Headstraight: Mental Health Support for Teens

This week has been busy and there's been lots going on  - meaning that the episode planned for this week has not been finished - sometimes you have to adjust your priorities - but no worries, the episode planned for this week will be available next Wednesday.

Maybe take this as an opportunity to take a look at the back episodes of Headstraight - you never know, there might be an episode that you've missed out on that could help you to figure something out. Whilst your at it, maybe if you see an episode that someone you know might bbenefit from, share it. You might help them to work out something they've been struggling with..

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

Ever been called lazy when it feels like you’re actually trying really hard?

You know what needs doing. You’ve thought about it, probably more than once. You might even be annoyed with yourself for not starting. And yet, somehow, you’re still stuck. From the outside, that can look like you just can’t be bothered.

But what’s really going on in that gap between knowing you need to do something and actually doing it?

In this episode, we look at effort, avoidance, getting stuck, responsibility, and why the word lazy often tells us far less than people think it does.

Because maybe the most useful question isn’t whether you’re lazy.

Maybe it’s: where are you actually getting stuck?

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

Everyone says they want you to make your own decisions. Until you make one they don’t agree with.

This episode looks at what it actually means to have a say in your own life when parents, carers or professionals still have some responsibility for what happens to you.

We explore the difference between being listened to and getting your own way, when protection can start to feel like control, why making your own choices also means dealing with what follows, and why wanting more freedom doesn’t mean wanting everyone to disappear.

If you’ve ever thought, “When does this actually become my life?”, this one’s for you.

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

Do you ever feel more like the parent in your family than the child? You’re the one calming people down, looking after younger siblings or trying to keep things together when the adults around you are struggling. Everyone sees how capable you are, but they may not see what carrying that responsibility is doing to you.

In this episode, we explore how a young person can gradually become the emotional grown-up at home, why being needed can feel important as well as exhausting, and why stepping back may feel almost impossible. How do you care about your family without feeling responsible for holding the whole family together?

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

Do you ever feel like you’re slightly different depending on who you’re with?

Maybe you’re louder with one group, quieter with another, funnier with some people, more careful with others. That’s normal. We all adapt. But what happens when you start changing yourself because you’re scared people won’t like you if you don’t?

In this episode, we look at the exhausting habit of constantly checking how you’re coming across, trying to read everyone else’s reactions, and quietly wondering whether you’ve said or done the wrong thing.

Because there’s a strange trap in needing people to like you: the harder you work to make sure they do, the harder it can become to believe that they actually know you.

This isn’t about learning not to care what anyone thinks. It’s about noticing the difference between fitting in naturally and feeling like you have to keep editing yourself just to belong.

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

What if people do care about you, but you still can’t quite believe it?

Someone checks in. They stay. They tell you they care. And yet your mind is already looking underneath it, trying to work out why. Was it guilt? Responsibility? Habit? Did they really mean it?

In this episode, I look at what happens when care starts to feel like something you have to investigate. When watching turns into testing, and even the response you hoped for still doesn’t quite settle the doubt.

Trust rarely comes with absolute proof. Sometimes the harder part is allowing yourself to believe that what someone keeps showing you might actually mean something.

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

What if “I’ll always feel like this” only feels true because right now it's so loud?

When you’ve been low, anxious or overwhelmed for a while, the future can start looking like more of the same. You might know you’ve felt differently before, but somehow that version of you can feel miles away.

In this episode, I look at why the present can become so convincing that it starts shaping what you believe about the future. We explore why old struggles look different once we know how they ended, why “forever” can creep into the picture, and how easy it is to confuse “I can’t see things changing” with “things won’t change.”

And perhaps that’s the bit worth holding onto - just because you can’t picture a different future from where you are now, it doesn’t mean you already know what that future looks like.

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

Life has thrown me a curve ball this week and my planned episode isn't ready to publish..

Why not take this as an opportunity to take a look at the back episodes..?

Normal service will resume next week..!

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety,8 depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

Some people can tell that someone’s mood has changed before a word’s even been said. A different look, a change in tone, a shorter message, a slightly different atmosphere, and immediately there’s a feeling of, I know what’s going on here.

And sometimes you’re absolutely right. But noticing that something has changed isn’t quite the same as knowing what that change means. In this episode, I look at what happens when being good at reading people starts to feel like certainty, how past experiences can influence the way we interpret new situations, and why trusting yourself doesn’t have to mean having all the answers. Maybe the most useful place to get to is simply: Something feels different. I’m just not sure why yet.

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t what you’re doing. It’s trying to understand what’s going on underneath it.

Maybe you’ve lost your temper, walked away, shut down, refused something, or ended up in another argument. Everyone else can see the behaviour, but that doesn’t mean they understand what’s behind it. And sometimes, if you’re being honest, you might not completely understand it either.

So what if you’re not just being difficult?

In this episode, I explore what can happen when behaviour starts saying something before you’ve found the words yourself. Why people can notice everything you’re doing and still miss what you’re trying to communicate. Why the message can get lost. And what happens when even you don’t really know what you’re trying to say yet.

This isn’t about making excuses for behaviour or pretending that what we do doesn’t affect other people. It’s about looking at things with a bit more curiosity.

Because maybe the question isn’t simply, “Why do I keep doing this?”

Maybe it’s...

“What’s going on here that I haven’t worked out how to explain yet?”

Want to get involved?
I’d love to hear from you:

• Send me a message → headstraight.co.uk/contact
• Leave me a voice note → headstraight.co.uk/voicemail
• Share your feedback by leaving a review (it helps more young people find the podcast) → headstraight.co.uk/reviews/new

Explore more from Headstraight:

• Read the blog version of every episode, packed with extra insights on self-sabotage, motivation, resilience, and mental health → headstraight.co.uk/blog
• Find out more about me, the host, and why I started this podcast → headstraight.co.uk/about

Need support right now?
If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or in crisis, visit our Resources page - https://www.headstraight.co.uk/p/resources/
for helplines, mental health services, and support options available in the UK and across the world.