The SANE Blog

Mania and hypomania are symptoms of bipolar disorder. Mania is the ‘high’ euphoric end of the mood scale, with hypomania similar but with less intensity.

If you think you’re experiencing mania, or symptoms are coming on, these strategies may help prevent or reduce the severity of an episode.

Self-harm is behaviour that deliberately causes pain to yourself — usually as an extreme way of trying to cope with distress.

While some people hurt themselves to try and cope with distress, the relief is usually short-lived, and can result in the desire to self-harm again. With support and understanding, you can learn new strategies to cope, and you can move on from self-harm altogether. Here are some positive steps you can take.

Trauma can be caused by a range of events, from war, terrorism, natural disasters, transport accidents, criminal and domestic violence and childhood abuse and neglect. Being exposed to these events can have lasting physiological and psychological effects.

People can have mixed reactions after receiving a diagnosis. The range of emotions experienced can include relief, confusion, fear, embarrassment, grief or empowerment. This is normal.

Many people ask whether diagnosis is a helpful part of recovery. Here are some of the positive and negative outcomes many people experience.

What advice would a man give other men who are experiencing mental health issues? And how can family or friends support?

Five SANE Peer Ambassadors share their tips. Advice for men, from men, who know what it's like to live with and manage a mental illness.

London, Barcelona, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Geneva. It sounds like the running sheet from a music tour, but it’s the itinerary of Lisa Sweeney’s upcoming mental health research trip as part of the SANE Community Award.

People take psychiatric medications for a variety of conditions and for varying lengths of time – sometimes indefinitely. So it is not unusual for some people to consider coming off their medication, especially if they are feeling better or the side effects are making life difficult. 

How does the way we think influence the way we feel? What goes on in our minds – both consciously and unconsciously – and how do our thoughts impact on our mental health?

Maybe you’ve reacted to events in ways that cannot be explained rationally and just seem to make everything worse. You’ve probably felt confused and frustrated by your actions or emotional responses.

If you’ve ever felt like this, there are ways to better understand and manage your reactions.

Anger is a normal human emotion we all experience from time to time - when things don't go the way we want, or people don't behave the way we think they should. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessarily wrong or bad to be angry. Rather, it’s what we choose to do with that anger that determines whether it becomes a problem in our lives.

Media articles about stress at work seems to be common place these days.

If your workload is increasing and you can feel the stress rising here are five simple tips to manage workplace stress.