Welcome to episode 231 with Krystal Evans who is a writer and stand-up comedian. Krystal is also the author of The Hottest Girl at Burn Camp, a memoir about growing up poor in America, living with a mentally ill mother and narrowly escaping a house fire that led to the unimaginable tragedy of losing her sister. In this episode I chat to Krystal about the chaos of her childhood, the impact of constantly moving from place to place, changing schools and repeatedly starting over and how identity and a sense of place are important for how we come to understand ourselves and build a foundation for good mental health. We chat about what it’s like to grow up in an unpredictable household, why things like blame and responsibility get complicated when it comes to family and how everyone assumes a traumatic childhood automatically leads to a messed-up adult. We also chat about the housefire that Krystal survived when she was 14, the process of finding comedy in that tragedy and how she wrote about it for her comedy special and her book. Krystal’s book is funny and heart breaking and a lot of other things too and it was a pleasure to chat to her all about it. Follow Krystal @krystalevanscomedy and learn more at www.comedykrystal.com The Hottest Girl at Burn Camp is available here: Buy the Book | Krystal Evans You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 230 with Sophie Scott, who is a practicing transpersonal psychotherapist and the Founder of Balance, an award-winning wellness media brand working to bring mental and physical wellbeing to the masses. Sophie is also the author of ‘You Are Not Alone in This’ a book aimed at the partners, parents, siblings and children of people who are suffering, that offers practical ideas on how to support a loved one with their mental health without losing your own. In this episode I chat to Sophie about her own experience of growing up around mental illness and having to support family members through challenging times and how that inspired her book. We chat about how to start difficult conversations, how to be there for someone and the messy feelings that come with caring for someone you love. We talk about burnout, compassion fatigue, cognitive distortions, warning signs and safety plans and taking a holistic approach to mental health. This is an important part of the mental health conversation that is neglected and forgotten about and as someone who’s mental health has played havoc with his family over the years, I know full well how useful knowing some of this stuff would have been for the people in my life when I was unwell. I stumbled across Sophie’s book in my local library and knew straight away that it would make an impactful and insightful episode.  It’s a wonderful book, with loads of ideas and tools, and I highly recommend giving it a read! Follow Sophie on social media @sophie.b.scott Learn more about her work and book here:  www.sophiescott.co You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 229 with Glyn Butcher, who is a member of the People Focused Group in Doncaster and an Ambassador for the Citizen Network. Growing up Glyn experienced racism, abuse, poverty and discrimination on a daily basis.  When he was 11 his Mum was sectioned under the mental health act and not long after that he left to school to care for her at home. He spent his youth bouncing in and out of care homes and his adulthood bouncing around the mental health system and spent 39 years as part of one institution or another and struggling with suicide, self-harm and addiction. Things started to change for Glyn when he was introduced to the People Focused Group, an organisation that embraces a new way to deliver support in the community, based on people power and since experiencing true peer support, Glynn hasn’t looked back. In this episode Glyn guides me through the challenges and trauma of his early life and how he ended up trapped in the mental health system. We chat about his path to the People Focus Group, what happened when he got there and the incredible work that he does now. We chat about hearing voices, the power of community, taking back control, meeting people where they are at and why Glyn has come to see his experiences with mental illness as a gift. And we talk about the work that PFG are doing in and around Doncaster and how they are harnessing the power of the local community to do things differently to not just change lives, but to empower people to save themselves. Glyn is an incredible human being!  It was a privilege and a joy to chat to him and it’s impossible to spend time in his company and not feel inspired and hopeful. If, like me, you’re a bit cynical of World Mental Health Day and you want to cut through the noise and the performance of it all, then this is a conversation that you need to hear. Follow Glyn on Twitter @glynbutcher Learn more about the incredible things happening at PFG here: https://peoplefocused.org.uk You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 228 with Dr Eugene Lipov, who is an anaesthesiologist and pain physician and a leading expert in treating post-traumatic stress. When advanced brain scans revealed trauma’s invisible scars on the brain, Dr Lipov realised that if trauma could be seen, then it could be treated and he became the pioneer of using a stellate ganglion block to alleviate the symptoms of PTSD, a procedure that is so impactful that it has been nicknamed ‘The God Shot’ by a Royal Marine who received the treatment. The stellate ganglion is a cluster of sympathetic nerves in the neck that plays a big part in the body’s fight or flight response and it’s this upregulated state that can become hypersensitive in people who have experienced trauma or have a diagnosis of PTSD. A stellate ganglion block (SGB) is a medical procedure that involves injecting a local anaesthetic in to these nerves, which essentially turns off the stress response, and allows the nervous system to reset to a less anxious state. In this episode, Dr Lipov joins me to talk about this revolutionary procedure, how he came to work with it and the science behind how it works. We chat about his own experiences with trauma and how they informed and inspired his passion for this work and he breaks down the myths around treatment of trauma and PTSD that keep people trapped and offers his take on real healing and full recovery. And we chat about the physiology of trauma, how trauma can be contagious and passed between generations, ending stigma through science and looking at trauma as a physical injury and not a mental weakness. You can learn more about Dr Lipov’s work at Dr. Eugene Lipov | Stellate Ganglion Treatment for PTSD His book The God Shot.  Healing Trauma’s Legacy: The Science, the Stories, the Solution is out next year and available for pre order here: The God Shot | By Dr. Eugene Lipov and Lauren Ungeldi Follow Dr Lipov on social media @dreugenelipov You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 227 with Angus Collins, an endurance athlete and adventurer who has rowed across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, setting multiple records in the process. He is the youngest man to row three oceans and is thought of as one of the world’s most successful rowers and he achieved all of this while battling his own mental health, taking on these incredible challenges to avoid facing up to himself. His struggles with depression would eventually lead to a suicide attempt on his 30th birthday. We talk about all of that in this episode, how we started rowing and how these incredible challenges became a way of avoiding his mental health, how he came to the edge of taking his own life, how he got help and what came next. This year he set out on A Great British Odyssey, an attempt to become the first person to row solo and unsupported around mainland Great Britain. A run of bad luck, unexpected challenges and equipment failure left Angus stranded and with Storm Floris brewing, and both the physical and mental weight of the challenge building up, he made the incomprehensible decision to call it off. A journey that originally appeared to be one of physical endurance and mental toughness became an inspirational display of vulnerability and of asking for help when life just gets too much. In this episode I chat to Angus about his passion for adventure and endurance and how rowing across oceans helped him to avoid getting help with his mental health. And Angus takes me through his Great British Odyssey, everything that led to him calling it off and how that affected him mentally, both at the time and since getting back on dry land. And we chat about men’s mental health in general, reframing failure, masculinity, real vulnerability and the true meaning of resilience. I followed Angus’ journey around the British coastline on social media and I was absolutely blown away by the physical aspect but it was the way that he faced the end of the challenge that really moved me.  There’s a lot of talk around men’s mental health but not much action and a lot of the words used, particularly around vulnerability, and asking for help, are thrown around as if this stuff is easy. To see Angus completely going through it, and making the hardest but bravest of decisions, was nothing short of inspirational and it was wonderful to get the opportunity to chat about all of that with him. Follow Angus @anguscollinsbe and learn more at www.beyondendurance.co.uk You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 226 with Nick Ray, who is a sea kayaker, wild walker and adventurer who also lives with treatment resistant depression and is a suicide attempt survivor. Nick has undertaken many adventures by sea and over land.  Throughout 2022 and into 2023 he undertook a 12-month solo sea kayak journey around Scotland, paddling over 3000 miles. This year he walked 1000 miles, over three months to reach each of Scotland’s four corners. In this episode Nick joins me to talk about these expeditions, what they’ve taught him and the struggles with depression that have inspired and informed his adventures. We chat about how his upbringing in Zimbabwe that sowed the seeds for a life time of adventure, his experiences with depression and how his mental health has impacted his life over the years. We also chat about some of the incredible insights he has gained from undertaking these challenges and spending weeks at a time on his own and submerged in nature. We chat about hopelessness and hospital stays and we chat about the power of solitude, the beauty of nature, embodying change and the joy of living simply and quietly. It was a joy to chat to Nick and I found him to be insightful and wise and really lovely man.  This conversation offers up a lot to think about! Follow Nick on Instagram @nick_lifeafloat and X @Lifeafloat More info about his adventures, writing and speaking can be found at www.lifeafloat.co.uk You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 225 with Phil Borges, a documentary photographer and filmmaker, recognised for his documentation of indigenous peoples and tribal cultures, with a particular focus on Tibet, human rights, and women's empowerment issues.  His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. While Phil was documenting the various human rights abuses faced by tribal and indigenous cultures around the world, he began to meet their healers and visionaries-the people we often refer to as shamans. He was surprised to learn that many of the shamans he met had been identified in their youth as ‘being gifted’ by having visions, hearing voices and experiencing intense mood swings-what we would call a psychotic episode. His documentary ‘Crazywise’ explores the growing severity of a global mental health crisis that is dominated by biomedical psychiatry and looks at some the ways that indigenous peoples’ acceptance of non-ordinary states of consciousness, along with rituals and metaphors that form deep connections to nature, to each other, and to ancestors, is something we can learn from. In this episode Phil joins me to chat about his journey from dentist school in San Francisco to photographing the emerging hippie movement of the 1960’s and how this led him to exploring and documenting tribal and indigenous cultures around the world. We talk about meeting the Dalai Lama and the differences in how mental illness is viewed and treated in different cultures compared to our approach in the West. And we talk about connection, compassion, community, what can happen when we reframe mental breakdown as a spiritual awakening and how he brought all of these ideas together for his documentary. Watch Crazywise here:  CRAZYWISE – Documentary Film Learn more about Phil here:  Home | PHIL BORGES PRODUCTIONS storytelling for social change Phil has several Tedx talks that you can watch here: Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening: Phil Borges at TEDxUMKC - YouTube You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 224 with Karla Chubb, who is a singer, guitarist and songwriter in Sprints. Sprints formed in Dublin in 2019 and quickly became known for their explosive, cathartic, and incredibly powerful live performances.  After a series of EP’s, they released their debut album in 2024 to great critical acclaim.  The follow up ‘All That is Over’ is out this month. In this episode I’m joined by Karla to chat about the origins of Sprints, their relentless touring schedule and life on the road in general. We chat about her experiences with depression when she started college, how resisting her sexual identity exacerbated her mental state and how she has come up against her mental health through the years since then. And we chat about dealing with internalised battles, finding the vocabulary to talk about and understand mental health, creativity as an outlet and balancing energy levels as an introvert while being the front person of a rock band. The first Sprints album was one of my favourite records of last year and I am very excited to hear the new one so it was wonderful to chat to Karla about all of it! For all things Sprints, the new record and upcoming tour dates head to www.sprintsmusic.com and follow @sprintsmusic You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 223 with Dr MaryCatherine McDonald, who is a research professor and life coach who specialises in the psychology and philosophy of trauma. Her work focuses on thinking critically about how we understand, define, and heal from traumatic experiences. Her newest book, The Joy Reset is a ground breaking, accessible guide to identifying the key ways trauma prevents joy and hope, with strategies for healing. In this episode I’m joined by MC to chat about her research in to trauma and how things look different when we use both a psychological and a philosophical lens. We chat about misunderstanding joy and the different forms this emotion can take and we talk about how joy interacts with trauma and the research and that informs this work. MC also guides me through the neuroscience of The Hope Circuit and The Fear Circuit and breaks down the 6 thieves of joy and what we can do about them and we discuss how all of this relates to trauma and recovery. We also chat about the nervous system, cultivating kindness, why some people resist joy, overidentifying with trauma and why it’s so important to imprint ‘tiny little joys’ every single day. This is a fascinating conversation about the complexities of trauma alongside small, actionable steps to change your relationship with it and the science and research to back it up. You can connect with Dr MaryCatherine and join her in imprinting a tiny little joy everyday this year on her social channels @mc.phd Find out more about all aspects of her work at www.drmcmcdonald.com You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 222 with Anthony Kavanagh, a singer and author who exploded onto the pop music scene in the late 90’s when his song ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ was a huge hit all over the world.  At just 18 years old he was touring with the Spice Girls and Boyzone, on the front cover of Smash Hits and countless magazines and regularly appearing on Top of the Pops. Throughout this time Anthony was keeping his sexuality a secret, slowly developing a serious drinking problem and all while trying to stay relevant in the music industry where fame can be quickly taken away and second chances are few and far between. In this episode, Anthony joins me to chat about growing up in Manchester with dreams of being a pop star and how he made those dreams a reality. We talk about Smash Hits awards, sell out tours and being a pop star and we chat about what happens when the hits stop coming and the money starts to run out. We also talk about 90’s nostalgia, the mental toll of hiding his sexuality, addiction, rehab, recovery and the beauty of finding humour and hope in the darkness. His recent book ‘Popscars: A Memoir on Fame, Addiction and the Dark Side of 90’s pop’ is one of my reads of the year so far and it was wonderful to chat about why he decided to write the book and what he learned about himself from writing down his story to share with the world. Anthony is a lovely man and it was absolutely lovely to chat!  Connect with Anthony on social media @kavana_real His book is available everywhere now and you can learn more here: Pop Scars - Bonnier Books You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 221 with Kaila Yu, a journalist, travel writer and the author of Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty. A former model, Kaila became closely associated with the import scene that took off in the late 90’s (think Fast & Furious 1) and also featured in many of the high-profile magazines of that time. In this episode Kaila joins me to chat about growing up as an Asian woman in America and how pop culture warped her sense of self-worth and mental wellbeing. We chat about her journey in to modelling, the lack of Asian representation and role models at that time, the emotional and psychological impact of being hypersexualized by media and her own journey with beauty standards self-acceptance, and healing. And we chat about Asian fetish, feminism, finding self-love and compassion, and the intersection of race, body image and mental health. Connect with Kaila on Instagram @kailayu and TikTok @kaila.yu Learn more at https://kailayu.com Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty is available everywhere, learn more at: Fetishized by Kaila Yu: 9780593728017 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 220 with Miranda Arieh, who is a mental health educator and founder of the pioneering HEROES Programme, a holistic, transformation-focused and trauma-informed approach to mental health recovery. Miranda was sectioned under the mental health act at the age of 14 and became a ‘revolving door service user’ in the NHS mental health system, bouncing in and out of foster care, homelessness and crisis. This cycle continued until a breakdown at the age of 30 forced her in to an intense period of learning, development, healing and growth and it was her experiences of the mental health system and her own journey outside of it that led to the creation of HEROES. This educational and therapeutic mental health solution has been piloted within the NHS and Miranda has supported the recovery journeys of thousands of patients across Leeds and trained more than 800 NHS and private healthcare staff. In this episode I chat to Miranda about her experiences with mental health and how these experiences inspired her groundbreaking approach to recovery. We chat about the role of lived experience, building capacity for difficult emotions, dis-identifying from your pain and how she is changing the mainstream mental health systems from the inside out. And we chat about identity, self-compassion, forgiveness, embodying change and the importance of tools, resources and actionable steps when it comes to recovery. This is powerful stuff!  It’s easy to criticize the mental health system but it’s much harder to offer up actual solutions or to make any sort of meaning change but that is exactly what Miranda is doingwith HEROES and that is both exciting and inspiring.  It was wonderful to learn more about how it works, where it came from and the impact that it’s having. You can learn more about this incredible project at https://mirandaarieh.co.uk/ Follow Miranda on social media @mirandaarieh and @heroesprogramme You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 219 with Andrew Scull, who is a sociologist whose research has centred on the social history of medicine and particularly psychiatry for more than 50 years. He is a recipient of the Roy Porter Medal for lifetime contributions to the history of medicine and the author of more than a dozen books including Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity and Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry's Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness. In this episode Andrew guides me through the history of mental illness and psychiatry. We discuss the earliest documented accounts of madness and lunacy, some of the different ways civilisation has approached the treatment of mental illness throughout history and the role of the religion and the church. We chat about the idea behind asylums, why they didn’t work and what came next. We cover surgery as treatment before the introduction of a medical approach and how some of our medications were created and began to be prescribed And we chat about the origins of lobotomy, electric shock treatment, the influence of Hitler and the Nazi’s during WW2 on early theories around genetic predisposition and what we can learn about the future of treating mental illness from studying the past. This is a huge episode and we cover an incredible amount of history in a relatively short amount of time.  I can’t thank Andrew enough for his insight and I found some of the things we covered absolutely mind blowing! You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 218 with Lauren McQuistin, who is a musician, opera singer and author of No Lost Causes Club, a memoir that explores what navigating sobriety looks like in our modern world. She is also the creator behind one of my all-time favourite mental health related meme accounts @brutalrecovery. While in her early twenties, Lauren was told that her life expectancy could be as low as twenty-five if she did not stop drinking and in this episode, she joins me to chat about her experiences with addiction and her journey towards sobriety. We chat about growing up in rural Scotland, moving to America to become an opera singer and the mental health challenges that fuelled both her music career and her relationship with alcohol. And we chat about low self-esteem, getting sober, staying sober, accepting help when you really don’t want to and how wonderful things happen when you realise that you’re just not that special. Sobriety is big right now and, on the whole, that has to be a good thing but I think that how we talk about recovery often misses the mark.  It’s not all amazing experiences, new friendships and an exciting new lifestyle – although it can be these things – it’s often messy and confusing and brutal and I love the way that Lauren talks about all the different sides of her experiences.  And if all of that can be summed up with a great meme, then I am all for it! Follow Lauren on social media @brutalrecovery Here book is available to pre-order now at No Lost Causes Club by Lauren McQuistin – HarperCollins Publishers UK You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 217 with Sam Parker, who is British GQ’s Site Director and someone who has worked in culture and lifestyle journalism for over 15 years. He is also the author of Good Anger: How Rethinking Rage Can Change Our Lives and for this episode he joins me to chat about the good bits and the bad bits of getting angry. We chat about his experiences with anxiety that led him to explore his relationship with anger and how these two complicated emotions can feed each other. We chat about the purpose of anger, how to channel to it, why getting angry can be a positive thing and the mental and physical price to be paid by repressing it. We also chat about the important difference between anger and aggression, people pleasing, racket emotions, spiritual bypassing and how anger expression differs between men and women. As a mental health podcast, the topic of anger comes up a lot!  It’s a complicated and misunderstood emotion and it was amazing to chat to Sam about his book.  He spent years researching anger and had an incredible knowledge of the subject at his finger tips and I learned a lot, not just about anger, but also about my own relationship with anger. Good Anger is available now: Good Anger: How Rethinking Rage Can Change Our Lives: Sam Parker: Green Tree You can connect with Sam on Instagram @samparkeruk and X @samparkercouk You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 216 with Adam Farrer, who is a writer, lecturer, mentor and editor. Adam’s recent book Broken Biscuits and Other Male Failures is all about his struggles to live up to masculine expectations and in this episode, we chat about what it means to be a man and what it’s like to fall short of those ideals. We chat about Adam’s route to becoming a writer, dealing with rejection along the way and following a creative path just for the love of it. We chat about why he decided to write a book about his failures, the importance of healing emotional wounds, self-acceptance and the relief that comes from engaging with who you really are. And we talk about Adams’ experiences with suicidal thoughts and how losing his brother to suicide forced him to get his own mental health in check and we chat about grief and feelings and loads of other things that men are often told they can’t talk about. I absolutely loved Adam’s book.  It’s funny and it’s emotional and I saw so many of my own regrets, failures and cringe worthy moments in his stories.   Vulnerability is something we talk about a lot in the mental health conversation and I think it’s in these everyday failures and mistakes and awkward moments where real vulnerability lies.  It’s these messy parts of being a human, that when shared, are where we can really connect and feel seen and ultimately make some sort of peace with, that allows us to move on and grow and do things differently.  That’s the sort of opening up and being vulnerable that really makes a difference and it was a joy to read the book and to chat to Adam about all of it. More about Adam’s work here: www.adamfarrer.co.uk and @adamjfarrer Broken Biscuits and Other Male Failures is available now Broken Biscuits: And other male failures by Adam Farrer – HarperCollins Publishers UK You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 215 with Dr Lisa McKenzie, who is a working class academic and anarchistic author. She is a researcher and educator whose work relates to class inequality, social justice, and British working class culture and a founding member of The Working Class Collective CIC. Lisa grew up in Nottingham, in a mining community.  After she left school, she went to work in a local factory with her Mum and her aunties and never considered going to university because it was never on the table.  After her Mum passed away, she was inspired to take an access course at the age of 33, which led to a degree and then eventually becoming a lecturer. Lisa’s work centres around class inequality because that’s what she’s experienced her whole life and, in this episode, she joins me to chat about the impact this can have on mental health. We chat about the stigma that surrounds poverty and why no one wants to talk about class and we talk about the day-to-day challenge of just about scraping by, the myth of social mobility and how damaging it is to live with the unfairness of a system that is stacked against you. We talk about the anger that comes from being ignored and let down, generational trauma and learned coping strategies and finding humour in misery as a way to cope. And we also talk about some of the wonderful things that happen in working class communities, the unseen heroes of council estates, the community coming together and the important role of storytelling in the places. You can’t talk about mental health without talking about class and it’s a part of the conversation that just isn’t happening. This is an episode I have being trying to do for some time and it was incredible to get to chat to Lisa about her experiences and her work in this space. It’s a big and complicated topic but we’re not scared by that here at Proper Mental and I’d love to hear what you take from it. Follow Lisa on X @redrumlisa and Instagram @drlisa1968 Her own book is called Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain and she has also published Lockdown Diaries of the Working Class with The Working Class Collective and you can learn more at Work Class Collective You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 214 with Cormac Russell, who is an author and social explorer. He is the Founding Director of Nurture Development and a member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute. Cormac has spent more than 20 years working all over the world training communities and professional organisations in Asset-Based Community Development and other strengths-based approaches. In this episode I chat to Cormac about his strengths based approach to community, the four modes of change and how these things impact and support good mental health. We chat about what 'helping' someone really means, the downsides to the traditional approach to supporting people who are struggling and what we can do differently as communities when we take an asset based approach and focus on what's strong instead of what's wrong. And we chat about the role of storytelling, how structural change happens at the speed of trust and why 'we don't have a health problem, we have a village problem'. It was inspiring to chat to Cormac and this is a powerful conversation about what is possible when communities come together and how this approach can change how we think and feel about mental health and mental illness. https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/  https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/we-dont-have-a-health-problem-we-have-a-village-problem8259.pdf You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 213 with Darren McGarvey, who is an author, musician, social commentator and journalist. Darren grew up in Pollok on the south side of Glasgow, and has lived through extreme poverty, addiction and homelessness.  He wrote about his life and experiences in his first book ‘Poverty Safari’ which received critical acclaim for its insights into poverty and inequality. His upcoming book ’Trauma Industrial Complex’ is due out in August and this episode I chat to Darren about the modern phenomenon of lived experience and sharing trauma stories online. We chat about Darren’s experience of talking publicly about his life and what happened to him after “Poverty Safari” was an instant bestseller and he suddenly become well known for the things that he had been through. We talk about how social media has produced a culture of oversharing, why telling your story can get in the way of recovery and how this type of advocacy might just have fuelled other modern trends like misinformation and harmful mental health advice. And we talk about why people might feel the need to share their trauma, why there is such a market for it, the hidden consequences of barring your soul and things like victim hood, avoidance and addiction. I’m a big fan of Darren’s work, in all its forms, so it was great to chat to him about his new book.  As someone who spends a lot of time, sharing stories and talking publicly about my own mental health, this was a fascinating conversation to be a part of! You can listen now wherever you get your podcasts from and you can pre-order Trauma Industrial Complex: How Oversharing Becomes a Product in the Digital Age, wherever you get your books from! Follow Darren on Instagram @darren_mcgarvey or X @lokiscottishrap Learn more at www.darrenmcgarvey.com and preorder here Trauma Industrial Complex You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!

Welcome to episode 212 with Tana Sirois, who is an actor, theatre maker and coach who is currently touring a one woman show called UnTethered, an autobiographical comedy that follows a queer, demi sexual woman with obsessive compulsive disorder as she attempts to transcend her fears so that she may finally experience what it’s like to feel safe and loved. Tana is originally from the States but it was while studying acting at university in Liverpool that she first started to experience problems with her mental health.  Despite struggling for many years, she didn’t receive an official diagnosis of OCD until the age of 32. In this episode I chat to Tana about her love of acting, her time here in Liverpool, what was going on in her life when she first started to experience mental illness and how OCD has impacted her throughout her life. We chat about the selfishness of recovery, updating your language as you get better and how mental illness impacts all aspects of identity. We also chat about Tana’s show UnTethered, the vulnerability of exploring mental illness, intimacy and sexual identity in front of an audience and why that’s important. Tana is getting ready for some dates in London and Brighton before taking the show to Edinburgh and you can learn more about the show @untethered_the_play. I’m a big fan of mental illness being portrayed on the stage.  It’s a powerful way to bring the realities of this stuff to people’s attention and really connect and bring out the emotions and complexities of mental health so it was wonderful to explore all of that with Tana in this episode. Her website is www.tanasirois.com You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com. You can support the show and help me to keep it independent and ad free by buying a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental Another great way to support the show and spread the word is to rate, review and subscribe on whatever platform you get your podcasts from. If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, please go to www.hubofhope.co.uk Thanks for listening!