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Why Is Looking After Your Mental Health Embarrassing?

My favourite section of any bookshop has long been the self-help section. I love reading books on wellness and mindfulness and anxiety, basically anything to do with improving your mental wellbeing. For a long time I was always a little nervous of heading into that quiet corner of the shop. What if someone saw the books I was looking at and wondered what was ‘wrong’ with me? More recently I was sitting on the bus with a guided meditation app playing in my earphones when it suddenly occurred to me to make sure that the screen was off so that…

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Mental Health Patient Or Homicidal Maniac?

When I think about films about mental health I think One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Next, Hannibal and Psycho. Although I’ve read the former, I haven’t seen it, however I have seen and loved the latter two. These are great films, classics and in different ways, they are scary. Scary because of institutionalisation, insanity and confused identities. I watched these two films before I had a real interest in mental health, before my views had been changed my research and making an effort to find things out myself. I think these films are wonderful, they are some of my favourites,…

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Stop Deciding Who Can Be Mentally Ill [TW: suicide]

Trigger Warning: Suicide Disclaimer: Even though it’s going to be very obvious who I’m referring to in this post, I don’t want to name names because I don’t think it’s necessary. Recently a high profile singer committed suicide. In the days that followed there was an outpouring of grief across social media and seemingly an increased awareness of depression and mental health. It appeared that something good had come out of such a tragedy. All over social media, people were actually talking about depression rather than shying away from it. There were statuses from people letting others know that they…

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How To Help Someone With A Mental Illness

When someone confides in you that they have a mental illness, it can seem insurmountable. What can you say to make anything better? What can you do? Sometimes the answer is nothing. But here are some teeny tiny suggestions to make things that little bit easier for them: Listen Don’t judge Make sure they have food in Make a cup of tea Be patient Ask what you can do to help Attend an appointment with them Ask if they need any phone calls/appointments arranging If someone you love has recently been diagnosed with a mental illness, then you might not…

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