# Adam Kay: "I was told to man up!" Coping with PTSD and mental health stigma

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-place-896226/adam-kay-i-was-told-to-man-up-coping-with-ptsd-and-mental-health-stigma
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-place-896226/adam-kay-i-was-told-to-man-up-coping-with-ptsd-and-mental-health-stigma.md
Podcast: [Happy Place](https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-place-896226)
Published: 2026-06-29T01:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/happy-place/episodes/adam-kay-check-your-own-pulse-first-what-medicine-taught-me
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/happy-place/e/6a26c683695a4680ecc70a27/media.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/happy-place-896226/episodes/adam-kay-i-was-told-to-man-up-coping-with-ptsd-and-mental-health-stigma
Duration seconds: 3647

## Resource

Just man up. This is essentially what Adam Kay was told when a traumatic day at work left him with PTSD. In this chat with Fearne, former doctor Adam explains why he made the decision to leave the medical profession, and puts a spotlight on the poor mental health of our NHS workers. Adam talks about how, in his case, the job left him feeling paranoid and overcautious, and how he turned to diary writing to process his emotions. They chat about how we can all chip away at any mental health stigma in both the workplace and at home with loved ones, and offer advice for how to put together your own mental health toolkits for crises of varying severity. A Particularly Nasty Case by Adam Kay is out in paperback 2nd July (published by Orion). CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains frank conversation about suicide. If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like: Nicole LaPera Sam Claflin Jamie Laing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/happy-place-896226/episodes/adam-kay-i-was-told-to-man-up-coping-with-ptsd-and-mental-health-stigma/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-place-896226/adam-kay-i-was-told-to-man-up-coping-with-ptsd-and-mental-health-stigma.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.