Happy New Year to every mental health professional, every LFC fan, and every book lover. Thanks for being part of the journey. On we go into 2026. #LFC #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Books

Note: This thread was inspired by “Sorry Dante, middle age is not a road to Hell” by Oliver Moody, The Times (31.01.2025), and reflects on mental health, anxiety, and the realities of midlife through that lens. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

10. Maybe midlife anxiety isn’t the opposite of mental health. Maybe it’s the cost of a brain doing the hardest work it will ever do: holding a life together. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

9. Middle age isn’t where the self disappears. It’s where it stabilises, shaped by endurance, compromise, and responsibility. That process can feel anxious, but it’s meaningful. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

8. We’re sold a myth that the “real self” is discovered in youth. In reality, selves are built (slowly) through relationships, care, and constraint. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

7. Midlife anxiety often isn’t a mental health failure. It’s what happens when real responsibility meets a nervous system learning to carry it. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

6. This is crystallised intelligence: the ability to navigate complexity, tolerate uncertainty, and make decisions under pressure are the exact skills midlife demands. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

5. From our 30s onward, the brain builds dense local networks instead of chasing novelty. Less speed. More judgement, integration, and emotional regulation. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

4. Neuroscience complicates the “midlife decline” story. The brain doesn’t stop developing, it reorganises. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

3. This anxiety isn’t weakness. It’s the fear that one shock (illness, redundancy, family crisis) could destabilise a carefully balanced life. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

2. For many, midlife means being part of the sandwich generation: supporting children and ageing parents while holding work, money, and identity together. Anxiety here isn’t occasional, it’s constant background noise. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

Middle age is often painted as a grey slog, and the data backs it up. Life satisfaction drops after 30 by almost as much as divorce or job loss. No surprise anxiety rises. But that’s not the full story. #MentalHealth #Anxiety #Stress #Midlife

When we treat mental illness as a moral failing or a trend, we delay care and deepen suffering. Science, compassion, and functioning-focused support must lead. #MentalHealth #Anxiety

Another narrative suggests diagnosis is the problem. The problem is actually what happens after diagnosis. Too often, very little. We need care that addresses anxiety, stress, coping, and context, not culture-war narratives. #MentalHealth #Anxiety

We need to urgently debunk the narrative that rising mental health need is evidence of malingering. The growing need reflects real distress, social change, post-Covid disruption, and services that haven’t kept pace. Denial doesn’t reduce demand. Care does. #MentalHeslth #Anxiety

Regulator: “insufficient evidence” that personal therapy benefits trainees. O’Connor (Sunday Times Ireland) argues this logic ignores real-world clinical risk. Mental health regulation should protect patients. If it fails vulnerable people, it becomes part of the problem. #MentalHealth #Anxiety

Mandatory personal therapy is a global norm in psychotherapy training. According to professional bodies cited by O’Connor, removing it would leave Ireland with the lowest standards in Europe. Sunday Times Ireland. #MentalHealth #Anxiety

The most alarming proposal? Trainee therapists may no longer be required to undergo personal therapy themselves. That’s a serious safety issue. Sunday Times Ireland Alison O’Connor. #MentalHealth #Anxiety

As O’Connor writes, therapy has become more accepted and more available, but regulation is now heading in a troubling direction. Standards for training therapists are being weakened, not strengthened. #MentalHealth #Anxiety

People seeking help for anxiety or acute psychological distress assume their therapist is properly trained and regulated. That assumption may no longer hold. Alison O’Connor, Sunday Times Ireland #MentalHealth #Anxiety

Bradley was excellent when he came on and linked up really well with Frimpong ahead of him. #LFC

Gravenberch, Kerkez and Frimpong all played well. Real energy and intent when Liverpool had the ball. #LFC

On the plus side: Wirtz again had another good game and a goal. Plenty to like going forward. #LFC

Too often teams just walk straight through that Liverpool midfield. No one holding, no one protecting central areas. It’s a real problem. #LFC

Curtis Jones worked his socks off, covered loads of ground. But he was everywhere except where you need him most, in the centre of the pitch. #LFC

Liverpool midfield was flimsy. Three individuals doing their own thing, miles apart. No cohesion, huge gaps everywhere. #LFC

Ball coming into the corner and Ekitike is on the ground holding his throat. I didn’t see enough contact to justify it. There’s a childish edge to that, he needs to mature. #LFC

This has turned into pure sloppiness. Basic errors everywhere. #LFC

That second-half start was brutal. No composure, no control, just panic. We were warned repeatedly and still conceded. Shocking defending. #LFC

First 40 minutes were a tough watch. Ball movement far too slow, no real tempo. Two great goals, but up to then it was laboured. #LFC

The NHS mental health system has structural bottlenecks: Too few psychology training places Opaque qualification pathways Thousands of capable graduates locked out Months–years of waiting This isn’t new. #Psychology #mentalhealth

37% of adults say they’ve used AI for wellbeing support. Nearly a quarter cite long NHS waiting lists as the reason. When demand explodes and access collapses alternatives fill the gap. #NHS #MentalHealth

An NHS leader has warned people not to use AI chatbots for mental health support over Christmas. The concerns are valid. However, the reason people are turning to AI is because they can’t access clinicians. That’s not a tech problem. That’s a service failure. #MentalHealth #AccessToCare #NHS

Big win. Level with Chelsea. But Bradley injured, Isak injured, and Frimpong hobbling off after just coming back. Anfield medica room busier than A&E. #LFC

The lack of control at the end was concerning. But you had a team pumped up, aggressive, and reckless, coming at them. #LFC

Spurs playing like a 1970s team. A wonder more have not been sent off. #LFC

Nobody deserved a sending off more than Romero. How the ref put up with all evening I don’t know. #LFC

Really pleased to see Slot start Ekitike today. He’s our goal scorer, and I was worried the fee for Isaac might pile pressure on Slot to start him. I like the look of this line-up. #LFC

#newche Enjoyed that. Set the standard for the Christmas football.

Glad Salah got some minutes before heading off to AFCON. He showed his quality when he came on, but it’s clear he won’t start every game anymore. Hopefully when he’s back, the noise is forgotten and he embraces the role Liverpool need from him going forward. #LFC

Wirtz, though, continues to feel the frustration. Still without a Premier League goal or assist, despite being heavily involved again. But I’ll say this, he is showing more signs of coming good than Isak is right now. #LFC

Ekitike’s link-up play, especially with Wirtz, was hugely encouraging. There’s clear chemistry there something Slot should build on going forward. But Ekitike is our striker. Slot cannot continue trying to give Isak playing time. We need the points now. #LFC

Well, looked at the highlights and continuing Liverpool’s bizarre season this was a game we could definitely have lost. Less than 50% possession, Brighton better chances and Brighton defence had two Liverpool type mega-spasms. #LFC

I give Slot some credit tonight. With the Salah saga hanging over him and the squad stretched. Slot could easily have gone conservative. Instead, he trusted his structure and the players responded. #LFC

Ekitike’s confidence is growing. Need that connection up top. Isak battled hard but Inter’s CBs bullied him all night. That partnership needs time. But tonight was all about the fight. Well done lads. #LFC

Forget the Salah noise, the lads showed HEART tonight. Given the week just gone, that gives me hope. #LFC

Mo, last season you pushed hard with a contract on the line, and you delivered. This year the intensity hasn’t been the same. The manager is right to bench anyone not hitting those levels. Instead of going to the press, knuckle down, think of the fans who backed you, and earn your spot again. #LFC

Ekitike is the first Liverpool player to score twice in a game this season… and we STILL don’t win. That says everything. #LFC

Aaaggghh! Two goals up. Leading again at 3–2. Still no win. Liverpool inventing new ways to ruin my evening. #LFC #LEELIV

My mate said “Another good point off a top 6 club in your search for safety”. No he’s not an LFC fan. Yes he is a pain the arse. But I have to say this one stung. #LFC