The Just Checking In Podcast

In episode 145 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Jordyn Chasiak-Pratt.Jordyn works in finance in London and moved to the capital after graduating from university. In this episode we discuss the pressure Jordyn faced in school to achieve, perfectionism and being bullied because of her academic ability.After being bullied for this as well as her weight, combined with her perfectionism, Jordyn developed an eating disorder which took her a long time to recover from. When she went to university, she went through some very difficult relationship issues which led to her feeling isolated and alone. Jordyn had no mental health support at the time and was then diagnosed with anxiety.Midway through her degree, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and she was forced to do 50% of her degree online. We discuss the mental health challenges around that, the therapy she’s accessed for the PTSD she still lives with and how she's moved forward with her life!As always, #itsokaytoventSupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

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In episode 144 of The Just Checking In Podcast previous JCIP guest Connor Smart checked in with our Founder Freddie Cocker for Part 4 of his mental health journey.Connor explored Freddie's journey through three perspectives: 'Defeat', 'Struggle' and 'Growth' and where each one related to different parts of his life. They discussed how Freddie moved from a defeated mindset to one of positive growth, becoming antifragile and what other people can do to embark on that journey themselves and find their own state of self-acceptance. This is a different episode to one we usually do but one we hope you listeners take just as much from!As always, #itsokaytoventSupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvkTRIGGER WARNING: This podcast contains brief discussions about sexual abuse and suicide, which some listeners may find distressing or upsetting, so please listen with caution.

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In episode 143 of The Just Checking In Podcast, we checked in with Duncan Craig OBE. Duncan is is the Founder and CEO of Survivors Manchester. Survivors Manchester is a survivor focused voluntary sector organisation that aims to create and facilitate safe spaces for male survivors of sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation across Greater Manchester providing access to quality assured support.Their work is focused on developing ways for individuals to empower themselves to work through personal and sometimes painful issues, guided and supported by their trauma-informed team, following the trauma and recovery model.In this episode we discuss how the charity started, Duncan’s role in it, the different projects they work on and why he was inspired to found the charity through his own story of surviving sexual abuse.Duncan is a gay man and was sexually abused as a child and later sexually exploited as an older teenager and young adult by a male perpetrator.It took him a long time to realise that what he went through was actually sexual abuse and we discuss the impact that it did or didn’t have on his sexuality and how that can be a common issue among victim-survivors.We discuss why the concept of shame in disclosure of sexual abuse is so prominent, social class and how representation of these stories in popular culture is so important in breaking the stigma of sexual abuse in men down further.Showing the public what men like him have gone through is crucial in how we safeguard the next generation and protect the mental health of boys and men.As always, #itsokaytoventFind out more about Survivors Manchester here: https://www.survivorsmanchester.org.uk/You can follow Duncan on social media below: Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrMadrigalOBESupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvkTRIGGER WARNING: This podcast contains a deep and detailed discussion about sexual abuse and suicide, which some listeners may find extremely upsetting or distressing, so please listen with caution.

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In episode 142 of the Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with David Foy. David works in marketing and has done some work in podcasting himself.Dave lived in a rural area growing up and found the step to a large secondary school quite overwhelming. He would be off sick quite a lot and puts this down to him not liking his school experience. Dave also decided to go to university as a last-minute decision so he decided to live at home whilst he studied and we can discuss how he missed out on the stereotypical university experience and the challenges that brought for his mental health. We finish by talking about his decision to move out of his family home aged 25 and the independence and boost to his mental health its given him. As always, #itsokaytoventSupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

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In episode 141 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Micah Fanimo. Micah is the founder of food blog and platform 'Feast with Fanimo', where he reviews restaurants from London, Essex and Liverpool. Micah is also a survivor of domestic abuse and the first male survivor we have had on the podcast.In this episode we discuss his mental health journey; being sent to Nigeria for school from the UK because of behavioural issues, the subsequent relationship challenges with his parents and learning more about them as people as he’s become an adult. We then discuss that domestic abusive relationship, how his female partner began to exert coercive control over him, her high levels of jealousy and paranoia, his aversion to conflict and the spiral into physical violence against him before an event which culminated in the end of his relationship where he was physically assaulted in her home. He had to physically restrain her in order to escape the premises before she called the police on him alleging she was the one being abused. Both of them were arrested despite the physical cuts, blood and scars visible on him before he was released without charge and he never saw her again.We explore all the stigmas present in male domestic abuse survivors, why some survivors struggle in recognising it even happened to them and why they feel ashamed in reporting their abuse, speaking out and seeking support. As always, #itsokaytoventYou can follow Feast with Fanimo on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feastwithfanimo/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@feastwithfanimoSupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

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In this episode of Behind The Mic we checked in with Gavin who's lead singer in UK disco band, Zkeletonz.We talk about Gavin's music journey, from organising school concerts for charity to taking it more seriously at university, having big record labels sniffing around them and then starting Zkeletonz purely for fun after a period where Gavin fell out of love with music. We discuss the mental health impact that touring had on his mental health and the social isolation that came with it. We also discuss his undiagnosed ADHD and how ironically, the Covid-19 lockdown forced him to address a lot of issues related to it that he wasn’t previously. He was also having severe panic attacks during this period too. He began to apply mental tools to help him manage his undiagnosed ADHD and accessed therapy to get his mental health to a good place.As always, #itsokaytoventListen to Zkeletonz on streaming platforms below: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6ztejmS91AcqwLtDkevY1Y?si=VTykIfUgR_-opHszI-3RSQYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYAKAF2cxfg58wezJrFMHswFollow Zkeletonz on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zkeletonz/Support Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvkOutro: Zkeletonz - Improve Your Groove: https://open.spotify.com/album/3aCHJxylZQEackVOE8LQqx?si=7a58b40aa80e421b

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In episode 140 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Jasmine Roebuck. Jasmine is the sister of previous JCIP guest and Vent Champion Charlie Roebuck.Jasmine is an events professional but after a negative experience of workplace bullying, she stepped away from events completely to go back to university to complete a Bachelors Degree in Business Management.Jasmine has already written one article for Vent called ‘Talking Really Does Help’ which we dive into in this episode.We talk about that bullying and the impact it had on her mental health, prioritising helping others over her own mental health, the grief she went through in losing her grandad in August 2021, how her niece and nephew boost her mental health on a daily basis and stepping out of her comfort zone.As always, #itsokaytoventYou can read the Vent article Jasmine wrote that we discussed on the podcast here: https://vent.org.uk/talking-really-does-helpSupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

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In episode 139 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Ashley Belle. Ashley is a bodybuilder, member of the U.S military and trans woman.Ashley served 19 years in the military and left active service in 2016. She’s since re-joined in a non-active role. Ashley made the decision to transition in her mid-40s and began experiencing Gender Dysphoria (GD) when she was around 6/7 years old.Ashley says transitioning was the best choice for her to make and has never been more comfortable with her body and mind as she is right now. In this episode we discuss her journey of transition and experience of GD and why she believes trans people must be comfortable with their biological sex in order to be comfortable with their transition and live a healthy and happy life.We also discuss why she is not offended if someone sexes her as male or female and how she was ostracised from parts of the LGBT community in her hometown because she holds conservative political beliefs.As always, #itsokaytoventYou can follow Ashley on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashley_belle_824/Support Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

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In episode 138 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with NJada.NJada is a male based in the U.S who transitioned when he was 19 years old. He spent two years living as a trans woman before he detransitioned six years ago. He is 28 at time of recording.Whilst presenting as female, he was on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), specifically oestrogen and a testosterone blocker for a year and a half. N had lived with Gender Dysphoria from a very early age and managed it in secret throughout his childhood and teenage years.He says that some of his mental health difficulties also stem from the relationship with his parents.N then began to experiment with hallucinogenic drugs in university and during one of these experiences, he says he came to the conclusion that he wanted to detransition and present as male once more. Since then he has been working through healing from gender dysphoria and his broader mental health, centring himself in his vision of masculinity and moving forward with his life.As always, #itsokaytoventYou can follow NJada on social media below: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Herenotthere5You can read and subscribe to NJada's Substack here: https://njadadetrans.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profileSupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvkTRIGGER WARNING: This podcast contains a brief discussion about suicide and suicidality which some listeners may find distressing or upsetting, so please listen with caution.

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In episode 137 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Rory Cellan-Jones. Rory is a journalist and worked for the BBC for forty years. Rory is the BBC’s former Technology Correspondent and the author of two books; ‘Dot.Bomb: The Rise and Fall of Dot Com Britain’ and his most recent book ‘Always On: Hope And Fear in the Smartphone Era’. In this episode we discuss the link between social media use and mental health, fighting his way up the greasy BBC pole, his emotional relationship with the BBC, social class and his diagnosis of Parkinson’s and how its changed his life.As always, #itsokaytoventYou can follow Rory on social media below: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ruskin147You can purchase 'Always On' here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Always-Hope-Fear-Social-Smartphone/dp/1472981197Support Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

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