Self help

My photo of a piece at Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan at the Wellcome Collection

Here’s where I’ll upload useful resources I’ve come across about things you can do to help yourself manage your mental health condition. So far, this page includes links to:

• Free online CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy)
• Free online mindfulness
• Free online bipolar disorder resources

Please comment below with any links to add or if any of the information below is out of date.

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Free online CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy):

• e-couch  

  An online program for preventing and coping with depression, generalised anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder – “e-couch provides information about emotional problems – what causes them, how to prevent them and how to treat them. It includes exercises to help you understand yourself and others better. Even better, it provides you with a set of strategies that might help you to improve your life.” An online program for preventing and coping with depression, generalised anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder.

• Living Life to the Full

  (twitter: @llttfnews) –  Be happier, sleep better, do more, feel more confident “Living Life to the Full is a free life skills resource teaching practical skills using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT is a structured form of psychotherapy that aims to alter the unhelpful thinking (cognitions) & behaviour that commonly occur during times of distress.” This website was recommended to me in a ward round. You can dip in & out, taking whatever modules you like, or none at all.

• MoodGYM

  The MoodGYM training programme – “Learn cognitive behaviour therapy skills for preventing and coping with depression.”

• Moodjuice

  Moodjuice – “Anger? Panic? Assertiveness? Anxiety? Stress? Chronic pain? Bereavement? Phobias? Post-traumatic stress disorder? obsessions and compulsions? Sleep problems? Shyness? Addictions? Carers support? Feel in crisis? This site is designed to help you think about emotional problems and work towards solving them. Emotional problems are often the mind and body’s way of saying that something needs to be changed in our life.”

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Free online mindfulness:

• Frantic World

  Free meditations from mindfulness – “All of the meditations on this page are taken from our book ‘Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World’. The book contains the complete 8 week mindfulness course developed at Oxford University.”

• Free Mindfulness

  Free resources – “Welcome to Free Mindfulness – Home to a growing collection of free-to-download mindfulness meditation exercises.“

• Mindful

  Free online audio and video mindfulness instruction, online courses in mindfulness and other resources

• UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Centre

  Free guided meditations

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Free online bipolar disorder resources:

• Beating Bipolar

  Free resources – “Beating Bipolar is an interactive internet based programme that aims to improve understanding of the condition. It includes video of professionals and people with lived experience of bipolar disorder and discuses various approaches that many have found to be beneficial.”

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