Welcome to the Creative Pen podcast. I'm Joanna Penn, thriller author and creative entrepreneur,

bringing you interviews, inspiration and information on writing, publishing options and marketing ideas for your book.

You can find the episode show notes, your free author blueprint and lots more information at

TheCreativepen.com. And that's Penn with a double N. And here's the show.

Hello, creatives. I'm Joanna Penn. And this is episode number 693 of the podcast, and it is Thursday, 11th of May,

2023, as I record this a little early, as I will be on a plane as this goes out. In today's show,

I'm talking with Toby Neal about mental health for writers and turning our life into art. We discuss

various issues you might be facing as well as how to

deal with them, self-care and how writing can help, whether it's private through journaling or

turning them into a book. So I've written about my own mental health struggles in my recent memoir,

pilgrimage, but also in my fiction, particularly delirium. And there is an author's note

in the back of all of my books, but delirium, I go into this. It is a mystery crime novel set in

modern day London, but it echoes back to the history of psychiatry and asks the question

of whether we all lie on the spectrum of madness somewhere at different times in our lives.

So this is going out during Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK,

which has a special focus on anxiety this year.

And of course, please seek out professional help if you need it.

And you can go to mentalhealth.org.org.uk. Of course, that's global, but I'm sure there are also

options in your country. I also wanted to give you a couple of book recommendations about

physical health and mental health because they go together. You are not just a brain or some

brain chemistry. You are a physical brain in a physical body.

So these two books are great. First of all, Outlive the Science and Art of Longevity by Dr. Peter

...