If there's one thing I learnt in CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) it's that we have to take something positive from every negative experience. Or w...

There is no close connection between mental health and crime, in fact, statistics show that we are actually more likely to be the victim of the crime.

Choice is, "Shall we paint the bedroom blue or green?" or even "'Shall we start a family?" Choice is not, "Shall I have constant PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) flashbacks?", nor is it, "Shall I be bipolar and be so hard to live with that my partner leaves me?" It is also not, "Shall I feel so depressed that I'll think about ending it all?"

Being totally honest in our profiles can go in one of two directions. You either get no replies, perhaps the odd one or two after pub closing hours, or you attract someone who admires you for your honesty AND your flaws. Bingo. You may as start choosing the fabric and start table planning.

Living with someone, in this case, not a family member, but someone you've chosen to be with who has experience of a mental health problem, need not be scary or difficult. Simply doing those little everyday things can make all the difference. Treat them normally.

We've just launched a new campaign to encourage all of us to have more open conversations around the subject of mental health. Our new advert highlights the importance of staying in contact and being supportive when friends and family members experience a mental health problem.

You're either scrambling around manically, driving the people around you to the point of distraction, or stuck in a heap on the bathroom floor, searching frantically for the inner strength to stand up and face another day.

Many of us are choosing a greener lifestyle, and that goes for medication too. Holistic therapist Sorrell Robbins explains "The idea of alternative medicine - namely herbs - is to help moderate and balance the individual alongside medical and/or psychiatric care and not to cure conditions that mainstream doctors were unable to".

Here are some of the common misconceptions of mental health I've heard over the years (and calmly kept schtum).

I haven't met many people with mental health problems who aren't in some way or other creative, we naturally question everything, perhaps to obsessiveness sometimes, and spiral off in different directions looking for alternative conclusions, very much like the artist's mind.

It recently came to my attention that the best person to assess a client with mental health needs is in fact, the postman. Firstly, yes I have been taking my lithium. Now, think about it, the postman, if a regular to the same address, ticks the box that good psychiatry practices, but very often fails.

One in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives, yet it's still seems such a difficult subject to talk about. I remember 20 years ago, no one talked about cancer. Why is it that when an illness is visible, we can embrace the patient, but when it is invisible, in the mind, we seem scared to even say the words?

I recently watched a film - a terrible film - which had an archaic, grotesque depiction of life in a psychiatric ward. After I recovered from the boredom, I woke up, wiped dribble from my shirt, and then started to ponder over it. It was frustrating to think that people who have no experience of this kind of environment may be influenced by such a portrayal.

Irving Kirsh has been studying placebos for 36 years and says mere sugar pills can treat irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers and Parkinson's disease - and now he says they've been curing all manner of mental health illnesses for years.