articles

By Micha Frazer-Carroll CN: Depression, anxiety, exercise, alcohol, hallucinations, doctors “But is there a difference, when we discuss ‘mental illness’, and when we talk about ‘mental health problems’?” I stared at my supervisor blankly. There… More

By Mollie Georgiou Cambridge CN: Anxiety, weight, GPs   “But you’ve got such a bright future ahead of you”. The words hung in the air as I stared blankly back at my GP, my stomach… More

By Caitlin Stark Cambridge CN: Depression, meds   Good conversations mentioning mental illness: ‘so I was at the psychologist today and she had the cutest dog with her’ ‘have you seen this depression memes page… More

By Emma Simkin CN: Hospitals, bipolar, Trump presidency   I’m running up and down the waiting room in my pyjamas, stolen Christmas baubles swinging from my hair. ‘Look everybody, it’s Emma the Unstoppable Genius, just… More

Blueprint Team CN: Loneliness, depression, exercise, anxiety The company of others can be a beautiful thing. But equally, alone time is important. Being alone allows us to be introspective, to feel independent, and competent. Sometimes… More

On recovery from emotional abuse. Anon CN: Emotional abuse, relationships, depression, anxiety, self-harm I have struggled for weeks to write this. Many reasons, questions and feelings flooded through my head every time I sat down… More

Is it strange that being alone in bed is such a relief? Weight lifted when empty sheets wait. The clock just mine to watch and set The light just mine to kill. I want to… More

CN: Ableist slur   My madness can not be cured My late nights screaming disillusioned My unfaithful lover; existence My sorry desires to extinguish this   My madness can not be cured My need to… More

By Georgia Elander CN: Mental health slurs, sexism   Women have always been made mad by men. We have had madness constructed onto us, built into us, drawn out of us, in many different settings… More

Blueprint team CN: Dissertations, motivation   It’s dissertation season, which can be a high pressure time for many students. As deadlines draw closer, it’s easy to feel as if you’re behind, or the only one struggling,… More

You always point out the other World behind the clouds As if you have been there. When I sit in the library Moaning to dead poets And trying to remember Not to forget next time… More

 The way medical professionals treat people can vary hugely between diagnoses, even when symptoms are the same. How does this affect patients when the label they’re given is wrong? By Emma Simkin CN: Psychiatric hospitals,… More

Images by Hannah Watson, poetry by Sandra Watson

My smile meant nothing. It was practiced to preserve An impression of Deserved ambition; Just desserts; my achievements. Is it worse if I Felt nothing or I Felt so much that my own fumes Cut… More

Because I know that I’m wrong. But I can’t be. Because the beat in my chest says I can’t rest until I can sustain myself until I’m nothingness. And you hold out the honey and… More

By Georgia Elander Images by Becky Guthrie CN: Feeling low, relationships, food   The way the sun without warning lights up all the buildings in sight isn’t something you see so much as something you feel.… More

By Mariam Ansar CN: Anxiety, panic attacks   My room has always been my place of escape. Three summers ago, I inscribed my favourite quotations onto pieces of paper and framed them to preserve the wisdom… More

By Beth Walters CN: Self-care, feeling low, food So you’re having one of those days. Maybe you missed your alarm then rushed to lectures, then a lorry splashed you with mud, only for you to… More

Anon CN: Suicidal ideation, self-harm, hospitalisation, death   you’re either about to do something reckless, or about to do nothing. iPhone screen cracked lights text green ‘u okay?’ No, you tap out with fingernails scooped… More

CN: Suicidal ideation I’m standing on the edge of a lake the trees surround me, the campus building is behind me and there’s no one out here – not even me, for I have allowed… More

CN: Binge eating Anxiety spikes those prickly pinprick holes. I am deflated, an old birthday party balloon, a sad sagging castle, no bounce. Oh to be full of life! Preferably, but sometimes microwave rice uncooked… More

By Emma Simkin CN: Dissociation, trauma Reading about dissociation can potentially worsen, exacerbate, or introduce symptoms for those who suffer from it. Read mindfully.  The first time I dissociated was in my first term of first… More

By Sofia Bodo CN: Antidepressants, depression, anxiety   I had done it all: self-care, counselling, CBT. Friends had rallied around and then disappeared as the year turned; I had developed coping strategies which promptly failed;… More

Shadow-box the light with your curtains drawn midday, You choose to lay – lost   By Kieron Rennie Header image by vivianejl Read more of Kieron’s poetry here

By Beth Walters CN: Disability, hearing loss, anxiety, depression, counselling   “But do you not think, perhaps, that the types of care and support you had as a child, necessary because of your hearing loss,… More

Sophie Buck CN: Anxiety I did each of these sketches in under 5 minutes, in the midst of feeling very anxious. It was 2am and I couldn’t sleep. The air was prickly and breathless. My… More

By Saliha Shariff CN: Eating disorders Dear sister, Between the ages of sixteen and twenty, any time that I felt lost as to who I was, I restricted the amount that I ate. I’d never felt… More

By Archie Fox CN: Queerness, depression, doctors,  antidepressants As a teen, I was apparently not great with metaphors, given quite how much time I spent in the very literal closet. I was fifteen when I… More

Grooves for the new year.

By Urvie Pereira CN: self-harm, suicide, exercise, addiction, food I am an adrenaline addict. I crave the thrill of that buzz you get right before a big race,  or an important test.  The release of fight-or-flight… More

Arenike Adebajo CN: Eating disorders, bulimia, binge-eating, race ‘Treat Yourself’ or as I was first introduced to it in Season Four of Parks and Recreation, ‘Treat Yo Self’, is the idea that you should do… More

By Micha Frazer-Carroll – Editor In Chief CN: Mention of depression, suicide, self-harm   I am so ready to talk. Like many others with experiences of mental ill health, I have been quiet about my struggles since the… More