap of physical

After my early studies in engineering, where I learnt how to build systems, make them work, or fix them, I returned to my books in my forties to study psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. I came to appreciate that, while some of these disciplines are also “technical” (an issue or illness is identified, categorised, and addressed through problem-solving), others are much closer to the human dimension.

I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life.

In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negati

This piece was written by researchers at University College London (Havovi Khareghat and Eva Sprecher) and lived-experience advisors (Clo H, Valerie, Ace Garmodon & Alfie-James Waring) from the ReThink programme. ReThink is a UKRI-funded research project that explored what makes a difference to the mental health of care-experienced young people (who have grown up in ‘state care’ e.g., foster care or children’s homes) moving through early and late adolescence.

I'm Adam, a 28-year-old lad from Nottingham, and I'm the founder of Kick The Stigma — a male grooming brand on a mission to support men's mental health. That sentence probably sounds a bit unusual: a hair product brand and mental health support in the same breath. But stick with me, because the two are more connected than you might think. My journey didn’t start with products. Growing up, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of love, joy and support.

“Drama Queen” “Forever a victim”“She’s doing the ‘woe is me’ act again” “She’s having another hissy fit." These were just some of the things I grew up hearing about myself – and continue to. In hindsight, remarks like these were thinly veiled commentary that people saw me as too sensitive, too emotional, too moody - and too easily hurt by the things they did or said.

Cystic fibrosis is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by mutations in the CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator) gene, located on one of the 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes. An affected child inherits two mutated copies of the gene, one from each parent, who possess only a single defective copy and are asymptomatic “healthy carriers”.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey contains all the elements of an epic: gods, monsters, storms, shipwrecks and spectacular battles. Yet the part that stayed with me was much quieter. It was Odysseus’s growing recognition that victory in war may be an illusion, and that even a victorious soldier can return carrying profound psychological wounds. Matt Damon’s Odysseus is celebrated as the brilliant strategist who conceived the Trojan Horse and brought a ten-year war to an end.

Take one look at me, and you can probably tell I had an emo phase (“it was never a phase mom”). To this day, I’m still allergic to wearing colour and can be found listening to the 2000s emo and pop punk bands that brought me comfort in my teens. But, at this point, I’m starting to run out of bands to listen to that haven’t had serious allegations made against them. I’m only 30, but so much has progressed since my school days - gay marriage has been legalised, Black Lives Ma

Before many women even know who they are, they already know what it feels like to long for love. Girls grow up consuming love stories long before they ever experience love itself. Five-year-old me already dreamed about my future wedding and the white princess dress I would wear. Many of us spent our early teens creating Pinterest wedding boards, singing along to Taylor Swift heartbreak anthems, watching Snow White and Aurora being kissed awake by their true love, and imaginin

“If you’ve spoken to me for even 5 minutes, you know I stammer. What you don’t know, unless you stammer too, is what I’ve undergone in the 5 decades I’ve been a stammerer”. This was how I started the message I sent to friends and family when sharing my recent ITM article, Stammering: An Invisible Handicap. In the piece, I shared my lifelong experience as a stammerer and spoke about ways in which those who stammer can be treated with more acceptance and compassion.

The UK Government recommends no more than one hour a day for under 5’s, but this is an unachievable standard for many modern parents. With screen usage increasing during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, for many families, screens are a part of daily life. Increasingly, educational and homework demands have also taken a virtual format since the pandemic. In March 2026, the UK government released a set of guidelines regarding screen time use for under 5s.

Last month, we welcomed Britain’s seventh prime minister in just 10 years. The UK Government amusingly announced Andy Burnham’s arrival with a TikTok video of him entering No. 10, set to the Love Island audio: “A new bombshell has entered the villa.” And he has certainly caused a stir. In the two weeks since coming to power, Burnham has set several major policies in motion, spanning regional devolution, the nationalisation of public services, and efforts to tackle social

I vividly remember the 22nd of May 2017. I was 17 years old, on vacation in Italy, and getting ready for the evening. My dad read out breaking news of a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, after an Ariana Grande concert. Every concert since, as an adult who lives with anxiety, I get incredibly uncomfortable leaving concert venues due to this fear. But this piece isn’t about me. It’s about Ariana Grande. On top of the deadly terrorist attack, she experienced the death o

The first thing most people learn about me is my résumé. As a professor with a decent public profile, I’m easy to Google. What most people don’t know is that I’m quite overwhelmed. It’s not the job that does it. It’s the mental health condition I’ve been living with since 1997: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Oh, and there’s also my eating disorder. OCD brings unwanted, cycling thoughts that counter my values and invites compulsive mental/physical behaviours.

I once spent three hours describing a tasting menu built around fermented citrus and smoked seafood while secretly feeling nauseous and craving plain buttered toast. That contradiction defined both my career and my life. I was living with undiagnosed conditions that affected everything, even if I did not yet have the language to understand them. For years, I had built my reputation as a food writer.

Growing up in a three-generation South Asian household alongside my paternal grandparents, parents, and siblings, I recognise many of these fragments reflected in our interactions, patterns of thinking, values, and behaviours: a difficulty communicating openly, discomfort with emotional expression, a reluctance to accept help during times of struggle, a desire to control the uncontrollable, and a tendency towards chronic people-pleasing.