Like many who heard the news on the evening of Wednesday 26th August about the passing of actor Tim Curry, grief presented itself in me as reminiscing about his iconic roles throughout my childhood. Although Curry’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990s adaptation of Stephen King’s IT may have helped cement the sinister killer-clown trope in the mainstream since, the fear of clowns long precedes his performance.

When we think about depression, we often think first about sadness, hopelessness, or losing interest in things we once enjoyed. But depression is much more diverse than that. Two people can receive the same diagnosis and experience very different combinations of depressive symptoms. For example, even the same symptomatologic areas can be affected in opposite ways: some people may sleep much more than usual, while others struggle with insomnia and have difficulty sleeping.

I have been watching the Lindsay Clancy trial unfold over the past few weeks, with growing unease. Now, after weeks of testimony and intense public scrutiny, the proceedings have ended in a mistrial. Before I started my PhD, I knew very little about postpartum psychosis (PPP). I had briefly studied it during my Neuroscience and Psychiatric research bachelor’s and master’s degrees. But it wasn’t until I co-led the PRAM-P cohort study.

As a Senior Research Fellow in Digital Health at King's College London, I've spent the past few years speaking with young adults about social media and mental health. As the UK moves towards restrictions on social media use for under-16s, alongside other countries taking a similar approach, public discussion often comes down to a simple question: is social media good or bad for young people's mental health? To explore this topic, my colleagues and I interviewed 28 young adult

We need to talk about sex in mental health settings. In recent years, it has become widely recognised that people living with psychiatric disorders experience a disproportionate burden of preventable physical illness. Research suggests that people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) die 15-20 years earlier than the general population, with physical health conditions contributing substantially to this mortality gap. Growing recognition of this inequality has driven efforts to imp

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.

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.

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.