Heids Up: the authors give a talk to Edinburgh University students

In March 2024, I was invited to give a talk about my mental health journey to BipolarEdinburgh. This prompted another invite: from the Edinburgh University Psychology Society.

Heids Up, discussed by co-authors Neil Renton and Mark Fleming with Edinburgh University students

Running over three Saturday mornings last Autumn, my creative writing sessions were a huge success, the BipolarEdinburgh service users experimenting with a variety of creative writing styles. Some chose memoirs, others fiction, chiming with the anthology which my friend, Neil Renton and I recently published, Heids Up.

One of the attendees, an Edinburgh University student, saw an opportunity for Neil and I to discuss our mental health journeys as one of the events run by the Edinburgh University Psychology Society. After duly receiving an invitation from the society's Rosie De La Torrey Carey, we were booked to give our talk, which was then promoted via the university's psychiatry and psychology societies, as well as literature and creative writing societies. The Psychology Society reserved a room in The Pleasance (near the courtyard always buzzing with creative activities as an Edinburgh Fringe Festival venue hub!)

Neil and I talked frankly about our respective journeys, touching on depression, hypomania, and suicidal ideation, and describing finding our way back from dark places. We also spoke about how we first met, at The Changing Room run by Scottish Action for Mental Health, and how becoming friends here encouraged us to collaborate on the anthology, Heids Up. Leading on from this, we took a deeper dive into the book itself, relating how cathartic it has been to write memoirs, essays about musical inspiration, and also short fiction, to explore our mental health, past and present. Following the near hour-long talk, attendees took advantage of the time we'd allowed for a Q and A session. 

One of the most interesting aspects of our talk was having the opportunity to contrast our own experiences of mental health issues with Gen Z'ers. My own psychosis peaked in the 80s and 90s, a time when the subject remained deeply stigmatised. Even although Neil's worst depressive episodes occurred in the 2010s, he was still aware of persisting stigmatisation.

Today's climate may be far more objective, with support that was practically non-existent last century now being much more freely available. But given the added pressures faced by Gen Z - social media, fake news, unstable geopolitics, and many more topical sources of stress and anxiety - the potential for mental ill health remains constant.

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Heids Up is available from Tartan Moon.