We need to absorb all the comfort we can right now. 

While tensions are still high and spirits are low, it is more important than ever to practice kindness with each other and ourselves. Part of this is learning to look after our mental health.

Author Marian Keyes, who has lived with alcoholism and depression, has just opened up about the importance of talking about finding mental health support in a new podcast episode. Speaking on the Black Sheep by BBH Podcast, Keyes says there is currently not enough existing support out there. 

Discussing her experience with alcoholism, Keyes says: “Alcoholics talk a lot about certain personality traits of the alcoholic. I didn’t feel I fitted in. I just had zero confidence in myself, very little self-esteem. I always felt like I got things wrong or I wasn’t good enough. And that’s a tough way to live…

“I’ve had to go on a journey to realise I’m a worthwhile person. The person I was couldn’t stop drinking. An awful lot had to change inside of me before I was safe to live in the world. Now I live well and treat myself with respect. I’m okay with who I am today so being a black sheep is quite nice.”

Listen to Marian Keyes on the Black Sleep by BBH podcast below

She continues to explain that there is “no real support” for people’s mental health, adding: “For example, if a person has a heart attack they are rushed to A&E, they are made a priority immediately. If a person gets the courage to admit they’re suicidal, they have to wait three weeks or even six months to see a therapist.

“Nobody is rushing anyone to hospital. And they should be. If someone is suicidal they are in acute danger of dying and no one is reacting. People say ‘well thank you for telling me’… it’s codswallop.”  

Podcast conversations like this are one easy way of finding comfort, information and support. So, we’ve rounded up some of the best mental health and self-care podcasts to plug into, from Dear Sugars to Katie Piper’s Extraordinary People.

The Gurls Talk podcast

The Gurls Talk Podcast is created by Adwoa Aboah’s mental health organization Gurls Talk, and a second season is here.

Stylist’s Remarkable Women winner Aboah hosts the podcast and speaks to those with lived experience to create a new approach to mental health that’s inclusive and progressive. 

Season two will see her in conversation with guests including Clara Amfo, Lucy Sheridan, Megan Barton-Hanson and Gurls Talks’ chief clinical advisor, Dr. Ciara Dockery.

Listen here

Happy Place 

Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast is ideal to listen to after a long, hard day at the office. By encouraging us all to find our own ‘happy place’, Cotton further explores the ideas she discussed in her book, Happy.

By inviting guests to chat through their own struggles with mental health and how they’ve dealt with issues, it makes for a relatable and lifting listen.

Guests so far have included: Dawn French, Paloma Faith, Matt Haig, Tom Daley and Lena Headey.

Listen here

Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations 

Since Oprah Winfrey first appeared on our small screens she’s told us from one day to be kind to ourselves by ‘living our best lives’. And, of course, her podcast SuperSoul Conversations is no different.

With everyone – from best-selling authors to big name celebrities – getting involved it certainly makes for an inspirational listen.

And the latest person to share their wisdom? Michelle Obama, of course.

Listen here

Extraordinary People 

Katie Piper’s podcast will make you laugh, cry and leave you feeling inspired. By interviewing people who’ve turned adversity into positivity – like Hayley Doyle discussing her near death experience in her teens to Brooke Kinsella MBE opening up about the murder of her brother – they’re certainly empowering stories worth listening to. 

Listen here 

Dear Sugars 

Dear Sugars may be finished now, but that doesn’t mean the topics aren’t still relevant. Hosted by Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond, they delve into everything from friendship to infidelity and sexual assault – all with an empathetic response.

Listen here

Untangle 

Produced by the people behind the Meditation Studio app, Untangle focuses on ‘inspiring, uncensored stories from people who have untangled from society’s giant rule book to create a meaningful life’. So if you’re on the hunt for a podcast that’ll help you feel calm on the commute, then this is the one to try because each podcast teaches you how to really slow down.

Listen here

Radio Headspace

Georgie Okell’s weekly Radio Headspace podcast is all about how the mind works, and what the mind is capable of. Okell talks to athletes, explorers, scientists, members of the Headspace community and more, to find out how the mind can drive us to reach our goals and change our lives, what is important to us and what motivates us, as well as the science behind why we make certain decisions, and think the way we do.

Listen here

How Did We Get Here?

How Did We Get Here? is like a therapy session. Actually, it literally is a therapy session. Claudia Winkleman recently launched the podcast with her good friend and clinical psychologist Professor Tanya Byron. In each episode, they invite a“client” to sit with Byron as they talk through a specific family difficulty. Winkleman listens in a separate room, and later chats to them about what has been said. It gives an insight into what takes place in a therapy room, using personal stories that many people will relate to.

Listen here

Images: Getty, courtesy of brands