- StyleCaroline Allen
Supermodel Natalia Vodianova urges children to 'work hard to avoid becoming snowflakes'
She's one of the world's highest-earning models, she also has five children.
StyleMarie Claire DorkingWhat is trypophobia, the unusual phobia Love Island star Yewande Biala suffers from?
"Do you know there's some weird sponges and they have loads and loads of little circles? It creeps me out."
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This wearable tech could treat your depression
It tackles the mental health disorder electrically rather than chemically.
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Stress breeds stress
- StyleThe Independent
Sophie Turner on depression: 'It’s a very British thing – that idea you should just get on with it'
Sophie Turner has spoken out about the benefits of going to therapy for her mental health, describing the idea that you should “just get on with” depression as a “very British thing”.The Game of Thrones star has been open about her struggles with the condition in the past, and revealed that despite being seen as “a bit self-indulgent” and “soft”, therapy, along with medication, has helped her “immeasurably”.“My parents are still like, 'Why do you go to therapy?' and I’m like, 'Because I’m depressed, remember?'" Turner told PorterEdit. “It’s a very British thing – that idea you should just get on with it, ‘chin up’.”Turner, who stars in the upcoming X-Men spin-off, Dark Phoenix, went on to tout the benefits of discussing mental health issues in the public eye.“The first step to any kind of movement is just to put it out there, talk about it and make it less of a taboo so that people can go and get help and not feel embarrassed to do so,” the 23-year-old said. “People feel so much shame about it, so if, by talking about it, I can even have an impact on one person, that would be awesome.”Turner’s comments come after she revealed she experienced suicidal thoughts at the age of 19.> View this post on Instagram> > GameofThrones has ended, but @SophieT’s next life chapter is set to be even more exciting – starting with marriage and a blockbuster leading role in XMenDarkPhoenix. Modeling the new 9-5 style essentials, she talks to PorterEdit about SansaStark’s fate, speaking up about mental health, and how she felt after her (not so) secret wedding. Link in bio. 📸: @yemchuk Styling: @natasharoyt> > A post shared by PORTER magazine (@portermagazine) on May 31, 2019 at 7:02am PDT“It’s weird. I say I wasn’t very depressed when I was younger, but I used to think about suicide a lot when I was younger. I don’t know why though,” she told US talk show host Dr Phil on his podcast, Phil in the Blanks, in April.“Maybe it’s just a weird fascination I used to have, but yeah, I used to think about it. I don’t think I ever would have gone through with it. I don’t know.”You can read Turner’s full interview with PorterEdit here.
StyleCaroline AllenMeghan and Harry fans go wild for their support of the LGBTQ+ community
“We stand with you and support you. Because it’s very simple: love is love.”
StyleCaroline AllenKanye West praised for talking about bipolar disorder: 'It's like a sprained brain'
He revealed that people do “everything to make it worse”.
StyleCaroline AllenInside Kit Harington's £94,000-a-month rehab
A retreat from high profile, “always on” lifestyles.
StyleMarie Claire DorkingBurn-out has now been officially recognised as a medical condition, here's how to spot the symptoms
The WHO describes burn-out as “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed."
- StyleWomen's Health UK
Whacky or worth It: Is Ashwagandha Good at Calming Your Anxiety?
Meghan Markle, Jennifer Aniston and Emily Weiss swear by it
- StyleThe Independent
Prince William documentary sparks important conversation about mental health and male suicide
The BBC’s new documentary fronted by the Duke of Cambridge has prompted an important discussion on men’s mental health and male suicide.Royal Team Talk saw the future King engage in a roundtable discussion with sporting heroes, including Thierry Henry, Gareth Southgate and Peter Crouch, about overcoming the most difficult moments in their careers by being open about what they were going through.“Guys, in general, find it very difficult to talk about their feelings – doing what we’re doing here makes a huge difference,” said Prince William.In the discussion, the men talk about feeling “forbidden to cry” at times, with Southgate referencing football’s “culture of not opening up about anything in your life without being seen as weak”.“But that’s the key,” the England manager continued, “it isn’t a weakness, it’s actually a strength.”Powerful moments such as these have sparked widespread praise on Twitter, with many viewers sharing anecdotes about how being open or playing in team sports helped them combat mental health issues.Speaking about his brother, who took his own life in 2014, mental health campaigner Jonny Sharples wrote: “When Simon died by suicide four years ago, I’d never have imagined we’d see the England manager on TV openly discussing his mental health. “I wish Simon could’ve seen a programme like ARoyalTeamTalk, but there’s comfort in knowing countless others will feel the benefit of seeing it.”> ARoyalTeamTalk is such an important watch, the stats around suicide in males is heartbreaking. Your gender, your job etc doesn’t guarantee you happiness, mental health is serious. Never be ashamed to admit you’re not ok, speaking out/checking on someone can save a life.> > — 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚 𝙅𝙚𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨. (@CharlotteJJ95) > > May 19, 2019Another person revealed how playing football helped him overcome a long battle with drug and alcohol abuse.“I have been clean now over two years and run my own football group for others now. Don’t be ashamed. You are not alone. It’s ok to not be ok. ARoyalTeamTalk MentalHealth,” he wrote.> @mrdanwalker I’m a primary school teacher and ARoyalTeamTalk will be shown to my Y6s tomorrow. Thank you. This is just what we all need to hear and follow the examples set from the conversations you had 😃👏🏼> > — Matt Finch (@MattFinch_) > > May 19, 2019Labour MP Stella Creasy was also among those to praise the documentary, writing: “Extraordinary programme on BBC 1 right now about men’s mental health with Prince William, Gareth Southgate, Peter Crouch, Dan Walker, Thierry Henry, Jermaine Jenas and Danny Rose all being incredibly open and compelling. Well worth a watch mensteamtalk.”> Thank you so much for all your amazing messages about ARoyalTeamTalk last night. Some really uplifting comments and this email from Christine really sums it all up MakeExtraTime > The programme will be on the @BBCiPlayer for 2 months https://t.co/2thk2TkWGL pic.twitter.com/uwzv26mzpN> > — Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) > > May 20, 2019In the documentary, Prince William opens up about his experience with bereavement, describing the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, as a “pain like no other pain”.Royal Team Talk is available to watch on BBC iPlayer here.If you have been affected by any issues mentioned in this article, you can contact The Samaritans for free on 116 123 or any of the following mental health organisations:mind.org.uknhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealthmentalhealth.org.uksamaritans.organxietyuk.org.uk
StyleMarie Claire DorkingSurprising signs you could be suffering from a mental health condition
The signs of mental health aren't always easy to spot.
- StyleCosmo
The women using ketamine to treat depression
More and more women are turning to ketamine when antidepressants fail them - and it’s changing their lives.
- StyleThe Independent
Can tidying up your home really tidy up your mind?
Unless you’ve been living under a huge pile of old newspapers, empty fast food cartons and bags of your own waste, you can’t have failed to notice that one of this year’s big wellness trends is all about being clean. Not just in your body but in your home. Instagram is full of cleanspo (that’s cleaning inspiration), with a niche neat freak to suit every taste and style. From Japan there’s Marie Kondo, a kawaii manga heroine in neat pastel cardigans, whose Insta feed is minimalist perfection. Kondo’s Netflix show – Tidying Up With Marie Kondo – in which she applied her KonMari method to the homes of some of America’s biggest pack rats, saw charity shop donations in the Washington DC area leap 66% as viewers were inspired to declutter. Closer to home, there’s Lynsey Crombie, “the queen of clean”, a 40-something mother of three from Peterborough, offers more realistic aspirations for anyone with children and pets. Her Instagram feed, which has 140, 000 followers, is a riot of colour (mostly pink) and offers such gems as “happiness is a freshly cleaned house” and “being an adult is like folding a fitted sheet. No one really knows how”. I suspect Ms Crombie does. However the current Empress of the Spotless is Sophie Hinchcliffe, aka Mrs Hinch, a twenty-something homemaker from Essex. More than 2.4m people follow her Instagram account which documents her life with picture upon picture of her entirely grey home. Seriously, everything in her home is grey with the exception of her light brown cocker spaniel and the boxes of Zoflora the dog is occasionally posed alongside. I would have thought that the main advantage of a grey house is that it hides the dust, but Hinchcliffe has become the cleaning guru du jour with such tips as using an electric toothbrush to clean a wooden floor. The words “life’s too short” spring to mind but a few weeks ago, Hinchcliffe’s book of cleaning advice/memoir of her life, Hinch Yourself Happy, rocketed to the top of the hardback charts, shifting more than 100,000 copies in a week. It’s not just books that Mrs Hinch is shifting. Every time she features a new cleaning product, she creates a sell-out sensation. Her favourite product is a cloth called a “Minky” (pronounced Minkeh). By the time this column goes on line, they’ll be changing hands at £100 a pop.But the cleanstagrammers aren’t just about merchandising. Both Sophie Hinchcliffe and Lynsey Crombie have spoken about how cleaning has helped them to overcome personal challenges. Hinchcliffe turned to polishing as a way to squash feelings of anxiety and beat panic attacks. Lynsey Crombie used cleaning as a substitute for expensive therapy after her marriage broke down when she discovered that her now ex-husband was a paedophile. Scientific research bears out their experience of finding solace in order. A study by Dr Darby Saxbe, assistant psychology professor at University of Southern California discovered that female subjects who described their homes as “cluttered” were more likely to report feeling depressed than those who described their homes as being tidy. The women who felt their homes were untidy also showed higher levels of cortisol, the hormone linked to stress. Those findings make sense to me. Two and a half years ago, after the sudden death of my father, I found unexpected solace in Marie Kondo’s Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, her first book about the joy of decluttering. It was a difficult time. My grief at losing Dad was compounded by career worries. While life felt like it was on a constant spin cycle, I couldn’t concentrate for long enough to read a novel. Those self-help books that were actually about taking control of life felt too strident. In contrast The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up was as soothing as a children’s story. What Kondo’s book offered was the promise of a feeling of control achieved in the simplest of ways. Even at my saddest, I could fold a sock into thirds. I could still do some ironing. Seeing a pile of flat T-shirts wasn’t quite the same as seeing a pile of pages for a new novel spew from the printer, but I built a staircase out of a pit of despair on those tiny achievements. > Even at my saddest, I could fold a sock into thirds. I could still do some ironing. Seeing a pile of flat t-shirts wasn’t quite the same as seeing a pile of pages for a new novel spew from the printer, but I built a staircase out of a pretty deep pit of despair on those tiny achievementsThere was one piece of advice in Kondo’s book that made a particular difference. She recommends that you “thank” any items you decide to chuck out while on a decluttering spree. I found this idea touching and very helpful when it came to deciding what mementoes of my beloved dad to keep. Dad could never visit me in London without bringing with him something from his shed, garage or attic. Like so many war babies, whose earliest memories were of ration books, Dad had an aversion to throwing away anything that might come in handy one day. When he wanted to tidy up his space, the easiest way was to send the things he didn’t want to live at my sister’s house or in my attic instead.Among the many “gifts” Dad had given me over the years was a bag of random cables to devices long since lost or broken beyond repair – CD players, video recorders, old kettles... he suggested I might need some of them for my tech. Since Dad made them my problem, they’d been living in a cupboard under the stairs, taking up premium real estate and gathering dust while awaiting my next visit to the tip. But as daft as it sounds, after Dad’s death that bag of cables might as well have been a bag of puppies. They were suddenly strangely alive to me. I couldn’t just chuck them away! With Marie Kondo’s help, I managed a trip to the dump, where I recycled as much as I could while muttering KonMari style mantras. “Thank you for your service, cable to a CD player I don’t think we ever owned. Thank you for making my family happy, out-dated video connector. Thank you, cable to a long lost Amstrad.”With the cables thanked and passed on, I could focus my attention on taking proper care of the things that mattered, like the birthday cards and books signed in Dad’s handwriting. Handwriting is a funny thing, isn’t it? It seems to be as unique and personal as the iris of an eye. Anyway, suffice to say that even if it only gave me the illusion of control, cleaning my house KonMari style helped me more than my cynical heart might have imagined. Of course I wouldn’t recommend tidying up as a substitute for the advice and care of a mental health professional but for me, knowing that my sadness and frustration was entirely down to the circumstances in which I found myself, it helped enormously. Though naturally as a novelist, I’m going to ignore Marie Kondo’s recent suggestion that one only keeps a handful of books, but if I had to narrow my book collection down, then The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up would definitely make the cut.
StyleFrancesca SpecterMum admits to letting children stay home from school for 'mental health days'
"No screens, an adequate amount of fresh air, healthy food before treats.”
StyleCaroline AllenDoes earthing really work and can it improve your health?
Earthing is walking barefoot outside for a short time each day.
- StyleMarie Claire Dorking
The sexual dysfunction men are praised for that may be masking a mental health issue
"I wasn't going through sexual satisfaction, I couldn't orgasm."
StyleDanielle StaceyThe only two people Harry and Meghan are following on Instagram
They've stopped following other royal accounts - but it's for a good reason.
- StyleMarie Claire Dorking
Researchers have uncovered a link between childhood obesity and mental health problems
"Obesity and emotional problems are intertwined."
- StyleEvening Standard
What happened when I tried a course of reiki
Sagar has become known in the capital for her so-called reiki facials, but she has invited me to come along for the whole shabang: a three-session course of full-body energy healing. Reiki is a Japanese healing art that works in a similar way to acupuncture to clear blockages and stagnancies of energy flow in your body. "There's only so much you can do in one session," Sagar tells me.
- StyleCosmo
Cheryl opens up about having therapy to help anxiety
"I'm actively undoing all the bad thought patterns and traps I used to fall into."
- StyleLauren Clark
The act of smiling can actually make you feel happier, says science
The feel-good effect of smiling is something you probably thought you were pretty clued up on. Psychologists revealed in the journal Psychological Bulletin that facial expressions can directly influence our mental health. Scientists looked at almost half a century of data exploring whether facial expressions affect mood.
- StyleCaroline Allen
Ariana Grande shares brain scan showing PTSD impact from Manchester Arena bombing
Ariana Grande was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the Manchester Arena attack in 2017.
- StyleWomen's Health UK
Does CBD Oil for Anxiety Actually Work?
'It's helped me get my life back - the effect was instantaneous'
- StyleDanielle Stacey
Prince Harry teams up with Oprah Winfrey for landmark mental health series
“I truly believe that good mental health – mental fitness – is the key to powerful leadership, productive communities and a purpose-driven self."
