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The future of the UK seems perpetually in peril. As Andrew Marr argues in this month’s cover story, nothing is inevitable about Scotland’s breakaway, but London’s complacence is making it more likely. Also in this issue: Jill Rutter explores how we’re coping outside the single market, Eliane Glaser has been horrified by the education jargon being foisted on her children during her time homeschooling, and Miranda France gives her verdict on the new Kazuo Ishiguro.

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Living with a mental health problem is complicated—so why is diagnosis all about box-checking?

With new research highlighting the gap between how mental illnesses are diagnosed and what it's actually like to live with one, it's time we talked less about the theory of mental illness—and more about the complicated reality

By Emily Reynolds  
July 9, 2019

Centring patient experience has the potential to transform mental health care. Photo: PA

Navigating the mental healthcare system can be a curious experience. On one hand, to be ill is a profound thing, bodily and existentially: it fundamentally changes how you move through the world. To characterise mental illness as a purely internal struggle is wrong. It’s far more tangible than that.

In the consulting room, things look very different. A gap appears between you-as-patient and you-as-person—and in this transformation, something is lost. The often messy scramble of mental…

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Emily Reynolds

Emily Reynolds is a writer based in London. Her first book, A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind, is out now with Hodder & Stoughton

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