Technically, the human microbiome refers to the genetics of all of the various microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi etc.) that live on or in the human body – there are literally hundreds of thousands of different species. These microbes are at least  neutral if not helpful (taking up space and producing by-products so that ‘bad’ microbes […]

During the month of November, I decided (alongside a friend, who did her own monthly challenge) to go without takeaway (or fastfood in general), for the whole month. The ‘rules’ were fairly simple: Where possible, cook every meal. This meant that all lunches would have to be something I made or prepared the night before. […]

Mark joined Stuart, from The OCD Stories, for another wide-ranging interview (check out the first one here) on a variety of mental health and OCD issues, from Internet compulsions, to health anxieties, to dealing with false-memories, uncertainty, control, mindfulness, recovery, and why your therapist better start learning how to run marathons…

Our fears love to latch onto the very things we would never want to have happen. The problem is, the moment we start reacting to the intrusive thoughts with coping, checking, and controlling compulsions, we actually encourage our brains to throw those intrusive thoughts at us even more, and they only get more intense the […]