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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.

A perfect column of khaki moves across the concrete. 300 pairs of legs marching in unison, with military precision. If not for the basketball hoops on either end of our parade square, we would be indistinguishable from professional soldiers. The occasional adolescent voice crack of the parade sergeant not withstanding, we were that good, or at least so we all believed. I am right in the centre, where everyone can see.

Let me start by dispelling the obvious– there is no such thing as a “feminazi”. There are feminists, and then there are feminists who are so unapologetic and uncompromising about their pursuit of feminism that they are derogatorily branded “feminazi” by those who are discomfited by their pursuit of a fair and equal world. It follows, therefore, that there can be no such thing as a “male feminazi”. In my opinion and experience, this is a response from men who have not been ta

With porn consumption linked to increased anxiety, depression and loneliness among men, I reveal my own porn use and what led me to stop. After being single for most of my 30’s and finding my self-esteem and body confidence at an all-time low, I decided to quit porn. I had always struggled with my use, which had morphed from an exploration of my sexuality into an unhealthy habit. As a British writer with an interest in culture and men's wellness, I share my personal journey.

I wonder when women’s health will catch up, if ever, maybe not in my lifetime, but the latest break- through for women’s health is the update in naming Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), as announced in the Lancet. A global nod to the endocrine and metabolic ramifications of the condition, and coming away from viewing it as merely a gynaecological problem. Who am I, why do I care, shall I step off my soap-box now? Well no

“Let yourself be bored” It is a statement that resonated with me as I was recently reading a Substack article . From time to time, I have been thinking about the importance of boredom and how it supports my creativity. It has helped me finding new topics to write about, new hobbies, and even drive inspiration for my paintings. Upon reflection, these moments shaped my best ideas and even the best piece of work that I produced (of course, subjective to me!).

I’m sure many of you have been following the war between the US and Iran, have seen the headlines of escalations between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Middle East, and are starting to feel some of the implications this war is having on the world. I previously wrote a piece covering my experiences at the beginning of the war in the UAE. Now, I am sharing my perspective again, but this time with a focus on my mother country, Lebanon.

My mother and I have been estranged for twenty years, with a few exceptions. I saw her at the hospital when my niece was born. We spoke on the phone once in 2013, and a few times in 2016. I stopped sending my annual “Merry Christmas” text message in 2019. When we first became estranged, it felt like I was the only person in the world who couldn’t maintain a relationship with my mom.