The Proper Mental Podcast

Why we don't have a health problem, we have a village problem with Cormac Russell

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!

Trauma Industrial Complex and the stories we tell ourselves about our wounds with Darren McGarvey

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!

Exploring intimacy, identity and ocd on the stage with Tana Sirois

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!

Grief grifting with Owen Williams (The Tubs\Ex-Void)

Welcome to episode 211 with Owen Williams, who is the singer and guitarist in The Tubs.

He is also a vocalist and guitarist in Ex-Void and the drummer in Sniffany and The Nits and other things in other bands as well, all under the banner of the London based, music collective Gob Nation.

In this episode I chat to Owen about his experiences with OCD and the mental breakdown that he was going through while writing songs for The Tubs wonderful second album ‘Cotton Crown’ which was released earlier this year.

The cover of the record is a black and white image of Owen as a baby with his Mum, who died by suicide in 2014 and we chat about this very specific type of grief and also how people behave around you after you lose someone to suicide.

We chat about being in a band, drinking on tour and the realities and challenges of doing music or anything creative as a job.

And we chat about intrusive thoughts and compulsions, the guilt and shame that often come with these things and also how they are fed by the societal pressure to be morally perfect all of the time.

Cotton Crown is definitely one of my albums of the year already, it’s a wonderful record and it’s perfect for the summer.  It was great to chat to Owen all about it!

@_the_tubs

@gob_nation

‘We’re like a frat house’: meet Gob Nation, south London’s oddball music collective | Music | The Guardian

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!

Rosie Viva is completely normal and totally fine

Welcome to episode 210 with Rosie Viva, who is a model, presenter, author and an ambassador for Bipolar UK.

Rosie has experienced various mental health challenges from a young age and was originally misdiagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Despite this she built a successful career as a model which took her all over the globe, working with some of the world’s biggest brands but in the background her mental health was often moving through cycles of manic highs and extreme lows.

In 2018, Rosie was arrested after she caused Stansted Airport to evacuate all its waiting passengers during a psychotic episode.  She spent the next 3 months under section and was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

In this episode I chat to Rosie about her early experiences with mental illness and what was happening in her life in the build up to being hospitalised.

We chat about shutting down Stanstead Airport and going to hospital and we chat about how she went about rebuilding her life after she was discharged.

We also chat about the shame and stigma around being under section, accepting the diagnosis of bipolar, adapting to the lifestyle changes that come with staying well, relearning how to socialise and the sadness that comes with being diagnosed at a young age and missing out on some of the usual experiences that young people have.

Rosie has written about her experiences in her new book ‘Completely Normal and Totally Fine: My Life with Bipolar Disorder’ which is due out next week.  I was lucky enough to get an early read and it’s an incredibly brave and important book that will resonate with anyone who has been affected by mental illness.

Connect with Rosie on social media @rosieviva

Learn more about her book here: Completely Normal and Totally Fine: My Life with Bipolar Disorder: Rosie Viva: Bloomsbury Tonic

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!

The neuroscience of mental health with Dr Dean Burnett

Welcome to episode 209 with Dr Dean Burnett, who is a neuroscientist, lecturer and author.

Dean is currently an honorary research fellow at Cardiff Psychology School and has also worked as a psychiatry tutor and lecturer at the Cardiff University Centre for Medical Education.

He is the author of several acclaimed books about brains, neuroscience, emotions and mental health.

And this episode is a little bit different.

I wanted to do an episode about mental health and mental illness from the perspective of the human brain.

I often focus on society and the things around us that impact our mental health, so for this conversation I wanted get some understanding of what’s actually happening to our brains when our experiences, circumstances or environment are affecting us mentally.

I thought a lot about common themes and threads from this show over the years and I asked Dean things like

What is happening in the brain when we get lonely and why is isolation so harmful to us?

Why do brains like nature so much?

How does sitting with our emotions actually help our brains to process them?

Why do our brains choose to feel anxious even, when we know that there is nothing to be anxious about?

And loads of other stuff too.

Dean was incredible to chat to! It was absolutely fascinating to be able to explore his extensive, brain related knowledge and we had a lot of fun too.

Connect with Dean on social media @garwboy and learn more at www.deanburnett.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!

Politics, punk and 3 pound pints with Hyphen

Welcome to episode 208 with Hyphen, who is a rapper, songwriter and political punk.

After finishing university, Hyphen found himself working in finance.  He also found himself bored, depressed and drinking to cope.

This came to a tipping point when a close friend of his died by suicide and his own mental health was pushed towards breaking point.  Hyphen started to experience his own thoughts of suicide and it was while working through this that he started expressing himself creatively by scribbling words in to a notebook. 

These words became poems and raps and then followed songs and these have evolved into his own style of punk, where he addresses racism, politics, equality and all manner of social justice issues and the state of the world in general.

In this episode I chat to Hyphen about growing up in Portsmouth, how he ended up in the corporate world, why he started making music and how that music helped him to deal with his mental health struggles.

We chat about suicidal ideation, finding authenticity, undoing societal conditioning and how to build true connection through community and shared experience.

We also chat about anger and racism, dealing with online hate and how to stay informed without being consumed and overwhelmed.

Hyphen’s newest single is currently getting played on BBC Radio 1 and it’s incredible to see a fully independent artist crossing over, with music that is calling out the bad parts of our society.  I’ve been a fan of his for a while now and it was wonderful to chat.  I think this conversation went to a lot of places that neither of us were expecting!

Follow Hyphen everywhere on @thisishyphen

Is music is available on all streaming platforms and his latest single ‘This Might Be It’ is out now and he will be on tour around the UK and Ireland throughout May.

Get tickets here:  https://linktr.ee/hyphentour?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=8cd61d91-921f-4829-8a48-bb2ba9b9152a

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!

Telling stories and burning out with Hana Walker-Brown

Welcome to episode 207 with Hana Walker-Brown, a multi-award winning and critically acclaimed storyteller and sound artist who works across film, radio and podcasting and narrative non-fiction.

In 2023 Hana was signed off work with severe burnout.  It took a year for her to understand this experience, to unpack it, to make peace with it and to get back to herself and in this episode, I chat to Hana about that process.

This isn’t a conversation about jobs and working too hard because all of that is just a mechanism for burnout. 

This is a conversation about self-discovery, programming and learning to do things differently.

In this episode, Hana and I chat about her experience of burnout, how it all came to a head, what recovery looks like for her and what that word even means.

We chat about learning how to slow down, accepting the messier parts of ourselves and leaning in to the discomfort of rest.

We also chat about the importance of sharing stories, how to really listen, building self-esteem and why it’s important to have lots of hobbies.

Hana has recently made a documentary for BBC Radio 4 called In Pieces, where she explores different aspects of burnout through her own experience, through the people around her and the experiences of others and we chat about what it was like to make and then to put out in to the world.

Listen here: BBC Radio 4 - Illuminated, In Pieces

This is a truly wonderful conversation and I’ve thought about it a lot since we recorded.  It’s a beautiful chat and it felt like a special one to be a part of.

Connect with Hana @hana_walker_brown or at www.hanawalkerbrown.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!

Radical compassion with Olympian Karsta Lowe

Welcome to episode 206 with Karsta Lowe, who is an Olympian and professional volley ball player who was a member of the United States women's national team that won bronze medals at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Karsta has played volley ball, at the highest level, all over the world, winning multiple titles and medals along the way. 

But throughout her career she was also struggling with anxiety, depression and OCD which would later lead to an eating disorder and suicidal thoughts.

In this episode I chat to Karsta about how both her mental struggles and international career progressed and intertwined.

We chat about her childhood experiences with mental health issues and about how these were complicated further by the loss of her father at a young age.

We also chat about going to the Olympics and the struggles she faced off the court, how all of this led to Karsta getting help and what that help looked like for her.

And we chat about life after professional sport, the different types of grief, learning to be gentle and how life changes when you accept radical compassion.

The idea of a lifelong athlete being at the Olympic Games, on the way to winning a medal, but also completely falling apart at the same time, just goes to show that you never know what someone might be going through, despite how strong they look on the outside.

You can connect with Karsta on social media @karstalowe

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!

How to change and why we don't with Dr Ross Ellenhorn

Welcome to episode 205 with Dr Ross Ellenhorn, who is a sociologist, psychotherapist and social worker.

Dr. Ellenhorn is encouraging mental health professionals to be more present with patients and think outside the box when it comes to treatment methods.

With offices in Boston, New York and LA, he offers the types of care that serve and empower anyone who has been diagnosed with psychiatric and substance-use issues and helps them recover outside of hospital, in their own communities. 

In this episode I chat to Ross about his incredible work, how he began working in the mental health space and how that informed his ground breaking approach to working with so called complex states of mind and mood.

We chat about using a human first approach, the medicalisation of the human experience, approaching therapy as improv, the importance of play and curiosity and why human conformity is the illness that gets in the way of being authentic.

Ross has spent many years researching change.  More specifically why as humans we find it so hard to change, even when staying the same is killing us.  We talk about this work; we talk about why we struggle to do things differently and how underpinning all of this is a fear of hope.

I never say this lightly, but this is one of the most powerful episodes that I have recorded.  If you’ve spoken to me in person over the last few weeks, I’ve probably told you about it and I’ve been taking a deep dive in to Ross’ work regularly since we spoke.

There is some incredible thinking points here and I’m sure it will give you plenty of food for thought.  On top of that, Ross is a really lovely man and he was a lot of fun to chat to!

He is the author of two books ‘Purple Crayons – The Art of Drawing a Life’ and ‘How We Change (and 10 reasons why we don’t) and they are available everywhere.

For more information head to www.ellenhorn.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!