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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.

In all his time on the island, Kieran had seen many things, but the girl stepping off of the boat at the coast scared him most of all. Kieran stared at the girl: half incensed, half astonished. She must have been young, no more than 11 or 12, with two black pigtails billowing in the ocean wind. Her little feet wrestled against the sand, almost sinking under the weight of the boat as she heaved it up the shore. Kieran’s heart plummeted to his stomach. She wasn’t supposed to be

I have always been fascinated by research that explores new ways of treating conditions that sit at the intersection of the mind and body. As our understanding of these complex relationships continues to grow, so does the potential for innovative and therapeutic approaches. I am currently conducting a systematic review as part of my dissertation for the course, MSc Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface.

"But doctor, that's not what it says on the internet." This is something a patient being treated for bipolar disorder told my colleague Juan during a routine consultation. She wasn't challenging his advice; she was telling him what she had read on social media and asking how it fit with his recommendations. That one sentence stayed with him since and sent us both down a rabbit hole.

“I don’t understand why I have to put a stole to cover myself up,” I said, horrified. I was fourteen, with simmering teenage anger, making sense of the world and not liking the position Muslim women were often put into. I had clarity; if you want to wear something, you wear it, whether Hijab or dresses, and if you don’t like something you don’t wear it. But my extended family was insistent that it was the ‘right’ age for me to start covering up, a narrative common for many Mu

Growing up, I thought Dad was stoic. He always managed to keep his emotions in check, even when he was diagnosed with Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy, alongside my uncle and aunt. Even as he watched them pass away and felt his own muscles atrophy until he couldn’t leave the house anymore, he kept a stiff upper lip like the British men of his generation had been taught to do by their fathers. When Dad died in 2025, I thought about his stoicism and how I was going to cope with the

I’ll admit, I’m not normally the target audience for the Men’s World Cup. I don’t really care for team sports and am rarely motivated by competition. And yet, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the football this year. Not because of a sudden love of the sport, but because of the players themselves. My Instagram feed has been full of videos of Erling Haaland, the Man City player on Norway’s World Cup team. And I’m not the only one. It seems women everywhere are loving the “Stri

As a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, I spend a lot of time teaching students about child development, mental health, and the evidence surrounding digital technology use. Recently, proposals to ban social media access for under-16s have gained increasing political support in the UK. The idea is simple and appealing: if social media is harming young people's mental health, remove access and the problem will improve. The ban was put into

I am 66 years old. I have had bipolar since the age of 21. (Bipolar is a condition where a person’s mood may go high or low). I have written three times before on this platform: about diagnostic overshadowing, about mixed affective states, and about living with a serious mental health condition. As well as bipolar, I have developed several physical health conditions. I have ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory bowel disease). I have also experienced two lymphomas.

People are often surprised when I tell them that writing became one of the healthiest things in my life. From the outside, I have always seemed like someone doing okay. I joke a lot, laugh easily, and rarely let uncomfortable emotions sit visibly on my face for too long. Humour became my survival tool long before writing did. Whenever friends tried checking in on me emotionally, I usually brushed it off with jokes.

With the World Cup having finished, I want to reflect on how it has given me hope in a world that has become increasingly bleak. As a researcher, my day involves independent lab work, often just me and the data. That’s exactly why I’m drawn to watching sports outside of work. The camaraderie feels like the perfect counterbalance. I love the World Cup for how it brings everyone in and fosters a sense of community in a way that few things still do.

Racing heart, sweaty palms, feelings faint, and nausea are just some of the physiological manifestations of dental anxiety experienced by patients and witnessed by dental professionals every day. Working in a general dental practice, I have encountered countless individuals who begin their appointment by declaring, "I hate the dentist," before anything else is said. For many, these feelings extend far beyond simple nervousness.

I left an abusive marriage. Four turbulent years later, their father abducted them, taking them out of the country and out of my reach for more than two years. When they finally came home, we were no longer the same people. In the aftermath, I began writing our story in the margins of my life, after work, before school events, and between counselling sessions, trying to make sense of what had happened to us.

I was called a survivor before I understood the word, and styled as a victim long after I stopped recognising myself in it. I am Srijani, a writer, poet and educator based in India. Being a neurodivergent survivor myself, I have expressed my thoughts on victimhood and the perspectives on it in my article. I hope this helps you understand and navigate what victimhood is and how it stands in the socio-cultural, emotional and psychological contexts we live in.