Recently I took part in a new podcast focusing on health for older gay and bisexual men* and I’ve been reflecting on how we talk about mental health, or maybe more accurately how we can start conversations about mental health. In some areas it can feel like we’re making a lot of progress, but according to the Mental Health charity, Mind, there has been a gradual annual decline in mental health since 2016 - 17 and stigma and discrimination around mental health is increasing. S

Every time someone tells a counsellor they used ChatGTP for advice with their mental health, a little part of us dies. OK, I’m exaggerating but people using AI to try to figure something out or to help them cope in a mental health crisis seems to be increasing. At this point, 37% of adults in the UK have used AI in this way. More than a third! While the immediacy (and accessibility) of AI ‘mental health support’ can be appealing, it comes with it some pretty big negatives tha

I’ve talked before about mental health in the LGBTQ+ community and how as a result of society we are more at risk of poor mental health outcomes. While things have generally been going in a positive direction and we have made some tremendous strides over the last few decades, we have gone from being first place out of 49 European countries for LGBTQIA+ equality in 2015 to number 22. The UK Supreme Court ruling on trans equality in 2025 and recent publication of the EHRC Guida

We’re approaching the bank holiday and with the nice weather predicted many of us are planning to get outside for a bit. Whether it’s staying with friends in a mysterious (but cheap) cabin in the woods, taking a walk in a park, or just tackling some weeds in the garden, conventional wisdom tells us that getting out in the fresh air is good for us. What is it about it that benefits our mental health? Surrounding ourselves with nature and away from the pressures of day to day l

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. An annual event organised by the Mental Health Foundation to draw attention to mental health and good practice for looking after ourselves and others. It’s previously focused on topics like Community, Body Image, and Nature and this year the theme is “Action”, acknowledging that while awareness is important, taking action is when positive change happens. We’re invited to take action in some way to improve our own mental health, the m

If there’s one thing that unites us as a species, it's that, no matter who we are, we all get older. All the money in the world and all the surgical procedures it can use to try to hide it doesn’t change the fact that our body changes with the years. We can do what we can with a healthy diet and lots of exercise, but sometimes it can be a bit of a genetics lottery and some of us will remain healthier than others even if they don’t especially look after themselves. Getting ol

In one of my volunteer roles I provide counselling to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers so, as you might imagine, I was pretty appalled by some recent reporting from the BBC suggesting that there are huge numbers of ‘fake’ LGBT asylum seekers exploiting a ‘loophole’ in the system. While the investigation did discover unethical advisors exploiting people seeking asylum, framing this as demonstrative of a wider issue in our already challenging asylum system is, frankly, racist dogwhistle b

As I write this, the Strait of Hormuz is closed and we seem locked into oil prices and the price of everything connected with them (which feels like just about everything) continuing to skyrocket. It’s completely out of our control, and we can anticipate being under even more financial pressure and face even more challenges making ends meet in the weeks and months to come. I’ve talked in the past about the link between financial stress and poor mental health. It’s a loop and

“What did your parents not give you?” It was a question that came up earlier in the week in a supervision session* and it’s really stuck with me. It sounds so ominous, doesn’t it? Most people are aware of attachment styles, but our early experiences can have such a pervasive influence on so much of the rest of our life we can sometimes nod a general agreement of the principle and then get a surprise when we’re forced to face a difficult reality. Our needs as children are pre

Yes , practicing gratitude. I can feel the cringing from here, but trust me on this! When we’re feeling low it can be harder to notice anything else; all we can see is things that support that negative view of things. It’s like we have blinkers on and we find it hard to see anything else. Clinical depression makes that even more difficult, with the depressive filter over everything and sucking us dry. But there are things we can do day to day to help challenge that. More on t

Legend of UK comedy and now mental health advocate* Ruby Wax once asked ‘How do you want me?” It’s so easy to prioritise what other people need from us or how we imagine they want us to be over our own needs or what might be better for us. DC comics character Harley Quinn is a bit of a poster child for that behaviour and a journey out of it. For a lot of us this can be a habit and maybe even one that we’re not even sure how it started, but we know that we do it. And we know t

Life can be pretty tough sometimes. The news is telling us that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, prices for just about everything are going through the roof and job security feels worse than ever. Things can come out of nowhere that challenge us and feel overwhelming. But there are people who are important to us, who inspire us in some way and give us strength in difficult times. Often these are people who have changed the world in some way and made a difference, b

Whether you’re raising a child or multiple children with a partner or on your own, children are hard work. As Edwina Monsoon from the BBC’s Absolutely Fabulous once lamented: “They make you think about someone else the whole time!” These days it’s rare for someone to be able to be a stay-at-home parent, so we have to fit that and all the associated responsibilities around the need to earn a living. On top of that there’s societies expectations about how we should behave as p

A few weeks ago we took a look at some “mental health truths” from the depths of reddit and I thought it would be worth a sequel. I was original inspired by a thread on reddit about 'mental heath truths' that seem cruel but there's an element of truth to them. Naturally lots of people on the internet have lots of opinions (about everything!) but I thought it could be interesting to take a look at some fo the top voted comments. For our sequel post, let’s start with a big one

Right now, there’s a lot going on in the world and it feels like there are fresh injustices every day. A.I. is taking jobs and ravaging our environment, our politicians and the super rich seem to get away with anything, and just recently the U.S has recklessly started another illegal war which some news sources are excitedly hyping as a precursor to a nuclear apocalypse. Not being evil and actually giving a damn about what's happening can feel pretty exhausting sometimes Just

There’s been lot of discussion in the media this week around how John Davidson, someone who has the form of Tourette Syndrome (TS) with involuntary verbal tics was heard to use offensive language towards two actors of colour at the BAFTA awards. There have been plenty of hot takes and opinion on how things should have been handled and what is more upsetting; the monstering of someone with a disability when steps were taken at the event to inform the audience and minimise disr

Money, or perhaps more accurately not having it, can be scary. Money is after all fundamentally how we look after ourselves as adults, keep a roof over our heads, stay alive. Managing our money and staying on top of things in the busy world that we live in can feel overwhelming, particularly if we’ve had challenges with money in the past, or we’re having money difficulties at the moment. It's no surprise that money issues and mental health issues are strongly interlinked. Ope

We all know we’re supposed to exercise and stay active to stay healthy, and most counsellors will encourage their clients to be more active. But sometimes exercising, whether that’s doing it in the house, doing a routine at the gym or going to an exercise class dpesn’t have the miracle impact we want it to have. We might feel embarrassed or self conscious, frustrated and wind up making ourselves feel terrible. What is contributing to this and what can we do about it? Exhibit

I bumped into an interesting Reddit thread the other day about mental health, specifically “What’s a truth about mental health that sounds cruel but is still real?” It’s a bit of a loaded question, but naturally the people of reddit had a lot to say. This is an area where lots of people have an opinion, based on their own bad experiences, or, I suppose bluntly, from their own bad or outdated opinions. I’ve grabbed a few of the top voted suggestions below. "Your mental health

It’s finally arrived! The end of January! Over the month we’ve looked at checking in with our mood, looking after ourselves when things are more strained and the infamous (and inaccurate, but you get the idea) ‘Blue Monday’. We may have had to tighten our drawstrings and make sacrifices to get through it but here we are, we made it, for many of us it’s payday at last! So now what? While it’s tempting to just crack on with things, I want to encourage you to treat yourself! You