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Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures George is a TV doctor, author and Youth Mental Health Ambassador to the government. His first book, Live Well Every Day, was published by Aster in May 2021. He campaigns for early support hubs, which give young people easy access to mental health support, and in November 2021 presented his first full-length documentary for BBC One and Children in Need, “Dr Alex: Our Young Mental Health Crisis”. He also hosts his own radio show on Classic FM, “Uplifting Classics”. His family thinks his brother was about to start taking medication before he died but patient confidentiality has meant they can’t be certain. His own life, he says, was saved by them given how depressed he was following Llŷr’s death. “I don't know for sure that I’d be here if it wasn't for my medication that I took. I wouldn't have done it because of my brother and my family, but I was in a very, very dark place.” What you do consistently has a direct impact on your day-to-day health, your immune system, your mental health, your metabolism, your bone density, your heart health, your blood pressure, your energy levels and how you fight disease genreally. Your lifestyle is often your body's biggest support system and the more robust you can make that, the more you can rely on it to get you through. Think of it like your life insurance policy. About This Edition ISBN: Since he has started his mental health campaigning, he has received thousands of messages from people who he has helped, thanking him.
A lot of what you do is about raising awareness, and I wanted to talk about sport. I understand you’re a Manchester United fan. I haven't worked in a hospital for two years,” he says, “I was at the verge of burnout. The pandemic was very hard. After Llŷr died I was resolved to try and do something about the mental health crisis we're in. Plus I'm trying to work in hospital [at the same time],” and, as he says, by 2021, barely a year after his brother has gone, “I was in an incredibly dark place.”
After Alex mentioned that “we can be very hard on ourselves and believe we can take on anything”, we naturally, both interviewer and interviewee, began to open up about our experiences dealing with mental health. Suicide has not been a crime since the sixties and we aren’t supposed to be a society that criminalises people for being mentally ill. And yet those words are still used. No wonder there is so much stigma still attached to mental illness.” What are your thoughts on using sport as a platform for raising awareness for mental health? We’ve seen big figures like Tyson Fury becoming very outspoken about it. The Premier League has worked with the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) in the past. What is your stance regarding sport as a platform for mental health, and can it be doing more as a collective unit to raise awareness? George passionately believes that “we must change the idea of what it is to be masculine. You can follow female leadership, you can learn from women, you can show your sensitivities, you don't have to be strong all the time and act like bullets bounce off you.” You started the popular #postyourpill, which is all about breaking the stigma surrounding mental health. When you first started that, what reaction did you get? I believe this time last year, a TikTok video containing the hashtag got taken down. How did you feel when you saw that?
As explicitly mentioned in this interview, in July 2020, Alex’s younger brother, Llŷr, died by suicide. Alex, a former GP, has since used his platform and large social media following to raise awareness about mental health. In January 2021, Alex launched a campaign directed at the UK Government to prioritise mental health amongst young people. On 3 February that same year, Alex was appointed as the UK Ambassador for Mental Health by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
He stressed: “It’s not being pro-medication – it’s actually being anti-stigma. It’s the idea that if you need help, you should have access to that without shame. Taking medication should be a decision between you and your doctor, the pros and the cons, not whether you feel ashamed or not. That’s what it comes down to.” By 2021 he had signed up for the King’s College Master’s course in Public Health with its focus on mental health. He lobbied the Government on child mental health capacity during the pandemic. He started to write books, first, Live Well, Every Day, then, A Better Day (a mental health primer for kids) and the one being discussed today, The Mind Manual. On top of this there is the problem of, as he says, “How we build our boys.” In his book he reflects on how we are all born the same, but men are chiselled by ideas of what masculinity is. We’ve also chosen the winter colour of the season, and embroidered the word that has helped to change my life: STOMP 🥾 In 2018 George was a 27-year-old A&E houseman at Lewisham Hospital, on two months unpaid leave so he could take up a place as a contestant on a popular reality television show, ‘Love Island’. Among the perma-tanned Essex boys, with their acid white teeth, was this handsome young medic with a kind face, “our dreamboat doctor”, as the programme hype went. Set in a sun-drenched villa, the ‘work’ entails living in swimwear and going on dates to find a potential love match.
Dr Alex is on a mission to empower us to make our own health choices, take positive control and feel equipped and inspired to make those small changes today that energise and future-proof for life. I started #postyourpill as a reflection of when I first started taking antidepressants. I had the pill in my hand and looked down and thought: ‘Gosh, is this where I’m at?’ There was a degree of shame around it, and I thought, hang on, that’s not right.” But it wasn’t this that turned the social media influencer and A&E doctor into one of the most prominent and influential mental health campaigners working in this country today.A lot has happened between then and now, and especially to George. Which is why we are here, talking in granular and grim data-supported detail about suicide and this country’s youth mental health crisis.
Bob Mortimer wins 2023 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex A couple of years ago, I had a downward spiral and was in a very difficult place. I was set on going to Oxford, and to me, everything else was rubbish. I want to be a journalist in the future … Health and happiness come from the cumulative effects of many small and positive daily changes to our lifestyle. It's about building sustainable and healthy habits - taking small and purposeful steps to a healthy future. By the end of the book I hope my readers have developed their own "bespoke health toolkit" to be used across every aspect of their lives, and to make long-lasting and meaningful change.'He has two major goals for mental health in this country. To fund Early Support Hubs so people can access support before they reach crisis, and to establish legislation for the workplace which would include training around mental health first aid in parity with physical first aid.
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