Today we are raising awareness of a service that is availbale in various parts of the UK that most people don't even know about.

 

In Lancashire it is called Minds Matter, but in other parts of the country is called Improving Access to Psychological Therapies or IAPT.

 

Emma shares her story of how she got involved in this line of work and gives some insight on the kinds of help that are available.

Adam Parsons aka Up4TheChallenge has a different story of suicide than any you may have heard before.

Struggling with his mental health along with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Adam has faced many difficulties along the way.

We talk about appropriate vibes and how anger isn't always a bad thing.

Through this story we laugh, we cry, we share some pretty strong opnions.

On this episode I am joined by Matt aka The Viking Scotsman. Matt is someone currently living with complex post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after several assults and the loss of his child.

Having grown up in a "traditional Glaswegian household" Matt has been brought up with certain perspectives of what it means to be a man, persepctives that are now being challenged byt the events of life and have lead Matt on a journey to get the right help.

The Mental Health Marathon was last weekend. I spopke to 28 people over a 27 1/2 stream about mental health and it was AMAZING!

The reasons for this event were many, but one of the primary things was to test my endurance in a mental capacity rather than a physical one. The aim being to show an example of mental HEALTH that wasn't an example of mental ILLNESS.

We brought 28 people's stories to the forfront and we showed a live audience that there are threads that connect us all. In the quest to normalise the conversation around mental health we went more than 26.2 miles!

Just a short and raw bonus episode simply to say THANK YOU!!!

Blushing Crafter's story is a difficult one to hear, but an important one to share.

From a childhood filled with abuse from multiple sources this is one of those great tales of "your end is not defined by your start".

Through therapy and self discovery, Blushing is now a streamer, a mother, a mental health advocate and more.

Multiplicity and Me is a person who lives with dissociative identity disorder, meaning that instead of being a single person they are made up of a system of alters.

Jess is the main alter of the system of 5, the others being Jamie, Ed, Jake and Ollie, each with their own distinct personalities and preferences.

Jess talked through their ongoing journey from pre-diagnosis, to learning to live with this disorder, up to starting a family and becoming an advocate.

As with many of our guest Gambling Guard is a man on a mission! His mission is to change the way gambling is viewed/experienced through combination and recovery and he's bloody good at it!

With a combination of group chats and thought provoking content that both entertains and educates he is helping change the world one gambing addict at a time.

With personal lived experience of overcoming a 12 year addiction as well you know that what he says is rooted in the reality of life as an addict so his content comes with that extra bit of weight which really helps it break through the noise!

All relationships have boundaries, most are just set organically over time.

The problem with this is that it tends to favour the more dominant person in the relationship. Leaving the less dominant person often frustrated.

In this episode we talk about how they are created and how you can alter them when they aren't working out!

Joel vs Arthritis is a man on a mission, a mission to change the perception of arthritis in the eyes of the public and to help those who live with this multi-facetted condition live better lives.

Having been diagnosed first with juvenile arthritis as a child this is something Joel has lived with practically his entire life. And between the physical limitations it placed on him and the mental stigma around the condition it would often define the quality of Joel's life in a negative way.

Jump forward to 2020 however and Joel has found his passion (or rather passions) in working to be the best possible dad he can be for his son and in working to change the face of arthritis in the UK.

Check him out on all social media platforms by searching JoelVsArthritis and in particular his excellent blog at joelvsarthritis.co.uk