Episodes
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Sammy Trotman
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Welcome to episode 155 with Sammy Trotman, who is the writer and creator of ‘That’s Not My Name’ a show about mental illness, labels and trauma.
Sammy started writing the show while she was in a psychiatric hospital and the reasons why she ended up in hospital are what the show is based around.
In this episode I chat to Sammy about writing the show and about open up conversations through performance, stories and humour.
We talk about the impact that society has on mental welling being and just trying to be a good person, getting by in life can be so difficult in a world that doesn’t necessarily value those qualities.
We talk about Borderline Personality Disorder, rejecting labels, being creative and rebelling against social norms.
This is a wonderful chat and I loved hanging out with Sammy. We could have talked all day and we really explored a lot of different aspects of mental illness. It was great to talk freely and dig in to these things with the nuance and compassion that they deserve.
Connect with Sammy and keep an eye out for tour dates here:
@thatsnotmynameofficial
@sammytrotman
@coveredinjam
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Nov 06, 2023
Mark Richardson
Monday Nov 06, 2023
Monday Nov 06, 2023
Welcome to episode 154 with Mark Richardson, who is the drummer in Skunk Anansie and has previously played drums in Little Angels and Feeder.
As a child Mark found that playing drums was the only that kept him from bouncing off the walls and he eventually moved to London to join Little Angels before joining Skunk Anansie after he met the band at the Kerrang! awards.
Mark struggled with addiction for many years before getting sober in 2003 and in this episode, I chat to him about the role that drink and drugs have played in his life, the events that led him to get help and the 3 years it took him to finally stop.
We chat about identity, wearing masks, going to AA and the realities of the so-called rock and roll lifestyle.
Mark is one of the co-founders of the Music Support charity that is a non-profit collective of volunteers and professionals providing help and support for individuals in any area of the music industry and we chat about how they got started and the incredible work that they do.
Mark has also been involved in to lots of research about the positive impact of playing drums on wellbeing. Neurodiversity and dementia and that’s a fascinating part of this conversation.
Here is everything you need to connect with Mark and learn more about Music Support:
@markrichdrums
@musicsupport_uk
@officialskunkannansie
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Oct 30, 2023
Vanessa Cornell
Monday Oct 30, 2023
Monday Oct 30, 2023
Welcome to episode 153 with Vanessa Cornell, who is a surfer, writer, teacher a messy mum of 5 and the founder of Nushu, an organisation that holds a safe space and creates a supportive environment for those seeking to live authentic, inspired, and joyful lives through the power of true community.
At one point in time, Vanessa had everything that she thought she was supposed to. She had the perfect family and the perfect life and no idea who she really was.
This disconnection pushed her to a dark place and she was forced to look at her life, and herself, to work out how to reconnect with herself and the people in her life.
In this episode I chat to Vanessa about the breakdown and the breakthrough that forced her to really look at herself.
We chat about living authentically, showing up, holding space and getting better and we chat about what these things actually mean and how to get started.
I’ve followed Vanessa on social media for some time and her content often gives me pause for thought, so it was wonderful to spend some time with her and learn more about her work and why she does it.
You can follow Vanessa on Instagram @vanessacornell and @nushu.
Her website can be found at https://nushu.com
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Oct 23, 2023
Kieran Cunningham
Monday Oct 23, 2023
Monday Oct 23, 2023
Welcome to episode 152 with Kieran Cunningham, who is an author, climber and mountaineer.
After being diagnosed with Bipolar 1 while at university, Kieran spent a decade travelling around the world trying to figure out what he wanted to do and how he was going to live with this diagnosis.
Along the way he found that climbing was the perfect way for him to find peace and manage his illness.
Eventually he landed in Italy where the mountains and local climbing community helped him to keep well but that changed when Covid hit and Italy became one of the first countries to lock down.
In Kieran’s book ‘Climbing the Walls’ he writes about what it was like to be trapped inside, away from the mountains, on his own and feeling his mental state drift towards mania while rapidly running out of medication.
In this episode I chat to Kieran about being diagnosed with a mental illness, at a young age and at a time when no one was talking about bipolar.
We chat about how bipolar has impacted him throughout his life, his love of climbing and how it helps his mental state and we chat about his time in Italy that led to him writing the book.
We chat about shame, stigma, nature, travel and all sorts of other stuff.
Climbing the Walls is available in all good book shops and you can follow Kieran on Instagram @kieranjamescunningham.
You can support the show by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Oct 16, 2023
Kim Davies
Monday Oct 16, 2023
Monday Oct 16, 2023
Welcome to episode 151 with Kim Davies!
My wife Kim and I originally recorded and released this episode in April 2021.
At that time, we were both quite nervous about putting our story out there so I just slipped it out as a bonus with very little promotion. It had such a wonderful response and is still one of the episodes that I get the most feedback from.
I can’t tell my story without Kim telling hers so I wanted to give it a proper release alongside episode 150 which is also out today and is me being interviewed on the Full of Beans podcast.
At that time Proper Mental was only a few episodes in and I was still very much learning on the job.
We put the kids to bed, set a mic on the table, put the kettle on and just had a chat in the kitchen.
It’s scruffy and loose and really quite beautiful to listen back to it now.
A lot came out in the conversation that neither of us were expecting and it was moving for me to get Kim’s side of the story.
We actually tried to do a follow up but it didn’t work and it just felt like there was nothing left to say.
This episode says it all.
Depression can be all consuming and as much as the person struggling feels like they are drowning, they can also be pulling the people around them under.
This chat is a real insight in to watching someone you love suffer.
We chat about what it’s like to live with someone who is struggling, why it’s important to talk and how Kim navigated the ups and downs of my mental health.
We also chat about how my problems brought us closer together and by nearly ruining our marriage, actually made it stronger.
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Oct 16, 2023
Tom Davies
Monday Oct 16, 2023
Monday Oct 16, 2023
Welcome to episode 150!
I’m not sure if 150 episodes is an actual milestone or not, but it sort of feels like one so I wanted to mark it in some way.
I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to tell my own mental health story in a lot of different places but it’s been a long time since I’ve talked about myself on Proper Mental.
Very early on, episode 7 in fact, I did my own episode. At that time, I had a really limited understanding of my own mental health. I didn’t have the vocabulary that I do now and I hadn’t done any of work to explore what had really been going on. I was only a few months post break down, newly medicated and still figuring it all out. It was all very new.
Recently I’ve been getting asked about my experience a bit more and I realised it’s been a long time since I put anything out about me. So, this feels like a good time to put something out.
I didn’t want to do a solo episode and just waffle on for an hour. That feels self-indulgent and I think it would be boring for you to listen to and boring for me to record.
Last year I guested on a wonderful podcast called Full of Beans, it’s hosted by my friend Hannah (who is also a previous Proper Mental guest) and it was one of my favourite podcast appearances.
Hannah was good enough to let me have the audio and that’s what I’m putting out here.
Han is an incredible host. She asks great questions; she really listens and she a lot of wonderful insight that her own experiences have given her. I’ve guested on a lot of awesome podcasts but this one felt particularly special and I ended up chatting about things I wasn’t expecting to.
Huge thanks to Hannah for the original invite and for sharing the recording and go and check out Full of Beans because it’s brilliant!
You can follow Hannah on Instagram @thefobpodcast or connect with her via www.fullofbeansed.co.uk
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Oct 09, 2023
James McMahon
Monday Oct 09, 2023
Monday Oct 09, 2023
Welcome to episode 149 with James McMahon, a journalist and podcaster who spent a long time working at the NME, editing Kerrang! and interviewing pretty much everyone in the music industry.
James has lived with OCD for most of his life, although for a lot of that time he had no idea what it was or how to get help.
In this episode James and I chat about his own particular brand of mental illness, how it showed up and how it’s impacted his life over the years.
We chat about the support group he attends and the importance of community and relatability and we chat about how mental illness impacts the people around us.
We also chat about getting well and trying to stay there, empathy and what it’s like to have too much of it, Joe Rogan, Twitter, and the state of the world in general.
I’m a big fan of James’ podcasts and I was an avid reader of the NME during the era that he was there so it was really cool to chat to him!
Follow him on Twitter@ or Instagram @
His website is www.jamesjammcmahon.com
His Substack is Spoook - the Substack of James McMahon | Substack
The James McMahon Music Podcast and Brain Worms are available everywhere.
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Sep 18, 2023
Dr Ben Cave
Monday Sep 18, 2023
Monday Sep 18, 2023
Welcome to episode 148 with Dr Ben Cave, which is the pen name of a practising general and forensic psychiatrist.
For over 30 years Ben has worked as a prison psychiatrist, community psychiatrist and as a consultant in medium-secure, low-secure and general mental health units.
He is also the author of ‘What We Fear Most’ in which he reflects on a lifetime on the frontline of forensic psychiatry and the extremes of mental illness.
In this episode I chat to Ben about his work, what he does and why he started doing it.
We talk about the more challenging aspects of mental illness and the good and the bad side of diagnosis and we chat about the misconceptions and stigma around mental illness and how that is getting lost in the wider conversation about mental health.
As I’m sure you can imagine, we cover some big topics in this one! Ben was wonderful to speak to and it fascinating and important to learn about the realities of treating some of the most troubled men and women in society.
You can learn more about Ben and his work via his website ben-cave.com.
Instagram @drbencave
Twitter @DrBenCave
You can support Proper Mental by joining the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Sep 11, 2023
David Parkin
Monday Sep 11, 2023
Monday Sep 11, 2023
Welcome to episode 147 with David Parkin is an author, theatre maker and installation artist whose work is fiercely autobiographical or silly and speculative.
In 2015 he suffered his first manic episode and was sectioned under the mental health act for 4 months.
He is currently putting on a fully immersive art installation called ‘Delusions of Grandeur’ which explains his experience of being sectioned including his diaries from that time, recorded conversations from his friends and family and loads of anecdotes from his time in hospital.
In this episode I chat to David about his experiences with mental illness and how he ended up being sectioned.
We chat about his time in hospital, what it was like day to day and some of the things that happened and we chat about what life was like once he was discharged and some of the artistic projects he’s worked on since that are all mental health focused.
David also takes me through his recovery from a life-threatening brain injury that he had after jumping off the roof of a mental health hospital and many more incredible stories from his life.
David has some incredible stories and he was so much fun to chat to! I love the idea of his installation and how he can use it to offer an insight in to being sectioned which is still a part of the mental health conversation that is not widely discussed or understood.
You can learn more about where to see David’s work here: www.davidparkin.org
You can follow him on social media @davidparkinartist
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!
Monday Sep 04, 2023
Kimberley Nixon
Monday Sep 04, 2023
Monday Sep 04, 2023
Welcome to episode 146 with Kim Nixon, who is an actor and writer who has appeared in shows such as Fresh Meat, Cranford and The Tuckers and in 2017 she won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress for her role in 'Ordinary Lies'.
In this episode I chat to Kim about her experiences with OCD, which started after she become a mum in 2020.
We chat about the way OCD impacted her early experiences of motherhood and we chat about intrusive thoughts, rituals and the realities of living with mental illness.
We chat about Kim’s journey towards recovery and what that has looked like for her over the last couple of years and we chat about her decision to start speaking openly about perinatal mental illness and how that’s been received.
And we chat growing up in Wales, becoming an actor and balancing work with family life and we chat about compassion, therapy and asking for help.
This is one of my all-time favourite episodes! I saw a lot of my own experiences in Kim’s story and I was both moved and inspired by her openness. She was wonderful to talk to!
Kim writes about her life and her mental health on her Stubstack and she has a wonderful podcast there too, you can find it here: Kimfluencing My Brain | Kimberley Nixon | Substack
You can follow her on Instagram @therealkimberleynixon
You can support Proper Mental by signing up to the Patreon community! It’s £5 a month for early access to episodes as soon as the recording is finished, a monthly Zoom hangout and loads of other behind the scenes updates.
Sign up here: Proper Mental Podcast | Normalising open and honest conversations about mental health! | Patreon
You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.
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!