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I’m passionate about raising awareness of mental health issues. It’s especially important to me to discuss the issues those of us who cannot afford frequent private therapy face, to highlight how inaccessible the mental health services can be, and why those of us suffering need more. Read Now Meet Hattie Gladwell I’m a freelance journalist specialising in mental health issues. I worked for Metro.co.uk for five years before going fully freelance in June 2020, following the birth of my first child. I’m passionate about raising awareness of mental health issues, as someone who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 20, and later borderline personality disorder and OCD. It’s especially important to me to discuss the issues those of us who cannot afford frequent private therapy face, to highlight how inaccessible the mental health services can be, and why those of us suffering need more. Ultimately, I want to make a difference in how mental illness is talked about today. How music has been my escapism since the age of six Throughout the ups and downs of my life, there has been one constant: music. It’s something that I’ve been doing ever since I was little.... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jan 10, 2022 3 min read It’s okay to take a step back when you need to I’m writing this for anyone who is currently overwhelmed or feeling like they need to take a step back. From anything. From the internet,... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Aug 25, 2021 3 min read I'm tired of feeling guilty for being a working mother I’m tired of feeling guilty for being a working mother. It’s something I’ve been dealing with for a long time, ever since I got back to... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Aug 2, 2021 3 min read Things you should remember when writing a personal essay I’ve been writing personal essays ever since I first entered the world of journalism. Personal essays are pieces I enjoy writing, because... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jul 26, 2021 4 min read Anxiety disorders aren't 'lesser than' other mental health conditions - let's stop with the stigma Trigger warning: The blog contains mentions of suicidal ideation, which some readers may find distressing. I was diagnosed with bipolar... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jul 19, 2021 3 min read Why I'm boycotting Love Island this year - and every year after I used to love Love Island. I remember discovering it at season two, and binge-watched the whole of series one just so that I was caught... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jul 12, 2021 3 min read I miss who I was before inflammatory bowel disease I was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease in 2015. Ulcerative colitis, to be precise, which is a form of IBD that causes severe... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jul 7, 2021 4 min read What I want you to know about living with postpartum OCD When I got pregnant, my whole life turned around. I was feeling as healthy as I’d ever been, despite a diagnosis of gestational diabetes... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jun 28, 2021 5 min read Is it okay not to be body confident all the time? It’s 2021, and finally, people are loving their bodies, exploring being body positive, and sharing that self-love advice with other... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jun 21, 2021 3 min read It's time to put down the pen and say goodbye to journalism - for now I have been a journalist since I was 17 years old. I’m nearly 26. So, that’s a long time for someone who’s still young. It started with... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jun 17, 2021 3 min read Please don't ask me about my self-harm scars this summer Trigger warning: The following column contains discussions on self-harm, which some readers may find distressing. I self-harmed for... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jun 17, 2021 3 min read I'm tired of people telling me to go and get therapy - it's not that simple I’m tired of people telling me to get therapy. There, I said it. This might sound odd. Surely, people are trying to help, right? They’re... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jun 14, 2021 3 min read You don't need the validation of others to have a mental health issue Many people are scared to speak up about their mental illness. Perhaps it’s because they haven’t processed the fact that they have a... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell May 24, 2021 4 min read The conversation around mental health issues needs to go beyond self-care and wellness “It doesn’t matter, we all know what we’re getting at”, I see strangers say online as they discuss the difference between mental health... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell May 17, 2021 3 min read 8 first steps to take if you think you have postnatal depression I was diagnosed with postnatal depression six months after having a baby. It took this long because I didn’t open up about it until this... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell May 10, 2021 5 min read What I wish people knew about living with both a chronic illness and a mental illness My mental health issues started when I was young. When I was four years old, I experienced seeing things that were not there, and hearing... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell May 4, 2021 4 min read Why I choose to write about my mental health publicly When I first started writing about my experience with mental illness, the world of mental health in media felt quiet. Of course, there... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell May 3, 2021 3 min read My baby starts daycare soon - here's why it makes me worry In two weeks, my baby goes to daycare for the first time. He’s already one, and in his little life so far he has only met one other... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Apr 27, 2021 3 min read My son saved my mental health, in more ways than one Before I had my child, I was a different person. Not just in the sense that well, I didn’t have a child, but in the sense that since, my... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Apr 26, 2021 4 min read An open letter to anyone experiencing distressing intrusive thoughts Intrusive thoughts are a normal part of life. Unfortunately, everyone has them. Maybe you’ve been standing on a train platform and had a... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Apr 19, 2021 4 min read Why I will raise my child to be understanding of mental health issues When I was growing up, I was brought up to understand, and to be understanding of mental health issues. My mum has bipolar disorder, and... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Apr 13, 2021 3 min read Why writing a to-do list is a brilliant form of self-care Yesterday, I shared a tweet talking about how I add things to my to-do list having already done them, just for the satisfaction of being... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Apr 6, 2021 3 min read Why I'm finally opening up about my binge eating disorder I was very unwell with bulimia nervosa as a teenager. I felt insignificant next to my friends. I received comments on the size of my legs... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Mar 29, 2021 4 min read Why suicidal ideation needs to be taken seriously I remember sitting on my sofa in front of the television gazing past the screen. I wasn’t myself. I’d been feeling very low, and had been... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Mar 22, 2021 5 min read How to write about your mental health without traumatising yourself I’ve been a mental health writer for nearly eight years now. It’s something I enjoy writing about, and it’s something I know how to write... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Mar 16, 2021 4 min read Covid-19 has made leaving the house impossible - but I am trying I’ve always been someone who loves going out. To events with friends, for sleepovers, out shopping, clubbing, you name it. I was... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Mar 12, 2021 4 min read What I learned by taking a three-month break from social media I open up my Twitter app, take a look through my timeline for the last time, and click ‘Deactivate Twitter’. My relationship with the... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Mar 7, 2021 3 min read Yes, I enjoy walks - but I take medication to help me live with mental illness I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was 20. Ever since, I have heard plenty of generic comments about what to do about it. I’ve... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Mar 2, 2021 3 min read Why I decided to become a writer - and continued to do so after becoming a mum I was 14 years old when I decided I wanted to become a writer. I took media studies as one of my subjects for GCSE, and I remember my... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Feb 22, 2021 4 min read Being a working mother made me feel like a failure - now I realise it was postnatal depression When I was pregnant with my son, I turned to online baby groups and motherhood websites for support and to learn what I was in for when... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Feb 8, 2021 3 min read Mental health services are failing the working class Telling people to ‘speak up’ and ‘be kind’ on social media isn’t going to change the fact that mental health services are failing the... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladwell DUPLICATE Oct 13, 2020 5 min read

Inspire the Mind has the pleasure of working with established writers, who's columns and series are displayed in this section.  Columns and Series Inspire the Mind has the pleasure of working with established writers, who's columns and series are displayed in this section. Read Now Our Columns AMHDM - Adolescent Mental Health Read More 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 The Perinatal Journey Read More Children’s Tantrums: What they really are and what we can do A few months ago, while walking home, I heard a child screaming about not wanting to leave the playground. The parents were also... The Perinatal Journey Alessandra Biaggi Aug 22, 2024 6 min read Breaking the intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment From maternal childhood maltreatment to children’s emotional-behavioural problems: what can be done to break the link I have written this... The Perinatal Journey Alessandra Biaggi May 17, 2024 5 min read Children’s play: It's more serious than you think Play is a very serious activity for children, and is, as the Italian physician and educator, Maria Montessori, said, the work of the... The Perinatal Journey Alessandra Biaggi Feb 28, 2024 6 min read Behind the Science Read More How does our brain understand the passing of time? Joe Paton, head of the Learning Lab at the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, has been researching the neurological principles by which... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Oct 26, 2023 5 min read How the brain memorizes mundane events An interview with Zachariah Reagh, a brain scientist at Washington University. Do you remember what you did on this day six months ago?... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Sep 28, 2023 9 min read Is there a link between personality and cognitive abilities? This new meta-analysis gets to the bottom of the question. A new, exhaustive study published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Aug 24, 2023 9 min read Creativity and Balance Read More 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 Rachel Kelly's Column Read More How Parents Can Talk to Their Teenagers About Sex and Pornography Dads, what would you say in a letter to your sons? The Adolescence star Stephen Graham recently called on fathers to share messages to their sons for a new book call ‘Letters to Our Sons’. Photo from Bloomsbury Publishing An ongoing national conversation promoted by this psychological crime drama about a 13-year-old who is arrested for the murder of his female classmate continues. Much of that conversation has been about bullying, toxic masculinity - a term for stereotypi Rachel Kelly Column Rachel Kelly Nov 6, 2025 4 min read Helping teenagers make friends and build supportive relationships When Prince Harry gave an impromptu speech last week at the Diana Award in central London, he talked of the loneliness that many young people experience, describing how they could feel isolated if “lost and separated from a group.” Research also confirms that young people are experiencing high rates of loneliness, often at higher levels than older age groups. A large review identified loneliness as peaking between ages 18 and 29, with one in three young adults reporting f Rachel Kelly Column Rachel Kelly Oct 2, 2025 5 min read Drinking Culture Among Young People Good news! Young people in general are drinking less than older generations did and still do: around one-quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds don’t drink at all, compared with just over one-fifth of the broader adult population. Rachel Kelly Column Rachel Kelly Sep 5, 2025 5 min read Hattie Gladwell Column Read More How music has been my escapism since the age of six Throughout the ups and downs of my life, there has been one constant: music. It’s something that I’ve been doing ever since I was little.... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Jan 10, 2022 3 min read It’s okay to take a step back when you need to I’m writing this for anyone who is currently overwhelmed or feeling like they need to take a step back. From anything. From the internet,... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Aug 25, 2021 3 min read I'm tired of feeling guilty for being a working mother I’m tired of feeling guilty for being a working mother. It’s something I’ve been dealing with for a long time, ever since I got back to... The Hattie Gladwell Column Hattie Gladewell Aug 2, 2021 3 min read Our Series Maternal Mental Health Read More Mum Brain or Mental Over-Load? For decades, the concept of ‘Mum Brain’ has been synonymous with the experience of motherhood. It’s almost a rite of passage to experience the memory loss and brain fog of pregnancy and the postpartum period (also called Pregnancy Brain, Baby Brain, Mummy Brain, Mumnesia). But what if Mum Brain had more to do with the mental load of motherhood, namely the cognitive and emotional labour that primarily falls on mothers, and less to do with mum brains? I’m a neuroscientist wh Science & Research Jodi Pawluski Jul 17, 2025 5 min read Breaking the intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment From maternal childhood maltreatment to children’s emotional-behavioural problems: what can be done to break the link I have written this... The Perinatal Journey Alessandra Biaggi May 17, 2024 5 min read After the Storm: Supporting Maternal Mental Health This is the last blog of our Maternal Mental Health series. For the last six weeks, dear reader, we have discussed the often... Maternal Mental Health Jodi Pawluski Nov 9, 2022 4 min read Fatherhood & Men's Mental Health Read More Transforming the Narrative on Fatherhood and Mental Health I’m William Nicholson, a dad of 3 and an activist for social and systems change. I’m passionate about supporting health and wellbeing... Fatherhood and Mental Health Wiliam Nicholson Nov 19, 2021 5 min read 'Who's the real Dad?' Two-Father Families and Surrogacy Any parent can experience mental health difficulties in the perinatal period (from conception to one year following birth), regardless of... Fatherhood and Mental Health Zoe Darwin Nov 11, 2021 6 min read Struggles with 'Imposter Dad' Syndrome I’m Michael and I’m married to Wes. We met by complete chance in June 2012 at Birmingham Pride no less, both single and not looking for a... Fatherhood and Mental Health Michael Johnson-Ellis Nov 10, 2021 7 min read Psych Stars Read More 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

Behind-the-scenes insights into mental health research, written by scientists and academics on the studies that are making the headlines and shaping the field of psychiatry and psychology. Our Articles on: Read Now 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. Ellen Jopling 4 minutes 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 Ieva Andrulyte 2 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 Jack Cunningham Feb 26 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. Riddhi Laijawala Feb 20 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 Lucia Maggioni Feb 18 4 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. 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. Menagaa Sarvananthalingam Feb 4 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 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 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 Ayeshah Mateen Allahwala Jan 14 6 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. Adam Filan Jan 12 4 min read The Psychology of Deception in The Traitors On ‘The Traitors UK’, an award-winning reality TV competition, strangers trust and betray one another for the chance to win up to £120,000 (and one more day in the presence of Claudia Winkleman’s fringe). There may be no official strategy for winning, but the players who last longest all seem to understand one thing: psychology. Patrycia Gaszczyk Jan 8 5 min read Dementia, families and carers' wellbeing during the Holiday period Dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects the brain and causes issues with memory, behaviour, emotions, and communication. The most common form is Alzheimer’s disease, which is characterised by a slow decline in cognitive and motor functioning, with symptoms including trouble concentrating, finding the right words to communicate, issues with remembering events, people and places, and controlling movements. Many individuals also experience secondary me Heidi Kneeshaw Jan 7 5 min read Shifting Skills, Not Reality: Teens and AI Chatbots I will shift. Two teenagers scribbled this same line repeatedly in their journals. Both later died by suicide after extensive interactions with Character.AI chatbots Rona Hiley-Mann Dec 16, 2025 5 min read The Rhythm Within: How Circadian Timing Matters for Health and Mood The first time I heard about circadian rhythms was in my high school biology class. I remember breezing past the term, memorising that “circadian rhythms = sleep-wake cycles,” and not thinking much more about it. That is, until I started to study them in graduate school. Kiersten Bell Dec 11, 2025 5 min read Federated Learning Analysis: Revolutionising global research data I am a mental health researcher working on the HappyMums project, a European consortium that focuses on understanding depression in pregnancy. At King’s College London, we are leading a clinical study involving the use of a smartphone application, called the HappyMums App. Since the start of our project, much of our discussions have been about privacy and data sharing. The idea of having a large-scale dataset encompassing a thousand participants, across seven different sites Riddhi Laijawala Dec 10, 2025 5 min read Does Alcohol Become More Harmful As We Age? When we think about individuals who are likely to consume alcohol in large quantities, we often think about college-aged students or middle-aged adults. However, one important age group is often overlooked: older adults. Alcohol consumption in this group, specifically among individuals aged 60 years and over, is increasing at a faster rate than previous generations, raising concerns about the health consequences of alcohol use in ageing populations. Alexis Campanile Dec 9, 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 Should Men and Women with Psychosis Be Treated Equally? More than a century ago, psychiatrists spoke of ‘climacteric insanity’: the strange and sudden madness said to strike women at the end of their reproductive years. Physicians in the late 19th century described vivid delusions, sleeplessness, and emotional turmoil appearing ‘at the change of life’, when the female body ‘lost its balance’. Bodyl Brand Nov 27, 2025 5 min read Psychiatry and Human Nature I am a psychiatrist with a long interest in researching topics like mental capacity, that lie in the borderlands between psychological medicine, ethics, and law. In this context, I do something unusual for a psychiatry professor: I teach psychiatry in a law school. Professor Gareth Owen Nov 26, 2025 5 min read What My First Week in Psychiatry Taught Me About Mental Health Bias On a Sunday evening in August this year, I was on my first on-call shift as a trainee psychiatrist in a leafy psychiatric hospital. After a day of walking between old buildings which had been converted into wards, tending to patients’ mental and physical health needs, I decided to have dinner on the grounds. Triya Chakravorty Nov 19, 2025 4 min read Can Technology Help Detect Emotion Dysregulation in Young People? In mental health services, clinicians write thousands of notes every day. These records capture the details of people’s lives: how they feel, what they struggle with and how they respond to treatment. Hidden within these words is an enormous amount of knowledge about mental health but most of it has never been analysed in a systematic way. Asilay Seker Nov 14, 2025 5 min read Decoding Depression Depression is a complex condition. We know its symptoms well, but we still do not fully understand what happens in the body when someone is depressed. Also, not all individuals with depression are the same, and this diversity may arise from differences in biology – the many bodily processes that constantly shape the way we are and behave. Luca Sforzini Nov 11, 2025 4 min read Speaking Across Lines: Young People Shaping Mental Health Research I am a current PhD student at UCL and Research Fellow with the UK Trauma Council. I was previously a Research Assistant working on the Adolescence Mental Health and the Developing Mind (AMHDM) ReThink Programme. My work explores how experiences of early adversity (especially care experience) shape mental health, and how research can meaningfully involve those it aims to serve. I wrote this blog to reflect on the "Adolescence, mental health and the developing mind" (AMHD) “Spe Tara Ramsay-Patel Nov 4, 2025 5 min read Understanding who benefits from antidepressants Why is the use of antidepressants so controversial, and how could we prescribe them more effectively? This question is a priority in my research at King’s College London, where I work as professor of statistical genetics. My academic background is in statistics, and I am passionate about using genetics to improve the diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions. Together with people with lived experience of depression, my research team integrates clinical and biologic Cathryn Lewis Oct 29, 2025 4 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 The Default Mode Network and Its Relationship with Consciousness My name is Pierrette, and I am a Master's student studying Neuroscience at King's College London. A few months ago, I was introduced to the concept of the brain's "dark energy" during a lecture on neuroimaging. Deeply interested in this topic, I began to wonder about the origin and nature of consciousness and questioned whether the awareness of oneself resides in the body, or if our mind and body are two separate entities that converge to make us human. Photo by Shawn Day on Pierrette Fortuna Oct 23, 2025 4 min read Caring for Women with First Episode Psychosis First Episode Psychosis (FEP) refers to the first experience of psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions. I am a final-year psychiatry trainee with a long-standing interest in both FEP and gender-specific medicine, now working in a specialized early intervention service in Northern Italy. Alice Onofrio Oct 22, 2025 5 min read Mind the Gaps: Involving Diverse Young People in Mental Health Research Why are some young people still missing from mental health research and what can we do to change that? Hi, I’m Rachel Perowne, a PhD researcher and I’m passionate about making youth mental health research more inclusive. I believe that the best way to achieve this is to involve young people in a meaningful way in the research process. Together with my supervisors and colleagues, including three young co-researchers, I recently published a systematic review exploring the barr Rachel Perowne Oct 21, 2025 5 min read How Cells Learn to Listen: Unlocking the Rules of Early Life Every human being begins life as a single cell. That cell divides, multiplies, and transforms into many different types of cells — muscle, nerve, skin, blood, bone, and so on — until, somehow, a complete body emerges. But this transformation raises one of biology’s oldest and most fascinating questions: how do cells know what to become? Charlotte Colle Oct 17, 2025 6 min read 1 2 3 4 5

Mental health perspectives on society and world news, exploring how global events, social change, and public discourse impact personal wellbeing. Our Articles on: Read Now 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 The Psychology of Deception in The Traitors On ‘The Traitors UK’, an award-winning reality TV competition, strangers trust and betray one another for the chance to win up to £120,000 (and one more day in the presence of Claudia Winkleman’s fringe). There may be no official strategy for winning, but the players who last longest all seem to understand one thing: psychology. Patrycia Gaszczyk Jan 8 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 Challenging Stigma and Scepticism in the UK’s Mental Health Crisis Britain faces a growing mental health crisis, yet the narrative increasingly blames individuals rather than the conditions that shape their lives. Anna Todd Dec 17, 2025 5 min read Shifting Skills, Not Reality: Teens and AI Chatbots I will shift. Two teenagers scribbled this same line repeatedly in their journals. Both later died by suicide after extensive interactions with Character.AI chatbots Rona Hiley-Mann Dec 16, 2025 5 min read Becoming a mother while watching the genocide of children in Gaza As I mother my own small children in the UK, I can’t help but think of mothers and children in Gaza. Like thousands of others worldwide, I have been watching the genocide in Gaza unfold over the last two years, literally live-streamed to us through civilians on the ground, from their phones to ours. Watching the most horrific war crimes in real time has been both deeply surreal and gut-wrenching. No human being should have to endure what the citizens of Gaza have, no matt Sapphire Allard Nov 25, 2025 5 min read Afghanistan's Press conference in India failed to pass the feminist check On 10th October, 2025, the Afghan Embassy hosted a forum with Afghanistan’s Foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi, India. The embassy had invited over sixteen journalists, and not a single one of them was a woman, let alone a woman from intersectional identities. In the forum, it was observed by other journalists, how women and foreign media were turned away from the gate of the embassy, and has been widely discussed in the media. As a young woman journalist, ba Varisha Tariq Nov 21, 2025 5 min read When Borders Keep Shifting Do you ever think about why you were born where you were born? I was born in France because a border opened. When France granted Tunisia independence in March of 1956, my father crossed the Mediterranean sea along with thousands of others, carrying with him a language, a faith, a culture, and a hope that the new world would be gentler. That decision between a man seeking opportunity and a nation opening its borders shaped my existence before I ever took my first breath. Halima Snoussi Nov 18, 2025 5 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 I’m Russian and War in Ukraine Made Me Mentally Ill I’m a Paris-based Russian reporter, and for more than three years I have been covering anti-war resistance in my country. At this point, I should be used to the war in Ukraine. But when I recently met a Ukrainian artist at a party, something strange happened. I introduced myself to him in English. But since many people from post-Soviet countries in the room were speaking Russian (which is our common language), he asked: “Do you speak Russian?”. “Yes,” I responded. Alexandra Domenech Nov 13, 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 Racism, Violence, and Belonging in Britain Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault and violence which some readers may find distressing. On Tuesday 9 th ... Samrina K Sangha Sep 17, 2025 6 min read Introducing the Power of Synthetic Memories to our Lives It is in our human nature to forget details of the past, especially as we grow older; memories from our childhood become less vivid. Many... Layecha Fidahoussen Jul 29, 2025 5 min read Forced Motherhood: The Cost of Abortion Bans In my opinion, pregnancy and motherhood can be a profound and beautiful experience. The ability to nurture and bring a new life into the... Samrina K Sangha Jun 30, 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 The Dangerous Allure of #SkinnyTok: Why we need to talk about it Looking forward to a sweet treat or getting excited for lunch is something I’m sure many can relate to. But with the new #SkinnyTok trend sweeping across TikTok, this normal hunger and interest in food is now being shamed. Creators, and the algorithm, are now pushing toxic mantras like “If your stomach is growling, pretend it's applauding you” and “You don’t need a treat, you’re not a dog”. Maddy Kirkpatrick May 15, 2025 5 min read How women in Indian Kashmir confront mental health crisis and stigma In the snow-covered villages of Indian-controlled Kashmir, women have silently shouldered the burden of mental illness for years, their pain hidden beneath the rigid customs and traditions that have shaped their lives. Mental illness in Kashmir has often been misdiagnosed, with symptoms frequently attributed to other health issues, mainly gastrointestinal or cardiovascular problems. Many people in the Himalayan valley, “known as paradise on earth,” also believe that anxi Irfan Amin Malik May 2, 2025 6 min read The Growth of Hyper-individualism in Western Society A rather shocking discourse which has been appearing on my social media feed recently is, “Would you pick your friend up from the... Sara Soltanpour Apr 22, 2025 4 min read Ensuring Real Choice in End-of-Life Care Why Should Improvements in Palliative and Social Care Be an Integral Part of the Assisted Dying Legislation in the UK? Trigger warning:... Francesca Mancino Apr 8, 2025 5 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 Two Perspectives on One War Perspective I: The Distance of Fear On October 7, 2023, I was in New York. Autumn was settling into the city with a kind of effortless... Ruwan Teodros Apr 2, 2025 4 min read Young cancer survivors on the impact of cancer fakers A hard pill to swallow Upon being confirmed to have cancer, you realise that so much of it is physical. Which is a hard pill to swallow,... Ellie Philpotts Mar 20, 2025 5 min read 2025: The end of the Doomscroll Era? Predicting the future is hard. There’s no secret about it. We so often hear about trends, stock market changes, and big business... Lea Schmid Feb 27, 2025 5 min read Is the Media's Advocacy for Women's Freedom Just an Illusion? Trigger warning: This article contains discussions on sexual assault and violence, and some readers may find it distressing. Doctor... Huda Azaam Feb 20, 2025 6 min read Perfect World — Let's Talk About It Perfect World, a project to change the world. My name is Nico, I am 23 years old and to put it simply, I have lived a life of privilege... Nicholas Freitag Feb 6, 2025 4 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 What Trump's Second Term Means for Women's Health Predator, President, Policymaker. TW: this article references sexual assault, pregnancy trauma and medical trauma Donald Trump at an... Sorcha Alford Jan 20, 2025 4 min read Can banning surrogacy really protect human rights? A Perspective on the Criminalisation of Procreative Tourism in Italy ‘Italy criminalises citizens who go abroad to have children through... Francesca Mancino Dec 12, 2024 5 min read How Forensic Psychology Shaped Two Infamous Cases Whilst most children grew up watching CBBC or Disney Channel on the TV, my dinners were often spent immersed in shows like Criminal Minds... Suvi Pushpakanthan Dec 4, 2024 5 min read Unemployment and Mental Health in Nigeria: a Sociological Account As a young Nigerian, I have always wanted to understand human behavioural patterns and societal trends. This curiosity for human... Ndubuaku Kanayo Nov 21, 2024 5 min read 1 2 3 4 5

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Read More What is Behind the Science Behind The Science is all about the behind-the-scenes of scientific research in the field of mental health. We’ll be interviewing scientists and academics about the studies that are making the headlines this week, the research they’ve dedicated their whole lives to, and the experiments that might change the world of psychiatry and psychology as we know it. Articles How does our brain understand the passing of time? Joe Paton, head of the Learning Lab at the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, has been researching the neurological principles by which... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Oct 26, 2023 5 min read How the brain memorizes mundane events An interview with Zachariah Reagh, a brain scientist at Washington University. Do you remember what you did on this day six months ago?... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Sep 28, 2023 9 min read Is there a link between personality and cognitive abilities? This new meta-analysis gets to the bottom of the question. A new, exhaustive study published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Aug 24, 2023 9 min read Racism damages black pregnant women’s mental health, Covid-19 made it even worse. This scientist is figuring out how to avoid their children also suffering the consequences. A growing body of research suggests that... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Jun 27, 2023 6 min read Scientists just figured out how to grow electrodes inside living organisms A chat with scientists Roger Olsson and Magnus Berggren We might all remember, from our elementary school science class, how to make a... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia May 24, 2023 7 min read These four genes could be culpable for suicidal thoughts and feelings An interview with genetic epidemiologist Dr. Ashley-Koch about which genes are correlated with suicidal behaviours and why learning about... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Mar 22, 2023 5 min read An Interview with Neurovariability Expert Stephanie Forkel A interview about the Science special issue on brain connectivity In the morgue. That’s where Stephanie Forkel, a researcher whose work... Behind the Science Column Sofia Quaglia Mar 1, 2023 6 min read Behind the Science - A column introduction Behind the Science with Sofia Quaglia. Sofia and I first met in October of 2022 via Zoom. She had interviewed Carmine, Inspire the Mind... Behind the Science Column Lea Schmid Feb 21, 2023 3 min read

Join three mental health researchers from King's College London! At The Back of Your Mind is a podcast chat about all things mental health, from lived experience to exciting new research and everything in between. Find and listen to your NEW favourite podcast! Join three mental health researchers from King's College London! At The Back of Your Mind is a podcast brought to you by the team behind the Inspire the Mind blog. Maryam , Juliette and Carolina chat about all things mental health, from lived experience to exciting new research and everything in between. Hear new and different perspectives from special guests, including clinicians, researchers, professionals, artists and many more. Get a taster: Transcripts: For an easy read-along experience, click on the following documents. New transcripts for new episodes will be added shortly... Season 1: Trailer S01E01 S01E02 S01E03 S01E04 S01E05 S01E06 S01E07

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