Aniara (2018) is a Swedish sci-fi film written and directed by Hugo Lilja and Pella Kågerman. It is an adaptation of the 1956 Swedish epic poem of the same name by Harry Martinson. It depicts a dystopian, distant future in which extreme climate change, war, famine, disease, social collapse, pollution, and lawlessness force humans to…
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Wellness culture is all about healing – healing from stress, dissatisfaction, trauma, toxic relationships, and poor physical health. However, wellness culture can also encourage an obsession with healing that ends up being counterproductive. When you’re constantly focused on healing – getting better, working on yourself, going from one healing modality to another – your mental…
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One of the applications of medical cannabis is for the improvement of mental health. In the UK (where I’m from), you can be prescribed medical cannabis to counteract the symptoms of a range of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Private cannabis clinics are seeing a rise in the number of patients who…
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It might be assumed that the problems of mental health overdiagnosis and self-diagnosis culture would only serve to promote more openness around mental health (despite the fact they sometimes pathologise normal and understandable distress). However, the backlash against these intertwined phenomena has resulted in increased cynicism and scepticism towards a general culture of emotional openness.…
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The intersection between philosophy and mental health is a broad topic, and in one essay I gave some examples of how certain philosophical positions may impact mental health, as well as emphasised that this line of causality – adopting a worldview and then becoming depressed – is not so easy to establish (the direction of…
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