A month of meaningful conversation: my quest to befriend a new person every day

Chatty cafes, benches, badges – there are countless schemes encouraging us to talk to strangers and escape loneliness. But do any of them really work? I spent 30 days finding out

Muay thai didn’t heal me – but it brought everything into focus

Fighting helped me escape what I found most difficult. If I could bottle up the feeling I get when I step in the ring, I would

‘My bears are my lifeline’: the adults who sleep with soft toys

A third of adults cuddle up to teddies every night for emotional comfort – and research shows there are real health benefits

Greggs, guilt and glucose: what I’ve learned from a life of dieting

I’ve spent decades trying every fad and detox, looking for the magic formula for weight loss

Trying to be happy could make you miserable, study finds

Westerners who put high value on happiness tend to show greater signs of depression

How the Brain Lost Its Mind review – beyond hysteria

In this study of psychiatry and neurology, Allan Ropper and BD Burrell ask: does mental illness reside in the brain or the mind?

Footballers’ mental health messages to be shown before FA Cup ties

Wellbeing suggestions will be screened in stadiums in an awareness initiative

We need to redefine manhood. Our warped ideas are causing a mental health crisis

Our society reinforces the worst kinds of masculinity – and I’ve seen it ruin lives, says poet and writer JJ Bola

Great expectations: ‘The quest for perfection has cannibalised my identity’

Perfectionism is associated with a long list of psychological disorders, the problem is notoriously hard to treat and it’s on the rise

I used to scoff at self-help. Then I found out it works

I thought simple life advice was a step towards narcissism – until I started listening to an upbeat California podcast, says writer and critic Alex Clark