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Inspire the Mind has the pleasure of producing and being involved in various artistic endeavours, from events, to exhibitions and documentaries.  Our Exciting Productions Inspire the Mind has the pleasure of producing and being involved in various artistic endeavours, from events, to exhibitions and documentaries. Read Now Inspire the Mind's Production: Diego e Eva Rome, late 1980’s. Diego and Eva play together in Eva’s apartment, fantasising about becoming ‘Diabolik and Eva Kant’, famous Italian comic thieves. After thirty years longing for her, Diego returns to Eva’s empty apartment, and his memories come flooding back. Perhaps there is still hope for their dreams? This short by Carmine M. Pariante was officially selected for the 2024 London Lift-Off Film Festival . Learn More Inspire the Mind's Production: The Minds of Others ‘Through the intertwining of animation and interviews, 'The Minds of Others' brings to life the moving experiences of six unique individuals, each diagnosed with a different mental health disorder. Amongst the stories of confusion, and hope, professionals battle to answer some of our long-standing questions about the very nature of mental illness. With all the debates and discussions that so often occur, are we focusing enough on the individuals themselves?’ The full Documentary delving into the confusing world of Mental Illness, directed by Luke Mordue. Produced by Natasha Branson. Starring Lemn Sissay, Jonny Benjamin, Rachel Kelly, Luke Mordue, Rachel Bailey, Sam Dalling, Peter Kinderman, Carmine Pariante , Derek Tracey, Adam Torr, Emily MacDonald, and Antonia Murphy. Watch Here Inspire the Mind supports the Festival of Italian Literature In London April 2023 After a three-year break due to COVID, FILL , the Festival of Italian Literature in London, was back on Saturday 22 April at The Coronet Theatre, in Notting Hill. The panel, chaired by Emiliano Zappalà, brought together novelists Fabio Bacà and Andrea Tarabbia . The authors’ most recent novels both focus on the titular theme. Bacà’s book tells of a ‘normal,’ meek man dealing with the possibility of violence suddenly upending his life, while Tarabbia’s novel focuses on the violence of a fictional – though not too unlikely – neo-fascist organisation. Both authors readily agreed that, when speaking of violence, fiction offers an extraordinary tool to explore extreme issues from the relatively safe point of view of our ‘boring,’ ordinary existences. Learn More Inspire the Mind has co-produced an art exhibition! July-August 2022 In collaboration with Dr. Lynn Lu, a Visiting Artist at the University of the Arts London, InSPIre the Mind has been involved with the production of EMOTE/ICON - an art exhibition held at Grey Project Art Centre in Singapore. Running from 2nd July - 6th August 2022, this exhibition navigates ‘between thought and time, picking on the everyday absurdities while illustrating how multifaceted a memory of a moment can be.’ Check out Lynn’s website to see her incredible work and previous collaborations, including those with Professor Carmine Pariante, InSPIre the Mind’s Editor In Chief. Learn More

Inspire the Mind is an inclusive digital mental health magazine exploring the intersection between mental health, science, and society. Led by a dedicated team of clinicians, scientists, and researchers who are passionate about making mental health science accessible and engaging for everyone. Mental Health, Science and Society The digital magazine bringing together everything you've always wanted to know about the worlds of mental health, science, and society. Read Now Submit Pitch New Partnership Announcement At Inspire the Mind, we are delighted to announce our partnership with the Psychiatry Research Trust , a charity that funds research and education in mental health! With this collaboration, the PRT will support ITM’s mission by funding writers with lived experience who publish with ITM. Through this invaluable support, ITM can further invest in the magazine’s growth and amplify our work to promote mental health literacy and continuously combat stigma. Together, ITM and PRT are committed to foster a more informed conversation around mental health. Hope and Hard Data: the Bucharest Early Intervention Project In 1989, the reign of Romania’s Communist leader came to a sudden, brutal end when Nicolae Ceauşescu was executed by firing squad on live television. In the revolution that followed, an intrigued Western world rushed into a nation long sealed off from view – only to discover nearly 170,000 abandoned children being raised in warehouse-like orphanages. SCIENCE & RESEARCH Ellen Jopling 4 minutes ago 5 min read The Mind-Body-Science of Canine Co-regulation When I was a child, I used to get ill quite often. On those days, while my friends were at school, I stayed at my grandparents’ house, wrapped in blankets, watching TV, feeling miserable in that specific way only children with a fever can. But I was never alone: My grandparents’ dog, Flora, would quietly sit beside me, her head resting on my lap as if she understood exactly what I needed. Somehow, I always felt better. MIND-BODY INTERFACE Caroline Lackner 23 hours ago 5 min read When Words Fall Silent: Psychedelics, Language, and the Self Most of us have felt “lost for words” – during moments of heartbreak, awe, or pure surprise. But under the influence of psychedelics like psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, this experience can go much further. People often describe a strange silence within their minds. Words slip away. Sentences dissolve. Even the very sense of I begins to fade. As someone who has just completed a PhD in neuroscience, my research has focused on how the brain’s wiring support SCIENCE & RESEARCH Ieva Andrulyte 2 days ago 5 min read The Teacher and The Mother — A Short Story A typical workday brings many common thoughts and emotions for an adult. Sometimes, you’ll think ungenerous, intrusive thoughts about the people you interact with. Sometimes, random waves of anxiety will attack you when you’re just performing an everyday task. And you are always, always fatigued, by your professional work and by societal changes outside of your control. My Teacher is an ordinary adult just trying to get through the day. SHORT STORIES Emily Zarevich 6 days ago 5 min read Tackling Antipsychiatry to Encourage Public Spending on Mental Health While ongoing research continues to sound alarm bells that mental health diagnoses are consistently and dependably rising in the UK, this does not seem to have translated into panic and action, and one could be forgiven for thinking it has fallen on deaf ears. In the last 10 years there has been a 20% increase in the number of adults being clinically assessed to have a common mental health condition; in young adults the increase is even more stark, at 47% within the same peri SCIENCE & RESEARCH Jack Cunningham Feb 26 4 min read Depression: A Mentor to Loneliness Everyone has had one of those nights where they feel overwhelmingly Lonely. Lonely within your body, heart, and mind—all at once. It’s a feeling similar to living unexplainably separate from yourself. You hope it won’t revisit as often as it does. The Loneliness lingers, almost long enough to graduate into its mentor, Depression. Loneliness tries to impress its more overpowering sibling until, finally, Depression allows Loneliness to take shelter under its wing. LIVED EXPERIENCE Tricia Patras Feb 25 5 min read The Weight of Belonging: A Reflective Lens Through Frankenstein Community building has become something of a trend, especially over the past year. The more I scroll through social media, the more events I see. While I enjoy seeing people come together, it can also feel overwhelming to be flooded with Instagram posts and WhatsApp groups promoting countless events and gatherings. Traditionally, communities are formed by groups of people connected through shared spaces or common interests, religion, culture, ethnicity, or values. LIFESTYLE & RELATIONSHIPS Layecha Fidahoussen Feb 24 4 min read The HappyMums Project: Can a smartphone application predict antenatal depression? As a researcher working at the intersection of digital technologies and women’s health, it is always so empowering to see the latest advancements in FemTech (tech-driven products like apps and wearable devices to address female health, like pregnancy and menopause) such as menstrual blood being discovered as a valuable biomarker, and wearable products for menopause detection. It empowers me, as a South Asian woman in science, to do the work I do. SCIENCE & RESEARCH Riddhi Laijawala Feb 20 4 min read Behind The Red Nose With every burst of laughter I drew from the crowd, the loneliness behind my makeup grew a little deeper. My name is Shopia Green. I am a circus clown, and the image of my red nose, abandoned on the dressing room table, is the most honest photograph of my life. It is not just a prop; it is a portal. On one side, the vibrant world of the spectacle, where I am the embodiment of joy. On the other, the silence that consumes me when the last spotlight on the ring fades. LIVED EXPERIENCE Shopia Green Feb 19 4 min read Are We Really Addressing the Patient’s Needs? When treating patients, we often focus primarily on improving their clinical outcomes, and as such inadvertently overlook their broader care needs. These include their perceived problems across health, social, service, and daily functioning areas. Individuals with psychosis, a mental condition characterized by a distortion of reality, often experience poor overall functioning, meaning a difficulty in managing everyday activities, including self-care, social relationships, an SCIENCE & RESEARCH Lucia Maggioni Feb 18 4 min read What “Die, My Love” gets right, and wrong, about maternal mental health In an era where we are often bombarded with seemingly glamorous and smooth transitions into parenthood, the movie Die, my love shows viewers the other end of the spectrum. Based on the novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz, Die, my love follows aspiring novelist Grace, played by Jennifer Lawrence, and her boyfriend Jackson, played by Robert Pattinson, as they leave their life in New York City for a small farmhouse in rural Montana. We first meet the couple while they are ARTS & CULTURE Maddy Kirkpatrick Feb 17 5 min read Learning to Embrace Mistakes When I was studying in high school, I came across a quote by Karl Popper, a philosopher and academic, that really caught my attention. He once said: “Avoiding mistakes is a narrow-minded ideal. If we don’t dare face those challenges that are so difficult as to make the error almost inevitable, knowledge will not be developed. It is from our more daring theories, including those that are wrong, that we learn the most. No one can avoid making mistakes, but the important thing i LIFESTYLE & RELATIONSHIPS Lucia Maggioni Feb 13 4 min read D-MER: The scary breastfeeding mental health disorder I'd never heard of Breastfeeding wasn’t widely discussed in my family and not many of my friends had children when I fell pregnant with my child in 2021. I’m not sure exactly where the passion for breastfeeding came from, but it was certainly there long before I got the obligatory ‘breast is best’ leaflet from the NHS midwife. I was blessed with a healthy, textbook pregnancy at the tail end of the Covid-19 restrictions in the UK. LIVED EXPERIENCE Emma Marns Feb 12 5 min read Trigger Warning: Making Peace with Trauma Responses A few years ago, I went through a traumatic event, the repercussions of which rippled out into what I hope to call the worst year of my life. And while that time is now behind me, and life has once again gone back to normal, there is one side effect that still casts a shadow over my life. It feels like I hear people talking about triggers all the time, about being aware and sensitive. But I rarely see anything that resembles an understanding of what I experience when I say I LIVED EXPERIENCE Joanna Chivers Feb 11 5 min read Reclaiming Girlhood: How Pink Became Political I've been curious all my life—from collecting samples for my microscope as a kid to investigating psychiatric biomarkers as a PhD student now—but for me, this curiosity didn't belong in the same box as dresses and pink. I was never girly. I put up a fight against my mother whenever she tried to put me in dresses when I was a toddler. Throughout my childhood, my wardrobe mostly consisted of my brother’s hand-me-downs, and even now in my late twenties, it’s a sea of black, blu LIFESTYLE & RELATIONSHIPS Theresa Kolb Feb 10 5 min read Why Heartbreak Feels Physical: The Chemistry of a Broken Heart Heartbreak is a common experience, often understood as a time of emotional crisis which can be resolved with feeling-based healing. Some typical advice you may have heard (or given) is: “the feeling will pass, you’ll get over it”, or “sit with your emotions”. But this advice feeds into the stigma that heartbreak is solely an emotional experience and pays no mind to all the physiological impacts. I am a student on the MSc Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface. SCIENCE & RESEARCH Erin Collins Feb 6 5 min read The Unheard Voice: When Language Barriers Limit Patient Care I never had to think when I switched between speaking Tamil and English, it was second nature to me. I spoke Tamil at home and English at school, sometimes mixing the two without realising I did. I had never given much thought to the role of an interpreter. I had always translated for my parents during appointments and considered it normal. It wasn’t until I began observing GP appointments as a student that I realised how many details were overlooked. SCIENCE & RESEARCH Menagaa Sarvananthalingam Feb 4 5 min read Why Mood Matters: My Journey with Cyclothymia After struggling with mental health challenges since my teenage years, I was diagnosed with cyclothymia at the beginning of 2025. But what is cyclothymia? Looking back, I realise that this lesser-known mood disorder has impacted my relationships, work, and social life, even if I did not know that at the time. Getting this diagnosis at 43 was not something I had foreseen. LIVED EXPERIENCE Anneliese Levy Feb 3 5 min read Day After Day — A Short Story Celine’s day was the same, come rain or shine. It helped that she never really knew what the weather was, but that was beside the point. As soon as she got her heart to stop palpitating after her alarm clock woke her up, she got up, brushed her hair, cleaned her teeth, got dressed nicely, just in case she met somebody new or got hit by a car, and then sat in her living room. She managed to ignore the postman’s knocking by keeping her curtains closed. SHORT STORIES Chloe Smith Jan 30 11 min read Losing More Than My Home After Leaving Venezuela I was born on December 3rd, 1993, in Caracas’ busiest hospital. I spent my early years in a high-rise apartment at the top of a mountain in Manzanares, living a quiet, ordinary life. Everything changed when Hugo Chávez, once the face of a failed coup, rose to power. My dad saw what was coming, and we eventually left for the United States. Looking back, it's painful to see how the Venezuelan diaspora, my family included, was shaped by those decisions. LIVED EXPERIENCE Mariana Delgado Jan 28 5 min read Overcoming Acne in Adulthood Severe acne may seem only skin deep, but its effects on mental health can be devastating. I’m Anna, a primary school teacher and writer who has struggled with acne since my late teens. I have been through almost every treatment imaginable, and have suffered the consequences of this visual, mental, and medical condition for over six years. Acne is a term most people are familiar with, whether from their own hidden school photos or the plague of teen movies that overuse it as LIVED EXPERIENCE Anna Nixon Jan 27 5 min read On Health Anxiety as an Artist Eight years ago, I went to a friend of mine in distress. I had a lump or a bump or a cough or a premonition. “I am dying,” I told her. I was certain of it. “Or are you just about to put an album out?” she asked. My name is Charlee, and for the better part of twelve years, I’ve been a willing participant in the love-hate relationship most artists have with the music industry. The music industry is a peculiar trigger in my life. Anytime I move forward, I backwards dance into LIVED EXPERIENCE Charlee Remitz Jan 23 6 min read Grieving Stranger Things is grieving my inner child It’s time to accept it, Stranger Things is finished. We have all become a little bit more adult since Episode 8, which aired on New Year’s Eve. Why is it so difficult to accept that it is over? This is not a rhetorical question. Thousands of fans online have, for weeks, argued that Episode 8 was not the end. According to the viral “Conformity Gate” theory, fans believed that there should have been a new episode coming out on January 7th. ARTS & CULTURE Carmine Pariante Jan 22 5 min read The Price of Self-Abandonment: What Alopecia Taught Me About Wholeness I have alopecia, and I wear my bald head proudly now. Alopecia is hair loss that can be the result of medical conditions, hormonal changes, or genetics. While it is treatable, sometimes its effects can be permanent. When I am out in public, I catch people staring. Online, where I share my story, I receive backhanded compliments — comments that circle how lucky I am to be attractive, or how I could always wear a wig, or how I should “dress up my face” more to distract from th LIVED EXPERIENCE Jelisha Jones Jan 21 5 min read How the social becomes biological and pathological The question surrounding the innate and cultural forces that can shape an individual goes as far as biology and social sciences go. Psychiatry can be understood as a hybrid medical speciality. While biological factors, such as genetics, hormones, and brain structure and function, play a crucial role in explaining the mechanisms of mental health disorders, the field is also deeply shaped by social influences. Our environment and life experiences profoundly affect how we feel SCIENCE & RESEARCH Enzo Cipriani Jan 20 5 min read Prioritise Female Health: The Gap in Hormonal Contraception Research The healthcare sector’s overwhelming complacency with current female hormonal contraceptives has resulted in a lack of innovation for new methods. Between 2017 and 2020, pharmaceutical companies funded only 20-25 clinical trials worldwide for contraception options, with most studies focusing on incremental changes to existing hormonal contraception options. By comparison, For some women who use hormonal contraception, serious side effects can emerge, and alternative options a SCIENCE & RESEARCH Olivia Marsh Jan 15 5 min read Different Needs, Same Love Surrounded by echoes of doctors, nurses, fluorescent lights beaming above, the clatter of medical equipment, a flurry of instructions, sensations, reassurance, overflowing emotions, she lays there as her body and mind are going through unimaginable things, an embodiment of strength, ready to give birth. She feels confused, senses judgement and thinks: “How will I be able to do this?” Motherhood is often seen as a time of significant personal change, filled with both joy and SCIENCE & RESEARCH Ayeshah Mateen Allahwala Jan 14 6 min read Naming the Pain: The Power and Problem of Diagnosis A diagnosis can feel like a key — unlocking understanding and access to help — or like a label that locks you into something you can’t escape. I was 35 when a psychiatrist gave me a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD)/ Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD). I am now 43, and I still have an ambivalent relationship with the diagnosis. LIVED EXPERIENCE Gareth Oliver Jan 13 5 min read Chronic Pain: The UK's Silent Health Epidemic Disability due to chronic pain is a massive issue in the UK, with millions of people across the country unable to work, see their friends, or perform everyday tasks because of their condition. As an individual with experience in researching chronic pain and educating others about it, I am passionate about understanding the holistic impact pain has on individuals and how this can be managed. SCIENCE & RESEARCH Adam Filan Jan 12 4 min read Learning to Listen: Sound as an Overlooked Dimension of Architecture Have you ever thought about sound in the spaces you love to spend time in? When we talk about what makes a place great, we usually focus on how it looks. We notice the lighting, the materials, the layout. We might even comment on how it smells or feels to the touch. But we rarely think about how a space sounds, even though sound shapes our experience the moment we walk through the door. ARTS & CULTURE Aeron Kim Jan 9 5 min read 1 2 3 4 5 Our Vision Inspire the Mind brings a different perspective from other mental health magazines: viewpoints of clinicians , researchers , and others working within mental health . We want to complement people’s accounts by discussing the scientific evidence underpinning these personal experiences , while also sharing with our readers ongoing research and clinical work, discussion pieces, and the various links between culture and mental health. Ultimately we want to impact mental health literacy and reduce the stigma around mental health. About us Who are we? ITM is an inclusive digital magazine that focuses on the intersection between mental health, science and society. We do this with the help of our diverse group of writers with lived experience and academics who have dedicated their lives to research. Editorial Process Our in-depth editorial process allows for a collaborative approach between the writer and the editor. We maintain the author's unique writing style through the process, and review all articles before they are published. The publication is overseen by scientists and clinicians, ensuring that the information put out is not only of significant interest to the public, but also factually accurate. Breadth of Content We cover a wide breadth of topics ranging from lived experience, to science and research. Our writers discuss topics of public and personal interest, such as art and culture, as well as lifestyle and relationships. We explore these topics in the context of mental health, and their relation to one another. Our content is carefully chosen to align with current world trends and new scientific discoveries. Behind the Scenes ITM is all about the behind-the-scenes of scientific research in the field of mental health. We offer the unique opportunity to learn more, through our interviews with scientists and academics, about the studies that are making the headlines, the research they’ve dedicated their whole lives to, and the findings that might change the world of psychiatry and psychology as we know it. Submit your pitch Ready to write your own article to publish in Inspire the Mind? Send us your article or short story pitches now. Submit Pitch

Our articles focus on the intersection between mental health, science and society. We do this with the help of writers with lived experience and academics who have dedicated their lives to this research. Our Articles on: Read Now The Weight of Belonging: A Reflective Lens Through Frankenstein Community building has become something of a trend, especially over the past year. The more I scroll through social media, the more events I see. While I enjoy seeing people come together, it can also feel overwhelming to be flooded with Instagram posts and WhatsApp groups promoting countless events and gatherings. Traditionally, communities are formed by groups of people connected through shared spaces or common interests, religion, culture, ethnicity, or values. Layecha Fidahoussen Feb 24 4 min read Learning to Embrace Mistakes When I was studying in high school, I came across a quote by Karl Popper, a philosopher and academic, that really caught my attention. He once said: “Avoiding mistakes is a narrow-minded ideal. If we don’t dare face those challenges that are so difficult as to make the error almost inevitable, knowledge will not be developed. It is from our more daring theories, including those that are wrong, that we learn the most. No one can avoid making mistakes, but the important thing i Lucia Maggioni Feb 13 4 min read Reclaiming Girlhood: How Pink Became Political I've been curious all my life—from collecting samples for my microscope as a kid to investigating psychiatric biomarkers as a PhD student now—but for me, this curiosity didn't belong in the same box as dresses and pink. I was never girly. I put up a fight against my mother whenever she tried to put me in dresses when I was a toddler. Throughout my childhood, my wardrobe mostly consisted of my brother’s hand-me-downs, and even now in my late twenties, it’s a sea of black, blu Theresa Kolb Feb 10 5 min read An inclusive and relevant pregnancy book is exactly what we need Pregnancy is expected to be a “one size fits all” phenomenon. Every stereotype of a pregnant person involves peeing on a stick, sharing the happy news with your partner, throwing up every morning, and having a straightforward delivery where you’re screaming out in pain until the miracle of life is pushed out of your body. Riddhi Laijawala Dec 18, 2025 3 min read Nostalgia: Aching for the Ordinary How nostalgia makes us yearn for our own memories. Time moves forward whether we follow it or not. Nostalgia, however, waits.It lingers in old songs, in familiar streets, in the scent of a season or a person we thought we had forgotten. And when it finally returns, it pulls us gently, and sometimes painfully, back into a moment we can no longer touch. Caroline Lackner Dec 12, 2025 5 min read Sexual function, the unexpected casualty Some things in life you never expect to lose. Your orgasm is one of them. Anna Verey Dec 4, 2025 4 min read A critique of Vogue’s ‘embarrassing boyfriend’ concept And there we have it. As of October 2025, boyfriends have become embarrassing, according to Vogue. An article published on 25th October talks about boyfriends being embarrassing, and about women being uncool or losers because they have romantic partners. This controversial piece has been discussed all over social media, and on popular news outlets, with Instagram celebrities sharing their opinions, either agreeing, or disagreeing with the piece. I came across the p Riddhi Laijawala Nov 17, 2025 5 min read Monday stress doesn’t retire when we do Image Source: cottonbro studio on Pexels I’ve never found Mondays particularly stressful. Over time, I’ve learned to manage my energy more intentionally, and as a freelance journalist, I’ve picked up strategies that work for me. For instance, if I work over the weekend, I try to keep my Mondays lighter, a way to ease back into the week and protect my mental balance. But if I worked in a company or had an office role with fixed hours, that kind of adjustment would be much hard Giulia Mondaini Nov 5, 2025 5 min read Beyond the Label: How Synthetic Fibres Impact Our Health My research in mental health and neuroscience is fuelled by a deep curiosity about how the world around us, everything from our... Nuriza Tukiran Oct 10, 2025 4 min read Bonded by Anxiety My mind is calm; my breathing is slow and persistent; and my hands aren’t shaking. I couldn’t have said that years ago, and I most certainly would not have gotten where I am without him. My partner, Roger, was the saving grace I never saw coming, but when I needed it the most. Roger and I met by chance, through a Meetup group (a site that allows people to join groups based on personal interests and hobbies). We only spoke a few words, and it was months later before we began l Samantha Wood Sep 19, 2025 5 min read Finding Your Roots: It’s Okay to Start Over I lost myself some time ago. I searched in vain until I found her in my bedroom mirror. Nineteen years later. Melina Belén Aug 13, 2025 5 min read Working From Home Is The Best (And The Worst) Before Covid forced many of us into pyjamas and endless Zoom calls, I was already working remotely and had been since 2017. In fact, I ran a successful blog about it and felt confident telling people how to manage their freelance time and stay productive at home. The problem was, over time, my social skills were taking a nosedive. Back then I had no idea what working from home so often was doing to me, but slowly, it was chipping away at my confidence and my ability to be aro Caitlin McAllister Jul 9, 2025 5 min read Swipe Right for Friendship: A Deep Dive into App-Based Socialising Moving to a new city, country, or even continent is exhilarating—until one uncomfortable reality sets in: suddenly, your support network is a hundred miles away, and the comfort of familiar friendships around the corner is replaced by the daunting task of building new ones from scratch. Theresa Kolb Jul 1, 2025 5 min read How ‘down bad’ can you be when dating? If you feel like dating is a Sisyphean task, you’re not alone. As a neurodivergent woman, I’m probably (definitely) considered an... Chloe Johnson Jun 25, 2025 4 min read How finding new hobbies in my 20s helped improve my wellbeing “What are your hobbies?” This is quite a common icebreaker when having a conversation. For quite a few years, when someone asked me that, I actually had to think about it, and didn’t quite have an answer. After all, scrolling endlessly on social media in the evenings isn’t really a hobby, is it? As a part-time PhD student and a full-time researcher, finding new hobbies over the past 2 years has been a great way for me to unwind and find a suitable work-life balance. Riddhi Laijawala Jun 17, 2025 4 min read Three things I have learned from running the London Marathon When telling people that I was training for the London Marathon, most people would reply by telling me that they "could never do it". Even established runners, even people who had run half-marathons, would tell me that they could not do it, ever. And that, of course, is not true. Carmine Pariante Jun 4, 2025 5 min read The Fragrant Connection Between Our Sense of Smell and Aromatherapy As Ramadan comes to an end, the scent of fresh henna (a temporary form of body art) on my hands brings back a flood of memories from... Layecha Fidahoussen Apr 15, 2025 4 min read Adolescence: the Trojan horse to end violence against women? Last weekend, I decided to watch Netflix’s new drama Adolescence. I had been apprehensive to watch it, assuming it would be another... Sorcha Alford Apr 7, 2025 5 min read Is Training for a Marathon Good for my Mental Health? I am at Week 10 of my training plan for the 2025 London Marathon. My first marathon. I know running is good for my mental health , but... Carmine Pariante Mar 25, 2025 5 min read Why Do I Love Gambling? I gamble. Not a lot, never recklessly, and certainly not in a way that keeps me up at night worrying about lost fortunes. But I do it. Tony Woods Feb 13, 2025 4 min read Beyond Prediction: Explaining Astrology's Potential Picture by Allision Saeng from Unsplash+ As a neuroscientist, I’ve spent my career advocating and advertising for evidence-based... Klaas Bahnsen Jan 8, 2025 5 min read The power of the stars: What the horoscope says about me. People have always been so fascinated by the stars , to the point where starts are tasked with determining our way of life or how the day... Daniela Giallanella Jan 7, 2025 4 min read When I talked about my grief, others followed Three weeks ago, I published a personal article on my difficulties with grief following the death of my parents, both in their 90s, one... Carmine Pariante Dec 5, 2024 4 min read “What is Your MBTI?”- Inside Personality Testing in South Korea In South Korea, especially among Gen Z, the MBTI personality test isn’t just a tool for self-discovery—it’s a full-blown social phenomenon. From casual conversations to dating preferences, these four-letter codes are everywhere, and if you’re not familiar with the latest craze, you might feel a bit left out. My name is Aeron. Originally from South Korea, I am a researcher at the Stress, Psychiatry, and Immunology (SPI) Lab at King’s College London. Having lived between the Aeron Kim Oct 9, 2024 5 min read Empowering people through boxing and everyday practices A conversation with Edson Williams ‘I Am Enough. I am everything I need to succeed.’ This is the message on a circular red piece of paper... Gargi Mandal Jul 16, 2024 5 min read Small life changes that can help improve our mental health When our mental health is not in a good place, it can feel scary and hopeless. Poor mental health can be brought on by a significant life... Emily Rose Burley Jan 18, 2024 5 min read Why it is so difficult to understand my Mom’s mental health struggles? I moved to the UK around 9 years ago for education, and recently started my PhD in neuroscience and immunology, looking at how the brain... Andreea Ingrid Baloc Nov 21, 2023 4 min read Couple’s psychotherapy: learning to dance in synchrony Interview with Dr Graziana D’Addabbo by Yuri Milaneschi You’re a couple, ‘specially when your body’s doubled. Massive Attack, Karmacoma... Yuri Milaneschi Oct 4, 2023 5 min read What is Yoga Therapy? People open up to me. They feel comfortable sharing some of their deepest secrets. This awareness has been with me for a while. It... Carola Chiarpenello Sep 19, 2023 4 min read Rest or Rust? Unravelling the TikTok ‘Bedrotting’ Trend Since the emergence of social media, debates have been consistently sparked about the line drawn between moderate use and disengagement... Seb Woods Aug 3, 2023 5 min read 1 2 3 4 5

Our articles focus on the intersection between mental health, science and society. We do this with the help of writers with lived experience and academics who have dedicated their lives to this research. Our Articles on: Read Now What “Die, My Love” gets right, and wrong, about maternal mental health In an era where we are often bombarded with seemingly glamorous and smooth transitions into parenthood, the movie Die, my love shows viewers the other end of the spectrum. Based on the novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz, Die, my love follows aspiring novelist Grace, played by Jennifer Lawrence, and her boyfriend Jackson, played by Robert Pattinson, as they leave their life in New York City for a small farmhouse in rural Montana. We first meet the couple while they are Maddy Kirkpatrick Feb 17 5 min read On Health Anxiety as an Artist Eight years ago, I went to a friend of mine in distress. I had a lump or a bump or a cough or a premonition. “I am dying,” I told her. I was certain of it. “Or are you just about to put an album out?” she asked. My name is Charlee, and for the better part of twelve years, I’ve been a willing participant in the love-hate relationship most artists have with the music industry. The music industry is a peculiar trigger in my life. Anytime I move forward, I backwards dance into Charlee Remitz Jan 23 6 min read Grieving Stranger Things is grieving my inner child It’s time to accept it, Stranger Things is finished. We have all become a little bit more adult since Episode 8, which aired on New Year’s Eve. Why is it so difficult to accept that it is over? This is not a rhetorical question. Thousands of fans online have, for weeks, argued that Episode 8 was not the end. According to the viral “Conformity Gate” theory, fans believed that there should have been a new episode coming out on January 7th. Carmine Pariante Jan 22 5 min read Learning to Listen: Sound as an Overlooked Dimension of Architecture Have you ever thought about sound in the spaces you love to spend time in? When we talk about what makes a place great, we usually focus on how it looks. We notice the lighting, the materials, the layout. We might even comment on how it smells or feels to the touch. But we rarely think about how a space sounds, even though sound shapes our experience the moment we walk through the door. Aeron Kim Jan 9 5 min read Creating My Own Holiday Traditions as a Muslim Growing up Muslim, I didn’t have many holiday traditions, so I learned to create my own. Today, I’m a Seattle-based writer who has learned to create traditions and define home on my own terms. As a kid, I couldn’t sing the words to the season’s greatest hits, didn’t spend the last month of the year shopping for presents, and never set out cookies for Santa. Instead, Christmas was a day when I would pick up extra shifts to cover for co-workers who were out of town to see their Aleenah Ansari Dec 19, 2025 4 min read An inclusive and relevant pregnancy book is exactly what we need Pregnancy is expected to be a “one size fits all” phenomenon. Every stereotype of a pregnant person involves peeing on a stick, sharing the happy news with your partner, throwing up every morning, and having a straightforward delivery where you’re screaming out in pain until the miracle of life is pushed out of your body. Riddhi Laijawala Dec 18, 2025 3 min read Beyond the Glitter: What Does Emily in Paris Show Us About Expat Life? I have to admit it: I was sceptical when the Netflix show Emily in Paris first came out, which is why I didn’t give it a chance until earlier this year. Surprisingly, that wait proved worthwhile: I binge-watched all four seasons in just a few weeks, and now I’m counting down the days until Season 5 premieres on Netflix on December 18th. However, my enthusiasm is not widely shared, with many strongly dismissing the show for depicting an overly romanticised version of expat li Francesca Mancino Dec 2, 2025 5 min read Combining culture and cortisol – Is art good for our health? Writer’s note: This article has been co-written by Courtney Worrell and Tony Woods It has long been said that art is good for our health, but we didn’t know much about how or why. So, this summer, we set up shop in front of the likes of Van Gogh and Manet at the Courtauld Gallery in London to look at the science behind this relationship and explore how the body really responds to viewing art. Spoiler alert – what we found was very, very interesting. Vincent Van Gogh’s Sel Courtney Worrell Oct 28, 2025 5 min read Binge-Watching: How Our TV Habits Shape Our Brains and Mental Health Streaming services have dominated the television and film distribution space over the last decade. With its rise, streaming powerhouses like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ brought with them a novel release method: entire seasons aired on the same day, at the same time. Melisa Kose Aug 20, 2025 7 min read The Impact of Colonisation Shown Through Sinners As a movie enthusiast, I love a film with powerful themes, and the recently released horror film ‘Sinners’ doesn’t fall short. With all the talk around the movie, I went in blind and don’t regret it one bit. Suvi Pushpakanthan Jul 8, 2025 4 min read Are We Living 'The Handmaid’s Tale' in 2025? Being a woman in 2025 feels frightening. During a time when society should be moving forward towards greater equality and empowerment for... Samrina K Sangha Jun 5, 2025 4 min read What Squid Game Reveals About Power, Division, and Being Human We are not O or X. We are not built to stay still. Beliefs bend. Allegiances shift. When systems demand certainty, it’s our capacity for... Aeron Kim May 20, 2025 5 min read The Deep Symbolism of Children’s Movies and the Messages They Carry I must admit. I am someone in my mid-twenties, but I absolutely love animated movies. I recently went to see a movie called “The Wild... Riddhi Laijawala May 1, 2025 5 min read Supporting trauma survivors’ through art and science According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the majority of people who access mental health services have experienced trauma. Yet, trauma remains misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and mistreated. How then can we best support survivors who need holistic, relatable, consistent, and trauma-sensitive healthcare? Isaac Ouro-Gnao Apr 24, 2025 5 min read In Focus: How Photography Grounds Me Photography has always been more than just a hobby for me—it has allowed me to process emotions, navigate difficult moments, and connect... Isabella Fowden Mar 27, 2025 5 min read The Pain of Neglect: Women's Story of Disassociation Black and white image from Unsplash As a young woman, I often find myself wondering what my place is. Both in life, what aspirations... Pierrette Fortuna Mar 26, 2025 5 min read Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar Puts Sour Taste on Wellbeing Industry The new Netflix sensation, Apple Cider Vinegar, is inspired by a true story but is not an entirely accurate portrayal, with new... Courtney Worrell Mar 4, 2025 5 min read Arts & Crafts Help Homeless Survivors Express Their Inner Creativity Poor mental health is widespread within the homeless community, with homeless people being nearly twice as likely to experience a mental... Layecha Fidahoussen Jan 22, 2025 4 min read Beyond Prediction: Explaining Astrology's Potential Picture by Allision Saeng from Unsplash+ As a neuroscientist, I’ve spent my career advocating and advertising for evidence-based... Klaas Bahnsen Jan 8, 2025 5 min read The power of the stars: What the horoscope says about me. People have always been so fascinated by the stars , to the point where starts are tasked with determining our way of life or how the day... Daniela Giallanella Jan 7, 2025 4 min read Romanticising Christmas: The Holiday Magic And just like that… the holiday season approaches. Another year has gone, with its highs and lows, its lessons, and all its triumphs. As... Lea Schmid Dec 19, 2024 4 min read Before a Snowflake Falls: A Personal Encounter with Han Kang Han Kang © Photo: Paik Dahuim. Courtesy of Natur & Kultur. Distance between You and Me Every heart holds a quiet ode to someone—a figure... Jin-ho Kim Dec 11, 2024 5 min read From Historical Trauma to Literature: The Universal Appeal of Han Kang The worldwide impact of Korean culture became particularly prominent with Parasite, the 2020 Academy Award-winning film that earned... Hami Lee Dec 10, 2024 4 min read Old Friends and The Timeless Joy of Rewatching Your Favourite Shows Like catching up with an old friend or stumbling upon a trinket that you thought you’d lost lifetimes ago... Melisa Kose Oct 16, 2024 6 min read “What is Your MBTI?”- Inside Personality Testing in South Korea In South Korea, especially among Gen Z, the MBTI personality test isn’t just a tool for self-discovery—it’s a full-blown social phenomenon. From casual conversations to dating preferences, these four-letter codes are everywhere, and if you’re not familiar with the latest craze, you might feel a bit left out. My name is Aeron. Originally from South Korea, I am a researcher at the Stress, Psychiatry, and Immunology (SPI) Lab at King’s College London. Having lived between the Aeron Kim Oct 9, 2024 5 min read The Unconditional Nature of Human Worth A Reflection on Robert Frost’s “The Rose Family” What do I have to be to prove that I am a rose? Hello everyone! My name is Isabella... Isabella Molnar Oct 8, 2024 5 min read The Mind of Others: A documentary on mental health Content warning: This article contains mentions of suicidal ideation It starts with a silent video of Winston Churchill with more and... Carmine Pariante Jul 26, 2024 4 min read From Doodles to Diaries: Navigating Life Through Journaling Hello reader! I’m Sofia, a twenty-one-year-old bachelor’s student with a passion for Neuroscience. Ever owned a diary? Sceptical about... Sofia Panzeri Mar 21, 2024 4 min read Reproductive Disorders: The Good, the Bad, and the Artistic By the time I was diagnosed with endometriosis, I was told that my disease had progressed to moderate organ fusion from scarring and... Seyi Osobamiro Mar 19, 2024 4 min read Why the Suffering Artist Archetype is so damaging for creatives The ‘suffering artist’ is a romanticised archetype that has been perpetuated throughout history in literature, film, and popular culture.... Natali Simmonds Mar 7, 2024 5 min read 1 2 3 4

Selected by The Royal College of Psychiatrists, Psych Star ambassadors are a group of final year medical students awarded for their particular interest and commitment to psychiatry. Read Now Who are the Psych Stars? Selected by The Royal College of Psychiatrists , Psych Star ambassadors are a group of final year medical students awarded for their particular interest and commitment to psychiatry. During the year-long scheme as Psych Stars , students are nurtured in their interest in psychiatry through the assignment of mentors, by gaining access to learning resources and events, and by becoming part of a network of like-minded students. We have decided to invite each of the Psych Stars to write a blog on how they envision the future of mental health by choosing an area in which they are passionate. We have decided to run the series as a celebration of these student’s success and to provide an outlook for each of the awardees to share their passion. Inspiring and supporting the Psychiatrists of tomorrow Note from the Editor : It is my pleasure to present the final Psych Star blog of the Psych Star Series , a collection of articles written... Psych Stars Dr Declan Hyland Dec 18, 2024 4 min read The Contribution of Acquired Brain Injuries on Criminal Behaviour On a busy road, when the traffic rushes like water breaking through a dam and the lights refuse to turn red, the decision you may make to... Psych Stars Namira Patel Nov 14, 2024 5 min read ADHD in doctors: a personal reflection It is ADHD Awareness Month , and I often find myself reflecting on my own diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),... Psych Stars Catriona McVey Oct 15, 2024 5 min read Schools: what is their role in young people’s mental health? Trigger warning: This article discusses suicide. Some readers may find this distressing. Massive increases in referrals to Child and... Psych Stars Jesmine Dhooper Sep 5, 2024 4 min read Lost in Translation: Does Culture Belong in Psychiatry? In my second year of medical school, I had the opportunity to choose my student-selected component of the course. There were several... Psych Stars Iyinoluwa Popoola Aug 29, 2024 5 min read My Personal Experiences as an Intellectual Disability Psych Star Psychiatry has been a highlight of my medical school experience. Every psychiatrist I’ve met, every talk and lecture I’ve attended, and... Psych Stars Megs Grainger Jul 11, 2024 5 min read Rehabilitation and Social Psychiatry: A PsychStar perspective Perusing the Royal College of Psychiatrists website, I stumbled upon the faculty page for 'Rehabilitation and Social Psychiatry'. I had... Psych Stars Lauren Pereira-Greene Jun 6, 2024 4 min read Psychiatrists Aren’t Mind-Reading Tweed Wearing Trickcyclists Special Note from the Editors: Welcome to our brand-new series written by the 2023 Psych Stars! Chosen by the Royal College of... Psych Stars James Brawn May 2, 2024 5 min read Reflections on my year as a Psych Star My interest in mental health grew considerably when I started medical school. I remember being spellbound by a lecture in the first term... Psych Stars Emily Jones Sep 6, 2021 6 min read A Birds Eye View Reflections from the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists on the latest series of PsychStar blogs I was glad to be invited to... Psych Stars Dr Adrian J B James FRCPsych Nov 13, 2020 7 min read Intellectual Disability: Past, Present and Future My experiences working as a support worker for adults with intellectual disability, before starting medical school and alongside my... Psych Stars Lucrezia Thomas Oct 22, 2020 8 min read Should Psychiatry be working to prevent Mental Illness in the first place? Mental health stigma and discrimination is slowly decreasing, as shown in the report ‘Time to Change’ in 2015. Given the current effects... Psych Stars Danish Hafeez Oct 15, 2020 6 min read Psychedelics in Psychiatry: A Trip to the Future Disclaimer: This blog is by no means an endorsement, nor is it advocating illegal activities. It is purely a discussion about the growing... Psych Stars Isabella Conti Oct 8, 2020 7 min read Telepsychiatry: How did we get here and where do we go now? A lot has been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the last 6 months. For those of us familiar with the inside of clinic rooms, one of... Psych Stars Anushka Pathak Oct 1, 2020 8 min read “More Unites Us Than Divides Us” — It’s Time for Neurology and Psychiatry to Work Together Again Psychiatry, like many other specialties within medicine, has a range of sub-specialties from which one can choose during higher training,... Psych Stars Bibire Baykeens Sep 24, 2020 8 min read The future of male mental health: society’s role in tackling the suicide crisis Content Warning  — This blog deals with the topic of suicide and may be distressing to some readers. If any of the topics raised resonate... Psych Stars Bethany Platford Sep 17, 2020 7 min read Global Mental Health: Where are we heading? Special note from the editors: This is the fifth blog of our new series, The future of mental health as seen by the future leaders in... Psych Stars Cecilia Vinchenzo Sep 10, 2020 7 min read The Future is Feminist: tackling gender inequalities in psychiatric medicine and practice Special note from the editors: This is the fourth blog of our new series, The future of mental health as seen by the future leaders in... Psych Stars Rebecca Murphy Lonergan Sep 3, 2020 6 min read The future of child and adolescent psychiatry - a medical student’s perspective Special note from the editors: This is the third blog of our new series, The future of mental health as seen by the future leaders in... Psych Stars Emily Jones Aug 27, 2020 10 min read The mind-body experience and the future for psychiatry Special note from the editors: This is the second blog of our new series, The future of mental health as seen by the future leaders in... Psych Stars Tamara Searle Aug 20, 2020 7 min read The New Generation Game A Need for Compassion when Encouraging Young People to Engage in Mental Health Special note from the editors: Please enjoy reading the... Psych Stars Heather McAdam Aug 13, 2020 8 min read

Original short stories exploring mental health, identity, and the human experience through creative and reflective writing. Our Short Stories: The Teacher and The Mother — A Short Story Emily Zarevich 6 days ago 5 min read Day After Day — A Short Story Chloe Smith Jan 30 11 min read Who Art in Heaven – A Short Story Anna Lewis Nov 28, 2025 8 min read Tongue Tied — A Short Story Patrick Cash Oct 31, 2025 12 min read The Quiet Room: A Short Story Dave Brennan Oct 3, 2025 6 min read The Neural Highway – A Short Story Gargi Mehra Jul 25, 2025 5 min read What's Left Behind—A Short Story Chloe Smith Jun 27, 2025 11 min read Football Forever — A Short Story Chloe Smith Jun 2, 2025 9 min read Invisible Strings - A Short Story Ayah Al-Masyabi Apr 25, 2025 12 min read A Familiar Stranger at a Funeral Rua Crozier-Khell Mar 28, 2025 5 min read 1 2 3

Read More Meet Natali Simmonds Natali Juste Simmonds is a fiction author , lecturer and creative brand consultant . Her fantasy trilogy The Path Keeper, Son of Secrets, and Children of Shadows (N J Simmonds) was shortlisted for the 2022 RNA Fantasy Award, she co-writes paranormal romance as Caedis Knight, and her debut, feminist thriller, Good Girls Die Last (Natali Simmonds) is out June 2023. As a busy mother who writes, paints and has spent twenty-five years working creatively with the world's leading brands, Natali is passionate about the arts and maintaining mental clarity and balance while creating. Born and raised a Londoner, she now divides her time between her homes in Spain and the Netherlands with her husband and two daughters. Articles Why the Suffering Artist Archetype is so damaging for creatives The ‘suffering artist’ is a romanticised archetype that has been perpetuated throughout history in literature, film, and popular culture.... Creativity and Balance Column Natali Simmonds Mar 7, 2024 5 min read Self-promotion for creatives: Getting seen is the key to success The arts and business don’t mix. They should. They need to. But no one likes to talk about the two together. I’ve been a published... Creativity and Balance Column Natali Simmonds Dec 6, 2023 5 min read More Than A Thriller Good Girls Die Last is feminist reality wrapped in fiction I was so tired of crying. It was the summer of 2021 and the news was full of... Creativity and Balance Column Natali Simmonds Jun 22, 2023 5 min read Luck & The Artist: Does luck have anything to do with creative success? I hear it often — "You’re so lucky!" In itself, "you’re so lucky" is a perfectly innocuous phrase. There are a lot of things in my life... Creativity and Balance Column Natali Simmonds May 10, 2023 6 min read My Experience of Burnout as an Author (and How You Can Avoid It) It was May 2019 and I’d recently turned forty. I didn’t feel right. In fact, I felt so little like myself I went to see a doctor. ‘I... Creativity and Balance Column Natali Simmonds Apr 12, 2023 5 min read Inspiration & Emotion: How to utilise what you're feeling to create great art There are two types of creatives in this world; those who are hounded day and night by ideas forcing their way into the mind with jagged... Creativity and Balance Column Natali Simmonds Mar 14, 2023 5 min read A Creative's Guide To Success and Sanity: The power of creative diversification How do you become a success in the arts without losing your mind? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for decades. Unlike other... Creativity and Balance Column Natali Simmonds Feb 16, 2023 5 min read How do you keep sane as a creative? An interview with our new columnist, novelist Natali J Simmonds I meet Natali over Zoom from her house in the Netherlands. This is not our first online meeting — in fact, online is how I met her a... Creativity and Balance Column Carmine Pariante Feb 8, 2023 6 min read

Our articles focus on the intersection between mental health, science and society. We do this with the help of writers with lived experience and academics. Discover first-person mental health experiences written by people with lived experience, reflecting on diagnosis, healthcare systems, identity and daily life. Our Articles on: Read Now Depression: A Mentor to Loneliness Everyone has had one of those nights where they feel overwhelmingly Lonely. Lonely within your body, heart, and mind—all at once. It’s a feeling similar to living unexplainably separate from yourself. You hope it won’t revisit as often as it does. The Loneliness lingers, almost long enough to graduate into its mentor, Depression. Loneliness tries to impress its more overpowering sibling until, finally, Depression allows Loneliness to take shelter under its wing. Tricia Patras Feb 25 5 min read Behind The Red Nose With every burst of laughter I drew from the crowd, the loneliness behind my makeup grew a little deeper. My name is Shopia Green. I am a circus clown, and the image of my red nose, abandoned on the dressing room table, is the most honest photograph of my life. It is not just a prop; it is a portal. On one side, the vibrant world of the spectacle, where I am the embodiment of joy. On the other, the silence that consumes me when the last spotlight on the ring fades. Shopia Green Feb 19 4 min read D-MER: The scary breastfeeding mental health disorder I'd never heard of Breastfeeding wasn’t widely discussed in my family and not many of my friends had children when I fell pregnant with my child in 2021. I’m not sure exactly where the passion for breastfeeding came from, but it was certainly there long before I got the obligatory ‘breast is best’ leaflet from the NHS midwife. I was blessed with a healthy, textbook pregnancy at the tail end of the Covid-19 restrictions in the UK. Emma Marns Feb 12 5 min read Trigger Warning: Making Peace with Trauma Responses A few years ago, I went through a traumatic event, the repercussions of which rippled out into what I hope to call the worst year of my life. And while that time is now behind me, and life has once again gone back to normal, there is one side effect that still casts a shadow over my life. It feels like I hear people talking about triggers all the time, about being aware and sensitive. But I rarely see anything that resembles an understanding of what I experience when I say I Joanna Chivers Feb 11 5 min read Why Mood Matters: My Journey with Cyclothymia After struggling with mental health challenges since my teenage years, I was diagnosed with cyclothymia at the beginning of 2025. But what is cyclothymia? Looking back, I realise that this lesser-known mood disorder has impacted my relationships, work, and social life, even if I did not know that at the time. Getting this diagnosis at 43 was not something I had foreseen. Anneliese Levy Feb 3 5 min read Losing More Than My Home After Leaving Venezuela I was born on December 3rd, 1993, in Caracas’ busiest hospital. I spent my early years in a high-rise apartment at the top of a mountain in Manzanares, living a quiet, ordinary life. Everything changed when Hugo Chávez, once the face of a failed coup, rose to power. My dad saw what was coming, and we eventually left for the United States. Looking back, it's painful to see how the Venezuelan diaspora, my family included, was shaped by those decisions. Mariana Delgado Jan 28 5 min read Overcoming Acne in Adulthood Severe acne may seem only skin deep, but its effects on mental health can be devastating. I’m Anna, a primary school teacher and writer who has struggled with acne since my late teens. I have been through almost every treatment imaginable, and have suffered the consequences of this visual, mental, and medical condition for over six years. Acne is a term most people are familiar with, whether from their own hidden school photos or the plague of teen movies that overuse it as Anna Nixon Jan 27 5 min read On Health Anxiety as an Artist Eight years ago, I went to a friend of mine in distress. I had a lump or a bump or a cough or a premonition. “I am dying,” I told her. I was certain of it. “Or are you just about to put an album out?” she asked. My name is Charlee, and for the better part of twelve years, I’ve been a willing participant in the love-hate relationship most artists have with the music industry. The music industry is a peculiar trigger in my life. Anytime I move forward, I backwards dance into Charlee Remitz Jan 23 6 min read The Price of Self-Abandonment: What Alopecia Taught Me About Wholeness I have alopecia, and I wear my bald head proudly now. Alopecia is hair loss that can be the result of medical conditions, hormonal changes, or genetics. While it is treatable, sometimes its effects can be permanent. When I am out in public, I catch people staring. Online, where I share my story, I receive backhanded compliments — comments that circle how lucky I am to be attractive, or how I could always wear a wig, or how I should “dress up my face” more to distract from th Jelisha Jones Jan 21 5 min read Naming the Pain: The Power and Problem of Diagnosis A diagnosis can feel like a key — unlocking understanding and access to help — or like a label that locks you into something you can’t escape. I was 35 when a psychiatrist gave me a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD)/ Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD). I am now 43, and I still have an ambivalent relationship with the diagnosis. Gareth Oliver Jan 13 5 min read Nostalgia: Aching for the Ordinary How nostalgia makes us yearn for our own memories. Time moves forward whether we follow it or not. Nostalgia, however, waits.It lingers in old songs, in familiar streets, in the scent of a season or a person we thought we had forgotten. And when it finally returns, it pulls us gently, and sometimes painfully, back into a moment we can no longer touch. Caroline Lackner Dec 12, 2025 5 min read In Limbo: The Cost of Studying Abroad with Family There are two types of winter coats. One is light on the pocket but good for a fast-fashion spin. Then there’s the down-filled workhorse, puffed with promise and designed to last year after year. Standing in the ‘Winter Essentials’ aisle, I stared at both and bought neither. I wasn’t sure I was staying long enough to need either kind of warmth. Aysha Imtiaz Dec 8, 2025 6 min read The Bliss of Not Knowing: How Escaping the News Cycle Made Me Happier It turns out ignorance really can feel like bliss, though I'm still deciding whether that makes me carefree or careless. I’m Jessy, and five years ago I left my job and moved from London to Amsterdam. As a health and wellness writer with a background in broadcast journalism, I hadn’t realised how constant my exposure to news had become until I changed cities and, unintentionally, stepped away from the relentless churn of headlines. Jessica Dean Dec 5, 2025 6 min read Chup Kar, Be Quiet: Infertility as a South Asian Woman For Indian women, many expectations are placed upon us. Her hair, vaal , must be long and lustrous. She must have fair skin. Most importantly, she must bear children. The Omnipresent Evil Eye Infertility in South Asian families is considered a curse, that an evil eye is cast upon the family. Evil eye, otherwise known as nazar , holds significant cultural and spiritual importance in South Asian culture. It stems from the idea that jealousy, envy, and negative thoughts can cau Sunita Thind Dec 3, 2025 5 min read Video Games and Virtual Reality for your Mental Health My journey and why video games help My name is Michael. I am no stranger to adversity in life, as I suffer from mental illness. I have almost died from mental illness and addiction. Depression, anxiety, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder have occupied big parts of my life for decades now. There are many ways, both good and bad, that I have found to cope with my illness. After decades of struggle and through trial and error, I am continuing to seek new ways to cope with depres Michael Sylvester Nov 20, 2025 6 min read The Isolation of So-Called "High Functioning" Autism Why Functioning Labels Are Harmful The discourse around autism tends to be typified by extremes. On one end is a child with severe social difficulties, sensory processing issues, and intellectual disability. On the other end of the spectrum is the popular conception of the eccentric savant. The person who —while odd, off-putting, and often seen as less than worthy— makes up for these perceived negative traits by being so good at one particular thing that their genius is seen Kelsey Nichols Nov 12, 2025 5 min read Dig: A Story About Dermatillomania I am 17. My alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m., and I dread the next hour of my life. While most of my classmates are still asleep, I sit cross-legged in front of my full-length bedroom mirror and begin the painstaking process of covering the skin I had picked, squeezed, and cut into with cheap drugstore makeup. It’s a tedious process — camouflaging my skin so that I can hide in the hallways of my high school. I want to be invisible. Melissa Persling Nov 7, 2025 5 min read He Took His Life, and It Changed Mine Grief, Guilt, and the Aftermath of Suicide Trigger Warning: The following article discusses suicide, which readers may find distressing. For over a decade I lived and worked across Europe in the travel industry, from summer campsites to snowy ski resorts. I took on many different roles from tour guide to resort manager, met people from all over the world and absorbed the richness of different cultures. Those years shaped who I am and gave me a love of people’s stories, which Robyn Doolan Oct 30, 2025 6 min read One Year After My Miscarriage: Learning How to Live Again A year ago, my world stopped. At my 12-week scan, I was told there was no heartbeat. What should’ve been the first time seeing my baby move was instead the day I learned I’d lost them weeks earlier. I remember the quiet in the ultrasound room, the cold gel on my stomach, the way the sonographer’s expression shifted before the words came. Even now, I can still feel the shock in my chest — that hollow, slow-motion moment when time folds in on itself. Tassia O'Callaghan Oct 24, 2025 5 min read The Heartbreak of Loving My Hurting Mother When I was fifteen, my room’s walls were swirls of green and yellow, which my mother had done because she knew I loved green and yellow. I had these Skull Candy headphones around my head, connected to a pretty pink phone, all gifts from my mother, and it was one of those summer afternoons when I was fast asleep. I was tired from school, fed a very generous and delicious lunch by my mother, and I was too sluggish to care. My mother walked into the room, and she found me asl Aaina Husain Oct 16, 2025 5 min read Yes, And: How Improv Helped Me Rewire My Brain After A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) From an early age I was obsessed with making people laugh. Inspired by Lucille Ball, I took every performance opportunity I could find. My elementary and middle school yearbooks are peppered with commentary by teachers and friends encouraging me to follow my dreams of acting and not to forget them when I am a famous comedian. Then, when I was in 10th grade, in the midst of rehearsals for our school musical Pippin , I was hit by a car crossing a street in Westport, Connecticut Amy Kraft Oct 8, 2025 5 min read The Body Remembers, But It’s Never Too Late to Heal I’m a 39-year-old neuroscience and psychology graduate, freshly finished with my MSc at King’s College London. My story begins in 2020,... Halima Snoussi Oct 7, 2025 5 min read From Dry Land to Death and Back Again—The Ferry from Phu Quoc The wooden pier stretched ahead in the morning sunlight, its tip a distant dot poking out against the sea. We followed the stream of backpacks single-file like a line of ants, the wind lashing choppy indigo waves against the planks as we tried to keep our balance in its energetic embrace, the snail-like homes on our backs adding extra complexity to the matter. Carla McCannon Sep 30, 2025 5 min read How I Reclaimed My Sexuality After Trauma Sexual violence invades countless lives each year, all around the world. For me, it crashed into my life numerous times in the form of childhood sexual abuse and repeated sexual assaults in my teen and adult years. Hannah Shewan Stevens Sep 26, 2025 5 min read I Hate The Phrase 'Letting The Intrusive Thoughts Win Imagine you have TikTok open on your phone, your index finger swiping up each video to get those short bursts of dopamine. You land on a... Ashika George Sep 24, 2025 5 min read Bonded by Anxiety My mind is calm; my breathing is slow and persistent; and my hands aren’t shaking. I couldn’t have said that years ago, and I most certainly would not have gotten where I am without him. My partner, Roger, was the saving grace I never saw coming, but when I needed it the most. Roger and I met by chance, through a Meetup group (a site that allows people to join groups based on personal interests and hobbies). We only spoke a few words, and it was months later before we began l Samantha Wood Sep 19, 2025 5 min read OCD, Avoidance and Reproductive Healthcare This piece is part of our series for Sexual Health Awareness Week. I’m sure nobody looks forward to their gynecology appointment, but... Megan Hunt Sep 16, 2025 5 min read The Solution to Cringe Culture is Autism 'To cringe' can be defined as ‘having an inward feeling of acute embarrassment or awkwardness.’ This is a perfectly natural human... Ashleigh Tompkins Sep 10, 2025 5 min read Reclaiming Pleasure After Medical Trauma: What No One Tells You How breast cancer treatment changed my relationship with my body—and how I'm learning to reconnect with it. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my primary focus was survival. I braced myself for the physical battle—the biopsies, the blood draws, the scans, and the surgeries. In the aftermath, grappling with post-op, post-radiation, and settling into the rhythm of daily hormone blockers, I realise there was something that I wasn’t prepared for: what comes next. Rachel LaBella Sep 9, 2025 5 min read Chronic Bladder Infections Made Me Feel Dirty, Boring, and Alone… At 21, I had a series of urinary tract infections that culminated in a bladder surgery. These infections affected me physically—the post-op pelvic floor physical therapy was brutal—but the greatest impact was on my mental health. I’m sharing my story for Sexual Health Week because most women will suffer at least one UTI in their lifetime. The first urinary tract infection I got after college never went away. Not really. The burning sensation hit on a Sunday morning. “Yep, t Haley Young Sep 8, 2025 5 min read 1 2 3 4 5

This series focuses on the 'Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind,' research programmes. Read More About the AMHDM Series The present series is one of the outcomes of a project organised by Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from EDIFY to showcase and reflect on science communication activities across a range of research programmes that were funded by the UKRI “Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind” (AMHDM) initiative. Having received an “Early Career Researchers – Networking and Knowledge Dissemination” award from UKRI, Dr Tine Opitz and her colleagues organised a mixture of training and networking activities to facilitate and enhance wider public impact from the AMHDM-funded programmes. The current article series is a collaborative project that allows ECRs and youth advisors from associated programmes to reflect on research processes, public engagement, as well as their roles and identities within their research environment. Articles: The Researcher’s Teacup: Managing Wellbeing in a Demanding Workplace For a moment, I stop taking notes. My office melts away in my periphery and the participant’s voice echoes in my head. AMHDM Series Hina Naela Mar 11, 2025 5 min read Connecting Classrooms and Research Lessons Learned for Successful School Collaborations It’s 8:30 am. The morning bell rings, signalling the start of another busy school... AMHDM Series Laura Lucas Feb 26, 2025 5 min read One Goal, Two Hats: Researching wellbeing where we live and work This article has been co-written by Jemima Dooley , Florence Sargent , and Jay Bate Sometimes when I walk across my university campus, I... AMHDM Series Jemima Dooley Feb 12, 2025 5 min read "My Thinking Has Shifted Completely" How Working with Experts by Experience Transforms Academics' Perspectives Photo by Syed Ali on Unsplash Researchers working with “experts... AMHDM Series Lauren Low Jan 29, 2025 6 min read Introducing our series on "Learnings From the Research Process" Key takeaways from organising a science communication workshop series When we think about research, we often imagine a clean laboratory... AMHDM Series Tine Opitz Jan 15, 2025 5 min read

Our magazine has been recognised several times for its global contribution to mental health, and with the help of our writers we are proud recipients of the following awards:  Awards, Features and Recommendations In this section you will find our contribution to the field of mental health through various features, awards and achievements. Read More Awards Our magazine has been recognised several times for its global contribution to mental health, and with the help of our writers we are proud recipients of the following awards: ACNP Media Award 2022 Inspire The Mind has been recognised by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, in recognition of outstanding public education leaders who provide complete, accurate, and unbiased information to our society about mental health. MHB Award 2022 Inspire The Mind has been recognised by the Mental Health Blog Awards , celebrating the effort, energy, emotion and more, put into raising awareness and supporting, signposting, explaining, educating and comforting in all things mental health related. UK Mental Health 2022 Inspire the Mind was featured as the 3rd best UK-wide mental health website and magazine on Feedspot, ranked by traffic, social media, domain authority and freshness. We have been recognised against thousands of other UK websites and blogs within the mental health field. Features and Recognition Angela M. "It is just about the most meaningful thing that I have achieved in the past seven years! Your editing was great - thank you for taking so much care with it all." Brian W. "What I like about these articles and podcasts is that they are easy to understand what is a complex subject, particularly for someone who knows nothing about it." Elahe A. "Thank you for all your hard work for mental health, and for educating ordinary people through different medias. "

Read More A new opportunity at King's College London! Our new MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface will educate and inspire students in a unique way that integrates theoretical and practical knowledge on both the psychology and the neuroscience underlying brain/mind processes, and their connection with physical symptoms. The course has been developed so that you will gain both a theoretical and practical understanding of the interaction between psychological processes, the nervous system, and the stress and immune system. It will focus on both the clinical and molecular mechanisms of the brain and the mind in the context of mental health disorders, as well as on their interaction with body disorders and their underlying mechanisms, which in turns influence and are influenced by the brain/mind. If you choose this course, you will be primarily based at the IoPPN , a flourishing and expanding faculty within King’s College London, with the opportunity to carry out a placement at Inspire the Mind. The IoPPN is ranked 2nd in the world for psychology and psychiatry (US News, Best Global Universities), and it is home to one of the world's largest centres for mental health and neuroscience research. Articles: The Mind-Body-Science of Canine Co-regulation When I was a child, I used to get ill quite often. On those days, while my friends were at school, I stayed at my grandparents’ house, wrapped in blankets, watching TV, feeling miserable in that specific way only children with a fever can. But I was never alone: My grandparents’ dog, Flora, would quietly sit beside me, her head resting on my lap as if she understood exactly what I needed. Somehow, I always felt better. Mind-Body Interface Caroline Lackner 23 hours ago 5 min read Becoming: Restarting Life at 30 How I reclaimed my dreams, redefined success, and found myself again 25/5/25 - A date so precise it feels like destiny carved it into the calendar just for me. Not merely for its symmetry, but because it marks the beginning of a life I chose, a life I built, a self I reclaimed. But let’s rewind. On my 29th birthday, I had a startling realisation: for nearly a decade, I had been drifting - floating through my twenties on autopilot, letting life happen to me instead Mind-Body Interface Razan Ghalayini Jul 24, 2025 4 min read Are you interested in how our mind and body are connected? The Mind-Body Interface MSc is the perfect course for you! My journey getting on the course After my undergraduate studies as a... Mind-Body Interface Emanuela Kwokal Apr 17, 2025 5 min read Can our brain be treated separately from our body? Can our brain be treated separately from our body? The current piece is written by Dr Naghmeh Nikkheslat, who together with Professor... Mind-Body Interface Naghmeh Nikkheslat Jul 30, 2024 4 min read The Whole Picture: Integrating Mental and Physical Health Our new MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface offered by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at... Mind-Body Interface Giulia Lombardo Jul 2, 2024 4 min read Is our blood at the core of the mind-body interface? Our new MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface offered by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at... Mind-Body Interface Carmine Pariante May 16, 2024 5 min read Career prospects after finishing an MSc course in Psychology What are my career prospects after finishing an MSc course in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface? The new MSc in... Mind-Body Interface Alessandra Borsini Dec 20, 2023 4 min read Mind and Body, constantly interacting: What do they say to each other? Our new MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface offered by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at... Mind-Body Interface Alessandra Borsini Nov 15, 2023 6 min read

Our Short Stories: The Teacher and The Mother — A Short Story A typical workday brings many common thoughts and emotions for an adult. Sometimes, you’ll think ungenerous, intrusive thoughts about the people you interact with. Sometimes, random waves of anxiety will attack you when you’re just performing an everyday task. And you are always, always fatigued, by your professional work and by societal changes outside of your control. My Teacher is an ordinary adult just trying to get through the day. Emily Zarevich 6 days ago 5 min read Day After Day — A Short Story Celine’s day was the same, come rain or shine. It helped that she never really knew what the weather was, but that was beside the point. As soon as she got her heart to stop palpitating after her alarm clock woke her up, she got up, brushed her hair, cleaned her teeth, got dressed nicely, just in case she met somebody new or got hit by a car, and then sat in her living room. She managed to ignore the postman’s knocking by keeping her curtains closed. Chloe Smith Jan 30 11 min read Who Art in Heaven – A Short Story Casey Mattocks doesn’t remember the last time that her hands were clean, but she remembers the first time she told someone that they were dirty. Anna Lewis Nov 28, 2025 8 min read Tongue Tied — A Short Story Work karaoke was his idea of hell, to be honest, though Matt strung along for the free bar. He sipped his pint too swiftly as he propped up against a faux marble pillar, watching his colleagues mingle while an analytics guy in Digital massacred I’d Do Anything for Love by Meatloaf. Third beer, already. Gonna be p****d at this rate. Nice view, though. The company had gone large for the anniversary and hired out a Kensington hotel, rooftop venue, windows framing Harrods in the Patrick Cash Oct 31, 2025 12 min read The Quiet Room: A Short Story Author’s Note: My name is Dave Brennan, and I am a writer and mental health professional based in the United States. I live with my own... Dave Brennan Oct 3, 2025 6 min read The Neural Highway – A Short Story Image source: Bhautik Patel on Unsplash On most Monday mornings, the parking lots buzzed with a certain vigor. They chattered about all... Gargi Mehra Jul 25, 2025 5 min read What's Left Behind—A Short Story Callum sighed as he pulled open another stiff drawer to be greeted by another cloud of dust. ‘More personal belongings…’ he muttered to... Chloe Smith Jun 27, 2025 11 min read Football Forever — A Short Story Henry's dad used to love football. That's how it always used to be. Growing up, Henry spent more time in stadiums, breathing the cool air around him as he watched with anticipation the ball fly around the pitch, his dad's rough hand in his, than he did in his own room. In his own house. Or, that's how it felt, anyway. And he never once complained—why would he? Chloe Smith Jun 2, 2025 9 min read Invisible Strings - A Short Story When William and Benjamin met, it was the first week of first grade at Play Elementary School, the perfect picture of a cliché American suburban school. Ayah Al-Masyabi Apr 25, 2025 12 min read A Familiar Stranger at a Funeral She leans her hand on the grey sandpaper wall, balancing out of her trainers and into black pumps. She only ever wears them to job Rua Crozier-Khell Mar 28, 2025 5 min read 1 2 3