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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

Let's be straight up, I don't think calories on menus is a good idea. I think it hurts too many people that in my eyes completely negates how it benefits those who aren't affected by eating disorders or body image issues. So... here's my thoughts on all that!

Like many hidden illnesses to a lot of people (who exclusively have never suffered from it) Chronic Pain is "all in your head". A tremendously invalidating thing to hear when every day you are experiencing one form of pain or another. This is an expression that our guest Petra Phoenix has heard more times than she cares to count, and a sentiment that she would wish to educate people on. As acceptance and understanding may not cure chronic pain, but they'd certainly make living with it that...

The guest here is Mastani, a man who is currently in remission after having survived Leukemia, twice! We talk about the diagnosis, the treatment, the changes in mindset and mental health and the indomitable will to survive! 

It should be said upfront that this episode contains swearing. But it also includes an amazing woman, representing for Tourette's Syndrome in an informative, funny and just downright sweet way. Tourette's is a very misunderstood condition and Moxxi does a fantastic job of teaching us about it!

Today I am joined by RJ, one half of the epic podcast duo The Untapped Keg. RJ Shares with us his story from alcoholism, to recovery, to creating a podcast project to bring others together andhelp them on their journeys!

For my 40th birthday I decided to give myself a gift... I invited myself on the podcast as a guest and got one of my all time favourite mental health advocates, talk show hosts and down right wonderul human MXIETY to come on and interview me. It got weird... like really quickly, but then we both settled in to the reversed roles and I think it went wonderfully! The main thing is I do believe this episode gives you a bigger insight to me than any epsiode that has come before so from that...

I first met Emma when I realised that my mental health content wasn't very intersectional. A lot of the issues that effect trans people and their mental health don't even pop up on the radar of cis people and I wanted to do something about this! Our first interview last year was as much for my education and understanding as it was for the audience. What I got out of that conversation however was so much more, and above all I made a dear friend.  In this episode Emma talks about the...

Returnig guest BPD Bryan talks us through his lived experience of negotiating life with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). We focus on the word "negotiating" here as what might come as a straightforward conversation between two people without BPD takes on whole extra dimensions for the person living with BPD. In this epsiode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast we talk about relationships, boundaries, continuing to learn about ourselves and so much more!

OK, it's February so maybe I'm a little late with this one! But here we go super personal as I share the trials and tribulations of 2021, along with my hopes and dreams for 2022!

There are a lot of common thoughts around the negative impact of video games,: they're making us lazy, making us antisocial, making us violent... but are any of these claims actually true? Rather than just ask the opinions of people on either side (which are always just going to be biased) we turned to science! Specifically Dr Rachel Kowert who had researched the very question of "are video games making us antisocial" for her PhD thesis. Athesis that in order to pass must be put under...

Freyja Sky, original from Romania is now a streamer in the north of England. At an early age Freyja started struggling with anxiety, something that in her home country was very stigmatised and was told that "getting help for this could impact your ability to get a job!" In this interview she opens up about anxiety, depression, PTSD and so much more as well as discussing the many developments she has made on her journey, whilst still acknowledging the challenges that still lie ahead.

Self worth, we all have a certain degree of it and most of us probably want more. But where does it come from? How do we define it? And how can we improve it? In this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast myself and fellow Twitch Streamer Khryseis explore these questions and more!

Is there a place for positivity in 2022? That's the question I am asking my guest Pappa Paws, a hugh advocate for the benefit of positivity and it's need in our world. Personally I describe myself as a positive realist, which is something Pappa Paws does too, however I believe our definitions of it differ slightly, with me leaning towards to realism side a little more and him toward the positivity side. But don't mistake his love for positivty for all sugarcoated, memeable throwaway...

This one is adapted from a couple of YouTube videos I made earlier in the year (by the way if you want to SEE episodes and other things and not just listen then http://youtube.com/mindsetbydave ) and is a bit of a two parter. The first part is things I discovered personally about LIVING with mental health and is aimed at those who struggle. The second part is things that I wish those on the outside knew about what living with mental illness can be!

Christopher Leech is a PhD student, studying the impact of video games on mental health. As someone who is interested in both video games and mental health he is the ideal candidate for the job. In this episode of the Mindset By Dave podcast we use this as a jumping off point to look at the greater impact of video games on our lives, trying to spearate the myths from the facts. We also look at video games and violence, interactive movies, the role of playing a game vs watching a streamer...

Ashley Lyn Olson's entire life changed 2 weeks before her 14th birthday when she was involved in a car accident that took the life of her father, disabled her mother, injured her younger sister and paralysed Ashley, meaning she would have to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. One of Ashley's biggest passions in life was travel and all of this would have to change now. But the important word is "change" not "end"; Ashley switched around those "why can't I..." questions for "how...

The A in LGBTQIA2+ stands for Asexual or Aromantic and is one of the least spoken about sexualities right now. Asexuals (or ACEs as they are often called - which I LOVE!) are those who have no sexual attraction to any gender which is a difficult thing to describe to anyone who has never experienced that because we can seem to get our heads around a "different" attraction, but the absence of something is not something people can easily comprehend. In this episode of the Mindset By Dave...