The Just Checking In Podcast

In episode 132 of The Just Checking In Podcast, we checked in with male detransitioner TullipR. Tullip is based in the UK and contacted us after our JCIP with Limpidă to share his story. Tullip started life as a very gender non-conforming child but struggled with being small and effeminate. He said he had a lot of internalised homophobia after coming to the realisation he was gay. Tullip suffered from intense and debilitating panic attacks from a very early age and was hospitalised with one when he was just 4 years old. Tullip admits he externalised the battle he was having onto other kids and was a bully in his primary school years. However, when he got to secondary school and he failed to develop in size and height like the rest of his peers, in a rough peer group, his effeminate nature and being small led him to being bullied and horrifically abused himself. When he was 10 years old, he was also spending a huge amount of time on his computer and began to go on internet chatrooms and was groomed by older men who sexually abused him online. By the time he was 13 years old he became an agoraphobe and he stopped going outside regularly for the best part of 15 years. Combining this with gender dysphoria, Tullip began to struggle immensely with his mental health. Tullip has a high diagnosed OCD and is still in the process of getting a diagnosis for autism. By the time he's in his early 20s, he is on trans chatrooms and asked other users if he was trans because of the symptoms he was experiencing. They affirmed him and he came out as trans and began the process to present as female. He became convinced that he needed gender reassignment surgery. However, this went horribly wrong. Despite the doubts he had about the surgery, he thought that if he didn’t do this, he would die. The surgery had huge complications and he has now been left without gonads and may be on HRT for the rest of his life. His urethra was constricted and shortened through three separate surgeries and he must live with the complications of this forever. We discuss all of this and more in our conversation with Tullip. As always, #itsokaytovent You can follow Tullip on social media below: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TullipR You can subscribe to his Substack here: https://tullipr.substack.com/ Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp...ir-mental-health Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk TRIGGER WARNING: This podcast contains a deep and detailed discussion about sexual abuse and self-harm, which some listeners may find extremely upsetting or distressing so please listen with caution.

In this episode of Behind The Mic we checked back in with east London band, See You At Home. In Part 1 Josh and Charlie talked about their experiences of anxiety, Josh’s tendency to ‘overcheck’ thing and the impact of Covid-19 as we recorded it in November 2020, just before we went into a second lockdown. In Part 2, for Josh we get an update from the band, why they had to shelve an entire album because of its pandemic-related song writing themes and their new plans for a debut album. We also discussed the highs and lows of doing music as a hobby vs full-time. For their continued mental health journey, Josh talks about when he contracted shingles of all things at the start of 2021, why it was a big moment for him to start doing more self-care and the independence he’s achieved since moving out into his own flat. For Charlie, we discuss his mental state as he turned 30 this year and the reflections he’s had on his life as he reached this milestone, the phenomenon of 'delayed adulthood' and the economic and social factors as to why people are feeling it. As always, #itsokaytovent Listen to See You At Home on streaming platforms below: Bandcamp: syah.band/bandcamp Spotify: syah.band/spotify YouTube: syah.band/youtube SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/wearesyah You can also follow the band on social media below: Instagram: syah.band/instagram Twitter: syah.band/twitter Listen to Part 1 with See You At Home here: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/behind-the-mic-see-you-at-home Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp...ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk Outro: See You At Home - twenty-five (feat. Bentham's Hed): https://soundcloud.com/wearesyah/twenty-five

In episode 116 of The Just Checking In Podcast, we checked in with Lesley Roberts. Lesley is a mother and author of ‘A is for Alex’, which documents her journey of grief and losing her eldest son Alex to suicide. Alex took his own life when he was 23 years old, two years after he was circumcised aged 21. Clinicians advised him to do this to treat a medical condition he had called phimosis. Alex’s suicide shattered Lesley’s life and the lives of her other children. She wrote this book as a way of channelling her grief and to help any other parent who might have lost a child or how to support their children who may have mental health difficulties. In this episode we discuss how Alex came into the world and her journey of motherhood, the events which transpired which led to Alex’s death and how she has tried to navigate life after his passing. As always, #itsokaytovent You can buy A for Alex here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alex-Bereaved-Mothers-Promise-Beloved/dp/1913615472/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Z90DYP1T5551&keywords=A+is+for+Alex&qid=1643903917&sprefix=a+is+for+alex%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-1 You can follow Lesley on social media below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LesleyRobertsAuthor/ You can also contact Lesley via email here: [email protected] Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp...ir-mental-health Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk TRIGGER WARNING: This podcast contains a deep and detailed discussion about grief, loss and the suicide of a loved one, which some listeners may find extremely upsetting or distressing, so please listen with caution.

In this episode of Mind On The Game, we checked-in with Jay Williams. Jay is Second Team Men's Captain at Wanstead Cricket Club in North-East London. Jay and our Founder Freddie Cocker played in the same team throughout their childhood and teenage years. In this pod we discussed Jay's cricketing journey, the mental health responsibilities that captaincy brings, his mixed-race heritage and of course, a mental health chat! As always, #itsokaytovent You can follow Jay on social media below: Twitter: https://twitter.com/JayJWillo You can read the article Jay wrote about Wanstead CC and captaincy on Vent here: http://vent.org.uk/captaincy-mental-health-why-win-at-all-costs-is-an-outdated-mentality Find out more about Wanstead Cricket Club here: https://www.wansteadcricketclub.co.uk/ Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

In episode 228 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with George Mycock. George is the Founder of MyoMinds and a mental health advocate for awareness of Muscle Dysmorphia (MD). MyoMinds mission is to demystify mental health for exercisers and athletes and to create an understanding future for the exercising community. Through research, public talks and their podcast, they work with universities, schools and other public institutions to change the conversation around Muscle Dysmorphia. In this episode we discuss George’s experience of Muscle Dysmorphia, which some listeners may know by the term ‘bigorexia’. Muscle Dysmorphia is a form of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), which is defined by: “Being preoccupied by worries that one's body is “too small” or “not muscular enough” despite having a normal build, or in many cases, an objectively extremely “buff” physique.” It can cause the person to create obsessive rituals, behaviours and a mindset that can cause serious psychological distress. In its most extreme form, it can also put that person in extreme danger physically and mentally. George began experiencing MD after he suffered a spinal injury when he was 13 whilst he was playing rugby, a sport he loved and which he had built his identity around. He was told never to play rugby again and was signed off school for a year. After he returned, he suffered an identity crisis and began exercising and bodybuilding heavily in order to rebuild his identity. Unfortunately, through this, he developed MD (which hasn’t been officially diagnosed) and eventually got to the point where he became suicidal and was only saved because by a coincidental miracle. One of his best friends happened to visit his house and she supported him, listened to him and encouraged him to seek professional support. He did that, worked through the issues the MD had given him and has now changed his life, founded MyoMinds and has done some brilliant advocacy work. This includes participating in a LadBible roundtable on Eating Disorders, which included friend of the pod Danny Bowman, Miles Nazaire’s Channel 4 documentary on muscle dysmorphia and many other pieces of work. In this episode we discuss his mental health journey, from avid rugby player, to obsessive bodybuilder and now mental health advocate, how he built his self-esteem pyramid through therapy, what ‘vulnerable narcissism’ is and how we can spot the signs that someone may be experiencing muscle dysmorphia. As always, #itsokaytovent You can find out more about MyoMinds here: https://myominds.com/ You can follow MyoMinds on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myo_minds/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyoMinds Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp...ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk