When I asked Charlie Fioré to join me on the podcast I thought all we would be talking about was epilepsy, then around 3 questions in I discover that Charlie also has cerbral palsy and he was kind enough to delve into both conditions for the rest of the episode.

This is an extremely insighftul look into the life of someone living with epilepsy and CP. Charlie is open, vulnerable, frank and oftentimes out right hilarious in his way of discussing these conditions.

We discuss the perceptions of each condition versus the reality, and take a deeper dive into the day to day impacts that each condition has on Charlie's life.

I'm a public speaker, who is very afraid of talking to strangers... How does THAT WORK?

Well I'm excellent at being on stage or on camera, but put me in a networking meeting or a wedding where I know none of the other guests (or even sometimes social situations with some of my closest friends) and I'm an absolute WRECK.

I'm also someone who challenges other people to face up to their fears and take ownership of stuff like this... so this is me PUBLICLY taking ownership of this.

I'll be updating this story via Shorts so be sure to follow me on your prefered platform and maybe follow the hashtag #ExtrovertInTraining

Let's see if we can turn this socially awkward introvert into the most charming person at the event! (Not gonna lie... I'm scared!)

If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

Apart from having possibly one of ther coolest names on the plante, RJ Zimmerman is a pretty awesome individual. Currently 9 years sober RJ turned around a life of alcoholism, initially to start a family, but ultimately found a freedom in it that he never found at the bottom of any bottle.

In the past 18 months, RJ has increasingly seen that his expertise and experience are things that can drastically help others. So with this in mind he is now embarking on the path of being an Alcohol Free Life Coach.

Check out his story for love, laughs, a journey of self compassion and so much more!

And check out the Untapped Keg over at https://www.untappedkeg.com/

If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

"I had to get out of a church that was like a cult" this sentence spoken very matter-of-factly was the start of a very interesting and bizarre conversation when I first met Rachel McDerby face to face.

She gave me the cliff notes, invovling cultish behaviour in a church, running rehab centers with questionable ethics, an abusive ex and setting up a safe house and I had to stop her in her tracks. Because this was going to be one of those conversations I'd want to recreate for a podcast and never be able to do it justice compared to that unplanned chat.

So that's what we did, we saved the details for in front of an audience and recorded for your good self!

Is mental illness a diability? Well the short answer is YES! But it took me a LONG way to get to that short answer when answering for myself. If anyone else was to ask me if mental illness is a disability I would say "of course". But if they were to say "is YOUR mental illness a disability" then I would most likely have said no.

There's many reasons for this. But the two I boil it down to are not wanting to detract from people with "genuine disabilities" and the other being a strong dollop of interalised stigma.

It's no good me confronting these things in others if I am not to confront them in myself. So this episode is a declaration of a line in the sand. I am Dave, I have bipolar disorder, I am disabled and I am proud.

https://www.nationaldiversityawards.co.uk/awards-2023/nominations/dave-cottrell/

If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

A mental health podcaster talking to another mental health podcaster? What ever will they think of next.

Tom Davies is the host of the Proper Mental Podcast, which is one of (if not the) highest ranking independent UK mental health podcast. 

Having lived with his own mental health struggles he found that talking about it with other people was part of the path to recovery. So to make these conversations a guaranteed regular occurance he launched the Proper Mental Podcast, initially with a friend, but then after the friend leaving due to life commitments Tom decided he wasn't done with the conversation.

His podcast now on it's 125th  episode has brought scientists, journalists, experts by lived experience, authors, charity founders and so much more together to have open and honest mental health conversations. 

You can check it out here: https://linktr.ee/propermentalpodcast

If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Accessibility in gaming is something many developers are keen to include (nowadays). This is often done by giving accessibility options within the game itself. Whether this be subtitles, audio description or high contrast visual modes or maybe by simplifying controls or offering a series of difficulty level modifiers.

But what about where these adjustments aren't enough? Well this is where Special Effect come in. Not only do they cmapaign for more accessibility in games using some of the methods we have already mentionend, but they creative innovative technologies that offer new and game changing (pun firmly intended) ways for people to interface with games.

Things such as alternative easy to use or modifyable controllers, or their ground breaking eye tracking software interface that enables those who have limited mobility in their hands or even those without limbs to play too.

In this interview we talk about all of this and more. Remember, when more people are able to play, we all win!

Raynaud's syndrome is more common than you may think, which was a surprise t me because I first heard about it when I met Chelsea Lea MacColl around 5 years ago.

Raynaud's is a condition where the person feels the cold in an intense manor. As we talked through it in this interview it became clear that there aren't many ways to explain the difference to a person without the condition of "feeling the cold a bit too much" and it making your life oftentimes a misery. The closest we got was hypothermia!

In this interview Chelsea talks about the physical, emotional, mental and social effects of Raynaud's syndrome. A condition that permeates every part of her life, even in warmer temperatures. She also shares some of the things that she has found to help manage the symptoms, which for Raynaud's sufferers is currently the best level of medical intervention.

Will Hawkins is a coach and a therapist. Coming from a background of physical training, he was interested in what's going on behind the scenes more. Undestanding a person's fears, their needs, their identity and their values.

In this episode we talk a lot about emotional intelligence. Why it is important and what people can do to cultivate it. We discuss some of the things that hold a person back and how to generate motivation (or momentum) by tapping into the deeper cores of our identity.

Life, just filterless. This is the motto of Lisa Jayne and the name of her business. Having struggled for many year with her own mental health  one of the areas she found comfort was in her dark sense of humour. Then when looking for clothing that reflected this she couldn't find what she was looking for, so she decided to make it!

She now runs the fashion brand Life Just Filterless, which raises awareness of mental health, but also gives those of us with a darker sense of humour somthing to wear.

This is however only just the begining because the medium to long term goals of the brand is to have it fund free or reduced cost therapy sessions for those in need.