The Proper Mental Podcast

Sally Orange

Welcome to episode 125 with Sally Orange, who is an endurance runner, mental health campaigner and speaker.

She holds 11 Guinness World Records, has ran over 70 marathons and has completed 22 years’ exemplary service in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Physiotherapy Officer. This included an operational tour of duty in Afghanistan.

She captained the first British female team to complete the relentless Race Across America, the world’s toughest cycle race and has also ran the toughest footrace on earth, the Marathon des Sables. 

And she’s also cycled the length of New Zealand, swam the English Channel relay and skied 250km across the largest plateau in the Arctic Circle.  Most of which she has done dressed as various pieces of fruit to start stigma busting conversations about mental health.

In this episode I chat to Sally about her first marathon at the age of 34, why she started running and how it led to these adventures.

We talk about her own life long mental health challenges and how she balances looking after herself with taking part in these endurance events.

We also talk about fancy dress and starting conversations, her 22 years in the Royal Army Medical Corps and how to dig deep when you need to.

It was amazing chatting to Sally about her adventures and equally amazing to hear the mental health story behind them!

You can follow her on social media @sallyorange and learn more about her future adventures on her website www.sallyorange.com.

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support 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!

Josh Fletcher

Welcome to episode 124 with Josh Fletcher, who is a psychotherapist, author, speaker and self-confessed anxiety nerd.

He became a therapist after his own challenges with panic attacks, agoraphobia and intrusive thoughts and is now one of the leading voices in anxiety support and recovery.

In this episode Josh and I chat about his own experiences, where his version of anxiety came from and what he did about it.

We chat about the different ways that anxiety can present and go through some of the different ways to deal with it.

We cover exposure therapy, proving anxiety wrong, using compassion and retraining the brain.

It’s a fascinating conversation and it definitely gave me a better understanding about anxiety and all the stuff that comes with it.

You can follow Josh on all social media platforms @anxietyjosh and learn more about everything he does via his website schoolofanxiety.com

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support 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!

Yvette Caster

Welcome to episode 123 with Yvette Caster, who is an award-winning freelance journalist who regularly writes for some of the most well known media outlets about travel, food, sex and mental health.

She has also co-hosted the acclaimed podcast, Mentally Yours, since 2017 and in that time has interviewed some incredible people about all aspects of mental health and mental illness.

Yvette has diagnosis of Bi Polar Disorder and Binge Eating Disorder and in this episode we talk about her early experiences with mental illness and everything that came with it.

We chat about what it's like to experience a manic episode and the depression that can follow and we chat about the importance of medication, therapy and self-care in living with these things.

We also chat about her time in a young person’s mental health unit and growing up with a mental illness and we chat about podcasting, relatability, and the stigma surrounding emotional eating.

Yvette was so lovely to chat to!  Her story is moving and emotional and her openness and passion for helping others by telling it is a wonderful thing.

You can connect with Yvette on social media @yvettecaster or via her website Yvettecaster.com.

Mentally Yours is available wherever you’re listening to this and if you need a place to start you could try my episode from 2021!

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support 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!

Joanna Fortune

Welcome to episode 122 with Joanna Fortune, who is a Psychotherapist specialising in the parent-child/adolescent relationship. 

She is the author of 4 best-selling books 15-Minute Parenting (0-7 years; 8-12 years and teenage years) and Why We Play and hosts her own podcast, 15-Minute Parenting.

She is also a TEDx speaker and regularly contributes to a variety of print media outlets.  

In this episode I chat to Joanna about therapy and learning to explore our behaviour through self-inquiry.

We chat about emotions and feelings and how we can learn to explore these things with our children in a way that will help them as adults.

We also chat about play and its importance in looking after our mental health and how we can bring more play in to our busy, modern lives.

We chat about parenting, building self-esteem, boredom and how to work on emotional fluency.

I got so much from this conversation!  It’s not just for parents and so many of the things we get in to here could help you to understand the human experience and how childhood impacts us as adults.

You can connect with Joanna via social media @joannafortune or via her website www.solamh.com.

You can watch her Tedx talk here: Social Media - The Ultimate Shame Game? | Joanna Fortune | TEDxHa'pennyBridge - YouTube

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

Another way to support 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!

Tatton Spiller

Welcome to episode 121 with Tatton Spiller, who is the founder and director of Simple Politics, which is an online platform that aims to explain politics in a way that everyone can understand.

He previously worked as a teacher before starting Simple Politics in 2015.

Tatton has been interested in understanding politics from a young age and found campaigning to be a useful outlet for the anger he felt as a young man living with mental health conditions.

After going through a breakdown in 2014 Tatton would eventually be diagnosed with BPD and Bi-Polar Disorder with a little Depression and Anxiety sprinkled in for good measure.

In this episode we chat his early experiences with both politics and mental illness.

We chat about diagnosis, defining mental health, the good and bad bits of mental illness, music, literature and the chaos of keeping up with the news.

This is a wonderful conversation that goes absolutely everywhere except politics!

You can connect with Tatton via @simplepolitics or @tattonspiller.

Or stop by simplepolitics.co.uk or tattonspiller.co.uk

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support 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!

Dr Lucy Foulkes

Welcome to episode 120 with Dr Lucy Foulkes is an academic psychologist at the University of Oxford who researches mental health and social development with expertise in adolescent and student mental health.

She is an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL and her book ‘What Mental Illness Really Is (and what it isn’t) explores how we talk about mental health and mental illness and explains why we need to rethink the conversation around these things.

In this episode I chat to Lucy about her book and what inspired her to write it.

We chat about the language that is used to talk about mental health and mental illness and how the words we choose can have both a positive and negative impact.

We look at the need to distinguish between the 'normal' challenges of modern life and actual illness and discuss the medialisation of human emotions.

We chat about the good bits and the bad bits of mental health awareness and have a good look at what that even means and who that conversation helps.

We get in to social media, environment, parenting, diagnosis and everything in between.

This was a fascinating episode to record!  It’s a deep dive in to a topic that is not straightforward and it was great to get the chance to explore it with both nuance and compassion.

Follow her on Instagram @drlucyfoulkes and Twitter @lfoulkesy

Her website is www.lucyfoulkes.com and her book is available everywhere!

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support 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!

Prof. Rory O’Connor

Welcome to episode 119 with Professor Rory O’Connor, who is an author, speaker and educator who has spent 25 years working in the field of suicide research and prevention.

He also leads the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at Glasgow and is one of the leading suicide and self-harm research groups internationally.

In this episode I chat to Rory about suicide, suicidal thoughts and self-harm.

We look at some of the contributing factors to suicidal behaviour and we dismantle some of the common myths and misconceptions about suicide.

Rory also takes me through his journey in to this work and the personal reasons behind his passion for what he does.

And we chat about the research itself, what that looks like and why it’s can help people to understand something that can be almost impossible to understand.

This is a really important conversation and whichever side of the conversation you are on I think you will relate.

You can follow Rory on Twitter @suicideresearch or Instagram @oconnor_roryc.

His book ‘When It Is Darkest’ is available now and is highly recommended!

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support 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!

Danny Gray

Welcome to episode 118 with Danny Gray, who is the founder of JAAQ and War Paint for men.

JAAQ (Just Ask A Question) is a free mental health platform providing interactive responses to over 50,000 questions on topics from depression to eating disorders to anxiety and addiction.

Danny has lived with Body Dysmorphia Disorder from a young age and one of the tools that helped him to manage this was make up. 

He found make up helped his confidence and positively influenced the way he felt about his appearance and that led him to launching War Paint, for men, the first ever cosmetic brand created specifically for men.

After appearing on Dragons Den, where he spoke openly about his experience with mental illness, he started to get asked a lot of questions about BDD and mental health in general and that is where the idea for JAAQ started to form.

In this episode I chat to Danny about BDD and the impact that it has had on his life.

We chat about some of the tool he uses on a daily basis to be able to live with BDD and we chat about how his experiences let to setting up both War Paint and JAAQ.

JAAQ is an incredible platform and the potential it has to reach and help anyone who needs it is huge!  It was amazing to chat to Danny and hear all about how he brought some of the world’s leading experts together to make it all happen.

You can access JAAQ via the website here JAAQ: The new mental health social media platform

And you can follow both Danny and JAAQ on social media @jaaqofficial or @danny.h.gray or @warpaintformen

Danny on Dragons Den: Dragons swoop over ‘flawless' men’s makeup biz | Dragons' Den - BBC - YouTube

Huge thanks to Svnty6 for the help with the sound catch him here: WORDSnBEATS oe @svnty6spoken

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support 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!

Elliott Rae

Welcome to episode 117 with Elliott Rae, who is the founder of Music Football Fatherhood (MFF).

MFF is a parenting platform for men which is all about open conversations around fatherhood and has been described as the ‘Dad’s version of Mumsnet’ by the BBC.

After the traumatic birth of his daughter, Elliott struggled with his mental health but went without help for over a year.  He would eventually get the help he needed and be diagnosed with PTSD.

He started writing about his experiences as a new Dad and his experiences with mental health and his writing would go on to become the MFF platform and he has now supported thousands of Dads since starting in 2016.

He is now one of the UK’s most prominent speakers and writers on topics around fatherhood, masculinity, mental health, equal parenting and gender equality. 

In this episode I chat to Elliott about becoming a Dad and the impact that has had on all aspects of his life.

We chat about the birth of his daughter and the mental health challenges he faced afterwards and everything that led to him being diagnosed with PTSD.

We also chat about setting up MFF and the incredible work that they do and we chat about parenting, being dads, being husbands, masculinity and everything in between.

A lot of the things that we covered in this episode where very close to my own experiences with fatherhood and my mental health so it was amazing to chat to Elliott and shows just how important his work is.

Elliott is particularly active on Linkedin linkedin.com/in/elliott-rae-a3a469144

Connect with him on Instagram @iamElliottRae or his websites:

https://musicfootballfatherhood.com

https://elliottrae.com

You can watch his BBC documentary here: BBC iPlayer - We Are England - Series 1: Becoming Dad - Watford

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support 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!

Angela Samata

Welcome to episode 116 with Angela Samata, who is an Arts Professional and a suicide awareness advocate.

Angela presented the BAFTA award nominated documentary ‘Life After Suicide’ which was shown on BBC1 and watched by more than 5 million people.

She made the film to challenge the stigma around mental illness and suicide after her partner took his own life.  The documentary describes her own experience, and that of her children, as she travelled the country speakers to others who have experienced the same type of loss.

I had the privilege of recording this episode in person and it was both moving and inspiring to chat to Angela about the film and the events that let to it being made.

We chat about the stigma that surrounds suicide and the challenges that come with this particular type of grief.

We also chat about mental health awareness, her decision to become an advocate and how these things have changed over the years that she has been working in this area.

Sitting down to have this conversation with Angela was a wonderful experience and while it’s not always an easy listen there is also a lot of light here too and I think that you’re going to have a lot to think about after listening.

You can connect with Angela on Instagram or Twitter @angelasamata and @superstarsourdough

You can watch the documentary Life After Suicide here: Life After Suicide | Documentary Heaven

You can learn more about Angela and her work at www.angelasamata.co.uk or www.speakerscollective.org.

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast and you can connect with me via the website here: www.propermentalpodcast.com

If you would like to support Proper Mental by buying me a virtual coffee, please go to www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental

Another way to support 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!