Black Rainbow review – poetry in a moving account of depression

A journalist and mother charts her descent into illness and the slow rebuilding of her shattered self, writes Stephanie Merritt

I suffer from stage fright and it’s getting worse as I get older

I am worried that this anxiety will eventually force me to stop doing something I enjoy. Do you have any advice?

Psychiatric drugs are doing us more harm than good

Peter Gøtzsche: As with benzodiazepines in the 1980s, the UK is prescribing SSRI antidepressants at a staggering rate – and to no good effect

Stephen Fry doesn’t know what it’s like to have OCD eyes

David Adam: Fry has done so much for public perceptions of mental illness, but those of us with OCD know how misjudged his cake tweet was

Should I stop being a perfectionist?

Striving to be the best you can is often positive, but studies show that this personality trait can cause stress and depression if taken too far

The Man Who Couldn’t Stop review – David Adam’s compelling study of OCD

Case studies including Churchill, Nikola Tesla and Hans Christian Andersen offer fascinating insights into OCD, writes Matt Haig

The Man Who Couldn’t Stop: OCD, and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought – review

David Adam's punchy explanation of the mental torment of OCD is well-intentioned, but lacks subtlety. By Jenny Turner

Are we using antidepressants to paper over the cracks of a fractured society?

Frankie Miren: Use of antidepressant drugs has become more common than ever before. Perhaps it’s time that we looked at the wider causes of this trend

Art therapies have become a mainstream partner to medicalised healing

Ruth Wishart: Murals in hospitals, personalised musical memories for dementia sufferers, a Hillsborough memorial symphony – all give respite to troubled souls

Privacy can be a burden – sharing more online might help

Margaret Corvid: Many of our private concerns are matters of public import – a shared empathy could help us all better deal with our troubles

Mental health stigma: where’s my cheesecake?

Tania Browne: Mental illness can be just as common and debilitating as physical ones, but people react to them very differently, eg one is more likely to get cake

The play that wants to change the way we treat mental illness

Laura Barnett: The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland is based on a new approach called 'open dialogue', and replicates the experience of having an auditory hallucination

Sharing the (self) love: the rise of the selfie and digital narcissism

Social media and the internet are making us more narcissistic, but can this trend be reversed?

Falling into the Fire review – a psychiatrist’s impressive study of mental health

Christine Montross helps to demystify madness with her insightful, case-based account of the ethics of psychiatry, writes Stephanie Merritt

Aid workers and post-traumatic stress disorder

Reports say PTSD affects up to 30% of humanitarian workers. Which organisations offer help and what can you do to preserve your mental health?