Category Archives: Mental health

‘We have more in common than what separates us’: refugee stories, told by refugees

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In One Thousand Dreams, award-winning photographer Robin Hammond hands the camera to refugees. Often reduced by the media’s toxic or well-meaning narratives, the portraits and interviews capture a different and more complex tale

Robin Hammond has spent two decades crisscrossing the developing world and telling other people’s stories. From photographing the Rohingya forced out of Myanmar and rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to documenting the lives of people in countries where their sexuality is illegal, his work has earned him award after award.

But for his latest project the photographer has embarked on a paradigm shift: to remove himself – and others like him – from the process entirely. Instead, as part of an in-depth exploration of the refugee experience in Europe, the stories of those featured are told by those who, arguably, know them best: other refugees.

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Inside the mind of a murderer: the power and limits of forensic psychiatry

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When I was called in to assess Seb, I needed to understand why he had committed such a horrendous crime. But first I had to get him to talk

Even before Seb had arrived at the prison, five weeks before my first visit, the staff had received a notification that he ought to be subject to close monitoring. While still in police custody, an out-of-hours forensic psychiatric assessment had been requested.

Seb had been compliant with the arresting officers, but he had given the impression that he was unconcerned by what had happened – it seemed as though he didn’t mind at all that he was being arrested. More bizarrely, there were flickers of apparent self-satisfaction. Seb had been arrested on suspicion of murdering his mother.

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Sinéad O’Connor retracts retirement announcement

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The Irish musician said her statement, made on 5 June, was a ‘kneejerk reaction’ against the UK and Irish media’s ‘constant abuse and invalidation’ of her mental health

Sinéad O’Connor has retracted her announcement, made over the weekend, that she would retire from music and live performance.

In a new statement posted to Twitter, the Irish musician explained to fans that she had felt “badly triggered” by a series of interviews regarding her new memoir, Rememberings, in which she writes of surviving physical and psychological abuse.

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Why self-belief is a superpower that can be harnessed

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Lockdowns may have eroded people’s swagger, but research suggests there are ways to remedy the situation

In July 2007, the Irish golfer Padraig Harrington won one of golf’s most coveted competitions, the British Open. The story of how he did this, one of the most remarkable finishes in golfing history, illustrates one of the ways confidence works.

The Claret Jug – the Open’s famous prize – was within Harrington’s grasp as he teed off at the penultimate hole of the tournament. He had a one-shot lead on his arch-rival, Sergio García. He was entirely in the zone – “I am literally the most confident person at that point in time,” he said later. Then, something strange happened – a twinge of doubt came out of nowhere at the top of his back swing and he sliced the ball into the murky waters of the notorious Barry Burn river.

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‘We have to participate’: what Europe’s Gen Z want from their post-Covid lives – video

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Covid-19 policies risk leaving psychological and socioeconomic scars on millions of young people across Europe, with far-reaching consequences for them and society, a wide-ranging Guardian project has revealed.

Taking a snapshot, the Guardian asked five members of Europe’s Generation Z how the worst global pandemic in a century has affected their lives, what they have learned and how they see their future after the pandemic

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‘So many revolutions to lead’: Europe’s Gen Z on their post-Covid future

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As part of the Guardian’s 200th anniversary, we asked young people how the worst global pandemic in a century has affected their lives, hopes and dreams. Fifty from Europe’s Generation Z tell us how they see their future

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Warning over pilots’ mental health as planes return to skies

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Researchers say industry practice should change to encourage workers to seek help when they need it

Airlines are overlooking the mental health and wellbeing of pilots and other aviation workers in their scramble to get planes flying again, according to researchers.

Many aviation workers experienced anxiety, stress and depression during Covid-19 lockdowns, but they report feeling discouraged from acknowledging problems or seeking help, creating potential safety hazards and health problems.

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‘My hairline threatened my identity so much the ground felt shaky’: why hair transplants are booming

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Celebrity endorsements, new techniques and lockdown have led to rising demand for follicular transplants. But with patchy regulation, are men being exploited when they are vulnerable?

Hamish says he’s not at all vain. He wouldn’t consider getting his teeth whitened. He has an average life, with a happy marriage and two children. But when he caught sight of the top of his head in a family photo about eight years ago, something consumed him.

“I just saw this massive receding hairline and it triggered intense emotions,” he says from his home in Edinburgh, where he works in marketing. “I can feel my heart rate has increased just talking about it. It somehow threatens my identity so much that the ground feels shaky.”

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Sinéad O’Connor: ‘I’ll always be a bit crazy, but that’s OK’

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After a life marked by abuse, fame, scandal and struggle, the Irish singer-songwriter says she never lost faith

Sinéad O’Connor has been pretty much invisible for the past few years. There’s a good reason, though, she tells me with her usual disregard for social niceties. “I’ve spent most of the time in the nuthouse. I’ve been practically living there for six years.” She pauses, takes an intense drag on her fag, and warns me off being similarly politically incorrect. “We alone get to call it the nuthouse – the patients.”

O’Connor is a music great – her 1990 version of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U is one of the most transcendent five minutes in pop history, the solitary tear falling from her eye in the accompanying video one of its most beautiful images. The single topped the charts worldwide, as did the album it was taken from, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. Astonishingly, in the 31 years that have passed, she has never had another UK Top 10 hit single and only one Top 10 album. And yet she remains a household name.

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Do you have a fear of returning to the office?

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If they want us back, will we go? And how can managers make workplaces more enticing? Emma Beddington wonders if office life will ever be the same again

My husband is standing in the kitchen, asking me if his shirt is stained. He looks different: clean-shaven, sharper. I like it. “I think it’s just the light,” I say. “It’s fine.” He changes anyway, then comes in again, looking preoccupied. “I don’t know whether these trousers work,” he says. “What would you usually wear?” I ask. “My Japanese jeans,” he replies. “But I’ve been wearing them every day for about six months.” “No, not those,” I agree. “Have you found an Oyster card?”

He’s heading back to the office. It’s not even his own, but a client’s – his regular co-working space was another casualty of Covid. He went into an office on an almost daily basis for 20-plus years, but now doing so has the intimidating aura of a polar expedition. Will he get blisters wearing proper shoes? Can he locate a respectable notebook? Will he know what to say when he gets there?

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Acid test: scientists show how LSD opens doors of perception

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Study analysing brain scans of people finds psychedelic drug lowers barriers that constrain thoughts

When Aldous Huxley emerged from a mescaline trip that veered from an obsession with the folds in his trousers to wonder at the “miraculous” tubularity of the bamboo legs on his garden chairs, he offered an opinion on how the drug worked.

Writing in The Doors of Perception, his 1954 book that took its name from a William Blake poem, Huxley declared that the psychedelic “lowers the efficiency of the brain as an instrument for focusing the mind on the problems of life”.

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Trailer released for Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey TV series

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Footage suggests Harry will revisit trauma of his mother’s death in Apple TV+ series on mental health

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex feature in an emotional trailer for Harry’s mental health documentary series with Oprah Winfrey, and footage hints that he will revisit the trauma he experienced after his mother’s death.

The two-minute trailer includes archive film from the 1997 funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, showing Harry, then 12, standing with his head bowed as his mother’s coffin passes by, alongside the Prince of Wales, who then turns to speak to his son.

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Using Zoom could help older people avoid dementia, study reveals

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Those who communicate online alongside traditional methods show less of a decline in episodic memory

Defiant in the face of Covid isolation, older people across the country ventured online, often for the first time, and mastered technology: reading bedtime stories to grandchildren over Zoom and holding book clubs on Microsoft Teams.

Now a UK study has shown that their determination to access and enjoy the internet’s social possibilities could have had another advantage: protecting them against dementia.

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Hankering for a hug? Here’s a guide to post-lockdown greetings

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If you’re not ready to hug your neighbour, how about a safer elbow rub, air kiss or cruise tap?

Are you hankering for a hug, or horrified at the prospect of physical closeness? From Monday, people in England will officially be allowed to touch each other again. After a year of fist bumps, elbow rubs and hails across garden walls, it feels like a symbolic step back towards normality.

Yet with the spread of new variants, increasing coronavirus cases in some parts of the country, and much of the population still not fully vaccinated, some may be questioning whether they actually want to hug their neighbours, or shake hands with strangers again. Besides, there are so many other forms of social greeting to choose from now, from Boris bumps to spoon hugs. So which one should you choose?

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Prince Harry appears to criticise way he was raised by his father

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Duke of Sussex also speaks of ‘genetic pain and suffering’ in royal family in new interview in US

The Duke of Sussex has appeared to criticise the way he was raised by Prince Charles, discussing the “genetic pain and suffering” in the royal family and stressing that he wanted to “break the cycle” for his children.

In a wide-ranging 90-minute interview, Prince Harry, who is expecting a daughter with Meghan and is already father to Archie, two, likened life in the royal family to a mix between being in The Truman Show and being in a zoo.

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Hidden scars: mentally ill patients lost in Yemen’s war

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With one psychiatrist for 750,000 people and huge stigma about mental health, patients get little help

Radhwan Ali Hassan lives with his mother in a small house perched at the top of a sleepy Yemeni village called Aqeeqah, on the outskirts of Taiz city. From inside his bare-walled room, the 35-year-old hears the distant sound of an ice-cream van. He sees children running past his window and can smell goats, but he cannot remember the last time he walked outside.

Thick metal shackles around his ankles are attached to a heavy chain fastened to the far wall. They clatter as Hassan paces his room, rocks from side to side and smiles vacantly. His pupils are wide, his movements slow.

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Model Tess Holliday reveals she’s recovering from anorexia

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Holliday says she hopes her announcement helps to stop the idea that ‘only very underweight people can have anorexia’

Eating disorder campaigners have hailed a decision by the American plus-size model Tess Holliday to announce she is receiving treatment for anorexia, saying that it is helping to stop the idea that “only very underweight people can have anorexia”.

Holliday, who has 2.1 million followers on Instagram and has been featured on the pages of Vogue, recently wrote on Twitter: “I’m anorexic and in recovery … I’m the result of a culture that celebrates thinness and equates that to worth but I get to write my own narrative now. I’m finally able to care for a body that I’ve punished my entire life and I am finally free.”

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‘If not hope, then what?’: the musicians finding optimism in dark times

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Against a backdrop of Covid, a striking number of musicians, from hard rock to jazz, made music rich with positivity. In the first of a two-part series, they tell their stories

I had really given up on music after my mom passed away [in 2014], and then of course the record that I saw as my death rattle [2017’s Soft Sounds from Another Planet] got picked up in a big way. It was a very bittersweet moment where all these great things were happening in the wake of loss. I didn’t allow myself to feel that for a long time. Now I feel ready to embrace feeling.

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Can magic mushrooms really help you understand bitcoin?

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That’s what one German billionaire says. But it’s not why the Aztecs and the hippies were such fans

Name: The shroom boom.

Age: Ancient rock art in Castilla-La Mancha in Spain suggests that Psilocybe hispanica, one of the mushrooms that contains the psychoactive compound psilocybin, was taken in religious ceremonies as long as 6,000 years ago.

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