Mindset By Dave Podcast

Growing up with a mother with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, Face like many neglected young folk had to find his own ways of coping with the world around him.

For Face this meant turning to alcohol and drugs and as we all know these things enter us in to cycles that are often (if not always) extremely difficult to remove ourselves from. Our entire worlds often get built around maintaining the habit.

Thankfully though Face was able to escape from this cycle, but not before losing a number of friends along the way. To this day he still lives with the repercussions of this period, however he is determined to build a better life for himself and also to let his story be either a cautionary tale to those not involved, or a ray of hope for those who see no way out.

Sam Phillips, known online as Dare To Dip was a person struggling with alcohol addiction and anxiety. He decided to look for the answers in a different kind of liquid, VERY cold water!

Sam set himself the challenge to get out in open water in the sea, every day for a year. Initially it was just for himself, but one of the amazing results of this project was the community he built along the way.

Valen Vain is a performer, a sex educator and a "filth wizard" and if that doesn't entice you in then I don't know what will!

A lifelong performer, Valen like many creatives did took to the internet dring lockdown, initially to talk about performance. But as the lockdown rolled on and performances dried up he was left with the question "what else could I entertain this audience with" and the answer was sex... education that is!

Sex education as many of us will know is still stuck in the dark ages and for anyone who doesn't subscribe to "normal" (think heterosexual, missionary position and anything else just labels you a pervert) sex is left with a drastic lack of representation or even information.

Valen and his community aim to change all of that, by embracing all (consentual) forms of sex so long as you are safe, informed and on the same page. His streams are a combination of very up to date sex education and of course entertainment, whilst simultaneously holding space for the mental health of his community too! Or to put it in other words... wholesome chaos!

Christina Taylor grew up with atypical anorexia. After losing her grandmother and not having any guideance on how to navigate grief, Christina turned - as many of us do - to finding her own coping mechanism. This started with food - or rather with controlling food - but later developed into a side by side use of alcohol to help escape the feelings she was trying to run from.

This interview is Christina's story from anorexia, to recovery, to advocacy.

This interview was taken from Dave's enormous Mental Health Event - The Mental Health ULTRAMarathon. Where he interviewed 36 guests back to back over a 36 hour live stream. Each one discussing a different aspect of mental health.

Today is all about goal setting. Something i need regularly reminding of the power of, because the actually setting part is only such a small part of the goal itself that it's easy to glance right past how important it is.

Personally I have recently gone through a period where my goals were NOT defined. They needed an update since 2020 and all the changes that came with that; and instead of making new ones I just sidelined my existing ones and went into a very reactive mode. Repsonding only to what was happening, and losing sight of where I wanted things to go.

This is something I have no got back under control and I wanted to share that personal story with you along with hopefully encouraging you to look at your goals too. See how well defined they are and maybe make a few tweaks to better impact your direction!

Professor Paul Fletcher is a Cambridge Professor who specialises in psychosis and schizophrenia. As well as delivering ground breaking education on these topics, he was also recruited by the game company Ninja Theory as their mental health consultant for the smash hit game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

Here Paul talks about how he got into the field, what his hopes are for the future of care for those that suffer with these conditions, his role in Hellblade and so much more.

This interview was taken from Dave's enormous Mental Health Event - The Mental Health ULTRAMarathon. Where he interviewed 36 guests back to back over a 36 hour live stream. Each one discussing a different aspect of mental health.

I've been gone a while right? Well... I'm back and in today's episode I'm looking at a topic that can get very serious, particularly for young people, but really falling into risk taking behaviour cycles is something we can all do.

In this episode I talk all about how people get involved in risk taking behaviour, how it can escelate over time and a couple of ideas about how to get out of it!

Mental Health Awareness, isn't just about being aware that mental health is there, it's about being aware of the causes of it. And there are two (oversimplification) causes, internal and external. Social Justice is about creating a world where people are on a level playing field, meaning that the EXTERNAL componnents of mental health are all about social justice!

Phil Hill is someone who identifies as trans-masc. A term that I was very unfamiliar with before getting to know Phil's work. They are a blogger, a speaker and a creator on all things mental health and gender identity and they do great work on explaining many of these issues in a perfect balance between measured and passionate.

In this episode we discuss various trans issues, focussing particularly on the specifc issues that affect the Transmasc community as their issues (at least in the media) are often pushed to one side.

Kevin was diagnosed with autism at the age of 20. Something that for him made a lot of his life make sense and allowed him and his family to make adjustments so that he could lead a happier life. This is his story.