Perfectionism is often praised in our culture. Job interviews reward “perfectionist” as a strength, schools admire students who push for flawless results, and many people wear the label with pride. But behind the polished surface, perfectionism carries hidden costs that can quietly erode mental health, relationships, and overall wellbeing.

The co-occurrence of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is increasingly recognised in clinical settings. While these two conditions may appear distinct at first glance, they share deeper psychological mechanisms that can blur diagnostic boundaries and complicate treatment. For individuals, families, and clinicians alike, recognising how these disorders interact is crucial to providing effective support.

Group therapy is often overlooked in favour of one-on-one treatment, but for many people, it can be an incredibly powerful therapeutic experience. Whether it’s supporting those with anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma or relational difficulties, group work offers unique benefits that individual therapy simply can’t replicate.

I keep coming back to this thought: OCD doesn’t just live in someone’s head. It seeps out into daily life, and most of all, into relationships. The constant checking, the nagging need for reassurance, the way routines and rituals quietly run the show. It doesn’t just affect you, it affects the people around you.

Money has a quiet way of weaving itself into the fabric of our relationships. It’s there in the decisions we make together, in the moments we celebrate, and in the tensions that sometimes rise to the surface. We might think we’re talking about numbers, but more often we’re talking about safety, choice, fairness, and how much we feel seen or valued.

It can sit in the background for months, even years, until something stirs it up — a disagreement over a purchase, a different vision for the future, the subtle comparison to friends or family. And suddenly, the conversation isn’t about the cost of something at all; it’s about what it means, and how those meanings can either bring us closer or push us apart.

What Is the Mental Load, Really?

It’s a term we hear more and more — mental load. It gets mentioned in conversations about gender roles, parenting, emotional labour, even workplace stress. But what does it actually mean? The mental load refers to the ongoing, invisible, and often unacknowledged mental effort of managing life. Not just doing the tasks, but remembering, planning, anticipating, tracking, worrying, and organising all the moving parts. It’s the background thinking that keeps everyone else functioning, even when no one sees it.