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Understand what is happening

Mind & Mental Health

Plain-language guides to emotions, anxiety, trauma, overwhelm, therapy language, and finding the right kind of support.

Mental-health language can help us understand ourselves, but it can also feel clinical, vague, or frightening. This section translates difficult ideas into ordinary words without turning a guide into a diagnosis.

A woman resting beside a notebook, surrounded by visual symbols for low energy, sleep, support and recovery

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Newest first

Split illustration of a woman overwhelmed while reading a dense comic page, then listening comfortably after taking off her glasses and softening the visual input.

Mind & Mental Health

When My Eyes Are Too Loud

Comic Strips, Blurry Vision, and Cognitive Overload

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Split illustration of a mother beside her sleeping child as glowing ideas appear at night, and at her desk the next morning trying to remember them.

Mind & Mental Health

Hypnagogia — The Idea That Escaped Me by Morning

A bedtime idea felt like a whole article. By morning, only its emotional fingerprint remained—a personal essay about hypnagogia, creativity, memory, and finding a way to leave morning-me a breadcrumb.

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Three-panel illustrated guide to Cognitive Processing Therapy showing stuck thoughts, a smoke-alarm analogy, and areas of life CPT can address.

Mind & Mental Health

CPT — COGNITIVE PROCESSING THERAPY

Helping your brain get unstuck after something scary or painful happens.

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Dobby from Harry Potter with his hands against a cabinet, moments before banging his head in frustration.

Mind & Mental Health

Panic, OCD, and the Checklist Before I Spiral

A personal checklist for interrupting panic and OCD loops: distract, talk, move, ground—and do not immediately obey the spiral.

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An illustrated introduction to CBT showing a woman reflecting beside the words What is it and how can it help?

Mind & Mental Health

CBT can help everyone

A practical introduction to how CBT connects thoughts, feelings, and behaviours—and how its everyday tools can help us notice patterns, question assumptions, and respond with more choice.

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A child sits beside his mother with one hand on his chest as a warm glow and the words dhuk dhuk represent the fast heartbeat he associates with anxiety.

Mind & Mental Health

The “Dhuk Dhuk” in His Chest

Teaching My Son What Anxiety Means—One Small Win at a Time

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The heading Comparing Anxiety versus Autistic Anxiety: Key Differences and Overlaps, on a pale blue illustrated background.

Mind & Mental Health

Anxiety on the Spectrum

A personal reflection on living with social anxiety, autistic overwhelm, and the relief that can come from finally finding words for what is happening.

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A child-friendly guide to Kabbo’s energy coins: wake up with what you have, every task uses energy, and rest can save energy while a big day may borrow it from tomorrow.

Mind & Mental Health

Kabbo’s Energy Theory: Borrowing From Tomorrow

A child-created model for understanding daily energy, rest, borrowing from tomorrow, and what repeated energy debt can teach us about burnout.

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The shape of this section

What you can find here

Understand the words

Clear explanations of commonly used mental-health and therapy terms, including what they can mean and what they do not automatically mean.

Notice patterns

Visual comparisons and everyday examples that can help a reader describe an experience more clearly.

Find a next step

Questions to consider, kinds of support that may exist, and signs that professional or urgent help may be appropriate.

How the guides are made

What every guide should make clear

  • what the article discusses and any content note;
  • which statements are evidence, general guidance, or personal reflection;
  • where location-specific health or legal information applies;
  • the sources used and when the page was last reviewed; and
  • where qualified or urgent support can be found when the subject requires it.

This collection provides general education. It does not diagnose, investigate, or replace individual medical, legal, therapeutic, or crisis support.