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 Is it the End of the Bad Boy? Take one look at me, and you can probably tell I had an emo phase (“it was never a phase mom”). To this day, I’m still allergic to wearing colour and can be found listening to the 2000s emo and pop punk bands that brought me comfort in my teens. But, at this point, I’m starting to run out of bands to listen to that haven’t had serious allegations made against them. I’m only 30, but so much has progressed since my school days - gay marriage has been legalised, Black Lives Ma Niamh Alford Aug 13 5 min read Could Andy Burnham Be Britain’s First Mental Health Focused PM? Last month, we welcomed Britain’s seventh prime minister in just 10 years. The UK Government amusingly announced Andy Burnham’s arrival with a TikTok video of him entering No. 10, set to the Love Island audio: “A new bombshell has entered the villa.” And he has certainly caused a stir. In the two weeks since coming to power, Burnham has set several major policies in motion, spanning regional devolution, the nationalisation of public services, and efforts to tackle social Sorcha Alford Aug 7 5 min read Ariana Grande: Me and My Truth, We Sit in Silence I vividly remember the 22nd of May 2017. I was 17 years old, on vacation in Italy, and getting ready for the evening. My dad read out breaking news of a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, after an Ariana Grande concert. Every concert since, as an adult who lives with anxiety, I get incredibly uncomfortable leaving concert venues due to this fear. But this piece isn’t about me. It’s about Ariana Grande. On top of the deadly terrorist attack, she experienced the death o Riddhi Laijawala Aug 6 5 min read Finding Unity in a Divided World Cup With the World Cup having finished, I want to reflect on how it has given me hope in a world that has become increasingly bleak. As a researcher, my day involves independent lab work, often just me and the data. That’s exactly why I’m drawn to watching sports outside of work. The camaraderie feels like the perfect counterbalance. I love the World Cup for how it brings everyone in and fosters a sense of community in a way that few things still do. Nuriza Tukiran Jul 20 5 min read On the Lebanon War, Mental Health, and my Diaspora Experience I’m sure many of you have been following the war between the US and Iran, have seen the headlines of escalations between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Middle East, and are starting to feel some of the implications this war is having on the world. I previously wrote a piece covering my experiences at the beginning of the war in the UAE. Now, I am sharing my perspective again, but this time with a focus on my mother country, Lebanon. Lynne Kabbara Jun 3 5 min read The War with Iran: A Perspective from a Gulf State Migrant As one of the thousands of Levantine migrants (originating from the Levant region, including the countries of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan etc.) whose families are now in the Gulf in pursuit of a better life, my world shattered the morning of the 28th of February. I had returned home from my studies in the UK for a quick visit with my family and to attend a family event. That morning, my mother woke me up claiming the war had started. “What war?” I asked, certain that my Lynne Kabbara Mar 9 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 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 The Troubling Impact of Trump's Health and Science Policies As an American living in England, working in health and science research for the past 7 years, I've observed from across the Atlantic how my home country's immense potential is often overshadowed by policies that seem to harm rather than help its citizens. Anonymous Apr 10, 2025 5 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 1 2 3 4 5

In each video interview, Rachel sits down for an hour-long chat with some fantastic figures in the world of mental health advocacy, who have made significant impact in the broader field through their ongoing research and activism. Read Now Meet Rachel Kelly Rachel Kelly is a keynote speaker, bestselling writer and mental health advocate. She shares her experience of depression and evidence-based strategies that helped her recover. Rachel has spoken all over the world from Delhi to Sydney, America and across the UK. Her four critically acclaimed books are published in over 10 countries. Rachel is a well-known media commentator and former Times journalist. She is an official ambassador for mental health charities Rethink Mental Illness , SANE and The Counselling Foundation as well as Head Talks . Rachel is a member of the Speakers Collective , a network of quality assured public speakers, and an affiliate of King’s College London for her work on mental health awareness and as host of the Inspire the Mind interviews. Rachel Kelly's ITM Interview Series What is it? In each video interview , Rachel sits down for an hour-long chat with some fantastic figures in the world of mental health advocacy, who have made significant impact in the broader field through their ongoing research and activism. Where and When? Episodes are released fortnightly on YouTube and IGTV, and will be coming to our website soon . New Season Season 3 to begin in March 2022 . Rachel also contributes to ITM with her own column of articles on lifestyle and relationships and the power of poetry. Articles Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read A Family Intervention for Severe Behaviour Problems I am Simone, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist employed by South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I am both a researcher and a clinician. I work within a National Specialist team that oversees the delivery of an evidence-based intervention to young people and their families, where there are high concerns around the young person’s behaviour. The intervention is called Multisystemic Therapy or MST. The aim of treatment is to prevent the young person from go Science & Research Simone Fox 6 days ago 4 min read Cara’s Path to Finding Herself at Notting Hill Carnival - A Short Story Since losing her Uncle Easton, Cara hadn't felt like herself — until she played mas again, dancing to groovy soca in the sun at Notting Hill Carnival. Cara has always been someone who keeps to herself. You could call her a lone wolf by nature — she keeps her emotions close but is the kind of person who is always there to lend a listening ear and a smile to those on their heaviest days. Having first experienced depression at 15, Cara would wander into her dad's room and lie on Short Stories Kanika Phillip Aug 28 6 min read How Kashmir’s Shortage of Psychiatrists Leaves Patients Misdiagnosed In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans Lived Experience Irfan Amin Malik Aug 27 5 min read Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Hidden No More? Most of us will know that nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting up to 70% of pregnant women. Less well known is hyperemesis gravidarum, or HG, in which nausea and vomiting reach a severity such that women struggle to eat or drink, often losing weight or becoming dehydrated, sometimes to the extent that they require intravenous fluids. As a neuropsychiatric doctor and researcher at King’s College London, I have a particular interest in the overlap of physical Science & Research Hamilton Morrin Aug 26 5 min read Time to Express Ourselves After my early studies in engineering, where I learnt how to build systems, make them work, or fix them, I returned to my books in my forties to study psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. I came to appreciate that, while some of these disciplines are also “technical” (an issue or illness is identified, categorised, and addressed through problem-solving), others are much closer to the human dimension. Science & Research Gabriele Perrone Aug 25 5 min read The Gold in the Cracks I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life. Lived Experience Manuel Gomez Aug 24 6 min read What Four Years of Research Taught Me About Treating Depression In Pregnancy In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negati Science & Research Riddhi Laijawala Aug 21 4 min read

Inspire the Mind has the pleasure of working with established writers, who's work is displayed in this section about Maternal Mental Health. Our Articles on: Read Now Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read A Family Intervention for Severe Behaviour Problems I am Simone, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist employed by South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I am both a researcher and a clinician. I work within a National Specialist team that oversees the delivery of an evidence-based intervention to young people and their families, where there are high concerns around the young person’s behaviour. The intervention is called Multisystemic Therapy or MST. The aim of treatment is to prevent the young person from go Science & Research Simone Fox 6 days ago 4 min read Cara’s Path to Finding Herself at Notting Hill Carnival - A Short Story Since losing her Uncle Easton, Cara hadn't felt like herself — until she played mas again, dancing to groovy soca in the sun at Notting Hill Carnival. Cara has always been someone who keeps to herself. You could call her a lone wolf by nature — she keeps her emotions close but is the kind of person who is always there to lend a listening ear and a smile to those on their heaviest days. Having first experienced depression at 15, Cara would wander into her dad's room and lie on Short Stories Kanika Phillip Aug 28 6 min read How Kashmir’s Shortage of Psychiatrists Leaves Patients Misdiagnosed In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans Lived Experience Irfan Amin Malik Aug 27 5 min read Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Hidden No More? Most of us will know that nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting up to 70% of pregnant women. Less well known is hyperemesis gravidarum, or HG, in which nausea and vomiting reach a severity such that women struggle to eat or drink, often losing weight or becoming dehydrated, sometimes to the extent that they require intravenous fluids. As a neuropsychiatric doctor and researcher at King’s College London, I have a particular interest in the overlap of physical Science & Research Hamilton Morrin Aug 26 5 min read Time to Express Ourselves After my early studies in engineering, where I learnt how to build systems, make them work, or fix them, I returned to my books in my forties to study psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. I came to appreciate that, while some of these disciplines are also “technical” (an issue or illness is identified, categorised, and addressed through problem-solving), others are much closer to the human dimension. Science & Research Gabriele Perrone Aug 25 5 min read The Gold in the Cracks I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life. Lived Experience Manuel Gomez Aug 24 6 min read What Four Years of Research Taught Me About Treating Depression In Pregnancy In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negati Science & Research Riddhi Laijawala Aug 21 4 min read Care-Experienced Young People Shaping Mental Health Research This piece was written by researchers at University College London (Havovi Khareghat and Eva Sprecher) and lived-experience advisors (Clo H, Valerie, Ace Garmodon & Alfie-James Waring) from the ReThink programme. ReThink is a UKRI-funded research project that explored what makes a difference to the mental health of care-experienced young people (who have grown up in ‘state care’ e.g., foster care or children’s homes) moving through early and late adolescence. Lived Experience Havovi Khareghat Aug 20 5 min read Men’s Grooming and Mental Health: Why the Routine Matters I'm Adam, a 28-year-old lad from Nottingham, and I'm the founder of Kick The Stigma — a male grooming brand on a mission to support men's mental health. That sentence probably sounds a bit unusual: a hair product brand and mental health support in the same breath. But stick with me, because the two are more connected than you might think. My journey didn’t start with products. Growing up, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of love, joy and support. Lived Experience Adam Hyland Aug 19 6 min read Weathering the Storm of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria “Drama Queen” “Forever a victim”“She’s doing the ‘woe is me’ act again” “She’s having another hissy fit." These were just some of the things I grew up hearing about myself – and continue to. In hindsight, remarks like these were thinly veiled commentary that people saw me as too sensitive, too emotional, too moody - and too easily hurt by the things they did or said. Lived Experience Emma Green Aug 18 5 min read The Invisible Challenge of Cystic Fibrosis Cystic fibrosis is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by mutations in the CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator) gene, located on one of the 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes. An affected child inherits two mutated copies of the gene, one from each parent, who possess only a single defective copy and are asymptomatic “healthy carriers”. Science & Research Giovanna Zerial Aug 17 5 min read The Long Way Home Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey contains all the elements of an epic: gods, monsters, storms, shipwrecks and spectacular battles. Yet the part that stayed with me was much quieter. It was Odysseus’s growing recognition that victory in war may be an illusion, and that even a victorious soldier can return carrying profound psychological wounds. Matt Damon’s Odysseus is celebrated as the brilliant strategist who conceived the Trojan Horse and brought a ten-year war to an end. Arts & Culture Tony Woods Aug 14 6 min read Is it the End of the Bad Boy? Take one look at me, and you can probably tell I had an emo phase (“it was never a phase mom”). To this day, I’m still allergic to wearing colour and can be found listening to the 2000s emo and pop punk bands that brought me comfort in my teens. But, at this point, I’m starting to run out of bands to listen to that haven’t had serious allegations made against them. I’m only 30, but so much has progressed since my school days - gay marriage has been legalised, Black Lives Ma Society & World News Niamh Alford Aug 13 5 min read The Curse of Being a Lover Girl: The Fantasy of Being Chosen Before many women even know who they are, they already know what it feels like to long for love. Girls grow up consuming love stories long before they ever experience love itself. Five-year-old me already dreamed about my future wedding and the white princess dress I would wear. Many of us spent our early teens creating Pinterest wedding boards, singing along to Taylor Swift heartbreak anthems, watching Snow White and Aurora being kissed awake by their true love, and imaginin Arts & Culture Caroline Lackner Aug 12 5 min read Discovering the “I” in Impact “If you’ve spoken to me for even 5 minutes, you know I stammer. What you don’t know, unless you stammer too, is what I’ve undergone in the 5 decades I’ve been a stammerer”. This was how I started the message I sent to friends and family when sharing my recent ITM article, Stammering: An Invisible Handicap. In the piece, I shared my lifelong experience as a stammerer and spoke about ways in which those who stammer can be treated with more acceptance and compassion. Lifestyle & Relationships Manan Dhuldhoya Aug 11 5 min read Child Screen Time Guidelines - But What About Their Parents? The UK Government recommends no more than one hour a day for under 5’s, but this is an unachievable standard for many modern parents. With screen usage increasing during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, for many families, screens are a part of daily life. Increasingly, educational and homework demands have also taken a virtual format since the pandemic. In March 2026, the UK government released a set of guidelines regarding screen time use for under 5s. Science & Research Taeona Morgan Aug 10 5 min read Could Andy Burnham Be Britain’s First Mental Health Focused PM? Last month, we welcomed Britain’s seventh prime minister in just 10 years. The UK Government amusingly announced Andy Burnham’s arrival with a TikTok video of him entering No. 10, set to the Love Island audio: “A new bombshell has entered the villa.” And he has certainly caused a stir. In the two weeks since coming to power, Burnham has set several major policies in motion, spanning regional devolution, the nationalisation of public services, and efforts to tackle social Society & World News Sorcha Alford Aug 7 5 min read Ariana Grande: Me and My Truth, We Sit in Silence I vividly remember the 22nd of May 2017. I was 17 years old, on vacation in Italy, and getting ready for the evening. My dad read out breaking news of a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, after an Ariana Grande concert. Every concert since, as an adult who lives with anxiety, I get incredibly uncomfortable leaving concert venues due to this fear. But this piece isn’t about me. It’s about Ariana Grande. On top of the deadly terrorist attack, she experienced the death o Society & World News Riddhi Laijawala Aug 6 5 min read The Link Between OCD & My Eating Disorder The first thing most people learn about me is my résumé. As a professor with a decent public profile, I’m easy to Google. What most people don’t know is that I’m quite overwhelmed. It’s not the job that does it. It’s the mental health condition I’ve been living with since 1997: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Oh, and there’s also my eating disorder. OCD brings unwanted, cycling thoughts that counter my values and invites compulsive mental/physical behaviours. Science & Research Marek Muller Aug 5 5 min read The Food Writer Who Couldn't Eat I once spent three hours describing a tasting menu built around fermented citrus and smoked seafood while secretly feeling nauseous and craving plain buttered toast. That contradiction defined both my career and my life. I was living with undiagnosed conditions that affected everything, even if I did not yet have the language to understand them. For years, I had built my reputation as a food writer. Lived Experience Beth Rush Aug 4 5 min read Three Generations, Persistent Patterns Growing up in a three-generation South Asian household alongside my paternal grandparents, parents, and siblings, I recognise many of these fragments reflected in our interactions, patterns of thinking, values, and behaviours: a difficulty communicating openly, discomfort with emotional expression, a reluctance to accept help during times of struggle, a desire to control the uncontrollable, and a tendency towards chronic people-pleasing. Lived Experience Sanaa Chughtai Aug 3 5 min read The Danger Zone - A Short Story In all his time on the island, Kieran had seen many things, but the girl stepping off of the boat at the coast scared him most of all. Kieran stared at the girl: half incensed, half astonished. She must have been young, no more than 11 or 12, with two black pigtails billowing in the ocean wind. Her little feet wrestled against the sand, almost sinking under the weight of the boat as she heaved it up the shore. Kieran’s heart plummeted to his stomach. She wasn’t supposed to be Short Stories Zara-Evana Mitchen Jul 31 15 min read Focused Ultrasound: Can Sound Waves Treat Depression? I have always been fascinated by research that explores new ways of treating conditions that sit at the intersection of the mind and body. As our understanding of these complex relationships continues to grow, so does the potential for innovative and therapeutic approaches. I am currently conducting a systematic review as part of my dissertation for the course, MSc Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface. Science & Research Erin Collins Jul 30 5 min read What Does Social Media Say About Perinatal Mental Health? "But doctor, that's not what it says on the internet." This is something a patient being treated for bipolar disorder told my colleague Juan during a routine consultation. She wasn't challenging his advice; she was telling him what she had read on social media and asking how it fit with his recommendations. That one sentence stayed with him since and sent us both down a rabbit hole. Lived Experience Nuria Laherrán Cantera Jul 29 5 min read Muslim Women Are Not Victims “I don’t understand why I have to put a stole to cover myself up,” I said, horrified. I was fourteen, with simmering teenage anger, making sense of the world and not liking the position Muslim women were often put into. I had clarity; if you want to wear something, you wear it, whether Hijab or dresses, and if you don’t like something you don’t wear it. But my extended family was insistent that it was the ‘right’ age for me to start covering up, a narrative common for many Mu Lived Experience Varisha Tariq Jul 28 5 min read How Stoicism Became My Antidote For Anxiety Growing up, I thought Dad was stoic. He always managed to keep his emotions in check, even when he was diagnosed with Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy, alongside my uncle and aunt. Even as he watched them pass away and felt his own muscles atrophy until he couldn’t leave the house anymore, he kept a stiff upper lip like the British men of his generation had been taught to do by their fathers. When Dad died in 2025, I thought about his stoicism and how I was going to cope with the Lived Experience Jamie Ryder Jul 27 5 min read The Haaland Effect: Men in Sports Are Changing the Narrative I’ll admit, I’m not normally the target audience for the Men’s World Cup. I don’t really care for team sports and am rarely motivated by competition. And yet, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the football this year. Not because of a sudden love of the sport, but because of the players themselves. My Instagram feed has been full of videos of Erling Haaland, the Man City player on Norway’s World Cup team. And I’m not the only one. It seems women everywhere are loving the “Stri Arts & Culture Niamh Alford Jul 24 5 min read Banning Social Media for Under-16s Won't Solve the Problem As a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, I spend a lot of time teaching students about child development, mental health, and the evidence surrounding digital technology use. Recently, proposals to ban social media access for under-16s have gained increasing political support in the UK. The idea is simple and appealing: if social media is harming young people's mental health, remove access and the problem will improve. The ban was put into Science & Research Mark Kennedy Jul 23 5 min read Spinning Plates: Managing my Physical and Mental Health I am 66 years old. I have had bipolar since the age of 21. (Bipolar is a condition where a person’s mood may go high or low). I have written three times before on this platform: about diagnostic overshadowing, about mixed affective states, and about living with a serious mental health condition. As well as bipolar, I have developed several physical health conditions. I have ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory bowel disease). I have also experienced two lymphomas. Lived Experience Angela Merriott Jul 22 5 min read Why Writing Became My Most Reliable Mental Health Routine People are often surprised when I tell them that writing became one of the healthiest things in my life. From the outside, I have always seemed like someone doing okay. I joke a lot, laugh easily, and rarely let uncomfortable emotions sit visibly on my face for too long. Humour became my survival tool long before writing did. Whenever friends tried checking in on me emotionally, I usually brushed it off with jokes. Lived Experience Israel Temmie Jul 21 5 min read Finding Unity in a Divided World Cup With the World Cup having finished, I want to reflect on how it has given me hope in a world that has become increasingly bleak. As a researcher, my day involves independent lab work, often just me and the data. That’s exactly why I’m drawn to watching sports outside of work. The camaraderie feels like the perfect counterbalance. I love the World Cup for how it brings everyone in and fosters a sense of community in a way that few things still do. Society & World News Nuriza Tukiran Jul 20 5 min read

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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: Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read A Family Intervention for Severe Behaviour Problems I am Simone, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist employed by South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I am both a researcher and a clinician. I work within a National Specialist team that oversees the delivery of an evidence-based intervention to young people and their families, where there are high concerns around the young person’s behaviour. The intervention is called Multisystemic Therapy or MST. The aim of treatment is to prevent the young person from go Science & Research Simone Fox 6 days ago 4 min read Cara’s Path to Finding Herself at Notting Hill Carnival - A Short Story Since losing her Uncle Easton, Cara hadn't felt like herself — until she played mas again, dancing to groovy soca in the sun at Notting Hill Carnival. Cara has always been someone who keeps to herself. You could call her a lone wolf by nature — she keeps her emotions close but is the kind of person who is always there to lend a listening ear and a smile to those on their heaviest days. Having first experienced depression at 15, Cara would wander into her dad's room and lie on Short Stories Kanika Phillip Aug 28 6 min read How Kashmir’s Shortage of Psychiatrists Leaves Patients Misdiagnosed In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans Lived Experience Irfan Amin Malik Aug 27 5 min read Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Hidden No More? Most of us will know that nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting up to 70% of pregnant women. Less well known is hyperemesis gravidarum, or HG, in which nausea and vomiting reach a severity such that women struggle to eat or drink, often losing weight or becoming dehydrated, sometimes to the extent that they require intravenous fluids. As a neuropsychiatric doctor and researcher at King’s College London, I have a particular interest in the overlap of physical Science & Research Hamilton Morrin Aug 26 5 min read Time to Express Ourselves After my early studies in engineering, where I learnt how to build systems, make them work, or fix them, I returned to my books in my forties to study psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. I came to appreciate that, while some of these disciplines are also “technical” (an issue or illness is identified, categorised, and addressed through problem-solving), others are much closer to the human dimension. Science & Research Gabriele Perrone Aug 25 5 min read The Gold in the Cracks I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life. Lived Experience Manuel Gomez Aug 24 6 min read What Four Years of Research Taught Me About Treating Depression In Pregnancy In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negati Science & Research Riddhi Laijawala Aug 21 4 min read 1 2 3 4 5

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. "

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. Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read A Family Intervention for Severe Behaviour Problems I am Simone, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist employed by South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I am both a researcher and a clinician. I work within a National Specialist team that oversees the delivery of an evidence-based intervention to young people and their families, where there are high concerns around the young person’s behaviour. The intervention is called Multisystemic Therapy or MST. The aim of treatment is to prevent the young person from go Science & Research Simone Fox 6 days ago 4 min read Cara’s Path to Finding Herself at Notting Hill Carnival - A Short Story Since losing her Uncle Easton, Cara hadn't felt like herself — until she played mas again, dancing to groovy soca in the sun at Notting Hill Carnival. Cara has always been someone who keeps to herself. You could call her a lone wolf by nature — she keeps her emotions close but is the kind of person who is always there to lend a listening ear and a smile to those on their heaviest days. Having first experienced depression at 15, Cara would wander into her dad's room and lie on Short Stories Kanika Phillip Aug 28 6 min read How Kashmir’s Shortage of Psychiatrists Leaves Patients Misdiagnosed In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans Lived Experience Irfan Amin Malik Aug 27 5 min read Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Hidden No More? Most of us will know that nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting up to 70% of pregnant women. Less well known is hyperemesis gravidarum, or HG, in which nausea and vomiting reach a severity such that women struggle to eat or drink, often losing weight or becoming dehydrated, sometimes to the extent that they require intravenous fluids. As a neuropsychiatric doctor and researcher at King’s College London, I have a particular interest in the overlap of physical Science & Research Hamilton Morrin Aug 26 5 min read Time to Express Ourselves After my early studies in engineering, where I learnt how to build systems, make them work, or fix them, I returned to my books in my forties to study psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. I came to appreciate that, while some of these disciplines are also “technical” (an issue or illness is identified, categorised, and addressed through problem-solving), others are much closer to the human dimension. Science & Research Gabriele Perrone Aug 25 5 min read The Gold in the Cracks I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life. Lived Experience Manuel Gomez Aug 24 6 min read What Four Years of Research Taught Me About Treating Depression In Pregnancy In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negati Science & Research Riddhi Laijawala Aug 21 4 min read Care-Experienced Young People Shaping Mental Health Research This piece was written by researchers at University College London (Havovi Khareghat and Eva Sprecher) and lived-experience advisors (Clo H, Valerie, Ace Garmodon & Alfie-James Waring) from the ReThink programme. ReThink is a UKRI-funded research project that explored what makes a difference to the mental health of care-experienced young people (who have grown up in ‘state care’ e.g., foster care or children’s homes) moving through early and late adolescence. Lived Experience Havovi Khareghat Aug 20 5 min read Men’s Grooming and Mental Health: Why the Routine Matters I'm Adam, a 28-year-old lad from Nottingham, and I'm the founder of Kick The Stigma — a male grooming brand on a mission to support men's mental health. That sentence probably sounds a bit unusual: a hair product brand and mental health support in the same breath. But stick with me, because the two are more connected than you might think. My journey didn’t start with products. Growing up, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of love, joy and support. Lived Experience Adam Hyland Aug 19 6 min read Weathering the Storm of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria “Drama Queen” “Forever a victim”“She’s doing the ‘woe is me’ act again” “She’s having another hissy fit." These were just some of the things I grew up hearing about myself – and continue to. In hindsight, remarks like these were thinly veiled commentary that people saw me as too sensitive, too emotional, too moody - and too easily hurt by the things they did or said. Lived Experience Emma Green Aug 18 5 min read The Invisible Challenge of Cystic Fibrosis Cystic fibrosis is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by mutations in the CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator) gene, located on one of the 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes. An affected child inherits two mutated copies of the gene, one from each parent, who possess only a single defective copy and are asymptomatic “healthy carriers”. Science & Research Giovanna Zerial Aug 17 5 min read The Long Way Home Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey contains all the elements of an epic: gods, monsters, storms, shipwrecks and spectacular battles. Yet the part that stayed with me was much quieter. It was Odysseus’s growing recognition that victory in war may be an illusion, and that even a victorious soldier can return carrying profound psychological wounds. Matt Damon’s Odysseus is celebrated as the brilliant strategist who conceived the Trojan Horse and brought a ten-year war to an end. Arts & Culture Tony Woods Aug 14 6 min read Is it the End of the Bad Boy? Take one look at me, and you can probably tell I had an emo phase (“it was never a phase mom”). To this day, I’m still allergic to wearing colour and can be found listening to the 2000s emo and pop punk bands that brought me comfort in my teens. But, at this point, I’m starting to run out of bands to listen to that haven’t had serious allegations made against them. I’m only 30, but so much has progressed since my school days - gay marriage has been legalised, Black Lives Ma Society & World News Niamh Alford Aug 13 5 min read The Curse of Being a Lover Girl: The Fantasy of Being Chosen Before many women even know who they are, they already know what it feels like to long for love. Girls grow up consuming love stories long before they ever experience love itself. Five-year-old me already dreamed about my future wedding and the white princess dress I would wear. Many of us spent our early teens creating Pinterest wedding boards, singing along to Taylor Swift heartbreak anthems, watching Snow White and Aurora being kissed awake by their true love, and imaginin Arts & Culture Caroline Lackner Aug 12 5 min read Discovering the “I” in Impact “If you’ve spoken to me for even 5 minutes, you know I stammer. What you don’t know, unless you stammer too, is what I’ve undergone in the 5 decades I’ve been a stammerer”. This was how I started the message I sent to friends and family when sharing my recent ITM article, Stammering: An Invisible Handicap. In the piece, I shared my lifelong experience as a stammerer and spoke about ways in which those who stammer can be treated with more acceptance and compassion. Lifestyle & Relationships Manan Dhuldhoya Aug 11 5 min read Child Screen Time Guidelines - But What About Their Parents? The UK Government recommends no more than one hour a day for under 5’s, but this is an unachievable standard for many modern parents. With screen usage increasing during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, for many families, screens are a part of daily life. Increasingly, educational and homework demands have also taken a virtual format since the pandemic. In March 2026, the UK government released a set of guidelines regarding screen time use for under 5s. Science & Research Taeona Morgan Aug 10 5 min read Could Andy Burnham Be Britain’s First Mental Health Focused PM? Last month, we welcomed Britain’s seventh prime minister in just 10 years. The UK Government amusingly announced Andy Burnham’s arrival with a TikTok video of him entering No. 10, set to the Love Island audio: “A new bombshell has entered the villa.” And he has certainly caused a stir. In the two weeks since coming to power, Burnham has set several major policies in motion, spanning regional devolution, the nationalisation of public services, and efforts to tackle social Society & World News Sorcha Alford Aug 7 5 min read Ariana Grande: Me and My Truth, We Sit in Silence I vividly remember the 22nd of May 2017. I was 17 years old, on vacation in Italy, and getting ready for the evening. My dad read out breaking news of a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, after an Ariana Grande concert. Every concert since, as an adult who lives with anxiety, I get incredibly uncomfortable leaving concert venues due to this fear. But this piece isn’t about me. It’s about Ariana Grande. On top of the deadly terrorist attack, she experienced the death o Society & World News Riddhi Laijawala Aug 6 5 min read The Link Between OCD & My Eating Disorder The first thing most people learn about me is my résumé. As a professor with a decent public profile, I’m easy to Google. What most people don’t know is that I’m quite overwhelmed. It’s not the job that does it. It’s the mental health condition I’ve been living with since 1997: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Oh, and there’s also my eating disorder. OCD brings unwanted, cycling thoughts that counter my values and invites compulsive mental/physical behaviours. Science & Research Marek Muller Aug 5 5 min read The Food Writer Who Couldn't Eat I once spent three hours describing a tasting menu built around fermented citrus and smoked seafood while secretly feeling nauseous and craving plain buttered toast. That contradiction defined both my career and my life. I was living with undiagnosed conditions that affected everything, even if I did not yet have the language to understand them. For years, I had built my reputation as a food writer. Lived Experience Beth Rush Aug 4 5 min read Three Generations, Persistent Patterns Growing up in a three-generation South Asian household alongside my paternal grandparents, parents, and siblings, I recognise many of these fragments reflected in our interactions, patterns of thinking, values, and behaviours: a difficulty communicating openly, discomfort with emotional expression, a reluctance to accept help during times of struggle, a desire to control the uncontrollable, and a tendency towards chronic people-pleasing. Lived Experience Sanaa Chughtai Aug 3 5 min read The Danger Zone - A Short Story In all his time on the island, Kieran had seen many things, but the girl stepping off of the boat at the coast scared him most of all. Kieran stared at the girl: half incensed, half astonished. She must have been young, no more than 11 or 12, with two black pigtails billowing in the ocean wind. Her little feet wrestled against the sand, almost sinking under the weight of the boat as she heaved it up the shore. Kieran’s heart plummeted to his stomach. She wasn’t supposed to be Short Stories Zara-Evana Mitchen Jul 31 15 min read Focused Ultrasound: Can Sound Waves Treat Depression? I have always been fascinated by research that explores new ways of treating conditions that sit at the intersection of the mind and body. As our understanding of these complex relationships continues to grow, so does the potential for innovative and therapeutic approaches. I am currently conducting a systematic review as part of my dissertation for the course, MSc Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface. Science & Research Erin Collins Jul 30 5 min read What Does Social Media Say About Perinatal Mental Health? "But doctor, that's not what it says on the internet." This is something a patient being treated for bipolar disorder told my colleague Juan during a routine consultation. She wasn't challenging his advice; she was telling him what she had read on social media and asking how it fit with his recommendations. That one sentence stayed with him since and sent us both down a rabbit hole. Lived Experience Nuria Laherrán Cantera Jul 29 5 min read Muslim Women Are Not Victims “I don’t understand why I have to put a stole to cover myself up,” I said, horrified. I was fourteen, with simmering teenage anger, making sense of the world and not liking the position Muslim women were often put into. I had clarity; if you want to wear something, you wear it, whether Hijab or dresses, and if you don’t like something you don’t wear it. But my extended family was insistent that it was the ‘right’ age for me to start covering up, a narrative common for many Mu Lived Experience Varisha Tariq Jul 28 5 min read How Stoicism Became My Antidote For Anxiety Growing up, I thought Dad was stoic. He always managed to keep his emotions in check, even when he was diagnosed with Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy, alongside my uncle and aunt. Even as he watched them pass away and felt his own muscles atrophy until he couldn’t leave the house anymore, he kept a stiff upper lip like the British men of his generation had been taught to do by their fathers. When Dad died in 2025, I thought about his stoicism and how I was going to cope with the Lived Experience Jamie Ryder Jul 27 5 min read The Haaland Effect: Men in Sports Are Changing the Narrative I’ll admit, I’m not normally the target audience for the Men’s World Cup. I don’t really care for team sports and am rarely motivated by competition. And yet, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the football this year. Not because of a sudden love of the sport, but because of the players themselves. My Instagram feed has been full of videos of Erling Haaland, the Man City player on Norway’s World Cup team. And I’m not the only one. It seems women everywhere are loving the “Stri Arts & Culture Niamh Alford Jul 24 5 min read Banning Social Media for Under-16s Won't Solve the Problem As a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, I spend a lot of time teaching students about child development, mental health, and the evidence surrounding digital technology use. Recently, proposals to ban social media access for under-16s have gained increasing political support in the UK. The idea is simple and appealing: if social media is harming young people's mental health, remove access and the problem will improve. The ban was put into Science & Research Mark Kennedy Jul 23 5 min read Spinning Plates: Managing my Physical and Mental Health I am 66 years old. I have had bipolar since the age of 21. (Bipolar is a condition where a person’s mood may go high or low). I have written three times before on this platform: about diagnostic overshadowing, about mixed affective states, and about living with a serious mental health condition. As well as bipolar, I have developed several physical health conditions. I have ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory bowel disease). I have also experienced two lymphomas. Lived Experience Angela Merriott Jul 22 5 min read Why Writing Became My Most Reliable Mental Health Routine People are often surprised when I tell them that writing became one of the healthiest things in my life. From the outside, I have always seemed like someone doing okay. I joke a lot, laugh easily, and rarely let uncomfortable emotions sit visibly on my face for too long. Humour became my survival tool long before writing did. Whenever friends tried checking in on me emotionally, I usually brushed it off with jokes. Lived Experience Israel Temmie Jul 21 5 min read Finding Unity in a Divided World Cup With the World Cup having finished, I want to reflect on how it has given me hope in a world that has become increasingly bleak. As a researcher, my day involves independent lab work, often just me and the data. That’s exactly why I’m drawn to watching sports outside of work. The camaraderie feels like the perfect counterbalance. I love the World Cup for how it brings everyone in and fosters a sense of community in a way that few things still do. Society & World News Nuriza Tukiran Jul 20 5 min read Understanding Dental Anxiety: Breaking the Cycle of Fear and Avoidance Racing heart, sweaty palms, feelings faint, and nausea are just some of the physiological manifestations of dental anxiety experienced by patients and witnessed by dental professionals every day. Working in a general dental practice, I have encountered countless individuals who begin their appointment by declaring, "I hate the dentist," before anything else is said. For many, these feelings extend far beyond simple nervousness. Science & Research Amiytha Vasanthan Jul 17 5 min read Why Survivors Don’t Need to Be Inspirational I left an abusive marriage. Four turbulent years later, their father abducted them, taking them out of the country and out of my reach for more than two years. When they finally came home, we were no longer the same people. In the aftermath, I began writing our story in the margins of my life, after work, before school events, and between counselling sessions, trying to make sense of what had happened to us. Lived Experience Lizbeth Meredith Jul 16 5 min read On Rethinking Victimhood I was called a survivor before I understood the word, and styled as a victim long after I stopped recognising myself in it. I am Srijani, a writer, poet and educator based in India. Being a neurodivergent survivor myself, I have expressed my thoughts on victimhood and the perspectives on it in my article. I hope this helps you understand and navigate what victimhood is and how it stands in the socio-cultural, emotional and psychological contexts we live in. Lived Experience Srijani Mitra Jul 15 5 min read Victims Don’t Owe Us Their Trauma Stories Israel did not allow foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip as it carried out its genocide. In their absence, every person with internet access became a war correspondent. Civilians filmed their ruined homes; fathers stood for photos holding plastic bags containing the remains of their children. A little girl named Renad shared Instagram Reels of recipes made from the rations received in aid packages. Lived Experience Eloise Stark Jul 14 5 min read The Politics of the “Perfect Victim” Many of us would like to think that we always believe the survivors first. That we sympathise with them. But often, what we really believe in is the idea of the “perfect victim.” Victimhood, at least publicly, sometimes comes with unwritten rules. There are expectations people place upon survivors, things they expect to see that qualify someone as believable. You are expected to be visibly hurt, emotionally open and undeniably vulnerable. Your pain has to look recognisable bu Lived Experience Shelley Paterson Jul 13 5 min read All That I Lost to Rugby On a spring day in 2023, I was subbed on at half-time in a rugby game between my university team and the British Army. Two minutes into the second half, I clashed heads with a teammate and briefly lost consciousness. When I came to, I realised something felt very wrong. My first thought was about the exams I had in two months. In the end, the exams went smoothly, and I returned to rugby within 2 months. Lived Experience Tony Cowen Jul 10 5 min read Easier Said Than Done Lifestyle advice has become almost inseparable from conversations about mental health. Open a newspaper, scroll through social media, or visit a health website, and the message is strikingly consistent: exercise regularly, eat well, sleep properly, reduce alcohol, stay connected. These recommendations are usually well-intentioned and evidence-based. Yet for people living with severe mental illness (SMI), they can feel strangely out of reach. Science & Research Marianne Inglis Jul 9 5 min read OCD: Lived & Research Experience on Attachment and Recovery Amidst growing discourse surrounding mental health, there is one condition that, I feel, has been left out. That condition is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The condition has been discussed previously on Inspire The Mind, both in regard to avoidance and reproductive care and first-hand, lived experience. I strongly recommend reading these pieces to get a fuller understanding of the condition. Science & Research Joel Bates Jul 8 4 min read Men are Struggling with Loneliness and Isolation. So We Did Something About It. I want to ask you a question. How many close friends do you have? And I mean close friends - friends you could call at 11pm in an emergency and they’d pick-up the phone. Friends who know the things about you which you don’t post on social media. My name is Tom Stroud, and I’m the co-founder of the Shoulder to Shoulder men’s community. In this article, I talk about why feeling connected to others is the most important factor in long-term health and happiness. Lived Experience Tom Stroud Jul 7 5 min read I Learned Masculinity from Silence — And No One Noticed Just a few weeks ago, before speaking on a panel for Black Inclusion Week, I suffered a major panic attack. From the outside, nobody would have known. The “Mental Health Jedi” public persona still worked perfectly well. But internally, I felt completely drained — anxious, overwhelmed, and emotionally flat. Not dramatic, not visibly distressed, just… absent. The strange thing is, that feeling wasn’t new to me. Over the years, I’ve become particularly good at performing while e Lived Experience Chris Frederick Jul 6 5 min read Social Media Ban for Kids: There is More to it Than You May Think I’m eight years old and I receive my first phone. I am discovering social media, there is COVID, and I experience bursts of happiness in doing TikTok dances. Overthinking every comment and every “like”. “Will I get 100 likes today?” This dance, that routine, the lip sync, the newest trend. I am 10 years old, and I love seeing older girls posting makeup and hair tutorials. “I want to grow up to be just like them”. Looking at videos about beauty makes me curious and excited. Lived Experience Joana Luzi Neto Jul 3 5 min read Are We Over-Psychologising Public Health Problems? I’ve always been fascinated by the gap between what people know they should do and what they actually do. Why do some people ignore health advice, while others make lasting changes to improve their wellbeing? As a lecturer in health psychology, I spend most of the academic year teaching and supervising research on health promotion and behaviour change. We explore why people smoke, struggle to exercise regularly, attend screening appointments, or take medication as prescribed. Science & Research Daniel Gaffiero Jul 2 5 min read I Did Everything Right, But It Didn’t Pay Off I was four years old when I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder (a mental health condition characterised by anxiety about many different day-to-day situations). As an anxious kid, I became very good at performing competence, earning the “gifted kid” label. I was often bullied by my peers, so I found comfort in books, where I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I put all my efforts into academics and prided myself on being the one who always knew the answer. Lived Experience Gabrielle Paquette Jul 1 5 min read The Science of Why Art Moves Us Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist in Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, argues that our brain is not a camera that simply replicates an image. It is a creativity machine that takes incomplete information from the outside world and makes it complete. This means when you stand before a masterpiece, you're not passively observing, you're actively creating meaning. In The Age of Insight, Kandel calls this the beholder's share: a concept rooted in art history and Science & Research Diana Py Velloso Jun 30 5 min read Strength in Vulnerability: The rise of men’s sharing groups With men combating loneliness, suicide and the rise of the manosphere, Men’s groups are providing an opportunity to explore masculinity and the pressure they feel. From prison support groups to men-only hikes in nature, from dad clubs to celebrity circles, men are turning to a growing number of communities and brotherhoods to explore their identity, connect with their emotions, and voice their concerns. Lived Experience Cieran Brown Jun 29 5 min read The Swimmer — A Short Story When the swimmer pictures the lido in her mind, the summer sun is always shining, and the water looks blue and inviting. But it’s September now. Brown leaves are curling by the side of the pool, the evening sky is grey and overcast, and the water, when she jumps in, is cold. She closes her eyes, starts swimming, and waits. Short Stories Donna Ferguson Jun 26 6 min read

Inspire the Mind has the pleasure of working with established writers, who's work is displayed in this section about Fatherhood and Men's Mental Health. Our Articles on: Read Now Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read A Family Intervention for Severe Behaviour Problems I am Simone, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist employed by South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I am both a researcher and a clinician. I work within a National Specialist team that oversees the delivery of an evidence-based intervention to young people and their families, where there are high concerns around the young person’s behaviour. The intervention is called Multisystemic Therapy or MST. The aim of treatment is to prevent the young person from go Science & Research Simone Fox 6 days ago 4 min read Cara’s Path to Finding Herself at Notting Hill Carnival - A Short Story Since losing her Uncle Easton, Cara hadn't felt like herself — until she played mas again, dancing to groovy soca in the sun at Notting Hill Carnival. Cara has always been someone who keeps to herself. You could call her a lone wolf by nature — she keeps her emotions close but is the kind of person who is always there to lend a listening ear and a smile to those on their heaviest days. Having first experienced depression at 15, Cara would wander into her dad's room and lie on Short Stories Kanika Phillip Aug 28 6 min read How Kashmir’s Shortage of Psychiatrists Leaves Patients Misdiagnosed In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans Lived Experience Irfan Amin Malik Aug 27 5 min read Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Hidden No More? Most of us will know that nausea and vomiting are common in pregnancy, affecting up to 70% of pregnant women. Less well known is hyperemesis gravidarum, or HG, in which nausea and vomiting reach a severity such that women struggle to eat or drink, often losing weight or becoming dehydrated, sometimes to the extent that they require intravenous fluids. As a neuropsychiatric doctor and researcher at King’s College London, I have a particular interest in the overlap of physical Science & Research Hamilton Morrin Aug 26 5 min read Time to Express Ourselves After my early studies in engineering, where I learnt how to build systems, make them work, or fix them, I returned to my books in my forties to study psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience. I came to appreciate that, while some of these disciplines are also “technical” (an issue or illness is identified, categorised, and addressed through problem-solving), others are much closer to the human dimension. Science & Research Gabriele Perrone Aug 25 5 min read The Gold in the Cracks I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life. Lived Experience Manuel Gomez Aug 24 6 min read What Four Years of Research Taught Me About Treating Depression In Pregnancy In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negati Science & Research Riddhi Laijawala Aug 21 4 min read Care-Experienced Young People Shaping Mental Health Research This piece was written by researchers at University College London (Havovi Khareghat and Eva Sprecher) and lived-experience advisors (Clo H, Valerie, Ace Garmodon & Alfie-James Waring) from the ReThink programme. ReThink is a UKRI-funded research project that explored what makes a difference to the mental health of care-experienced young people (who have grown up in ‘state care’ e.g., foster care or children’s homes) moving through early and late adolescence. Lived Experience Havovi Khareghat Aug 20 5 min read Men’s Grooming and Mental Health: Why the Routine Matters I'm Adam, a 28-year-old lad from Nottingham, and I'm the founder of Kick The Stigma — a male grooming brand on a mission to support men's mental health. That sentence probably sounds a bit unusual: a hair product brand and mental health support in the same breath. But stick with me, because the two are more connected than you might think. My journey didn’t start with products. Growing up, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of love, joy and support. Lived Experience Adam Hyland Aug 19 6 min read Weathering the Storm of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria “Drama Queen” “Forever a victim”“She’s doing the ‘woe is me’ act again” “She’s having another hissy fit." These were just some of the things I grew up hearing about myself – and continue to. In hindsight, remarks like these were thinly veiled commentary that people saw me as too sensitive, too emotional, too moody - and too easily hurt by the things they did or said. Lived Experience Emma Green Aug 18 5 min read The Invisible Challenge of Cystic Fibrosis Cystic fibrosis is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by mutations in the CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator) gene, located on one of the 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes. An affected child inherits two mutated copies of the gene, one from each parent, who possess only a single defective copy and are asymptomatic “healthy carriers”. Science & Research Giovanna Zerial Aug 17 5 min read The Long Way Home Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey contains all the elements of an epic: gods, monsters, storms, shipwrecks and spectacular battles. Yet the part that stayed with me was much quieter. It was Odysseus’s growing recognition that victory in war may be an illusion, and that even a victorious soldier can return carrying profound psychological wounds. Matt Damon’s Odysseus is celebrated as the brilliant strategist who conceived the Trojan Horse and brought a ten-year war to an end. Arts & Culture Tony Woods Aug 14 6 min read Is it the End of the Bad Boy? Take one look at me, and you can probably tell I had an emo phase (“it was never a phase mom”). To this day, I’m still allergic to wearing colour and can be found listening to the 2000s emo and pop punk bands that brought me comfort in my teens. But, at this point, I’m starting to run out of bands to listen to that haven’t had serious allegations made against them. I’m only 30, but so much has progressed since my school days - gay marriage has been legalised, Black Lives Ma Society & World News Niamh Alford Aug 13 5 min read The Curse of Being a Lover Girl: The Fantasy of Being Chosen Before many women even know who they are, they already know what it feels like to long for love. Girls grow up consuming love stories long before they ever experience love itself. Five-year-old me already dreamed about my future wedding and the white princess dress I would wear. Many of us spent our early teens creating Pinterest wedding boards, singing along to Taylor Swift heartbreak anthems, watching Snow White and Aurora being kissed awake by their true love, and imaginin Arts & Culture Caroline Lackner Aug 12 5 min read Discovering the “I” in Impact “If you’ve spoken to me for even 5 minutes, you know I stammer. What you don’t know, unless you stammer too, is what I’ve undergone in the 5 decades I’ve been a stammerer”. This was how I started the message I sent to friends and family when sharing my recent ITM article, Stammering: An Invisible Handicap. In the piece, I shared my lifelong experience as a stammerer and spoke about ways in which those who stammer can be treated with more acceptance and compassion. Lifestyle & Relationships Manan Dhuldhoya Aug 11 5 min read Child Screen Time Guidelines - But What About Their Parents? The UK Government recommends no more than one hour a day for under 5’s, but this is an unachievable standard for many modern parents. With screen usage increasing during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, for many families, screens are a part of daily life. Increasingly, educational and homework demands have also taken a virtual format since the pandemic. In March 2026, the UK government released a set of guidelines regarding screen time use for under 5s. Science & Research Taeona Morgan Aug 10 5 min read Could Andy Burnham Be Britain’s First Mental Health Focused PM? Last month, we welcomed Britain’s seventh prime minister in just 10 years. The UK Government amusingly announced Andy Burnham’s arrival with a TikTok video of him entering No. 10, set to the Love Island audio: “A new bombshell has entered the villa.” And he has certainly caused a stir. In the two weeks since coming to power, Burnham has set several major policies in motion, spanning regional devolution, the nationalisation of public services, and efforts to tackle social Society & World News Sorcha Alford Aug 7 5 min read Ariana Grande: Me and My Truth, We Sit in Silence I vividly remember the 22nd of May 2017. I was 17 years old, on vacation in Italy, and getting ready for the evening. My dad read out breaking news of a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, after an Ariana Grande concert. Every concert since, as an adult who lives with anxiety, I get incredibly uncomfortable leaving concert venues due to this fear. But this piece isn’t about me. It’s about Ariana Grande. On top of the deadly terrorist attack, she experienced the death o Society & World News Riddhi Laijawala Aug 6 5 min read The Link Between OCD & My Eating Disorder The first thing most people learn about me is my résumé. As a professor with a decent public profile, I’m easy to Google. What most people don’t know is that I’m quite overwhelmed. It’s not the job that does it. It’s the mental health condition I’ve been living with since 1997: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Oh, and there’s also my eating disorder. OCD brings unwanted, cycling thoughts that counter my values and invites compulsive mental/physical behaviours. Science & Research Marek Muller Aug 5 5 min read The Food Writer Who Couldn't Eat I once spent three hours describing a tasting menu built around fermented citrus and smoked seafood while secretly feeling nauseous and craving plain buttered toast. That contradiction defined both my career and my life. I was living with undiagnosed conditions that affected everything, even if I did not yet have the language to understand them. For years, I had built my reputation as a food writer. Lived Experience Beth Rush Aug 4 5 min read Three Generations, Persistent Patterns Growing up in a three-generation South Asian household alongside my paternal grandparents, parents, and siblings, I recognise many of these fragments reflected in our interactions, patterns of thinking, values, and behaviours: a difficulty communicating openly, discomfort with emotional expression, a reluctance to accept help during times of struggle, a desire to control the uncontrollable, and a tendency towards chronic people-pleasing. Lived Experience Sanaa Chughtai Aug 3 5 min read The Danger Zone - A Short Story In all his time on the island, Kieran had seen many things, but the girl stepping off of the boat at the coast scared him most of all. Kieran stared at the girl: half incensed, half astonished. She must have been young, no more than 11 or 12, with two black pigtails billowing in the ocean wind. Her little feet wrestled against the sand, almost sinking under the weight of the boat as she heaved it up the shore. Kieran’s heart plummeted to his stomach. She wasn’t supposed to be Short Stories Zara-Evana Mitchen Jul 31 15 min read Focused Ultrasound: Can Sound Waves Treat Depression? I have always been fascinated by research that explores new ways of treating conditions that sit at the intersection of the mind and body. As our understanding of these complex relationships continues to grow, so does the potential for innovative and therapeutic approaches. I am currently conducting a systematic review as part of my dissertation for the course, MSc Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface. Science & Research Erin Collins Jul 30 5 min read What Does Social Media Say About Perinatal Mental Health? "But doctor, that's not what it says on the internet." This is something a patient being treated for bipolar disorder told my colleague Juan during a routine consultation. She wasn't challenging his advice; she was telling him what she had read on social media and asking how it fit with his recommendations. That one sentence stayed with him since and sent us both down a rabbit hole. Lived Experience Nuria Laherrán Cantera Jul 29 5 min read Muslim Women Are Not Victims “I don’t understand why I have to put a stole to cover myself up,” I said, horrified. I was fourteen, with simmering teenage anger, making sense of the world and not liking the position Muslim women were often put into. I had clarity; if you want to wear something, you wear it, whether Hijab or dresses, and if you don’t like something you don’t wear it. But my extended family was insistent that it was the ‘right’ age for me to start covering up, a narrative common for many Mu Lived Experience Varisha Tariq Jul 28 5 min read How Stoicism Became My Antidote For Anxiety Growing up, I thought Dad was stoic. He always managed to keep his emotions in check, even when he was diagnosed with Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy, alongside my uncle and aunt. Even as he watched them pass away and felt his own muscles atrophy until he couldn’t leave the house anymore, he kept a stiff upper lip like the British men of his generation had been taught to do by their fathers. When Dad died in 2025, I thought about his stoicism and how I was going to cope with the Lived Experience Jamie Ryder Jul 27 5 min read The Haaland Effect: Men in Sports Are Changing the Narrative I’ll admit, I’m not normally the target audience for the Men’s World Cup. I don’t really care for team sports and am rarely motivated by competition. And yet, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the football this year. Not because of a sudden love of the sport, but because of the players themselves. My Instagram feed has been full of videos of Erling Haaland, the Man City player on Norway’s World Cup team. And I’m not the only one. It seems women everywhere are loving the “Stri Arts & Culture Niamh Alford Jul 24 5 min read Banning Social Media for Under-16s Won't Solve the Problem As a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, I spend a lot of time teaching students about child development, mental health, and the evidence surrounding digital technology use. Recently, proposals to ban social media access for under-16s have gained increasing political support in the UK. The idea is simple and appealing: if social media is harming young people's mental health, remove access and the problem will improve. The ban was put into Science & Research Mark Kennedy Jul 23 5 min read Spinning Plates: Managing my Physical and Mental Health I am 66 years old. I have had bipolar since the age of 21. (Bipolar is a condition where a person’s mood may go high or low). I have written three times before on this platform: about diagnostic overshadowing, about mixed affective states, and about living with a serious mental health condition. As well as bipolar, I have developed several physical health conditions. I have ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory bowel disease). I have also experienced two lymphomas. Lived Experience Angela Merriott Jul 22 5 min read Why Writing Became My Most Reliable Mental Health Routine People are often surprised when I tell them that writing became one of the healthiest things in my life. From the outside, I have always seemed like someone doing okay. I joke a lot, laugh easily, and rarely let uncomfortable emotions sit visibly on my face for too long. Humour became my survival tool long before writing did. Whenever friends tried checking in on me emotionally, I usually brushed it off with jokes. Lived Experience Israel Temmie Jul 21 5 min read Finding Unity in a Divided World Cup With the World Cup having finished, I want to reflect on how it has given me hope in a world that has become increasingly bleak. As a researcher, my day involves independent lab work, often just me and the data. That’s exactly why I’m drawn to watching sports outside of work. The camaraderie feels like the perfect counterbalance. I love the World Cup for how it brings everyone in and fosters a sense of community in a way that few things still do. Society & World News Nuriza Tukiran Jul 20 5 min read Understanding Dental Anxiety: Breaking the Cycle of Fear and Avoidance Racing heart, sweaty palms, feelings faint, and nausea are just some of the physiological manifestations of dental anxiety experienced by patients and witnessed by dental professionals every day. Working in a general dental practice, I have encountered countless individuals who begin their appointment by declaring, "I hate the dentist," before anything else is said. For many, these feelings extend far beyond simple nervousness. Science & Research Amiytha Vasanthan Jul 17 5 min read Why Survivors Don’t Need to Be Inspirational I left an abusive marriage. Four turbulent years later, their father abducted them, taking them out of the country and out of my reach for more than two years. When they finally came home, we were no longer the same people. In the aftermath, I began writing our story in the margins of my life, after work, before school events, and between counselling sessions, trying to make sense of what had happened to us. Lived Experience Lizbeth Meredith Jul 16 5 min read On Rethinking Victimhood I was called a survivor before I understood the word, and styled as a victim long after I stopped recognising myself in it. I am Srijani, a writer, poet and educator based in India. Being a neurodivergent survivor myself, I have expressed my thoughts on victimhood and the perspectives on it in my article. I hope this helps you understand and navigate what victimhood is and how it stands in the socio-cultural, emotional and psychological contexts we live in. Lived Experience Srijani Mitra Jul 15 5 min read Victims Don’t Owe Us Their Trauma Stories Israel did not allow foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip as it carried out its genocide. In their absence, every person with internet access became a war correspondent. Civilians filmed their ruined homes; fathers stood for photos holding plastic bags containing the remains of their children. A little girl named Renad shared Instagram Reels of recipes made from the rations received in aid packages. Lived Experience Eloise Stark Jul 14 5 min read The Politics of the “Perfect Victim” Many of us would like to think that we always believe the survivors first. That we sympathise with them. But often, what we really believe in is the idea of the “perfect victim.” Victimhood, at least publicly, sometimes comes with unwritten rules. There are expectations people place upon survivors, things they expect to see that qualify someone as believable. You are expected to be visibly hurt, emotionally open and undeniably vulnerable. Your pain has to look recognisable bu Lived Experience Shelley Paterson Jul 13 5 min read All That I Lost to Rugby On a spring day in 2023, I was subbed on at half-time in a rugby game between my university team and the British Army. Two minutes into the second half, I clashed heads with a teammate and briefly lost consciousness. When I came to, I realised something felt very wrong. My first thought was about the exams I had in two months. In the end, the exams went smoothly, and I returned to rugby within 2 months. Lived Experience Tony Cowen Jul 10 5 min read Easier Said Than Done Lifestyle advice has become almost inseparable from conversations about mental health. Open a newspaper, scroll through social media, or visit a health website, and the message is strikingly consistent: exercise regularly, eat well, sleep properly, reduce alcohol, stay connected. These recommendations are usually well-intentioned and evidence-based. Yet for people living with severe mental illness (SMI), they can feel strangely out of reach. Science & Research Marianne Inglis Jul 9 5 min read OCD: Lived & Research Experience on Attachment and Recovery Amidst growing discourse surrounding mental health, there is one condition that, I feel, has been left out. That condition is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The condition has been discussed previously on Inspire The Mind, both in regard to avoidance and reproductive care and first-hand, lived experience. I strongly recommend reading these pieces to get a fuller understanding of the condition. Science & Research Joel Bates Jul 8 4 min read Men are Struggling with Loneliness and Isolation. So We Did Something About It. I want to ask you a question. How many close friends do you have? And I mean close friends - friends you could call at 11pm in an emergency and they’d pick-up the phone. Friends who know the things about you which you don’t post on social media. My name is Tom Stroud, and I’m the co-founder of the Shoulder to Shoulder men’s community. In this article, I talk about why feeling connected to others is the most important factor in long-term health and happiness. Lived Experience Tom Stroud Jul 7 5 min read I Learned Masculinity from Silence — And No One Noticed Just a few weeks ago, before speaking on a panel for Black Inclusion Week, I suffered a major panic attack. From the outside, nobody would have known. The “Mental Health Jedi” public persona still worked perfectly well. But internally, I felt completely drained — anxious, overwhelmed, and emotionally flat. Not dramatic, not visibly distressed, just… absent. The strange thing is, that feeling wasn’t new to me. Over the years, I’ve become particularly good at performing while e Lived Experience Chris Frederick Jul 6 5 min read Social Media Ban for Kids: There is More to it Than You May Think I’m eight years old and I receive my first phone. I am discovering social media, there is COVID, and I experience bursts of happiness in doing TikTok dances. Overthinking every comment and every “like”. “Will I get 100 likes today?” This dance, that routine, the lip sync, the newest trend. I am 10 years old, and I love seeing older girls posting makeup and hair tutorials. “I want to grow up to be just like them”. Looking at videos about beauty makes me curious and excited. Lived Experience Joana Luzi Neto Jul 3 5 min read Are We Over-Psychologising Public Health Problems? I’ve always been fascinated by the gap between what people know they should do and what they actually do. Why do some people ignore health advice, while others make lasting changes to improve their wellbeing? As a lecturer in health psychology, I spend most of the academic year teaching and supervising research on health promotion and behaviour change. We explore why people smoke, struggle to exercise regularly, attend screening appointments, or take medication as prescribed. Science & Research Daniel Gaffiero Jul 2 5 min read I Did Everything Right, But It Didn’t Pay Off I was four years old when I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder (a mental health condition characterised by anxiety about many different day-to-day situations). As an anxious kid, I became very good at performing competence, earning the “gifted kid” label. I was often bullied by my peers, so I found comfort in books, where I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I put all my efforts into academics and prided myself on being the one who always knew the answer. Lived Experience Gabrielle Paquette Jul 1 5 min read The Science of Why Art Moves Us Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist in Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, argues that our brain is not a camera that simply replicates an image. It is a creativity machine that takes incomplete information from the outside world and makes it complete. This means when you stand before a masterpiece, you're not passively observing, you're actively creating meaning. In The Age of Insight, Kandel calls this the beholder's share: a concept rooted in art history and Science & Research Diana Py Velloso Jun 30 5 min read Strength in Vulnerability: The rise of men’s sharing groups With men combating loneliness, suicide and the rise of the manosphere, Men’s groups are providing an opportunity to explore masculinity and the pressure they feel. From prison support groups to men-only hikes in nature, from dad clubs to celebrity circles, men are turning to a growing number of communities and brotherhoods to explore their identity, connect with their emotions, and voice their concerns. Lived Experience Cieran Brown Jun 29 5 min read The Swimmer — A Short Story When the swimmer pictures the lido in her mind, the summer sun is always shining, and the water looks blue and inviting. But it’s September now. Brown leaves are curling by the side of the pool, the evening sky is grey and overcast, and the water, when she jumps in, is cold. She closes her eyes, starts swimming, and waits. Short Stories Donna Ferguson Jun 26 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 What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read How Kashmir’s Shortage of Psychiatrists Leaves Patients Misdiagnosed In the villages and towns of Indian-administered Kashmir, mental illness often arrives disguised as something else. People complain of racing heartbeats, chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, stomach discomfort, and fear. Many spend months, and sometimes years, visiting hospitals convinced they are suffering from heart disease or another physical illness. They undergo repeated tests, collect folders full of prescriptions, and move from one doctor to another in search of ans Irfan Amin Malik Aug 27 5 min read The Gold in the Cracks I learned to live two lives before I learned much else. My mother had schizophrenia. I was a child and did not know what the word meant. What I knew was that some months she did not get out of bed, and I fed myself. My dad drank his sorrows away. I remember him coming home drunk, and my brothers and I learning to disappear. In that house, invisibility was how you stayed safe. That was the first life. Manuel Gomez Aug 24 6 min read Care-Experienced Young People Shaping Mental Health Research This piece was written by researchers at University College London (Havovi Khareghat and Eva Sprecher) and lived-experience advisors (Clo H, Valerie, Ace Garmodon & Alfie-James Waring) from the ReThink programme. ReThink is a UKRI-funded research project that explored what makes a difference to the mental health of care-experienced young people (who have grown up in ‘state care’ e.g., foster care or children’s homes) moving through early and late adolescence. Havovi Khareghat Aug 20 5 min read Men’s Grooming and Mental Health: Why the Routine Matters I'm Adam, a 28-year-old lad from Nottingham, and I'm the founder of Kick The Stigma — a male grooming brand on a mission to support men's mental health. That sentence probably sounds a bit unusual: a hair product brand and mental health support in the same breath. But stick with me, because the two are more connected than you might think. My journey didn’t start with products. Growing up, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of love, joy and support. Adam Hyland Aug 19 6 min read Weathering the Storm of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria “Drama Queen” “Forever a victim”“She’s doing the ‘woe is me’ act again” “She’s having another hissy fit." These were just some of the things I grew up hearing about myself – and continue to. In hindsight, remarks like these were thinly veiled commentary that people saw me as too sensitive, too emotional, too moody - and too easily hurt by the things they did or said. Emma Green Aug 18 5 min read Discovering the “I” in Impact “If you’ve spoken to me for even 5 minutes, you know I stammer. What you don’t know, unless you stammer too, is what I’ve undergone in the 5 decades I’ve been a stammerer”. This was how I started the message I sent to friends and family when sharing my recent ITM article, Stammering: An Invisible Handicap. In the piece, I shared my lifelong experience as a stammerer and spoke about ways in which those who stammer can be treated with more acceptance and compassion. Manan Dhuldhoya Aug 11 5 min read The Link Between OCD & My Eating Disorder The first thing most people learn about me is my résumé. As a professor with a decent public profile, I’m easy to Google. What most people don’t know is that I’m quite overwhelmed. It’s not the job that does it. It’s the mental health condition I’ve been living with since 1997: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Oh, and there’s also my eating disorder. OCD brings unwanted, cycling thoughts that counter my values and invites compulsive mental/physical behaviours. Marek Muller Aug 5 5 min read The Food Writer Who Couldn't Eat I once spent three hours describing a tasting menu built around fermented citrus and smoked seafood while secretly feeling nauseous and craving plain buttered toast. That contradiction defined both my career and my life. I was living with undiagnosed conditions that affected everything, even if I did not yet have the language to understand them. For years, I had built my reputation as a food writer. Beth Rush Aug 4 5 min read Three Generations, Persistent Patterns Growing up in a three-generation South Asian household alongside my paternal grandparents, parents, and siblings, I recognise many of these fragments reflected in our interactions, patterns of thinking, values, and behaviours: a difficulty communicating openly, discomfort with emotional expression, a reluctance to accept help during times of struggle, a desire to control the uncontrollable, and a tendency towards chronic people-pleasing. Sanaa Chughtai Aug 3 5 min read What Does Social Media Say About Perinatal Mental Health? "But doctor, that's not what it says on the internet." This is something a patient being treated for bipolar disorder told my colleague Juan during a routine consultation. She wasn't challenging his advice; she was telling him what she had read on social media and asking how it fit with his recommendations. That one sentence stayed with him since and sent us both down a rabbit hole. Nuria Laherrán Cantera Jul 29 5 min read Muslim Women Are Not Victims “I don’t understand why I have to put a stole to cover myself up,” I said, horrified. I was fourteen, with simmering teenage anger, making sense of the world and not liking the position Muslim women were often put into. I had clarity; if you want to wear something, you wear it, whether Hijab or dresses, and if you don’t like something you don’t wear it. But my extended family was insistent that it was the ‘right’ age for me to start covering up, a narrative common for many Mu Varisha Tariq Jul 28 5 min read How Stoicism Became My Antidote For Anxiety Growing up, I thought Dad was stoic. He always managed to keep his emotions in check, even when he was diagnosed with Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy, alongside my uncle and aunt. Even as he watched them pass away and felt his own muscles atrophy until he couldn’t leave the house anymore, he kept a stiff upper lip like the British men of his generation had been taught to do by their fathers. When Dad died in 2025, I thought about his stoicism and how I was going to cope with the Jamie Ryder Jul 27 5 min read Spinning Plates: Managing my Physical and Mental Health I am 66 years old. I have had bipolar since the age of 21. (Bipolar is a condition where a person’s mood may go high or low). I have written three times before on this platform: about diagnostic overshadowing, about mixed affective states, and about living with a serious mental health condition. As well as bipolar, I have developed several physical health conditions. I have ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory bowel disease). I have also experienced two lymphomas. Angela Merriott Jul 22 5 min read Why Writing Became My Most Reliable Mental Health Routine People are often surprised when I tell them that writing became one of the healthiest things in my life. From the outside, I have always seemed like someone doing okay. I joke a lot, laugh easily, and rarely let uncomfortable emotions sit visibly on my face for too long. Humour became my survival tool long before writing did. Whenever friends tried checking in on me emotionally, I usually brushed it off with jokes. Israel Temmie Jul 21 5 min read Why Survivors Don’t Need to Be Inspirational I left an abusive marriage. Four turbulent years later, their father abducted them, taking them out of the country and out of my reach for more than two years. When they finally came home, we were no longer the same people. In the aftermath, I began writing our story in the margins of my life, after work, before school events, and between counselling sessions, trying to make sense of what had happened to us. Lizbeth Meredith Jul 16 5 min read On Rethinking Victimhood I was called a survivor before I understood the word, and styled as a victim long after I stopped recognising myself in it. I am Srijani, a writer, poet and educator based in India. Being a neurodivergent survivor myself, I have expressed my thoughts on victimhood and the perspectives on it in my article. I hope this helps you understand and navigate what victimhood is and how it stands in the socio-cultural, emotional and psychological contexts we live in. Srijani Mitra Jul 15 5 min read Victims Don’t Owe Us Their Trauma Stories Israel did not allow foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip as it carried out its genocide. In their absence, every person with internet access became a war correspondent. Civilians filmed their ruined homes; fathers stood for photos holding plastic bags containing the remains of their children. A little girl named Renad shared Instagram Reels of recipes made from the rations received in aid packages. Eloise Stark Jul 14 5 min read The Politics of the “Perfect Victim” Many of us would like to think that we always believe the survivors first. That we sympathise with them. But often, what we really believe in is the idea of the “perfect victim.” Victimhood, at least publicly, sometimes comes with unwritten rules. There are expectations people place upon survivors, things they expect to see that qualify someone as believable. You are expected to be visibly hurt, emotionally open and undeniably vulnerable. Your pain has to look recognisable bu Shelley Paterson Jul 13 5 min read All That I Lost to Rugby On a spring day in 2023, I was subbed on at half-time in a rugby game between my university team and the British Army. Two minutes into the second half, I clashed heads with a teammate and briefly lost consciousness. When I came to, I realised something felt very wrong. My first thought was about the exams I had in two months. In the end, the exams went smoothly, and I returned to rugby within 2 months. Tony Cowen Jul 10 5 min read Easier Said Than Done Lifestyle advice has become almost inseparable from conversations about mental health. Open a newspaper, scroll through social media, or visit a health website, and the message is strikingly consistent: exercise regularly, eat well, sleep properly, reduce alcohol, stay connected. These recommendations are usually well-intentioned and evidence-based. Yet for people living with severe mental illness (SMI), they can feel strangely out of reach. Marianne Inglis Jul 9 5 min read OCD: Lived & Research Experience on Attachment and Recovery Amidst growing discourse surrounding mental health, there is one condition that, I feel, has been left out. That condition is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The condition has been discussed previously on Inspire The Mind, both in regard to avoidance and reproductive care and first-hand, lived experience. I strongly recommend reading these pieces to get a fuller understanding of the condition. Joel Bates Jul 8 4 min read Men are Struggling with Loneliness and Isolation. So We Did Something About It. I want to ask you a question. How many close friends do you have? And I mean close friends - friends you could call at 11pm in an emergency and they’d pick-up the phone. Friends who know the things about you which you don’t post on social media. My name is Tom Stroud, and I’m the co-founder of the Shoulder to Shoulder men’s community. In this article, I talk about why feeling connected to others is the most important factor in long-term health and happiness. Tom Stroud Jul 7 5 min read I Learned Masculinity from Silence — And No One Noticed Just a few weeks ago, before speaking on a panel for Black Inclusion Week, I suffered a major panic attack. From the outside, nobody would have known. The “Mental Health Jedi” public persona still worked perfectly well. But internally, I felt completely drained — anxious, overwhelmed, and emotionally flat. Not dramatic, not visibly distressed, just… absent. The strange thing is, that feeling wasn’t new to me. Over the years, I’ve become particularly good at performing while e Chris Frederick Jul 6 5 min read Social Media Ban for Kids: There is More to it Than You May Think I’m eight years old and I receive my first phone. I am discovering social media, there is COVID, and I experience bursts of happiness in doing TikTok dances. Overthinking every comment and every “like”. “Will I get 100 likes today?” This dance, that routine, the lip sync, the newest trend. I am 10 years old, and I love seeing older girls posting makeup and hair tutorials. “I want to grow up to be just like them”. Looking at videos about beauty makes me curious and excited. Joana Luzi Neto Jul 3 5 min read I Did Everything Right, But It Didn’t Pay Off I was four years old when I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder (a mental health condition characterised by anxiety about many different day-to-day situations). As an anxious kid, I became very good at performing competence, earning the “gifted kid” label. I was often bullied by my peers, so I found comfort in books, where I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I put all my efforts into academics and prided myself on being the one who always knew the answer. Gabrielle Paquette Jul 1 5 min read Strength in Vulnerability: The rise of men’s sharing groups With men combating loneliness, suicide and the rise of the manosphere, Men’s groups are providing an opportunity to explore masculinity and the pressure they feel. From prison support groups to men-only hikes in nature, from dad clubs to celebrity circles, men are turning to a growing number of communities and brotherhoods to explore their identity, connect with their emotions, and voice their concerns. Cieran Brown Jun 29 5 min read The Power of Addiction I am writing this piece as I believe that navigating addiction within a family is a unique experience that only those who have lived through it can truly understand. I hope these reflections offer some hope to others walking the same path. If anyone came across my family now, you would never be able to tell what we have been through. And although our bond is so unique and tight, our past cannot go unnoticed. In my case, things were different from the beginning. Even though, a Anonymous Jun 24 5 min read The Software Crash: What it feels like when your body shuts down My name is Liam Virgo, and I am an advocate for functional neurological disorder (FND), pushing to raise awareness for this life-changing condition. For the past ten years, I have been fighting a quiet, gruelling war to reclaim my body and my identity after a sudden illness turned my teenage world upside down. While the physical realities of severe FND are devastating, the profound mental health struggles, emotional scars. Liam Virgo Jun 22 5 min read Claw Marks in my Memories: Healing from childhood loneliness I’ve noticed something weird, the last few years: people think I’m friendly. I’m referred to as outgoing, and even, occasionally, extroverted. It feels like I’ve pulled off some magnificent con–because for much of my childhood, I was deeply lonely, and through my adolescence, that loneliness gave me terrible anxiety. This is a story of growth before it is anything else–mostly because I started, socially, around rock bottom. Alex Masse Jun 19 5 min read 1 2 3 4 5

Meet the team of driven and excellent editors behind Inspire the Mind. Our team comprises of clinicians, researchers, psychiatrists, and marketing specialists from King's College London, who are passionate about mental health and believe in making a difference, allowing scientific information to be accessible to everyone. Who Are We? Inspire the Mind is a digital magazine at the intersection of mental health research, lived experience, and society. At a time when mental health is widely discussed but not always well understood, we offer a trusted, evidence-based perspective, bringing research into conversation with real-world experiences. 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. Our Mission Inspire the Mind is a digital mental health magazine, bringing together the perspectives of researchers , healthcare professionals and people with lived experience . We complement personal narratives with scientific evidence , share ongoing research and clinical work in accessible language, and explore the links between culture and mental health, to improve mental health literacy and reduce stigma . About us Our Editor-in-Chief Professor Carmine Pariante I am Professor of Biological Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, and Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I have more than 30 years of experience as a psychiatrist and more than 400 scientific publications. I like to talk about mental health to the public on The Guardian, the New Humanist, the BBC and other media outlets. My Linktree Our Team The people behind Inspire the Mind Our diverse editorial team comprises clinicians , researchers , psychiatrists , and knowledge translation specialists from King's College London , who are passionate about mental health and believe in making scientific information accessible to everyone. Melisa Kose Co-Founder / Co-Editor Courtney Worrell Co-Founder / Co-Editor Sorcha Alford Managing Editor (Content and Writers) Riddhi Laijawala Managing Editor (Social Media) Kate Hamilton Deputy Editor Giulia Lombardo Assistant Editor Caitlin Pentland Assistant Editor Luca Sforzini Assistant Editor Frances Weston Assistant Editor Tony Woods Managing Editor (Finances) Zuzanna Zajkowska Assistant Editor Francesca Mancino Assistant Editor Madeline Kirkpatrick Assistant Editor Samrina Sangha Assistant Editor Layecha Fidahoussen Assistant Editor Nuriza Tukiran Assistant Editor Camila Ribeiro Perez Assistant Editor Suvi Pushpakanthan Assistant editor Aeron Kim Assistant Editor Kierra Morris Assistant Editor

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 Long Way Home Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey contains all the elements of an epic: gods, monsters, storms, shipwrecks and spectacular battles. Yet the part that stayed with me was much quieter. It was Odysseus’s growing recognition that victory in war may be an illusion, and that even a victorious soldier can return carrying profound psychological wounds. Matt Damon’s Odysseus is celebrated as the brilliant strategist who conceived the Trojan Horse and brought a ten-year war to an end. Tony Woods Aug 14 6 min read The Curse of Being a Lover Girl: The Fantasy of Being Chosen Before many women even know who they are, they already know what it feels like to long for love. Girls grow up consuming love stories long before they ever experience love itself. Five-year-old me already dreamed about my future wedding and the white princess dress I would wear. Many of us spent our early teens creating Pinterest wedding boards, singing along to Taylor Swift heartbreak anthems, watching Snow White and Aurora being kissed awake by their true love, and imaginin Caroline Lackner Aug 12 5 min read The Haaland Effect: Men in Sports Are Changing the Narrative I’ll admit, I’m not normally the target audience for the Men’s World Cup. I don’t really care for team sports and am rarely motivated by competition. And yet, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the football this year. Not because of a sudden love of the sport, but because of the players themselves. My Instagram feed has been full of videos of Erling Haaland, the Man City player on Norway’s World Cup team. And I’m not the only one. It seems women everywhere are loving the “Stri Niamh Alford Jul 24 5 min read ‘Tis Season of Whimsy: But What Does This Really Mean to be Whimsical? It seems that my social media feed is full of the word ‘whimsy’ at the moment. Move over nonchalance, welcome whimsy. It’s being covered on Instagram and Tiktok. It’s being picked up by podcasters. But what is it really? According to the Cambridge English dictionary, the word whimsy refers to ‘unusual, funny, and pleasant ideas or qualities.’ It ties in well with imaginative, playful ideas that aren’t particularly serious or profound. Riddhi Laijawala May 13 4 min read Leonardo da Vinci: The Power of Creativity - Art & Science United On April 15, we celebrate the birthday and legacy of Leonardo da Vinci, a true Renaissance master whose boundless curiosity bridged art, science, and invention. With an extraordinary talent for observation, he redefined creativity, leaving a timeless imprint as both an artist and a scientist, inspiring generations to come. In his research projects he showed us that creativity is born from infinite curiosity, from observing the world closely, and from being a good friend of ti Diana Py Velloso Apr 15 5 min read World Bipolar Disorder Day: Van Gogh, Between Light and Storm Today, on International Bipolar Disorder Day, we celebrate not only awareness of the condition, but also the birthday and legacy of one of the most brilliant minds in art history: Vincent van Gogh. Public understanding of mental health has grown significantly in recent decades; however, during Van Gogh’s lifetime, emotional vulnerability was often silenced and left unsupported. Diana Py Velloso Mar 30 5 min read What is Timothée Chalamet Missing about Ballet and Opera? A recent comment actor Timothée Chalamet made about ballet and opera in a recent interview with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey for Variety has dominated the headlines in the past few weeks. The Oscar-nominated Hollywood star has faced a strong backlash in response to his presumptuous remark that people no longer care about these art-forms – unlike they do about cinema. Some even speculated this misstep cost him the Academy Award for Best Actor for his leading role in Marty Francesca Mancino Mar 24 5 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 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 4 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... Jo UBO 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 1 2 3 4

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 Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read The Perinatal Journey Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read Behind the Science Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read Creativity and Balance Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read Rachel Kelly's Column Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read Hattie Gladwell Column Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read Our Series Maternal Mental Health Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read Fatherhood & Men's Mental Health Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read Psych Stars Read More Could Low Brain Iron Levels Help Explain Schizophrenia? I have always wanted to understand how the brain works. When I was 6, my grandfather had a serious stroke. This always witty, happy, active man became quiet, sad, and unable to move the left side of his body. He stopped eating to try to end his life several times but was kept alive with feeding tubes until he passed 5 years later. Soon after, I came across the author Oliver Sacks. His books taught me that the brain doesn't just support who we are; it is who we are. Science & Research Luke Vano 3 days ago 5 min read What Actually Helps: Evidence-Based Strategies for Managing ADHD ADHD diagnoses in England have risen sharply since 2020, though diagnosis still lags behind estimated prevalence. But for many, diagnosis is just the beginning. While finally having an explanation for years of challenges can bring relief, a new question follows: What now? Understanding you have ADHD is one thing; learning how to manage it is another. I’m a therapist for ADHD, with ADHD. Before specialising in ADHD therapy, I experienced many of the challenges I now help clie Lived Experience Laura Huddart 4 days ago 5 min read Your Twenties Are for Mistakes Unless Anxiety Gets In The Way You think your twenties are going to follow the shape of New Girl or Sex and the City. You forget most of these characters are in their thirties because that doesn’t fit the narrative, and your twenties are all about the narrative. You’re expecting an eclectic gut-punch of a decade, but there’s probably still a worrying amount of quiet. Give yourself a little more time because, well, 2020 happened, and more worldly events seem to keep happening on top of it. Lifestyle & Relationships Chloe Johnson 4 days ago 5 min read