🙋 BEFORE WE BEGIN 🙋 You can now listen to this newsletter on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts, or just press play below! There’s an odd anniversary being discussed in mental health circles this week: it’s been 50 years since the inception of the term “Stockholm Syndrome”. That’s odd,
Over on Netflix, there’s a fantastic new drama series called Painkiller - based on the brilliant book Empire of Pain. It tracks the story of how the opioid epidemic took hold of America, and how the Sackler family was instrumental in bringing about the healthcare crisis. One of the
Therapy speak is everywhere. Throw a digital stick into the internet ether and you’ll clatter into people being “toxic” or “gaslighting” someone else. Keep going and you’ll find a galaxy of narcissists not maintaining their boundaries, and preventing everyone else from practising self care. Search “gaslighting” on YouTube
“Take a deep breath”, “find your inner calm,” “channel your peace”, and so on. Mindfulness is big business. Mediation apps alone, pull in about $100 million for their owners every year. Zoom out a little further, and the mindfulness industrial complex is a monster. When folded into the Wellness Industry,
Your emotions rot. That’s a phrase you don’t often hear. But using this slightly macabre description of how we feel is a powerful way of understanding how we change. Let me explain. When we think of ourselves, what makes up that idea will be a mix of memories,
If you've always tried to avoid a fuck or bugger when in the company of others, it turns out you might be missing out. That's according to author Emma Byrne and her book Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language. In it
A lot of people are going through a lot right now. As we've touched on before, the cost of living crisis, global 'boiling', and the uncertainty around the economy has meant we dream more, sleep less, and feel less in control. But, says a group of
Our immune system is great at keeping you alive, but it turns out, it also plays a role in our social interactions, and even our personality, according to researchers at the University of Virginia. Historically, scientists believed the immune system and the brain never talked to each other. But now,
Picture this: you log on for your morning video call with your team. Most of you are happy to accept that what's about to happen can be comfortably put in the "this will not be my best work" pile. But for some reason, there's
As COVID-19 skipped through countries across the world, governments told their citizens to stay away from each other to help prevent the spread of the virus. Social distancing as it's now commonly referred to has helped contain COVID, but, according to psychologists, it has left our bodies crying
In the 1930s (stay with me, it'll make sense) John Maynard Keynes, arguably the godfather of modern economics said in the future, societies will be so awash with cash and machines so effortlessly efficient at doing our work for us, we'll be working 15-hour weeks, tops.
Want to read more? Work less? Lose weight? Join the bloody club. Changing our habits, and by association, our personality is hard. Not so says the University of Zurich. Researchers found that people who wanted to become more self-disciplined in two weeks could by using an app they had built