In this final episode of Season 1 of Breaking Down, Breaking Down, Wil and Andy talk about British society’s approach to drinking.

Britain isn’t the only country in the world where people fancy the odd tipple. You could argue that on a day to day basis there may be countries where people drink more than the Brits. It’s the manner by which Brits consume alcohol when they do, and the manner by which the retail & hospitality industry capitalises on this which is the problem. We touch upon how sometimes even queuing in a Primark can be better for sanity and sobriety than going to your local supermarket, and just how brazen the tactics are to get people to stock up with booze, using almost any event as an excuse for offers.

Thanks for listening to this series of the podcast; if you made it through the entire season, you’ve earned yourself a virtual Hi-Five! We’ll be back with a new season in 2025 (Maybe!).

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

Support groups can be vital to those with Mental Health difficulties, as well as those who struggle with loneliness, a lack of family, or addiction issues. Whilst these may seem trivial to some, when individuals find themselves ‘alone’, they may end up in a situation with no one to talk to who ‘gets it’. Not all support groups work however, especially when you end up bumping into people from previous eras of your life. 

Especially heading into the ‘holiday season’, this episode looks at support groups, and how they can play a vital role through specific times of the year for some. It also considers the benefit of support groups over all, especially if they are in effect ‘peer led’ like 12 step programmes, and why it really isn’t a case of one model suits all. Wil briefly talks about structured and unstructured support groups from his time working and studying at university, and how organically found groups can often lead to better outcomes than every structured / forced group settings.

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

This episode looks at one of the most embarrassing things about Western human society. Making New Year’s Resolutions. Even though we all know that most of these would have been broken by the second week of January, it’s a tradition that carries on in vein.

Instead, Andy and Wil talk in a more practical sense about how making small changes to your life without completely removing any fun from your life can work if done correctly. Wil briefly resumes his role as a university lecturer talking about reflective practice, and we think about what each of us could do in 2025 without calling it a ‘resolution’. 

Oh, and remember, you can’t learn guitar in a week, the same way you can’t build Rome in a day!

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

This episode focuses on how sometimes people just have a bad week, and how sometimes, just sometimes, we wish we could just be an emo for a day. We talk about life, music, and how this helps play a massive part of our lives. 

We talk about how important a pair of headphones can be when out and about, especially in loud, crowded spaces, and how for some reason every generation of society seems to think public spaces are being decimated by the actions of the ‘youth’ of today, even though it likely would have been worse ‘back in the day’.

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

In this episode, we talk a lot about wanting to talk about triggers, then mention a few of them as we get carried away in other conversation. We consider how a Kieth Floyd drinking game could have been a game show precursor to Gogglebox, and why it’s stupid for the Government to try and ban crumpets.

Wil highlights some issues about supermarkets (again), especially when it comes to store layouts and tracking your journey around them. Andy shows his age by remembering when there was a time when there was some form of nightlife in Dudley, and we ask why delivery style apps can’t have the same filtering and blocking systems used by gambling sites. We also briefly talked about what happened when BBC News West Midlands came to say hello to us.

Oh, and also: Chicken.com is a real chain of fried chicken shops in the UK. We highly recommend you NOT go there, for your own safety.

In this episode, we look at what happens in times when you feel that you’re not getting the help you need in the mental health ‘system’, and how there is potentially a postcode lottery in the NHS when it comes to mental health support in England. We look back at what happened with Wil when he last felt ‘hopeless’, and how a simple phone call potentially saved him from the brink.

Not only does Andy manage to talk for more than a minute at a time, he actually holds a pretty substantial part of the conversation! Andy reflects on how not every piece of outpatient support is ‘useful’, especially when it comes to CPNs and their own personal ‘miracles’. Wil reminisces about managing to stumble across an entire hospital to get Andy a can of Pepsi, whilst barely being able to make it to the toilet un-aided, all whilst wearing jeans about 4 sizes too big.

In this episode, we pick off where we left off last time out, when Wil and Andy met for the first time.

We have a look at what life is like on an acute mental health ward, and some of the challenges that this leads to for patients, both in an immediate and post-discharge sense. We look at some of the basic steps that could be taken to improve re-integration into ‘community’ for those with long term inpatient stays, and just how some basic changes to inpatient activity can potentially start addressing this.

Miraculously, Andy talks for a full 30 seconds in one go, setting a new personal best, and Wil only had to remove about 30 ‘Um’s from the recording, down from approximately 45 in the last episode. Progress!

Taking substantially less time than it took Ted to explain how he met his kids’ mother, this episode takes a look at how Wil came to get to know Andy, whilst both were inpatients at Bushey Fields Hospital, and acute Mental Health Hospital in Dudley, United Kingdom.

Together, we take a look at possibly the second most painful induction process after being sent to prison, how what’s on TV at 6AM dictates what patients have to watch for the rest of the day on a certain ward, and how 12PM and 5PM became affectionately known as ‘Slopp-O-Clock’. Wil rants briefly about how important it is to have cash and cigarettes on you when you get ‘committed’, Andy says ‘Yes, definitely’ a few to many times, and we reminisce on just a few of the memories of our first weeks inside the one, the only Clent ward in 2024.

Note: We’re just getting started on inpatient life: Plenty more to come in the next couple of episodes!

Note: Our Introduction Episode is being re-recorded due to some technical issues. We decided to release this one as it’s over an hour long, though some of the audio issues still exist. We’re sorry!

This episode takes a look at Christmas, or if you’re American ‘The Holiday Season’. It highlights some of the basic issues around seeking mental health support during this period in the UK, and also some of the difficulties people face around Christmas when it comes to ‘spending time with your loved ones’. Andy eventually says more than one sentence at a time, and occasionally, Wil is able to finish a point in less than 20 minutes of rambling. Good times.

As ever, please do reach out to 24/7 support services if you need them. Whilst most professional services do slow down or close down during Christmas, there are still some fantastic services to help carry you through. In an emergency, if you / someone you know is at risk, do call emergency services. And remember to be a non-judgemental, listening ear if you can.