Shows
How To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeHow to Cope with Moving Forward (even if you're not sure you want to)Just over a year ago, the pandemic felt like a scary new reality that we didn’t want to confront. Now, as we face the prospect of returning to our pre-Covid lives, we’re faced with the bizarre situation of feeling apprehensive about living free of restrictions. Why is this so hard on our mental health? In this episode of How To Cope, we look back at a year of doing the podcast, and how things have changed SO much. We also explore why we’re feeling strange right now, living in the ‘soup of uncertain...2021-05-0425 min
How To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeErin Kelly, bestselling author, on how she coped with lockdownAs a bestselling author of psychological thrillers He Said/She Said, The Poison Tree and her latest book Watch Her Fall, Erin Kelly had had 20 years of experience in working from home when lockdown hit. But that doesn’t mean it was a straightforward journey: she had to radically adjust her writing life to look after her two children, start homeschooling and also finish her latest novel. Through this challenging time, Erin’s learned a good few things about herself – not least that she was suffering with clinical depression during the first lockdown. She shares her men...2021-04-2039 min
How To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeSimon Raymonde, ex-Cocteau Twin and Bella Union boss, on his life-changing pandemicMusic has always been Simon Raymonde’s life. As a member of seminal band Cocteau Twins during the 80s and 90s, and latterly as the head of Bella Union record label – which looks after artists including Tim Burgess, Fleet Foxes, John Grant and Father John Misty – going to gigs, travelling, and releasing music was everything. But thanks to the Covid-19 shutdown, he’s had to change everything – and through it, has discovered a new way to live his life. We chat to Simon about leaving London for the South coast, the impact of lockdown on him and his...2021-04-0841 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeFear of the Post-Lockdown FutureWith lockdowns easing, why are many of us feeling worried and fearful about the future, rather than all skipping happily down the road(map)? In this episode, we explore the ways in which we’ve become Covid Conditioned – falling (a little bit) in love with the safety and containment of lockdown life when the world outside has become very risky indeed. We also talk about the unwelcome return of FOMO, and how lockdown has actually given many of us breathing space from the oppressive social pressures of our previous lives – how we can make sure this do...2021-03-3129 min
How To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeJake Tyler, mental health campaigner, on walking his way through depression When Jake Tyler found himself contemplating suicide, his mental health was at rock bottom. He took an unconventional approach to helping himself, and started an epic walk around the entirety of the UK, becoming an accidental campaigner for mental health along the way. Now Jake’s written a book about his experiences – A Walk From The Wild Edge – which details his journey in brilliantly relatable, moving and funny prose. Having moved from a place where he dealt with his life stresses with drink and drugs, he now knows how to truly help his own ment...2021-03-1844 min
How To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeLearning to thrive in a pandemic, with author Neema ShahFor author Neema Shah, going into lockdown gave her the chance to embrace living in an introvert’s world. Although often mistaken for an extrovert (like both of us at How To Cope), she found the enforced quiet gave her more energy, allowed her writing to thrive, and discovered it as a form of mindfulness. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Neema had to come to terms with releasing her heralded debut novel Kololo Hill during a pandemic, and moving all her celebrations onto social media. She talks about coming to terms with a digit...2021-03-0444 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeParental Burnout - And What We Can Do About ItFor those of us with children in the house, being a parent in lockdown can feel like slogging our way through a very dark tunnel. With energy levels much lower than before, and schooling expectations much higher, it’s no wonder that many of us feel as if we’re constantly failing. In this episode, we talk about the crazy difficulties of being a parent now we’re nearly a year into the pandemic, and how we may have lost sight of just how much we’re asking of ourselves. When we’re being asked to tolerate...2021-02-2532 min
How To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeRob da Bank, DJ and meditation guru, on life without live musicRob da Bank has been getting the party started for decades, ever since he first started DJing in the 1990s. But one of the biggest casualties of the Covid-19 crisis has been live music and festivals, and with the 2021 summer festival season now in doubt, we caught up with Rob to found how he has coped with this radical change in his life. We chat to Rob about how he’s managing with homeschooling his four sons at home in the Isle of Wight, and why being able to spend time outdoors and in nature is...2021-02-1642 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeDamian Barr, writer + presenter, on how he's coping through Covid For natural extrovert Damian Barr, lockdown has presented a new set of challenges. Without being able to enjoy unplanned, unscheduled interactions and the layers of connection we have in our normal life, he’s had to learn how to live in the present and slow down. In this brilliantly insightful and honest chat, we speak to Damian about how he has coped with the past year, and how, having lived through the Aids pandemic of the 80s and 90s, and survived a traumatic childhood, he was unusually well equipped to deal with the imme...2021-02-0457 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeBeing pregnant and having a baby during a pandemic, with Times fashion editor Harriet WalkerAuthor and fashion editor of The Times, Harriet Walker, announced her pregnancy to friends and family just as the UK went into lockdown last March. Suddenly she found herself dealing not only with a full-time job and the heightened emotions and physical strains of pregnancy – but also looking after her toddler daughter at home, too.In this episode of #HowToCope, Harriet talks about how she managed with the knife-edge of stress and emotion during that time, and how being viciously trolled for an honest article she wrote was harder to deal with when all our emotions we...2021-01-2140 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeToxic Stress and what it’s doing to usToxic stress is here, and the effects on our mental health are real. Unbelievably, it’s almost been a year since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in the UK, and the collective stress experienced by us all is very different now to how it was back at the start.Unlike general stress – which tends to follow an up and down pattern – toxic stress is where the stressor doesn’t go away. With all of us on lockdown and unable to find our usual releases from this unending stress, how can we cope?In this epi...2021-01-1229 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeCoping with a Covid Christmas'A Christmas like no other' doesn't even begin to cover what we're all dealing with right now. With the festive season upon us, it's hard to feel positive when so many of us can't see our families, are battered by the depressing news landscape, or are just burned out from nearly a year of dealing with toxic pandemic stress.So how can we cope at this particularly tricky time of year and look after our mental health? Despite the fact we've been living with Covid since March, everything feels a bit sharper and more painful right...2020-12-2128 min
How To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeScarlette Douglas, TV presenter, on life choices and finding her true selfTV presenter Scarlette Douglas started off 2020 with a list of goals to achieve – land a new TV show, be on the radio and find love – and incredibly, she ticked off all three of them, despite the chaos wreaked on her career by the pandemic.Scarlette, who presents A Place in the Sun on Channel 4, saw all her work disappear with the arrival of Covid, but this gave her an unexpected opportunity to rest, switch off and work out what was important to her in her life. She realised there were lots of insecurities and anxieties she hadn...2020-12-1535 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeWhy it’s OK to miss our holidays, with travel writer Anna HartAs a travel writer for global publications, Anna Hart’s life was grounded in more ways than one by the pandemic. But she’s found that this year has actually turned out to be the most interesting and fulfilling year to be a travel writer she’s ever known.Anna talks to us about how Covid-19 totally upended her world: from a last-minute return back from the US, to dealing with despair about her work and career, and finding a way through the chaos to continue writing about travel in a totally new way.We a...2020-12-0439 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeThe Resilience MythResilience has been a buzzword during the pandemic, but what if you’re feeling like your resources have run totally dry? As Lockdown 2 drags on to the bitter end, we explore this idea of being resilient, and why it’s actually not massively helpful with how to cope.From the way that resilience can feel like a blaming term (if you’re not resilient, it’s somehow all your fault, right?), to why we need our environment to support us for feelings of resilience to flourish, in this episode we explore why resilience really i...2020-11-2626 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeErica Davies, fashion influencer and stylistErica Davies is one of the UK’s most influential fashion Instagrammers, with 166k followers. So how did the Covid pandemic impact how she worked, how she coped, and her take on fashion and how it makes us all feel?For the last few years, former newspaper fashion editor Erica has been on a momentous trajectory (we’re not allowed to say the ‘J’ word 😉), building up her personal brand on Instagram. By the start of 2020, she’d amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, had written a style guide Fashion is a Neutral which was abo...2020-11-1746 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeLockdown 2 & Why It Feels HarderLockdown 2 is here for those of us living in England, but you won’t find us out clapping for carers, baking banana bread or manically scheduling social Zoom calls this time around. No, in this lockdown the general mood is a bit bleaker – we’re all dealing with lower energy levels, pessimism and a sense of ‘what’s the point?’In this episode of How To Cope, psychotherapist Lucy Clyde and writer Becky Howard explore just why our coping mechanisms for the spring lockdown won’t work this time.We talk about why we’re all stil...2020-11-1030 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeLiving alone under lockdown, with Becky Barnes of Huff Post UKIn her role as Audience Editor of the publishing site Huff Post UK, Becky Barnes is responsible for helping people make sense of the overwhelming amount of information and news about the global pandemic. But during the first lockdown, she found spending her entire working day immersed in negative information, and living on her own, took its toll on her mental health.In this insightful and honest chat, Becky talks to us about why she experienced her worst mental health ever during 2020, and how her fun and fulfilling life as a busy single woman in London...2020-11-0336 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeSex toys and self-esteem with Julia Margo of Hot OctopussMany business have suffered during lockdown, but the opposite has happened to the sex toy industry. Online sales of sex toys of all types have rocketed, but why? And what’s the link between sex toys, self-pleasure and mental health?To answer our questions we’re joined in this episode by Julia Margo, COO of Hot Octopuss. Julia explains the research that links sexual pleasure with improved mental health, and how their focus on marginalised groups left behind by mainstream conversations makes a huge difference to peoples’ self-esteem.We talk about why there needs...2020-10-2030 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeRunning a business through Covid, with Steph Douglas of Don’t Buy Her FlowersHow do you cope when you’ve got a business that’s skyrocketing under Covid, plus three kids at home? That’s what we wanted to find out from Steph Douglas, whose gift-box business Don’t Buy Her Flowers found that sales went through the roof when the shops closed.We chatted to the brilliant Steph about how she found herself working full-on under highly adrenalized conditions, how she coped with the guilt about doing well when other industries suffered, and the intense pressure and responsibility she felt. It wasn’t until she had a break from work...2020-10-0947 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeMatthew Knight of Leapers, the freelancer's mental health platformIt's our first guest! Matthew Knight set up Leapers, the online project and community supporting the mental health of the self-employed, a few years ago. But the platform's popularity has rocketed during Covid-19, as thousands of freelancers found they needed extra support and help as the pressures of the pandemic and work uncertainty built up.In this episode, writer Becky Howard and psychotherapist Lucy Clyde talk to Matthew about how the Leapers community helped each other through the first lockdown, how he managed to cope himself with the extra responsibility, and how he's preparing for the...2020-10-0241 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeLockdown, Part 2: Crappy Days Are Here AgainWe’re back! And so is lockdown! After having a brief summer holiday from the pandemic, where we didn’t think about Covid-19 for – oooh – at least 5 minutes, and we were Eating Out to Help Out, it turns out that it was just a brief intermission before the Return Of The Virus. 😱The second wave of coronavirus is here, and it’s stressing us all out. Without the panicked, emergency coping of clapping for carers and baking sourdough, how on earth are we supposed to face the next bleak six months and look after our mental health?2020-09-2528 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeSo, How Was It For You?Lockdown is easing, we're venturing out, but why don't things feel OK yet? Even if we HAVE had a haircut?It's because we're returning not to a post-Covid world, but one where the virus is still with us, and that post-apocalyptic 28 Days Later vibe is now normal. What's it doing to our mental health?Psychotherapist Lucy Clyde and writer Becky Howard wrap up the first series of How To Cope with a look into why the new outside world feels a very tense and stressful place to be. We look back at what...2020-07-1434 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeFrustration, Fracture + Why We're Getting Super-JudgeyAfter 100+ days of lockdown, it's no wonder frustration is high as we've all felt desperate, a bit depressed and lonely. But now as lockdown begins to ease for some of us, what's happening as our 'we're all in this together' united society starts to fracture?Psychotherapist Lucy Clyde and writer Becky Howard delve into the nation's mental health as we start to experience a personal choice pandemic. Whether you're still shielding, and nothing's changed or are back at work, have kids back at school, or are happily going down to the beach with the crowds, there...2020-07-0230 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeHow To Hold Onto HopeHope is a powerful emotion. But how can we feel hopeful, when often the pandemic leaves us feeling pretty hopeless? Whether that's feeling down about our future, the economy, our family, or even our likelihood of hugging friends in the next few months, it's easy to be overwhelmed by negative feelings.But just like the legendary late George Michael, we've gotta have faith. In this episode, writer Becky Howard and psychotherapist Lucy Clyde look into just how we can do this - remembering that feelings AREN'T facts (who knew?) and that really, the worst-case scenarios very...2020-06-2525 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeThe Emotional Slump + What It's Doing To UsWe're all in a collective emotional slump right now, feeling tired, fed up, angry and just plain old BORED with the continuing, seemingly never-ending life under coronavirus. AAAGGGHHHHH....With the manic positive energy of early lockdown long gone, and people feeling disillusioned with things, this mounting frustration as weeks become months (and months) is manifesting itself in all sorts of different emotions.In this episode, writer Becky Howard and psychotherapist Lucy Clyde delve into the different mental health challenges this is presenting us with - for some of us it's futile raging anger...2020-06-1733 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydePost-Lockdown AnxietyPost-lockdown anxiety is here: with loads of us feeling anxious, stressed and worried about post-Covid life. We want to go out, but we also DON'T want to go out. What's going on?We thought when we were finally allowed out from our homes, that we'd all be skipping down the street, gaily singing 'free at last!' (or was that just us?)But in fact, dealing with a post-lockdown world is WAY more complicated than returning to our pre-Covid lives. Many of us are super stressed about the prospect of returning to an...2020-06-0928 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeCoronavirus Guilt + Why It's DifferentWhy is guilt something we're feeling over the coronavirus pandemic? After all - unless we've taken a trip up to Durham recently, we've probably done nothing wrong.But in fact, feeling guilty is a totally normal response. Whether it's guilt over NOT having the worst pandemic experience ever, guilt over social media or guilt over whether we should really buy that packet of salt and vinegar crisps or not (you'll have to listen to find out what that's all about) - it's a feeling that's shifted shape during these strange times. Writer Becky...2020-06-0327 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeWhy Uncertainty Is Exhausting - And How We Fill The VoidFeeling worried and stressed about our uncertain future, now that we're living through a global pandemic?Yep, us too. Because does ANYONE know what our world will look like in six weeks' time? Let alone six months' time? No matter what those in charge claim, no-one really knows what's coming after Covid-19.When the only thing we can be confidently certain about is what we're eating next, uncertainty is everywhere. And when us humans have too much uncertainty to face, we start to fill this void with our own projections - which can...2020-05-2626 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeLoneliness - And The Problems With Digital 'Diet Friendship'We’re all feeling SO lonely during this pandemic, isolated from our pre-Covid lives – and we’re not afraid to talk about it.Because, yes it’s possible to be really lonely even if you’re in a house full of people on lockdown. Becky + Lucy explore the difference between loneliness and solitude, and whether going through this corona-coaster is easier for introverts or extroverts (and really, what the hell is an ambivert?)We also talk about the issue of digital connection and why it’s so exhausting and unsatisfying to be on all those Zo...2020-05-1924 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeTrailer - How To CopeWelcome to How to Cope! A new podcast exploring just how we can best manage our mental health, when the global coronavirus crisis is doing its very best to pummel our sanity into a pulp.Each episode, writer Becky Howard and psychotherapist Lucy Clyde will explore one element of the overwhelming amount of changes we're all having to deal with - and help us all find our way through this the best way we can.From relationship challenges to mood swings, loneliness to parenting crises, Covid-19 is having all sorts of unprecedented impacts o...2020-05-1801 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeWhen You're A Rubbish Parent During LockdownLockdown with children in the house is really hard - how do we cope with our kids without losing our own sanity to the stresses of dealing with a global pandemic?If you've got kids, it’s likely your parenting has taken a total battering. From rules flying out the window, to screens taking over and nowhere to hide (apart from the bathroom), many of us feel we’re doing a really bad job right now.In this episode, writer Becky Howard and psychotherapist Lucy Clyde talk about crappy pandemic parenting – and why we sho...2020-05-1226 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeDealing with Crazy Mood SwingsAnger, sadness, tears, rage, numbness - our mood swings are extreme during the coronavirus crisis.Feeling all over the place? Us too! With a global pandemic to cope with, many of us are finding it a struggle to understand our emotions. Flipping into fits of anger, followed by uncontrollable weeping and sometimes even a terrifying numbness has become the 'new normal' as our isolated existence takes its toll on our mental health. In this episode, writer Becky Howard and psychotherapist Lucy Clyde explore the phenomenon of the 'coronacoaster' mood swing, what do do w...2020-05-0729 minHow To Cope - with Becky Howard + Lucy ClydeWhat We've Lost During the LockdownWelcome to How to Cope! A new podcast exploring just how we can best manage our mental health, when the global coronavirus crisis is doing its very best to pummel our sanity into a pulp.This time round, writer Becky Howard and psychotherapist Lucy Clyde are exploring loss. From loss of freedom, to loss of jobs, socialising, control, and even losing the choice to pay for an overpriced hipster coffee, it's something that's affecting all of us. So how can we deal with it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...2020-05-0530 min