Stories

We tell stories about health and human experience. Our words and pictures make connections, provoke new thinking and share lived experiences. Propose a story to us.

  • Comic

Standing Up

The collateral damage of cancer treatment extends to all activities, including a night of live entertainment.

Part of Life After Cancer

  • Article

The indelible harm caused by conversion therapy

With first-hand evidence from two powerful testimonies, neurologist Jules Montague explores the destructive history of conversion therapy, a punitive treatment designed to ‘cure’ people of homosexuality.

  • Article

The evil eye and social anxiety

The ‘look’ of the evil eye is believed to bring bad luck, illness or even death. This ancient curse might be deliberate, inflicted with an envious glare, or it could be accidental, the result of undue attention or excessive praise.

  • Comic

Paranoia Enjoyer

Even after successful treatment, the physical and mental effects of cancer can continue in many unforeseen ways.

Part of Life After Cancer
  • Article

The significance of safe spaces as refuges from racism

Beer writer David Jesudason discusses the impact racism has had on his mental health, and the consolation offered by pubs that feel truly safe.

Exploring our mental health

A selection of stories about the historical and social contexts of mental health.

  • Serial

Lithium Mania

Laura Grace Simpkins investigates her relationship with her medication and her mental health, asking if lithium is the bitter pill she has to swallow.

  • Article

Cracks that let the light in

Rai Waddingham lives with voices other people cannot hear. Here she describes how she has come to accept, understand and calm her voices, and to acknowledge her strength.

Part of Broken hearts not broken brains
  • Article

How the mental health system fails Black people

Accessing mental healthcare as a Black woman can be a challenging experience. Rianna Walcott shares her story, alongside those of three other women, to reveal the barriers she faced.

Part of Being patient
  • Article

Confession as therapy in the Middle Ages

The line between confession and counselling has been blurred for centuries.

Part of Therapy
  • Article

Life on the line

Former Samaritans helpline volunteer Katy Georgiou recalls the desperate voices she heard during her night shifts, and those whose isolation she helped to alleviate.

  • Article

Desperate housewives and suburban neurosis

Discover how a pioneering health centre replaced housewives’ supposedly empty home lives with a social space that encouraged healthy child rearing.

More stories

Books

We publish thought-provoking books exploring health and human experiences.

You may have missed

  • In pictures

The art of memory

Our ability to recall facts and experiential detail helps us understand, navigate, and make predictions about the world. Julia Nurse explores some of the techniques we have developed to help us to remember.

Part of Inside Our Collections
  • Comic

Cooperative

When we can work things out together...

Part of Safe for Work
  • Article

Mary Bishop and the surveillant gaze

Writer and artist Rose Ruane explores the paintings of Mary Bishop, created during a 30-year stay in a psychiatric hospital, which speak of constant medical surveillance and censorious self-examination.

  • Comic

Every day

Dreaming about days lost to work...

Part of Safe for Work
  • Article

Living with invisible illness

What happens when the signs of your illness are invisible to the rest of the world? Hannah Turner describes the daily struggles of living with invisible illness.

  • In pictures

The Migraine Art Competition Collection

The Migraine Art Competition ran for seven years in the 1980s and resulted in over 500 unique and striking works of art that represent what it means to live with migraine.

Part of Inside Our Collections
More stories