The Proper Mental Podcast

Jess Greenfield

Welcome to episode 168 with Jess Greenfield, who is a multi-instrumentalist and a singer with Wonder 45 and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying birds.

In this episode I chat to Jess about singing, the music industry and balancing being a mother and a touring musician.

We also chat about Jess’ experiences with post-natal mental health issues, the impact that had on her family and how she got through it.

We chat about the vulnerability of singing, parental anxiety, asking for help and the loss of identity that comes with becoming a parent.

There is also loads of music chat in this one!  It was great to hear about everything Jess is doing with Wonder 45 and of course we chat about how Jess came to join Noel Gallagher’s band and what it’s like to play on some of the biggest stages in the world.

Jess was also good enough to let me use one of Wonder 45’s singles as part of this episode!  I used an incredible live audio of the song Cry and you can also watch that here:

Cry - Wonder 45 - Live Studio Session (youtube.com)

You can follow Jess on social media @greenfiledsings and @wearewonder45

Her website is www.jessgreenfiledmusic.com

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Nadia Gilani

Welcome to episode 167 with Nadia Gilani, who is a writer and yoga teacher.

Nadia was introduced to yoga as a teenager when her Mum took her along to a class as a way of helping her mental health.

Since then, yoga has been a constant and important part of her life but her relationship with the practice has not always been a smooth one.

In this episode I chat to Nadia about her experiences with mental illness that started when she was a teenager. 

We chat about that first yoga class, what led her there and the impact that finding yoga has had since.

And we chat about eating disorders, sobriety and recovery and we chat about movement, physical health and why wellness is bullshit.

Of course, we chat a lot about yoga, how it can be beneficial with regards to mental health but also how it’s not the answer to everything like it’s often sold to be.

I absolutely loved chatting to Nadia!  We had one of those wonderful conversations that goes absolutely everywhere and we really got in to some big topics.

I highly recommend her book The Yoga Manifesto which covers a lot of the themes we talk about here and a lot more besides.  It’s out now and available everywhere.

You can follow Nadia on social media @theyogadiddident and learn more about her work via her website https://nadiagilani.co.uk

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Tate Smith

Welcome to episode 166 with Tate Smith, who is an award-winning trans activist, consultant and speaker.

Tate started to experience anxiety at high school but this had nothing to do with his gender. 

It was only later on in his teenage years that he became aware of what it means to be trans and was able to start making sense of himself.

In this episode I chat to Tate about anxiety, why it started and how it affects his life.

I also chat to Tate about coming out as trans, how that was received in his workplace and the last few years he has spent working towards becoming his true self.

We discuss stigma, hate and misunderstanding and we discuss joy, freedom and authenticity.

It was also fascinating to get Tate’s perspective on the current men’s mental health crisis as someone who has presented as both female and male

Tate is so wonderfully open about his life and his experiences and it was great to chat, to debunk some myths and look at men’s mental health from a completely different perspective.

You can follow Tate on social media @tatemichaelsmith

Learn more about his activism and consultancy via his website www.tatesmith.uk

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Roxy Longworth

Welcome to episode 165 with Roxy Longworth.

When Roxy was 13, she was coerced then blackmailed into sending explicit photos, which were spread around her school.

The school blamed all of this on Roxy and the shame and embarrassment that was heaped down on her, by the very establishment that was supposed to be looking after her, took a huge toll on her mental health and eventually led to self-harm and hearing voices. 

At 14 she suffered a psychotic breakdown and was hospitalized.

She spent the next four years rebuilding her mental health, and her life, and she wrote about all of this in the memoir ‘When You Lose It’.

The book is an incredibly emotional read.  Half is written by Roxy from her perspective, the other half is written by her Mum and it details the impact that mental illness has on both the person experiencing it and the people that love them and have to help them through it.

In this episode I chat to Roxy about being a young person and growing up in this technology driven age.  We chat about the events that led to the photos being taken and shared and everything that happened after.

We chat about psychosis, self-harm, being in hospital and working with difficult emotions like anger and shame and we chat about the experience of writing the book, reading her Mum’s side of the story and the complex relationships between teenagers and parents.

I reached out to Roxy after reading her book, which I found incredibly moving and challenging to read.  She has a wonderful understanding of everything that happened and her own mental health and it was a privilege to chat to her about all of it.

The book is available in all good book shops and you can follow Roxy on social media @roxylongworth_

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Ian Tucknott

Welcome to episode 164 with Ian Tucknott who is a creative coach, arts educator and the curator of the Mental Wealth Festival which is hosted by City Lit.

The festival is an annual event that provides a forum for informative, challenging and inspiring discussion through workshops, talks, exhibitions, and other activities.

In this episode I chat to Ian about the festival, the incredible work that they do and how it has evolved over the years.

We talk about Ian’s own mental health challenges and how a mixture of art, creativity and a men’s retreat helped him to overcome them.

We also talk about the importance of having any sort of creative outlet and how being creative can help us to understand and express ourselves and understand the world around us.

I met Ian last year as part of the Mental Wealth Festival and knew straight away that he would make a brilliant guest.  It was absolutely wonderful to chat to him and explore his ideas around art and everything else.

Follow Ian @iantucknott @mentalwealthfestival @citylit

Find out more about the festival here:  Mental Wealth Festival 2023 | City Lit

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Steve Warwick

Welcome to episode 163 with Steve Warwick, who is a men’s mental health advocate, eating disorder survivor and the man behind the Instagram page Healthy Done Sexy.

In this episode I chat to Steve about his relationship with food from a creative perspective and a mental illness perspective.

We chat about Steve’s history with Bulimia, how it showed up in his life and how he learned to manage it.

We also chat about his diagnosis of BPD, what that means to him and what it was like to get diagnosed at a young age with a mental illness that is hugely misunderstood.

And we chat about getting sober, fitness, healthy eating and why it’s so important for men to join the conversation around eating disorders.

I’ve done a lot of episodes about food and mental health but this is the first one with a male guest.  It was wonderful to get Steve’s perspective on such complex topic!

You can follow Steve on social media @healthy.done.sexy.

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Aidy Smith

Welcome to episode 162 with Aidy Smith who is an award-winning broadcaster, journalist, content creator and speaker and the only TV presenter in the UK with Tourette Syndrome.

Aidy created The Three Drinkers on Amazon Prime; the show has released 3 seasons since 2019 in over 100 territories and 10+ languages around the world.

In this episode I chat to Aidy about Tourette Syndrome, when it showed up in his life and the impact it has had on his mental health over the years.

We chat about the stigma around Tourette’s, what the condition actually is and the day-to-day realities of living with tics and twitches.

And we chat about bullying, finding work, the drinks industry and how Lewis Capaldi at Glastonbury this summer was so important for raising awareness around Tourette’s.

It was an absolute pleasure to chat to Aidy!  He has an incredible story and it was amazing to hear all about his mindset and approach to life.

You can follow him on social media @sypped and connect via his website www.aidysmith.com

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Adam Bloom

Welcome to episode 161 with Adam Bloom who is a multi-award-winning stand-up comedian and writer.

Adam has made national TV appearances in Britain and The U.S. and has also ghost-written for 50 comedians.

Adam has a diagnosis of Bipolar and in this episode, we chat about his experiences with hypomania which is the less extreme part of bipolar and very different to hyper mania.

We chat about getting into comedy and the art of writing funny stuff, we chat about the mental impact of becoming successful at a young age and we chat about stress, anger, medication and all sorts of other fascinating things.

Adam is often described as the comedian’s comedian and here we also talk about why that’s important to him and how he measures success.

His book, Finding Your Comic Genius: An in-depth guide to the art of stand up is out now and is a wonderful guide to the mechanics of writing comedy and we chat about that in this episode too!

I reached out to Adam after hearing him mention hypomania on another podcast.  It’s not something that has come up on Proper Mental before and it was wonderful to hear about Adam’s experience.  He was absolutely lovely to chat to!

Hi book is available on Amazon here: Finding Your Comic Genius: An in-depth guide to the art of stand-up comedy: Amazon.co.uk: Bloom, Adam: 9798859382385: Books

You can connect with Adam on Instagram @adambloomcomedy or Twitter @adambloomie2.

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!

Bonus: Christmas Special 2023

Welcome to a very special Christmas episode of the Proper Mental podcast!

Tis the season that not everybody enjoys, for a lot of different reasons.  I wanted to put something out at Christmas that might give someone a little lift if they needed one, even if it’s just for 5 minutes. 

Sometimes 5 minutes can make all the difference.

I reached out to advocates, campaigners, authors, speakers and podcasters and friends and I asked them to record a voice note that might be nice for someone to hear over Xmas.  Some of these people I knew and some I didn’t but all of them are wonderful and inspiring and I was so touched by the response. 

You’ll be hearing from Chris Young, Laura Belbin, Shocka, Natasha Devon, Hannah Phillips, Yvette Caster, Natasha Rae, Tatton Spiller, James Whithey, Gabriel Nathan, Eva Echo,

I’ve put them all together here in this episode.  There are some anecdotes, some advice, some kind words or useful ideas.  You can listen in one go or dip in and out when you want to. 

It might help if you’re not really in the mood for Christmas and if you love this time of year, then it will inspire you to love it even more.

I reached out to a bunch of strangers and asked them to leave a supportive message for a different bunch of strangers and all these people said yes. 

That truly is a sign that you are not alone and to me, it’s the true spirit of Xmas.

There are so many support services that stay open and available during the Xmas period, please reach out if you need to. 

Please talk to someone if you need to.

If you or anyone you know needs to find support in your local area, head to www.hubofhope.co.uk.  There’s a link in my bio.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in this episode and a huge thanks to you, for listening!

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, in whatever shape or form that needs to take for you, and all the best for the New Year.

Here are some more links that might help:

www.hubofhope.co.uk

Useful contacts - Christmas and mental health | Mind, the mental health charity - help for mental health problems

My Black Dog | Free Online Mental Health Chat Support

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If you would like to watch this episode or any of the others, you can do so by joining the Patreon community at www.patreon.com/propermentalpodcast.  For £5 a month you’ll get early access to any and all episodes that aren’t available to watch anywhere else and help to support the show and keep it fully independent and ad free

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.

Thanks for listening!

Tasha Bailey

Welcome to episode 160 with The Real Talk Therapist, Tasha Bailey!

Tasha is an author, content creator and psychotherapist who specialises in trauma, self-love and creativity.

In this episode I chat to Tasha about why she decided to become a therapist and some of the different ways that she supports the people she works with.

We chat about the language of therapy becoming more common place and how it’s very easy to learn the words without necessarily doing the work.

And we chat about learning to talk about feelings and emotions, how challenging it can be learn about yourself and why it’s important to build trust with your therapist.

We also have a lovely chat about the E4 show @mafs, what we can learn from watching and why these sorts of shows are so popular.

It was a real pleasure to chat to Tasha about her work.  Therapy accounts on social media can be pretty wild but Tasha really cuts through all that and her content is brilliant so it was great to dig in to all that a bit deeper.

Tasha’s book, Real Talk: Lessons from Therapy on Healing and Self-Love, is out now and available everywhere.

You can follow her on social media @realtalktherapist and connect via her website www.realtalktherapist.co.uk

You can connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com.

A 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!