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Photo by Дмитрий Тяжкороб / Unsplash
There can be a kind of flatness that brings people into the therapy space. Not despair, exactly. More a sense that nothing quite holds. The job feels arbitrary. The relationship feels insecure. The things that used to matter haven’t disappeared so much as gone quiet, and what’s left is a low, persistent question: what, exactly, is the point of any of this?
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For decades, if you went to your GP feeling down or depressed, you were probably told some version of the same thing: that your brain had a chemical imbalance, probably involving serotonin, and that medication would correct it. It was a convenient explanation that seemed to make sense, and so it stuck. By the early 2000s it had moved from clinical shorthand into everyday language, the kind of thing that people took as a given when discussing mental health. But we now know that the evidence never really supported it. 
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Something is shifting in the English-speaking world, and it's not especially easy to put your finger on. It's not a single event. It's more of a slow deterioration — a background anxiety that keeps rising, a sense that things are more divided, more exhausting, more hopeless than they used to be. The sense that it's getting worse, that "it's all crazy," is becoming something I hear daily in therapy sessions. The 2026 World Happiness Report has put some numbers to what a lot of people have been quietly feeling. For the second year running, not one English-speaking country made the world's top ten happiest nations. Finland first. Iceland second. Denmark third. Costa Rica fourth. Australia fifteenth. The US twenty-third. The UK twenty-ninth. We are, as a group, falling behind — and the people falling fastest are the youngest. 
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My digital spaces have recently been swamped by ads and testimonials for lion's mane extract, and claims of significant benefits to those living with complex trauma. For people in that situation, some of those claims will sound particularly appealing: better memory, reduced anxiety, clearer thinking; a brain that just works better. This post is an attempt to look at it as objectively as I can. 
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If you're in therapy — or thinking about starting — you may have wondered why healing feels so different for different people. Why some people seem to be finding their way back to themselves, while others feel like they're building something they've never quite had. One of the reasons for this has to do with when trauma first began. Understanding this difference won't speed up your healing. But it might help you be more patient, and more compassionate, with yourself. 
Photo: Sasha Freemind / Unsplash
If your relationships often feel painful, chaotic, or unfulfilling — if you keep finding yourself in the same dynamics with different people — it may be time to look at something that runs much deeper than the choices you're making. One of the most powerful, and most often unconscious, influences on how we love and connect is our attachment style.1 Understanding it takes courage. But it also opens a door. 
Photo: Johanneke Kroesbergen-Kamps / Unsplash
Fear is one of the most powerful forces in human experience. And one of the most misunderstood. We tend to think of fear as a response to something dangerous — and it is. But what happens when fear becomes the lens through which we see everything?  The Weight of Being Seen
If you're reading this, you might know the exhausting experience of living under what feels like constant surveillance—not necessarily from cameras or authorities, but from an internalised sense that you're always being evaluated, measured, and found lacking. This invisible jury follows you everywhere, whispering about what you should be doing, how you should look, what counts as acceptable. For those carrying complex trauma, this feeling runs deeper than social anxiety. It's woven into the very fabric of how we learned to survive. We became experts at reading rooms, anticipating reactions, shape-shifting to meet others' expectations—all while losing touch with what we actually wanted, needed, or valued. The philosopher Michel Foucault wrote about how power structures don't just control us through force, but by making us feel constantly observed and judged. When trauma happens early and repeatedly, especially in relationships that were supposed to be safe, we internalise this surveillance system. We become our own prison guards, our own harsh critics. But; You can learn to step outside this panopticon. You can build a sense of self that isn't dependent on external validation or approval.  In families, workplaces, or social groups, one individual is often unfairly singled out as the scapegoat. The scapegoat role involves being blamed for the mistakes or problems of the group, while others avoid accountability and maintain a false sense of order.
This dynamic is more than simple conflict. It involves emotional abuse, projection, and gaslighting, leaving the scapegoat carrying shame, hurt, and a distorted self-image. Understanding the psychology of scapegoating is an important step towards healing and breaking the cycle.  Social media is part of daily life for billions of people. It connects us, entertains us, and keeps us informed. But it can also significantly influence our mental health—especially anxiety levels—through subtle psychological mechanisms.
Two concepts from psychology and medicine, the placebo effect and nocebo effect, offer a powerful lens for understanding how social media shapes emotional states. Placebo effects occur when positive expectations improve subjective experience, while nocebo effects result in negative outcomes driven by negative expectations¹².  In Australia, there are differences in the qualifications, training, and scope of practice between psychotherapists, counsellors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and clinical psychologists. Here's a brief explanation of the differences:
 We are living in a time of great uncertainty. Life as we know it is being upended by coronavirus. You may be afraid of losing your job, of not being able to pay the rent or mortgage, of your elderly parents becoming ill ... of yourself becoming more isolated, more anxious, more depressed, more angry - and finding you have no way to deal with it.
 There are so many things that are confusing about the behaviour of people during the coronavirus period. People are acting in ways that others don't understand, or are critical of. There seems to be no logic or explanation for their behaviour. In fact, you may be struggling to remain logical yourself, and find yourself being driven by emotions of rage, fear, or are just shutting down from it all. Here's what's going on.
 The Coronavirus pandemic has brought a wave of complexity and difficulty into regular life. It's like a wrecking ball has destroyed a building we all thought was stable and would endure. The stress that comes as a result is real, and we have little choice other than to learn how to cope with it.
Here are some tips to get started.  It's such a common phrase as people try to take advantage of a New Year to attempt a change in their lives. Perhaps you're attempting just that, or trying for the umpteenth time to make a change but fear that once again you'll fail. Do you undermine your own chances? Do you doubt your ability to change? Or perhaps you're really not all that willing to change but like to be seen to make the effort? What really gets in the way, and how can you make the changes you'd like to make?
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Chris is a Clinical Counsellor and Psychotherapist at Engage Counselling, Sydney Archives
April 2026
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