Why pessimists have a reason to be cheerful
Whatever explains Japan’s chart-topping life expectancy, it isn’t being really chipper all the time
Tory MP who has hour-long baths claims £662 water bill on expenses
Tim Loughton’s parliamentary accounts show he has been spending up to £50 a month on Thames Water supply
Why does Tory MP Tim Loughton spend an hour in the bath every morning?
The ex-minister says the shower is ‘one of the greatest sources of stress in the world’. Let’s hope he never has to face one of his own government’s disability assessments
As a teenage boy with anorexia I couldn’t find words to describe my mental illness
Not all silence on mental health problems is down to stigma. Sometimes it’s difficult to articulate what’s wrong
What you should say to somebody who has miscarried – and what you shouldn’t
Don’t offer explanations or try to ‘fix’ things, says journalist and fundraiser for miscarriage awareness Janet Murray
What’s the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise
As a new report reveals the mental health benefits of just an hour’s physical activity a week, it seems there is nothing a workout can’t cure. Here is why we should all sit less and move more
Breaking bad: how to give up drinking, smoking, nail-biting and other unwanted habits
With Stoptober and Sober October starting soon, we asked readers to tell us how they broke bad habits - and how this changed their life. Here’s what you said
Do we really need therapy?
Research suggests self-help exercises could be better for you than cognitive behavioural therapy
Feeling like an impostor? You can escape this confidence-sapping syndrome
Even the highest achievers, such as Albert Einstein and Maya Angelou, suffer from this corrosive form of low self-esteem. But there are coping strategies, says life coach Fiona Buckland
How yoga and meditation can help social care workers deal with trauma
Dedicating time to improving workers’ wellbeing, through meditative and mindful practices, could vastly benefit patient care
Poor diet is a factor in one in five deaths, global disease study reveals
Study compiling data from every country finds people are living longer but millions are eating wrong foods for their health
Lack of sleep could contribute to mental health problems, researchers reveal
Study finds therapy designed to treat insomnia also reduced paranoia and hallucinations, and improved depression and anxiety in patients
‘I assumed it was all my fault’: the adults dealing with undiagnosed ADHD
It’s 30 years since the condition was recognised. It is most often associated with children, but more and more grownups are now being diagnosed. Does this help?
Lydia Towsey: how I discovered the Venus in me
From Botticelli to glossy magazines, women have been idealised and misrepresented for centuries. Performance poet Lydia Towsey reveals how her own near-fatal eating disorder set her on a path to explore new ways of looking at female bodies
Severe birth trauma has left me terrified of having another child
Normally associated with soldiers, post-traumatic stress disorder affects 20,000 new mothers in the UK each year