Matt Hussey

Matt is an award winning journalist and a fully certified therapist helping bring the world's best mental health, to anyone and everyone.

What happens when big pharma lies about its drugs 💊💉

Over on Netflix, there’s a fantastic new drama series called Painkiller - based on the brilliant book Empire of Pain. It tracks the story of how the opioid epidemic took hold of America, and how the Sackler family was instrumental in bringing about the healthcare crisis. One of the

We need to talk about therapy speak 🙊

Therapy speak is everywhere. Throw a digital stick into the internet ether and you’ll clatter into people being “toxic” or “gaslighting” someone else. Keep going and you’ll find a galaxy of narcissists not maintaining their boundaries, and preventing everyone else from practising self care. Search “gaslighting” on YouTube

When mindfulness goes wrong 🤢

“Take a deep breath”, “find your inner calm,” “channel your peace”, and so on. Mindfulness is big business. Mediation apps alone, pull in about $100 million for their owners every year. Zoom out a little further, and the mindfulness industrial complex is a monster. When folded into the Wellness Industry,

The power of rotting emotions, and how they help us feel something new 🦨

Your emotions rot. That’s a phrase you don’t often hear. But using this slightly macabre description of how we feel is a powerful way of understanding how we change. Let me explain. When we think of ourselves, what makes up that idea will be a mix of memories,

Why we love to swear

If you've always tried to avoid a fuck or bugger when in the company of others, it turns out you might be missing out. That's according to author Emma Byrne and her book Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language. In it

How catastrophe changes who you think you are

A lot of people are going through a lot right now. As we've touched on before, the cost of living crisis, global 'boiling', and the uncertainty around the economy has meant we dream more, sleep less, and feel less in control. But, says a group of

Your immune system is quietly choosing your friends

Our immune system is great at keeping you alive, but it turns out, it also plays a role in our social interactions, and even our personality, according to researchers at the University of Virginia. Historically, scientists believed the immune system and the brain never talked to each other. But now,

Why do some people nail working at home and some don't?

Picture this: you log on for your morning video call with your team. Most of you are happy to accept that what's about to happen can be comfortably put in the "this will not be my best work" pile. But for some reason, there's

What is touch hunger?

As COVID-19 skipped through countries across the world, governments told their citizens to stay away from each other to help prevent the spread of the virus. Social distancing as it's now commonly referred to has helped contain COVID, but, according to psychologists, it has left our bodies crying

Why has work become the primary way we express who we are?

In the 1930s (stay with me, it'll make sense) John Maynard Keynes, arguably the godfather of modern economics said in the future, societies will be so awash with cash and machines so effortlessly efficient at doing our work for us, we'll be working 15-hour weeks, tops.

Is it possible to change your personality in two weeks?

Want to read more? Work less? Lose weight? Join the bloody club. Changing our habits, and by association, our personality is hard. Not so says the University of Zurich. Researchers found that people who wanted to become more self-disciplined in two weeks could by using an app they had built

I have "pavement rage" and you probably do too

I live in London. Which means if you're not careening towards your destination with a sense of life-or-death-urgency you shouldn't have bothered getting dressed this morning. Turns out there is such a thing as "pavement rage", and I have taken a test to prove

This is the saddest we've been in more than a decade

If you've been using Twitter lately, or any social network for that matter, you might have noticed things have taken a decidedly grim turn. And with good reason. Be it the economy, job losses, the global leaders who seem to be competing for the title of most awful.

A good night's sleep is all about how you wake up

Today I was woken up at 5am by my dog who just wanted to say hey - before curling up on the bed and going back to sleep for two of the 18 hours she normally spends snoring. While my dog feels great, I've spent most of the

Thinking about giving up coffee? Here's what happens to your body

Me and coffee are tight. Coffee is there in the morning, coffee is there when I hit the mid-afternoon wall. Coffee is there in the times where we could go out and do things. But, as we're constantly told, coffee is bad, depending on who you ask. If

Can you teach yourself to be creative?

For every piece of art, be it a painting, a film or theatre I've seen and thought, "that's bloody amazing" there's an equal amount of work I've looked at and the small angry voice in my head has said, "

Can we be happy just living online?

Nothing like grappling with the big ideas on a Monday morning eh? Blame Apple. You see, if you own an iPhone - this isn't a dig against Android, I just don't know if they offer the same alerts - on Mondays, it sends you a notification

How big business uses wellness to make us work harder

Mindfulness is big business. Google, Target, and Ford all teach their employees mindfulness. The global wellness industry is now worth $4.5 trillion. Meditation apps such as Headspace and Calm are downloaded in the millions, with Calm –the ‘mental health unicorn’ valued at $1 billion. But while many have heralded

How music distorts our sense of time

Music messes with our minds. For example: * More drinks are sold in bars when the music is slow-tempo. * Consumers spend 38 percent more time food shopping when the background music is slow. * Shoppers think they are spending longer shopping when they are familiar with the background music in the store,

Why emotional intelligence should be taught in school

How do you get ahead at school? Well, most researchers will point confidently to two key qualities. One is intelligence. Being able to understand the concepts of what is being taught is a pretty good way of measuring how successful a student will be. The second skill is conscientiousness, or

Why we need to be angrier

Really? The world already seems like a pretty angry place, why does it need more people already? Bear with me. Before we start, it's important to separate violence, hostility and aggression from anger. Those first three things are not what we're talking about. Anger is an

Why we love scary stories

Here's a puzzler: why did a game where the aim is to create a virus so deadly it kills the global population before humans can develop a vaccine have the highest number of downloads this year? That's exactly what happened with Plague Inc, a game you

How to become more resilient

These are trying times. The world is heaving under the pressure of seismic events: the end of a global pandemic, global warming, the deep, silent currents of the global economy and its ability to shock countries, communities and citizens, seemingly at random. No one is immune to these shifts. But

Uitwaaien - the Dutch answer to stress

When I take my dog for a walk on a windy day, she goes bananas. And it's not the usual bananas. It's a very special type of bananas. A banana's bananas. While my dog is an idiot at the best of times, it turns

The quiet cost of living in noisy environments

While we've all been on lockdown, things have been, well a lot quieter. There have been fewer cars on the roads, fewer people (except when you go to buy food), and we've been exposed to less noise. While that has led to many of us feeling,