A routine for healing yourself

In this week’s episode of our wellbeing podcast In a Good Place, A&E doctor turned TV health expert Dr Alex George talks to HELLO!’s creative brand ambassador Rosie Nixon about managing mental health and why he gave up alcohol

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Former A&E medic Dr Alex George found fame as a Love Island contestant in 2018 and since then has gone on to become a social media star, podcaster, author and champion of mental health.

It is this last role that saw him win the Children’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year at May’s British Book Awards for his guide, A Better Day, which helps youngsters with their mental health struggles.

This subject has personal significance for Alex: in 2020, his younger brother Llŷr took his own life at the age of 19, an event that shattered the medic’s world and motivated his work.

Since leaving A&E, Alex, 32, has been on a mission to see mental fitness better supported in the UK and in 2021 was made a Government adviser on youth mental health, something he talks about with hello! creative brand ambassador Rosie Nixon.

Here is an excerpt…

Alex, are you in a good place? 

“I’d say I’m in between. It’s coming up to three years from when my brother died and obviously anniversaries are difficult.

“I’m also six months alcohol-free, which is something I’m very proud of. I don’t suffer from addiction, but it’s still not easy to stop drinking. It’s an amazing thing, but it’s hard.

“It’s a complex question. We carry our scars with us; sometimes those scars hurt, they sting, and other times they hurt less.”

What do you do to keep your mental health on an even keel?