Special Note from the Editors: Welcome to our brand-new series written by the 2023 Psych Stars! Chosen by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Psych Stars are medical students awarded a place in the scheme for their interest and commitment to psychiatry. To celebrate their work and success, we have invited several Psych Stars to write fortnightly articles on their visions for the future of mental health research and care, each choosing an area in which they are especially passionate. After you read today's article, be sure to check out the excellent collection by the 2020 Psych Stars! As a m ..read more

Content warning: This article mentions suicidal thoughts, which might be distressing to some readers. I moved to the United Kingdom from the United States four years ago and have been working as an Editor. I prepared for everything when I found out I was pregnant. Labour, birth, and taking care of a newborn. But, I was not ready for the postpartum period — the period after childbirth. Doesn’t this only happen to people with traumatic births or difficult pregnancies? No, it doesn’t. It can happen to anyone, and it happened to me. I’m staring into the face of my newborn and I feel empty. This ..read more

Author's Note: This story was inspired by the idea that falling in love can 'fix' your mental illness. It can't, but being loved and supported can make dealing with it easier. I hope we can all find that. Thank you for reading. Photo by freestocks.com on Pexels I step inside the library and let the thick air, full of unread words, coffee, and aged paper hit me like a hug hello. It almost numbs the anxiety buzzing around my stomach like a hive of bees, but only just for a moment. The library is busier than I thought it would be, and the mere sight of more people than I thought makes my ches ..read more

Throughout most of my career, I have been held back by my introversion. Contrary to popular misconception, introverts don’t hate being around other people entirely. For the most part, I enjoy working in an office, surrounded by my friends and colleagues. I even enjoy the occasional social gathering with colleagues.   However, when it comes to my day-to-day working life, my introverted self will show. I do not speak up often in team meetings, even if I have a good idea. I do not willingly volunteer for group work or to lead a project. I prefer to work alone to get an important piece of wor ..read more

Being a writer, I have explored and am still exploring many mental health concepts and solutions for better wellbeing. In today's times, where we are fast-moving and stressed, scream therapy has caught my attention because of its unique approach and ability to provide an unconventional yet potentially cathartic release of stress and tension. That’s when I thought to dig deeper and share the potential of scream therapy, aka primal therapy, out there. Scream therapy might be a new term for many, but the idea of catharsis is well known to the world, and scream therapy is no different from it ..read more

Trigger warning: This piece contains a description of miscarriage and mentions pregnancy loss and may be distressing for some readers. Pregnancies, like stories, are supposed to have a beginning, a middle and an end. So what happens when a pregnancy ends before you even knew it began? It’s 3 am, the morning after Mother’s Day and suddenly I’m awake. Thick with sleep, I stumble bleary-eyed to the bathroom, galvanised by gnawing stomach cramps and an urgent need to pee. Sitting slack-kneed on the loo, I feel a rush of something heavier, warmer than wee. The toilet roll is ruby-dark with bloo ..read more

Do you spend time in your ‘soothing’ system? Or know what that is? And are you aware of how understanding the ‘three systems’ model might help your psychological well-being? Let me explain how these ideas have helped me.   In my quest to look after my mental health ever since I suffered two serious depressive episodes in my thirties, I am always on the hunt for fresh psychological approaches to manage my own tendency to anxiety and low mood. Recently I came across the ‘three systems’ model developed by psychologist and professor at the University of Derby, Dr Paul Gilbert. I had vaguel ..read more

A helping hand from wearable tech?   Rare is the adult who looks back on their adolescence and recalls years of calm sensibility and smooth control of behaviour and emotions. But for those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the difficulties navigating the teenage years can go drastically beyond the usual stroppiness.   At this particularly vulnerable time for young people with ADHD, they also need to transfer from child and adolescent mental health care to adult ADHD services. But data from the UK show we have a major problem here: most youth with ADHD do not succe ..read more

Did you know that prolonged abuse at the hands of a “narcissist” can sometimes be associated with the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), due to the complex trauma experienced? In fact, narcissistic abuse, a form of emotional abuse perpetrated by someone with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), can be quite devious and overwhelming because it can be hard to identify at times. However, keep in mind that not everyone with an NPD diagnosis will be or is abusive. As a personal development life coach, I’ve been helping survivors of narcissistic abuse overcome the trauma they ..read more

Our names are Riddhi and Kristi, and we are researchers in Perinatal Psychiatry, interested in trying to improve mental health during and after pregnancy. In this piece, we are excited to present a new project we have been working on, called HappyMums. The goal of this project is to understand, predict, and treat depression in pregnancy, in order to improve mental health outcomes for both mothers and their offspring. HappyMums is a research consortium, funded by the European Commission, bringing together research institutions and other organisations interested in perinatal mental health, from ..read more