‘Psychiatrists are Mad’: The Mental Health Exhibitions on at The Wellcome Collection
Black people in the UK face systemic barriers to accessing mental health support when seeking it voluntarily and yet are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act…
'Bad’ Thoughts Do Not Mean You Are a Bad Person: The Research Article That Changed My Life as Someone with OCD
I want to tell you about a research article that completely changed my life as someone with OCD who experiences horrific, taboo intrusive thoughts. Someone recommended it to me in a support group run by Molly Lambert and…
There is a Life After Rock Bottom
There is a life AFTER rock bottom. I wish I could have known that there was a life waiting for me away from feeling ‘stuck’ in the system. Away from assumptions. Away from ‘she has EUPD’ and ‘at risk of repeated admissions’ and away from…
BBC Disclosure: Kids on the Psychiatric Ward - A Reflection
BBC Scotland’s Disclosure ‘Kids on the Psychiatric Ward’ tells the stories of young adults who were patients at Skye House, a children’s mental health unit in Glasgow, between 2017 and 2024. I have just watched the programme and…
The Misdiagnosis of Autistic Distress in the Mental Health System
When I am asked why I wrote Girl Unmasked, I say that I was angry. Which is true. I was angry at finding myself sectioned on a psychiatric unit at the age of 16, at the doctor there telling me I just had high social anxiety not autism, at the fact they described my autistic meltdowns as ‘hysteric attacks when she doesn’t get her own way’…