mental illness

The fact that we’re all prone to procrastination doesn’t mean it has to be a foregone conclusion. A little self-awareness, a dash of mindfulness and a bit of emotional self-inventorying can bring you clarity of purpose and a brain that’s…

British author Matt Haig is delightfully unsnobbish about what he writes. His recent novels for adults have fallen into that space between ‘general fiction’ and ‘speculative fiction’, with The Humans and How To Stop Time featuring…

The Winter’s bite was better than the numbing hum inside. So I would stand out at night barefoot just to feel the air’s tang while I smoked. Pulling heavy on my cigarette beneath the stars. It was like a miracle cure. The therapy stirred…

Dear Richard, Remember that pact we made? Signed and sealed with spit-slicked hands. Time’s up. I’ve decided to keep it. It’s weird of me to write a letter, I know. Why not just text, or even an email? I’m writing you a letter the…

A form of literary autobiography, the personal essay allows us to ruminate on truths from our own life experiences. Every Wednesday this month, the Irish Essayist series will see writers test the continually-expanding essay format to…

Recent high-profile deaths in the music industry have thrown up questions around troubled artists being driven and inspired by emotional turmoil. Can demons be exorcised through creativity? Or does the demand for inspiration start driving…

Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why was released to mixed reactions. Many defend its bold take on suicide, depression and mental illness. Others have blamed it for the horrific suicide of their own children, claiming that despite the warnings of…

Imagine you were fighting an invisible war where the enemy could anticipate your every move and tactic. Worse still: imagine the enemy lived inside your head and was unrelenting in its fight against you. I was around eleven when I first…

Note: This edition of Terrible People from History covers sexual exploitation, and gets more than a little gory as well. Consider yourself forewarned. Abe Sada was born in Tokyo in May 1905 to a relatively respectable middle class…

I meet Stephen Considine, Cameron Ridyard and Luke Bulmer, the founders of the clothing line BiPolar Bear Wear in a Dublin city-centre café instead of in their premises for one simple reason: they don’t have one. Instead, the clothing line…