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Our Latest Articles


UNDERSTANDING OBSESSIVE THOUGHTS AS A SYMPTOM - NOT A CAUSE - OF ANXIETY
All my teeth are going to fall out. All my teeth are going to fall out. All. My. Teeth. Are. Going. To. Fall. Out. For approximately...

Madeleine Finlay
Jul 1, 20213 min read


What I want you to know about living with postpartum OCD
When I got pregnant, my whole life turned around. I was feeling as healthy as I’d ever been, despite a diagnosis of gestational diabetes halfway through my pregnancy. Mentally, I was feeling on top of the world — not euphoric or manic, but mentally healthy. I had suffered from mental illness since my teens, and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I reached adulthood. It was for this reason that I was put under the perinatal mental health team, because I was told I w

Hattie Gladewell
Jun 28, 20215 min read


Heads and Tails: The two-sided nature of the gym environment
The beneficial effects of exercise on both mind and body have been public knowledge for years. Some of these benefits can be seen in...

Mollie Brown
Jun 24, 20215 min read


Starting a Mental Health Employee Network Group at Work
Six months after graduating from University and starting my career at BMW UK, my world was torn apart when I found out a close friend...

Evie Johnson
Jun 22, 20214 min read


OCD: The Boss of Me
How A Humble TV Theme Saved My Life Trigger warning: The following blog contains mention of suicidal thoughts and ideation, which some...

Laurence Gibbons
Jun 18, 20215 min read


Please don't ask me about my self-harm scars this summer
Trigger warning: The following column contains discussions on self-harm, which some readers may find distressing. I self-harmed for years. It started with my hips. I would wait until everyone in the house was asleep, to take out the tools I would use to harm myself. I was fifteen and I had an eating disorder. Bulimia. I was so poorly that my lung ended up collapsing as vomit got stuck in my chest cavity. I was so mentally unwell that the only way I felt like I could take cont

Hattie Gladewell
Jun 17, 20214 min read


Mind over matter - a personal reflection on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
A huge issue facing us following the outbreak of COVID-19 is the number of people suffering from ongoing symptoms or long-COVID. Over...

Becky Pollard
Jun 16, 20216 min read


Minimalism and Adventure
Giving away everything in search of something more I tossed my backpack into the back and climbed into the passenger seat. It was a...

Nik Monastere
Jun 10, 20214 min read


How lockdown changed my life for the better
And several important lessons it taught me. 2020 was one of the most challenging years we’ve ever faced not only here in the UK, but...

Chloe Faulkner
Jun 9, 20216 min read


How poetry has eased my Pure OCD
This article is a double debut, both in discussing my OCD as a journalist, and writing about the disorder in relation to my poetry....

Anita Slater
Jun 2, 20214 min read


Why I deprive myself of medication for my mental health
Trigger warning: this blog discusses mental health struggles and suicidal thoughts. Even though I’m a journalist by trade, until now, I...

Lowri Llewelyn
May 26, 20215 min read


You don't need the validation of others to have a mental health issue
Many people are scared to speak up about their mental illness. Perhaps it’s because they haven’t processed the fact that they have a mental health issue — but often it’s because they’re scared of the reaction. I remember years ago, when I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, experiencing worries about telling people that I had been diagnosed. I was worried that I wouldn’t be believed, and I was worried that people would just tell me to “get over it”. I was also worried

Hattie Gladewell
May 24, 20214 min read


What I've learnt about 'madness'
I can’t remember when I first started worrying about the idea of ‘going mad’, but by my late teens it had become such a deep-rooted fear...

Tom Pollard
May 20, 20215 min read


What I wish people knew about living with both a chronic illness and a mental illness
My mental health issues started when I was young. When I was four years old, I experienced seeing things that were not there, and hearing voices. At the time, for reasons unknown; and my teens were filled with mood swings. I was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. I also live with a chronic illness called ulcerative colitis; a form of inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the colon and rec

Hattie Gladewell
May 4, 20214 min read


Singing Out: Music and Mental Health
I was first introduced to musical theatre when I was about 8 by my Papa — he had the Les Misérables soundtrack and after finding myself...

Caitlyn Fulton
Apr 30, 20213 min read


It Is Not What You Thought — Stigma around Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
I was working as an assistant teacher in English in my hometown Qingdao, in China’s eastern Shandong province, during the summer before...

Ivy Zhu
Apr 28, 20214 min read


It is all in your head
Sharing a part of yourself is never easy. Raising awareness for matters that are not widely discussed, especially amongst young women,...

Christina Patsourakou
Apr 21, 20216 min read


My personal therapeutic photography as a response to adversity: how portrait and self-portrait could
Aristotele once said that “the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance; for this,...

Francesco Catania
Apr 14, 20215 min read


Self-expression and how I found an outlet in musical theatre
From a young age, I always wanted to perform. As a toddler, my mum put me in all of the ‘little girl’ classes — ballet, gym-bunnies, the...

Paige Mckinlay
Apr 9, 20214 min read


How My Modelling Career Ended Before It Even Began
Modelling is exciting until you experience it yourself. There are many hidden agendas that made me question the industry itself. I...

Aisha Ali
Mar 31, 20216 min read


Why I'm finally opening up about my binge eating disorder
I was very unwell with bulimia nervosa as a teenager. I felt insignificant next to my friends. I received comments on the size of my legs from horrible boys and I’d hate getting changed in the same room as my mates because I’d constantly compare myself to them. It was a feeling that had followed me my whole life, receiving comments on my weight from as early as four years old. I was always the bigger sister, in age and in size, and for me, the way my body looked had always st

Hattie Gladewell
Mar 29, 20214 min read


When Two Poles Collide: A Personal Account of a Mixed Affective State
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental health condition that severely affects a person’s mood. It is a relapsing-remitting condition. It...

Angela Merriott
Mar 24, 20217 min read


Why suicidal ideation needs to be taken seriously
I remember sitting on my sofa in front of the television gazing past the screen. I wasn’t myself. I’d been feeling very low, and had been going through a depressive episode with my bipolar disorder. I remember feeling numb, as if I wasn’t really present. Like my body was floating above me as the world kept spinning around. I’d been experiencing suicidal ideation. But it was odd. I didn’t want to be here anymore, but I also didn’t want to die. I wasn’t afraid of dying, but it

Hattie Gladewell
Mar 22, 20215 min read


Covid-19 has made leaving the house impossible - but I am trying
I’ve always been someone who loves going out. To events with friends, for sleepovers, out shopping, clubbing, you name it. I was confident. I had been dealing with mental health issues for a long time, but from the ages of 18–23 I was outgoing. And then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and it all changed. I had my son last April, and started experiencing postnatal depression and perinatal anxiety symptoms quite quickly. I remember having the baby blues pretty roughly — crying at ab

Hattie Gladewell
Mar 12, 20214 min read
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