The Proper Mental Podcast

Redefining failure and men's mental health with Angus Collins

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 30^th 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!

Embracing Nature's healing touch. Nick Ray on dealing with depression through a lifetime of adventure.

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!

Healers, Shaman and rites of passage. How tribal and indigenous cultures approach mental illness with Phil Borges

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!

Depression, identity and creativity as an outlet with Karla Chubb (Sprints)

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!

Healing trauma and reclaiming joy with Dr MaryCatherine McDonald

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!

Anthony Kavanagh on fame, addiction and the dark side of 90’s pop

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!

Kaila Yu and the intersection of race, body image and mental health.

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!

Changing the mental health system from the inside out with Miranda Arieh and the HEROES Programme

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 doing
with 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!

Lobotomy, asylums, madness and lunacy. A History of Mental Illness with Andrew Scull

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!

Addiction, sobriety and brutal recovery with Lauren McQuistin

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!