‘You are constantly told you are evil’: inside the lives of diagnosed narcissists

Few psychiatric conditions are as stigmatised or as misunderstood as narcissistic personality disorder. Here’s how it can damage careers and relationships – even before prejudice takes its tollThere are times when Jay Spring believes he is “the greatest person on planet Earth”. The 22-year-old from Los Angeles is a diagnosed narcissist, and in his most grandiose moments, “it can get really delusional”, he says. “You are on cloud nine and you’re like, ‘Everyone’s going to know that I’m better than them … I’ll do great things for the world’.”For Spring, these periods of self-aggrandisement are generally followed by a “crash”, when he feels emotional and embarrassed by his behaviour, and is particularly vulnerable to criticism from others

Ditch ‘shrink it and pink it’ women’s trainer design, say experts

Sports footwear manufacturers are being urged to ditch the “shrink it and pink it” approach when it comes to women’s running shoes.Over the past five decades, brands have invested billions of dollars into the development of trainers that prevent injury, maximise comfort and boost performance.But this research has overwhelmingly been designed for – and tested on – men, experts have said.Running shoes are typically designed using a three-dimensional foot-shaped mould called a last, which is usually based on male foot anatomy.Most sports footwear retailers use the same last for their entire range, and beyond making shoes smaller and changing the colour – a process known as ‘shrink it and pink it’ – only minimal modifications are made to create women’s shoes, the experts said

Trans people at risk of exclusion from many UK public spaces, rights expert says

Transgender people risk being excluded from many public spaces as a result of the recent UK supreme court judgment and must be protected from discrimination, a human rights expert has said.Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, said he had concerns about the climate for transgender people in the UK after April’s supreme court ruling that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex.Interim advice issued after the judgment by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in effect banned transgender people from using facilities according to their lived gender and allowed services to request birth certificates to ensure single-sex services were protected. Its formal guidance, understood to be similar, was submitted last month to Bridget Phillipson, the minister for women and equalities and also the education secretary, who must decide whether to accept it.In a letter to the respective chairs of the UK parliament’s joint committee on human rights and the women and equalities committee, O’Flaherty said there was a tendency in the UK to see the human rights of different groups as a “zero-sum game”

‘Her death was tranquil’: why Eve is urging Victorian MPs to make access to voluntary assisted dying easier

Eve Crotty describes her mum Marion’s death as peaceful and painless. They were on the couch in their family home, Crotty on one side, her dad on the other, singing Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. It was a running joke in the family – when Crotty was little, she thought the lyrics were “socks on fire”.“No teenager should ever have to lose a parent. It was an extremely sad moment that will live with me forever, but her death was tranquil,” Crotty, now 21, says

Majority of family court cases in England and Wales feature domestic abuse, watchdog says

Nearly 90% of cases before the family courts in England and Wales show evidence of domestic abuse, a watchdog has disclosed.Physical, psychological or sexual abuse of a member of the family or household was uncovered in 87% of cases, according to a review ordered by the domestic abuse commissioner, Nicole Jacobs.The abuse was frequently not recognised as an “active issue” or taken seriously with regard to the type of contact children would go on to have with the abusive parent, she said. In more than half of the cases reviewed, unsupervised overnight contact was ordered.“No child should be forced to spend time with an abusive parent or caregiver if the circumstances aren’t safe for them to do so,” Jacobs said

Parenting advice on social media is often poor quality, says Phillipson

Parents who turn to TikTok influencers and Instagram gurus for advice on everything from potty training to childhood vaccination are at risk of falling victim to misleading and poor quality information, the education secretary has warned.Bridget Phillipson was speaking at the launch of the government’s “Best Start in Life” campaign – sometimes described as Sure Start Mark 2 after the last Labour government’s early years policy, regarded by many as its finest achievement.“Becoming a parent for the first time, especially if you’re in a less well-off community, can be incredibly isolating and very lonely, and it’s therefore understandable that parents seek to access support online,” she said during a visit to a family hub in Peterborough on Monday.“But some of that information can really vary in quality. Some of it will be poor quality or misleading,” she said, adding: “I’m concerned that parents often see conflicting advice online that makes them worry about whether they’re doing the right thing