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Israel did not allow foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip as it carried out its genocide. In their absence, every person with internet access became a war correspondent. Civilians filmed their ruined homes; fathers stood for photos holding plastic bags containing the remains of their children. A little girl named Renad shared Instagram Reels of recipes made from the rations received in aid packages.

Many of us would like to think that we always believe the survivors first. That we sympathise with them. But often, what we really believe in is the idea of the “perfect victim.” Victimhood, at least publicly, sometimes comes with unwritten rules. There are expectations people place upon survivors, things they expect to see that qualify someone as believable. You are expected to be visibly hurt, emotionally open and undeniably vulnerable. Your pain has to look recognisable bu

On a spring day in 2023, I was subbed on at half-time in a rugby game between my university team and the British Army. Two minutes into the second half, I clashed heads with a teammate and briefly lost consciousness. When I came to, I realised something felt very wrong. My first thought was about the exams I had in two months. In the end, the exams went smoothly, and I returned to rugby within 2 months.

Lifestyle advice has become almost inseparable from conversations about mental health. Open a newspaper, scroll through social media, or visit a health website, and the message is strikingly consistent: exercise regularly, eat well, sleep properly, reduce alcohol, stay connected. These recommendations are usually well-intentioned and evidence-based. Yet for people living with severe mental illness (SMI), they can feel strangely out of reach.

Amidst growing discourse surrounding mental health, there is one condition that, I feel, has been left out. That condition is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The condition has been discussed previously on Inspire The Mind, both in regard to avoidance and reproductive care and first-hand, lived experience. I strongly recommend reading these pieces to get a fuller understanding of the condition.

I want to ask you a question. How many close friends do you have? And I mean close friends - friends you could call at 11pm in an emergency and they’d pick-up the phone. Friends who know the things about you which you don’t post on social media. My name is Tom Stroud, and I’m the co-founder of the Shoulder to Shoulder men’s community. In this article, I talk about why feeling connected to others is the most important factor in long-term health and happiness.

Just a few weeks ago, before speaking on a panel for Black Inclusion Week, I suffered a major panic attack. From the outside, nobody would have known. The “Mental Health Jedi” public persona still worked perfectly well. But internally, I felt completely drained — anxious, overwhelmed, and emotionally flat. Not dramatic, not visibly distressed, just… absent. The strange thing is, that feeling wasn’t new to me. Over the years, I’ve become particularly good at performing while e

I’m eight years old and I receive my first phone. I am discovering social media, there is COVID, and I experience bursts of happiness in doing TikTok dances. Overthinking every comment and every “like”. “Will I get 100 likes today?” This dance, that routine, the lip sync, the newest trend. I am 10 years old, and I love seeing older girls posting makeup and hair tutorials. “I want to grow up to be just like them”. Looking at videos about beauty makes me curious and excited.

I’ve always been fascinated by the gap between what people know they should do and what they actually do. Why do some people ignore health advice, while others make lasting changes to improve their wellbeing? As a lecturer in health psychology, I spend most of the academic year teaching and supervising research on health promotion and behaviour change. We explore why people smoke, struggle to exercise regularly, attend screening appointments, or take medication as prescribed.

I was four years old when I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder (a mental health condition characterised by anxiety about many different day-to-day situations). As an anxious kid, I became very good at performing competence, earning the “gifted kid” label. I was often bullied by my peers, so I found comfort in books, where I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I put all my efforts into academics and prided myself on being the one who always knew the answer.

Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist in Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, argues that our brain is not a camera that simply replicates an image. It is a creativity machine that takes incomplete information from the outside world and makes it complete. This means when you stand before a masterpiece, you're not passively observing, you're actively creating meaning. In The Age of Insight, Kandel calls this the beholder's share: a concept rooted in art history and

With men combating loneliness, suicide and the rise of the manosphere, Men’s groups are providing an opportunity to explore masculinity and the pressure they feel. From prison support groups to men-only hikes in nature, from dad clubs to celebrity circles, men are turning to a growing number of communities and brotherhoods to explore their identity, connect with their emotions, and voice their concerns.

When the swimmer pictures the lido in her mind, the summer sun is always shining, and the water looks blue and inviting. But it’s September now. Brown leaves are curling by the side of the pool, the evening sky is grey and overcast, and the water, when she jumps in, is cold. She closes her eyes, starts swimming, and waits.

As my friends and I approach our 25th birthdays, we have been apprehensively awaiting the arrival of our text messages from the NHS inviting us to our first cervical screenings. These screenings, previously referred to as smear tests, are offered every 5 years to people with a cervix aged 25 to 64 to check cervical health and help prevent cervical cancer. During the appointment, a tube-shaped tool called a speculum is inserted into the vagina and a sample of cells is taken fo

I am writing this piece as I believe that navigating addiction within a family is a unique experience that only those who have lived through it can truly understand. I hope these reflections offer some hope to others walking the same path. If anyone came across my family now, you would never be able to tell what we have been through. And although our bond is so unique and tight, our past cannot go unnoticed. In my case, things were different from the beginning. Even though, a

Have you ever found yourself staring out of the window on a train and suddenly realised you had no idea how many stops had passed? Most of us know what it’s like to experience these mild and temporary mental “check-outs” from time to time but might not realise that these sorts of feelings or experiences exist on the spectrum of dissociation, a term used to describe a range of experiences involving a disrupted or altered sense of connection to thoughts, memories, emotions, the

My name is Liam Virgo, and I am an advocate for functional neurological disorder (FND), pushing to raise awareness for this life-changing condition. For the past ten years, I have been fighting a quiet, gruelling war to reclaim my body and my identity after a sudden illness turned my teenage world upside down. While the physical realities of severe FND are devastating, the profound mental health struggles, emotional scars.

I’ve noticed something weird, the last few years: people think I’m friendly. I’m referred to as outgoing, and even, occasionally, extroverted. It feels like I’ve pulled off some magnificent con–because for much of my childhood, I was deeply lonely, and through my adolescence, that loneliness gave me terrible anxiety. This is a story of growth before it is anything else–mostly because I started, socially, around rock bottom.

No matter what, at least I have control. Or that’s what I used to think…When I was 14, I was admitted into hospital with an eating disorder; I left my home, my family, and my community all behind. Not knowing how long it would be until I was able to go home, I was scared and very alone.

Loneliness is sometimes sad and uncomfortable, and I think we like to pretend it isn’t happening when it is. We hide the feeling from people we know, like saying it out loud means something is wrong. I now reject this and would like to say: I need social connection, and I’m not afraid to say it anymore!

Overnight, at the age of nine, I went from an energetic, sociable child to housebound and isolated as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) and other comorbidities shrunk my world to my bedroom. ME is a chronic, fluctuating disease that causes symptoms such as severe fatigue, post-exertional malaise, pain, sleep problems, and brain fog. It can leave people bed or housebound, and there is currently no cure. As the years passed, I tried every form of low‐energy activity that I cou

Ever heard of picture perfect? Clicking posts, attracting attention, wanting to feel validated. Validated. Something so many teenage girls, like me, crave the feeling of. Ever looked at yourself in the mirror and not seen your true potential? All you see is what others want of you. All you see is a dysmorphic image of who you seem to be, a monster to you, and a so-called ‘perfect girl’ to others. My name is Joana.

My name is Nina, and I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice. This year, on the occasion of Men’s Health Week, I wanted to share how co-producing research and working alongside young men can help us understand and address the crisis in men’s mental health, drawing on my experience leading the Men Minds project as Principal Investigator.

Every year during Men’s Health Week, we see more conversations around mental health, wellbeing, cancer awareness and the importance of speaking up - which of course, should absolutely be applauded. But there’s still a long way to go when it comes to helping men feel genuinely comfortable talking about their health. This is especially true when it comes to topics that feel personal, embarrassing or vulnerable - like testicular cancer.