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People who were sexually abused as children and later seek help for mental health problems are being failed by the NHS, according to The Royal College of Psychiatrists. The RCOP has issued a public apology, saying decades of mismanagement and misdiagnosis have left many survivors without the support they need. Anita Rani is joined by Caroline Thompson, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and Dr Jo Stubley, a consultant psychiatrist and clinical lead of the Tavistock Trauma Service, who are co-authors of the RCOP's position statement. Today in towns and cities across the country, parents are being encouraged to go on strike to raise awareness about, what the strike's organisers say are the rising costs of raising children and the impossible demands this puts on parents. Anna Whitehouse, the founder of Flex Appeal, and George Gabriel, who co-founded The Dad Shift, discuss the flexible working and parental leave policies that they are calling for with The Parent Strike and how the Government is responding. For more than a decade, armed gangs in northern Nigeria have repeatedly targeted schools, kidnapping children for ransom and forcing some educational establishments to close. BBC journalist Yemisi Adegoke has recently returned from the state of Zamfara, where ongoing insecurity has left many girls unable to attend school, threatening their futures.Bella Mackie's third novel, Claws Out!, is published this week. It's a witty crime caper about an ageing ‘gold-digger,' who is rumoured to have murdered three husbands and has a new suitor in sight. Bella - whose debut How to Kill Your Family is currently being turned into a Netflix series starring Anya Taylor-Joy - tells Anita why she loves exploring the British class system in her books and why she's determined to use her platform to talk openly about mental health.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt
Interview starts at 27:10 The neuroscience of spiritual awakening, how Kundalini yoga shaped her life, and why she believes listening inward is especially important in a time of cultural confusion. She also explains how her work in geriatric psychiatry connects spirituality, brain health, stress regulation, and prevention strategies for aging populations. Helen Lavretsky, MD, MS, is a Professor In-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA (Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior), a leading geriatric integrative psychiatrist, and a pioneer in mind-body approaches to late-life mental health. https://drhelenlavretsky.com/book/living-from-the-soul/ https://drhelenlavretsky.com/about/ In this episode: Dr. Helen Lavretsky shares her unusual path from the former Soviet Union into psychiatry, neuroscience, and later Kundalini yoga teacher training. She explains how growing up in an atheist Soviet environment still left room for underground spirituality passed through families and oral tradition. She describes a six-month temporary enlightenment experience after Kundalini practice and why it was physically intense, hard to describe, and initially unsustainable. The conversation focuses on her book Living from the Soul and the idea that people are increasingly being pushed to trust their own wisdom instead of outside authorities. She discusses how spirituality shows up in geriatric psychiatry, especially for older adults, dementia caregivers, and long COVID patients dealing with mortality and stress. She argues that meditation, breathing practices, yoga, tai chi, and qigong can improve self-regulation, brain health, and decision-making under pressure. She outlines how brain health should be cultivated across the lifespan, starting in childhood and even in utero, rather than only addressed later in life. She notes that lifestyle factors such as sleep, movement, diet, and stress management matter for dementia prevention and broader cognitive resilience. She emphasizes that meaning, purpose, and connection to soul are central to mental well-being. Key frameworks: Soul-based self-inquiry- asking inwardly what is right for you rather than defaulting to external authority Brain health across the lifespan- prevention beginning in childhood and even before birth Stress self-regulation toolkit- breathing, meditation, yoga, tai chi, and qigong as practical nervous-system supports Constitutional approach to diet- different people may need different foods based on ancestry, metabolism, and predisposition Become a Lord or Lady with 1k donations over time. And a Noble with any donation. Leave Serfdom behind and help Grimerica stick to 0 ads and sponsors and fully listener supported. Thanks for listening!! 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DisasterMap, VolcanoSim, AsteroidSim, ShipwreckMap, UFOMap etc https://www.amazon.com/Unlearned-School-Failed-What-About/dp/1998704904/ref=sr_1_3?sr=8-3 Support the show directly: https://open.spotify.com/show/2punSyd9Cw76ZtvHxMKenI?si=ImKxfMHgQZ-oshl499O4dQ&nd=1&dlsi=4c25fa9c78674de3 Watch or Listen on Spotify https://grimericacbd.com/ CBD / THC Gummies and Tinctures https://www.patreon.com/grimerica http://www.grimericaoutlawed.ca/support Our audio book website: www.adultbrain.ca Check out our next trip/conference/meetup - Contact at the Cabin www.contactatthecabin.com www.grimerica.ca/shrooms and Micro Dosing Darren's book www.acanadianshame.ca Join the chat / hangout with a bunch of fellow Grimericans Https://t.me.grimerica grimerica.ca/chats Discord Chats https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/grimerica-outlawed Sign up for our newsletter https://grimerica.substack.com/ SPAM Graham = and send him your synchronicities, feedback, strange experiences and psychedelic trip reports!! graham@grimerica.com Purchase swag, with partial proceeds donated to the show: www.grimerica.ca/swag Send us a postcard or letter http://www.grimerica.ca/contact/ Episode ART - Napolean Duheme's site http://www.lostbreadcomic.com/ MUSIC https://brokeforfree.bandcamp.com/ - Something Galactic Felix's Site sirfelix.bandcamp.com - Should I Timestamps: (00:00) Technical start and introducing Dr. Helen Lavretsky and her new book (01:15) Helen's background in geriatric psychiatry and the science-spirituality bridge (02:45) Growing up in the Soviet Union and an early attraction to psychiatry (03:59) First Kundalini yoga experience and the start of her spiritual-scientific merger (05:25) Death, dying, and why mortality became a lifelong theme in her work (06:10) Lanai, early Kundalini practice, and rapid changes in health and temperament (07:35) Temporary enlightenment and the difficulty of describing spiritual states (09:59) Why she wrote the book and how the world is changing around spirituality (12:27) Crumbling old structures and learning to depend on inner wisdom (14:14) What happens when spirituality is suppressed in the Soviet system (16:55) The shift from religion to spirituality, atheism, and changing belief patterns (19:07) Why the soul matters and how her meditation work helps people connect (21:24) How to tell soul guidance apart from self-talk and mental noise (22:29) Family reactions, including her mother's skepticism (23:27) Atheism as a spiritual belief system and its place on the spectrum (25:00) Materialism, duality, and the limits of studying non-material experience (27:35) Meaning and purpose as measures of spirituality (28:09) Yoga, tai chi, and stress regulation in aging and chronic illness (30:04) Staying calm during the Los Angeles fires while teaching breathing practices (31:06) Yoga, cognition, gray matter, and reducing inflammation (32:03) Young people, social media, the pandemic, and declining resilience (35:11) Prevention strategies for Alzheimer's and dementia starting in midlife (36:36) Brain health across the lifespan, including early childhood and in utero (38:30) Simple breathing tools kids can learn for resilience and self-regulation (39:39) Dementia, Alzheimer's, cholesterol, and lifestyle factors (41:19) Why there is no magical one-food cure and why sardine-fasting is not a silver bullet (43:15) The Mediterranean diet, processed foods, seed oils, and nuts (47:18) Supplements she uses for brain health, including B vitamins, vitamin D, fish oil, ginkgo, and adaptogens (49:51) Ancestry, blood type, constitution, and why one diet does not fit everyone (52:24) Local food, microbiome health, and eating in tune with your environment (53:18) What the book covers beyond spirituality: trauma, psychedelics, technology, and authenticity (55:22) Why she wants people to ask their own intuition instead of outsourcing authority (56:30) Where to find her book and follow her work Dr. Helen Lavretsky is a Professor In-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA and a geriatric integrative psychiatrist with federally funded research program in geriatric depression and integrative mental health using mind-body interventions. She directs a clinical and research program in Integrative Psychiatry. She is a recipient of the Career Development award from the NIMH and the NCCIH, and the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Investigator awards for research in geriatric psychiatry from the American College of Psychiatrists and the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Jack Weinberg Memorial Award in Geriatric Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association. She is the Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the Distinguished Fellow of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. She is the President of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.
Dinesh Bhugra is a leading voice in social and cultural psychiatry. He is Emeritus Professor of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at King's College London and has served as president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the British Medical Association, and the World Psychiatric Association. His many honors include being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to psychiatry and receiving the Yves Pelicier Prize for his contributions to social psychiatry. A prolific scholar who has authored or edited more than 30 books, Bhugra is also a clinician and a longtime advocate for patients' rights to be heard and understood on their own terms. Throughout his career, he has challenged psychiatry to look beyond symptoms and diagnoses and to attend more closely to culture, community, social conditions, and the lived realities of human suffering. In this interview, we discuss how mental health is shaped by interconnected social, political, geographical, and commercial forces, from poverty and migration to corporate lobbying and the conditions in which people work and live. Bhugra considers what clinicians can learn by listening to patients' own explanations of their experiences, and why symptoms may become more livable when people have meaningful relationships, work, security, and a sense of belonging. We also discuss the psychiatrization of society, the limits of exporting Western psychiatric categories across cultures, and the question of who gets to decide what counts as normal or pathological. *** Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/ To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850 © Mad in America 2026. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org
As week 3 of testimony continues in the Lindsay Clancy trial, fireworks erupted in the courtroom on Friday. The defense attorney for the mom who says she killed her three young children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, accused the prosecution of saying “shut her up” about Clancy’s sobbing as autopsy photos were shown to jurors. The judge ultimately put out a warning to the courtroom about any inappropriate comments, as two psychiatrists who treated Clancy dominated much of the testimony. Both doctors testified that Clancy showed no signs of psychosis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As week 3 of testimony continues in the Lindsay Clancy trial, fireworks erupted in the courtroom on Friday. The defense attorney for the mom who says she killed her three young children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, accused the prosecution of saying “shut her up” about Clancy’s sobbing as autopsy photos were shown to jurors. The judge ultimately put out a warning to the courtroom about any inappropriate comments, as two psychiatrists who treated Clancy dominated much of the testimony. Both doctors testified that Clancy showed no signs of psychosis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As week 3 of testimony continues in the Lindsay Clancy trial, fireworks erupted in the courtroom on Friday. The defense attorney for the mom who says she killed her three young children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, accused the prosecution of saying “shut her up” about Clancy’s sobbing as autopsy photos were shown to jurors. The judge ultimately put out a warning to the courtroom about any inappropriate comments, as two psychiatrists who treated Clancy dominated much of the testimony. Both doctors testified that Clancy showed no signs of psychosis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As week 3 of testimony continues in the Lindsay Clancy trial, fireworks erupted in the courtroom on Friday. The defense attorney for the mom who says she killed her three young children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, accused the prosecution of saying “shut her up” about Clancy’s sobbing as autopsy photos were shown to jurors. The judge ultimately put out a warning to the courtroom about any inappropriate comments, as two psychiatrists who treated Clancy dominated much of the testimony. Both doctors testified that Clancy showed no signs of psychosis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Day 9 of the Lindsay Clancy trial shifted heavily into the psychiatric treatment Lindsay received in the weeks and months before the deaths of Cora, Dawson and Callan. Jurors heard from Dr. Alia Goodheart of McLean Hospital and Dr. Jennifer Tufts, Lindsay's outpatient psychiatrist, about her worsening depression, anxiety, severe insomnia, suicidal thoughts, medication changes and whether she ever displayed signs of psychosis. Both doctors testified that they did not observe Lindsay to be psychotic during the periods they treated her.The defense challenged those assessments, focusing on Lindsay's escalating symptoms, her calls to a suicide hotline, medication changes and the adequacy of her psychiatric care. Dr. Goodheart testified that Lindsay was considered a low/minimal safety risk when discharged from McLean, while Dr. Tufts described Lindsay as “depressed and flat” just one day before the killings, although Lindsay denied suicidal or homicidal thoughts. Tufts' testimony continued into Day 10.Join True Crime Squad as we break down the crucial psychiatric testimony from Day 9, the prosecution and defense questioning, Lindsay's treatment history and what these doctors' observations could mean for the central question of the trial: Was Lindsay Clancy criminally responsible for killing her children, or was she suffering from a mental illness severe enough to meet Massachusetts' standard for lack of criminal responsibility?
Responding to questions from listeners about how much AI can be used in sermon preparation, what does the Bible say to someone who is losing their faith, and should a Christian go to their pastors before a psychiatrist. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
RCPsych Books Trainee Editor Dr Ayomipo Amiola is joined by Dr Paul Rowlands co-editor of Seminars in General Adult Psychiatry, third edition, part of the College Seminars Series. More details on the book and to buy: https://tinyurl.com/3udhxm6e RCPsych members purchasing via Cambridge are entitled to a discount and can request a copy via the College Library. The book can also be found in other bookshops in-store and online. Disclaimer: RCPsych Books is not responsible for statements made by podcast contributors. Unless so stated, the content of this podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of the RCPsych Books Editor-in-Chief or the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Many Christians have heard messages like:"Just pray more.""You shouldn't be depressed if your faith is strong.""Therapy isn't biblical."But are those actually biblical?In this episode, I sit down with fellow Christian psychiatrist Dr. Sabrina Gunn to have an honest conversation about faith, mental health, church culture, trauma, emotional regulation, therapy, medication, and the role of the Church in healing.We discuss:Common mental health myths in Christian communitiesWhy shame keeps many believers from seeking helpChurch hurt and emotional healingHow leaders can care for their own mental healthThe difference between emotional struggles and spiritual failureWhy emotional health is part of spiritual maturityOur prayer is that this conversation brings both grace and truth to anyone navigating faith and emotional health.If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe and share it with someone who may need hope today.Find Dr. Sabrinna Gunn here: https://linktr.ee/dr_sabrinaFind Dr. Uejin Kim here: www.restorepsych.com and www.uejinkim.com#FaithByPsych #ChristianMentalHealth #ChurchHurt #MentalHealth #ChristianPsychiatrist #FaithAndMentalHealth #EmotionalHealing #TraumaHealing #ChurchLeaders #MentalWellness #BiblicalCounseling
Insomnia involves difficulty getting to sleep, staying asleep and waking up too early in the morning. It can increase the risk of depression and anxiety in those affected, and can have a major impact on quality of life. In this podcast, Dr Joshua Heslop and Dr Hugh Selsick look at the nature of insomnia and its psychological, behavioural and physiological impacts. They also examine common misconceptions that people may have, and explore potential treatment options, including cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), pharmacological interventions and future trends in sleep medicine. Disclaimer: Thank you for listening to this Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD eLearning podcast. This podcast provides information, not advice. The content in this podcast is provided for general information only and is not intended to, and does not amount to, advice that you should rely on. It is not an alternative to specific, professional advice. Although we make reasonable efforts to present accurate information in our podcasts, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in this podcast is accurate, complete or up to date. If you have any questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider without delay. If you think you are experiencing any medical condition, you should seek immediate attention from a doctor or professional healthcare provider. Please note that the views of the interviewees are not necessarily those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
What if the things you've criticised yourself for your entire life... weren't flaws at all? What if struggling to make simple decisions, feeling overwhelmed by change, or caring so deeply about fairness weren't personality quirks, but signs your brain has been working differently all along? Today I'm joined by Dr Amber Sadiq, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Director at Eleos Clinic. She has assessed hundreds of autistic adults and has helped countless people finally understand why they've always felt different. Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 01:54 Why Every Decision Feels So Overwhelming 06:24 Why Autistic People Need Predictability 09:04 Why Injustice Feels Physically Painful 19:19 When You Can't Start... But Can't Stop Either 23:17 The Secret to Switching Between Tasks 25:43 The Autism Trait Everyone Calls Laziness 27:33 The Shutdown Nobody Sees 32:57 Tiimo Advert 34:17 The Hidden Reason Some People Can Mask for Decades 36:08 Why So Many People Don't Realise They're Autistic 41:14 How Masking Slowly Erases Your Identity 43:13 The Most Emotional Part of an Autism Assessment 45:15 The Moment People Realise They've Been Masking Their Entire Life 50:56 The One Sentence That Makes Psychiatrists Think "Autism" 54:15 The Autism Assessment Reactions I'll Never Forget 57:22 Washing Machine of Woes (Audience Questions) 01:03:02 A Letter to My Younger Self Download Dr. Sadiq's free guide, Could This Be Me?, which explains why so many autistic adults were missed for decades, and what clarity could look like for you
What if everything you've been taught about mental health is missing the most important ingredient — human connection? In this episode of *Inner Voice, A Heartfelt Chat with Dr. Foojan*, Dr. Foojan Zeine sits down with psychiatrist Dr. Fred Moss, known globally as "The Un-Doctor," for a raw and transformative conversation about healing, authenticity, and what it really means to be human. With 40+ years of clinical experience, Dr. Fred shares how he went from a conventional psychiatric career to becoming one of the strongest advocates for connection-based healing in mental health today. Dr. Fred opens up about the moment he realized psychiatry was losing sight of the human being behind the diagnosis — and how that realization led him to build an entirely new model of care rooted in presence, resonance, and authenticity rather than titles or clinical labels. The conversation explores his philosophy of life optimization, his highly anticipated new book *Welcome to Humanity: A Psychiatrist's Memoirs and Case Against the Mental Health System* (215 revisions in the making), and his upcoming Healer Support Retreat, September 17–20 at Sacred Grove near Charlotte, built around one powerful question: who holds the healers? Dr. Fred and Dr. Foojan dig into why so many therapists, coaches, and caregivers struggle to receive support themselves, the hidden shame tied to needing help, and how learning to receive — gracefully and without judgment — completes the cycle of true healing. The episode closes with an unexpectedly grounding lesson on work-life balance, courtesy of Dr. Fred's three cats. Whether you're a therapist, psychiatrist, coach, healthcare professional, or simply someone seeking deeper connection and self-awareness, this episode will change how you think about mental health, healing, and human connection.
**This episode is general information only and is not medical advice. If any of it applies to you, please talk it through with your own GP or psychiatrist**Have you ever walked out of a psychiatrist's office more confused than when you walked in? Not sure what just happened, whether you got a diagnosis, what you were supposed to ask, or whether the thing you were terrified of — coming across like you were just there for the stimulants — is exactly what you did. For a lot of women getting an ADHD assessment at 40, the appointment itself is the black box. Nobody tells you the order to see a GP, psychologist and psychiatrist in, what happens if your school reports are gone and your parents have died, why they start you on one medication and not another, or what a drug holiday actually is.So this week Jane sat a psychiatrist down and asked him to open the box. Dr Brendan Daugherty walks through the whole thing — the pathway, the assessment, how they choose your first medication, and the one thing that makes these appointments go better. Bring the questions you've been too embarrassed to ask.CHAPTERS00:00 — Walking out more confused than when you walked in02:36 — GP, psychologist, psychiatrist — the actual order, and when to skip a step04:38 — Have the waitlists really improved? A straight answer05:44 — The two kinds of women who book an assessment — which one are you?09:50 — 'ADHD is a bit like a shield' — and what's underneath when the medication lifts it13:19 — 'I'm scared I'll look like I'm drug seeking' — the post Jane sees every week15:26 — How a psychiatrist spots the woman who's masked her whole life and looks fine16:56 — No school reports, parents gone — how do you even get diagnosed? (evidence before 12)19:15 — The squat-rack phone call that diagnosed Jane's ADHD in real time23:23 — How they actually choose your first medication — first-line vs second-line25:28 — Long-acting or short-acting, and why it's not one-size-fits-all26:18 — Drug holidays: why they're prescribed, and why the evidence is weaker than you think29:34 — What's changing in psychiatry for women — hormones, the cycle, and menopauseWhat We CoverWhy so many women walk out of the appointment with no idea what just happened — and the questions nobody tells you to bringThe actual order to see a GP, psychologist and psychiatrist in, when you can skip a step, and when doubling up is a waste of your moneyThe two completely different reasons women book an assessment — and why knowing which one you are changes where you should bookWhat Brendan means when he says attention problems aren't always ADHD — the medical and hormonal things a rushed assessment misses'ADHD is a bit like a shield' — the conversation about what surfaces when the medication lifts it, and why Jane went back to short-actingThe post Jane sees in the Facebook group every single week — 'I'm terrified I'll look like I'm drug seeking' — and exactly how a psychiatrist actually hears thatHow a psychiatrist recognises the woman who's held it all together on the outside and is burnt out underneathWhat happens when you don't have school reports and your parents have died — how the 'evidence before 12' rule actually works in practiceHow they choose which medication to start you on, first-line versus second-line, long-acting versus short — in plain EnglishDrug holidays — why they get prescribed, why the evidence is weaker than it sounds, and what that means for your Saturday sport chaosWhat's genuinely changing for women in ADHD care — the hormonal picture, the menstrual cycle, and menopauseFree ResourcesPreparing for Diagnosis — for the mum wondering if it's ADHD and what to do next — https://adhdmums.com.au/product/preparing-for-diagnosis/Paid ResourcesPre-Diagnosis Workbook — the deeper version of 'get clear before you spend the money on an assessment' — https://adhdmums.com.au/product/prediagnosisworkbook/Related EpisodesHow to Get a Diagnosis in Australia (Part 1) — S1 EP7, with Dr Jacinta Thomson — https://adhdmums.com.au/podcast_episode/s1-ep7-how-to-get-a-diagnosis-in-australia-part-1/ADHD Medication: Stimulants vs Non-Stimulants — S2 EP40, Jane solo — https://adhdmums.com.au/podcast_episode/episode-40-adhd-medication-stimulants-vs-non-stimulants-solo-episode-with-jane-mcfadden/About the GuestDr Brendan Daugherty is a child, adolescent, adult and forensic psychiatrist and a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. He's the co-founder of Pandion Health, an Australian telehealth platform providing specialist-led ADHD assessment and ongoing care for adults and children.You can find Brendan here:Website: https://www.pandionhealth.com.auInstagram: @itsdrbrendan (and the clinic, @pandionhealth)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandaugherty/
In this episode we delve into the history of trepanning and the practice of drilling holes into the skull for medical and spiritual purposes. Follow along Robert Kaplan's narration on the life of Amanda Fielding who self-practised the dangerous and highly risky trepanning. Dr. Robert Kaplan is a psychiatrist, author, historian and speaker. With a career spanning medicine, history, and the courtroom, he has explored the human mind at its darkest and most complex, from analysing criminal behaviour to uncovering the psychological drivers behind some of history's most notorious figures.Dr. Kaplan is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Western Sydney University, and the University of Wollongong. He is also a Conjoint Lecturer, Justice Health at the University of New South Wales and a Research Fellow in the History Department at Stellenbosch University. His forensic expertise has been called upon in some of the most complex and high-profile cases, where his sharp insights into human behaviour have shaped both medical and legal understandings of criminal pathology.Topic suggestion:If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we'd love to hear from you.Please contact us by email at: psychmatters.feedback@ranzcp.orgDisclaimer:This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics. The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement. By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP's Your Health In Mind Website.
In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Professor Rasmon Kalayasiri, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. The interview covers Rasmon's editorial that asks the question: Can Thailand replace a commercialised cannabis market for adult use with a medical prescription model? Thailand's cannabis policy [01:15]Thailand's legal non-medical market between 2022 and 2025 [03:12]The non-medical market after the policy reversal in 2025 [04:50] Reasons for the reversal of non-medical cannabis policy [06:25]The role of the research community [07:58]The key data gaps in cannabis research in Thailand [09:19]Whether Thailand can replace a commercialised cannabis market for adult use with a medical prescription model [11:11]The drafting of Thailand's cannabis law [13:25]The take home messages [14:25]The lessons to learn from Thailand's experience [16:27]About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group, and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health. Elle holds a voluntary role at The Loop, a non-profit service provider of drug checking in the UK. About Rasmon Kalayasiri: Rasmon is the Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, Thailand. She also serves as the Director of the Centre for Addiction Studies (CADS) and the Alcohol Helpline (1413), both supported by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth). In addition, she is the Chair of the Board of Examiners for the Addiction Psychiatry Training Program of the Royal College of Psychiatrists of Thailand.Declarations of interest: None Original editorial: Can Thailand replace a commercialised cannabis market for adult use with a medical prescription model? https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70499The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.Music by Jack Shakespeare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this podcast, we hear about an experience in psychiatric practice which has such an impact on the clinician that it leads to adopting a radical and enduring change in his subsequent clinical, teaching, and research activities. Emeritus Professor Sidney Bloch shares such an experience with Professor Shuichi Suetani which occurred in the early phase of his training. The experience proved so pivotal that it transformed key aspects of his professional work, especially his outlook on the ethical dimension of the clinician's role. In a sensitive dialogue, Professors Suetani and Bloch discuss the ramifications of such a situation, especially the options available to identify in what way it is transformative and how to adopt the related change in one's professional perspective.Professor Sidney Bloch, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) and the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia (FASSA). He was awarded a Citation by the RANZCP for his academic contribution to psychiatry. He spent three years at Stanford University on a Harkness Fellowship and has been a visiting Professor in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong, Hebrew University, and Columbia University.He has published 16 books, several of which have been brought out in new editions and/or translated. Russia's Political Hospitals won the prestigious Guttmacher Award of the American Psychiatric Association, Understanding Troubled Minds the SANE award for the best book on mental health in 2012, and an award for An Anthology of Psychiatric Ethics from the British Medical Association.Professor Shuichi Suetani is a community psychiatrist in Queensland. Alongside his psychiatry training, Shuichi completed a PhD exploring the epidemiological relationships between physical activity and mental disorders. He has also obtained the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine Fellowship. Shuichi has numerous publications in high impact journals and sits on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Psychiatry. He was elected to the RANZCP Board in May 2026.References:Baldwin, J. Giovanni's room, Penguin, 2007.David, a young American, grapples with the nature of love, sexuality and masculinity. A classic on the clash between sexual and moral identity.Bancroft, John. Aversion therapy of homosexuality. A pilot study of 10 cases. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1969, 115, 1417-31.Isherwood, C. A single man. Vintage Classic, 2010.A day in the life of a middle -aged academic who has lost a long-term male partner, is wrestling with his intense grief, and embarks on an encounter with Kenny, one of his students. Stoller, R., et al. A symposium: Should homosexuality be in the American Psychiatric Nomenclature? American Journal of Psychiatry, 1973, 130, 1207-1216.Topic suggestion:If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we'd love to hear from you.Please contact us by email at: psychmatters.feedback@ranzcp.orgDisclaimer:This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics. The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement. By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP's Your Health In Mind Website.
During the outbreak of a new and potentially fatal disease in Toronto in 2003, it fell to psychiatrists Bob Maunder and Jon Hunter to help people in the SARS ward cope. The two have been focusing on coping in their professional lives ever since, and have recently co-authored a book on the subject, Coping: Fix […]
In the episode, “A Conversation with British Psychiatrist Dr. Sami Timimi on His New Book: Searching For Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress, and Neurodiversity”(S6, E14), Dr. Timimi delivers a deeply humane and fiercely argued wake-up call: most of what we've been told about mental health simply isn't true—and believing it is harming our children, our culture, and ourselves. From the point of view of a child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dr. Timimi shares how early on he was not comfortable with the status quo of his field. In his work, he highlights how what the public is being told about the nature of mental health is misleading and may be harming our collective sense of well-being. Dr. Timimi explains how labels like ADHD and Autism have exploded over the years, especially among children and teens. He puts forth that psychiatric labels are good examples of “scientism,” or science as faith rather than fact. He shares what the evidence-based medicine approach actually tells us and explains why the number of children getting diagnosed with such labels has skyrocketed over the years in relation to broadening definitions. Sami speaks about the Mental Health Industrial Complex and how the label and diagnosis phenomenon of Western Psychiatry has taken away other meaning making frameworks regarding suffering in Western society, but also as a global approach to mental health.Dr. Timimi shares about “psychiatric brands” and concept creep, and how in both America and in the UK, early intervention in mental health initiatives in schools also play a factor in the increase of diagnoses. Dr. Timimi calls for a radical shift starting with letting go of psych labels, a decrease in psych meds, and promotion of a public narrative that normalizes emotions. If you'd like to purchase Dr. Sami Timimi's book, Searching for Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress, and Neurodiversity, click: https://www.amazon.ca/Searching-Normal-Approach-Understanding-Neurodiversity/dp/0771013108. BIODr. Sami Timimi is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He has published more than 150 academic papers and authored or edited over a dozen books, including Naughty Boys, Liberatory Psychiatry, and The Myth of Autism. He lives in Lincoln, UK, and lectures internationally on culture, psychiatry, and child development. You can visit his website at: Home | Sami Timimi Child Adolescent Psychiatrist PsychotherapyDon't forget to subscribe to the Not As Crazy As You Think YouTube channel @SicilianoJenAnd please visit my website at: www.jengaitasiciliano.comConnect: LinkedIn: @jensicilianoBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jengaita.bsky.socialSend us Fan MailSupport the show
Zahir Shah in conversation with Prof. Richard Williams on the subject of the recently published BJPsych Open paper " Trends in mental health referrals before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: retrospective population-based service evaluation in a single NHS trust". View the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.10972 Authors: Zahir Zubair Shah, Shanquan Chen, Tamsin J. Ford, Catherine M. Walsh, Jonathon Artingstall and Benjamin R. Underwood Follow us on X @TheBJPsych #BJPOpen Podcast transcripts available: bit.ly/3CXSijb Disclaimer: BJPsych Open is not responsible for statements made by podcast contributors. Unless so stated, the content of this podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor-in-Chief or the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
In this episode of Children's Mental Health: Listen Up!, hosts Dr Elaine Lockhart and Dr Asilay Sekar are joined by Dr Guy Northover, Chair of the Child and Adolescent Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, to explore psychosis in children and young people. Dr Northover unpacks what psychosis actually is, how it differs from the way the word gets used in everyday speech, and the signs that parents, teachers and carers might notice, and how it affects thoughts and perception. He talks through diagnosis, investigations, and the biopsychosocial approach to treatment, including medication, family therapy and the role of early intervention teams, before busting some of the most persistent myths around psychosis and schizophrenia. The episode closes with a conversation between Dr Northover and a young person with lived experience of psychosis and bipolar disorder, on what it felt like to become unwell, how treatment helped find stability, and what he'd want other young people going through the same thing to know.
In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Matthew Macfarlane uncovers how the internet, social media, societal change, and our own psychology are fueling the rise of inflated and sometimes harmful diagnoses. Discover the surprising ways that diagnostic labels can shape identity, offering understanding and validation, while also, at times, contributing to expectations or limitations.Associate Professor Matthew Macfarlane is a consultation-liaison psychiatrist and neuropsychiatrist working at Wollongong Hospital, NSW. He also works in the Discipline Lead in Psychiatry role at the Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong. In these roles, he works with people with functional disorders and chronic disorders of central sensitisation and interoception. His research interests include functional neurological disorder, catatonia, neuroimaging, and sleep medicine. References: Foulkes, L. and J. L. Andrews (2023). "Are mental health awareness efforts contributing to the rise in reported mental health problems? A call to test the prevalence inflation hypothesis." New Ideas in Psychology 69. Hacking I. “Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory.” Princeton University Press, 1998. O'Sullivan S. “The Age of Diagnosis.” Hachette, 2025.Topic suggestion:If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we'd love to hear from you.Please contact us by email at: psychmatters.feedback@ranzcp.orgDisclaimer:This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics. The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement. By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP's Your Health In Mind Website.
Psychiatrists say the lack of data on the most pressing shortages, and absence of comprehensive planning, make new funding look piecemealAny investment in mental health is welcome, say psychiatrists - but they're concerned the government's $100 million worth of solutions is unlikely to fix current problems, and may create new onesFind The Detail on Newsroom or RNZGo to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Last night, two debut authors received the Women's Prize for Fiction and Non-Fiction, each worth £30,000, respectively. Anita Rani speaks to the two winners, novelist Virginia Evans and Lyse Doucet, known to listeners as the BBC's Chief International Correspondent.Last week, Hannah Murray, who played Gilly in Game of Thrones, told Anita that during the final season of the show, the papers wrote she was pregnant - when she wasn't. Hannah said that maybe this was the only acceptable way for a woman in the public eye to gain weight. Following a strong listener response to that item we discuss if there is a right way to talk about women's weight. Anita is joined by Alex Light, a body confidence activist and author and Dr Dolly Van Tulleken, food policy researcher, policy consultant and visiting researcher at the MRC epidemiologist unit in Cambridge University. England is hosting the 2026 T20 Women's World Cup this summer, and England and Sri Lanka launch the competition with their match at Edgbaston today. This is the first time that 12 teams will competing for the World Cup trophy – an increase on previous years. Anita talks to Melissa Story, a cricket player for Gloucestershire and a commentator for BBC's Test Match Special, about how the tournament works, the players to watch - and the matches we can't miss.This week the Royal College of Psychiatrists launched its first ever Women's Mental Health Strategy. It was instigated by Dr Lade Smith, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists who chose women's mental health as a key focus when she took up her post three years ago. As Lade steps down from that role, she joins Anita to talk about why she thinks that the women's mental healthcare is in crisis and her vision for improvements.When bride-to-be Kayley Stead was left alone at the altar on her wedding day in 2022, she did what few would think to do - she let the wedding continue. Kayley's photos of enjoying her wedding alone, including the speeches, the first dance and cutting the cake, went viral. Other women congratulated her for celebrating herself and still enjoying the day. Four years on, she's found love again - she's engaged! - and she says she wants her wedding to be "a big party." She joins Anita. Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt
Social anxiety disorder is a common yet often overlooked condition in children and adolescents, with significant impacts on education, relationships, and long-term outcomes. In this podcast, Dr Myooran Canagaratnam speaks with Professor Eleanor Leigh, from the University of Oxford about the clinical presentation of social anxiety in young people, including how it differs from typical shyness, and the cognitive mechanisms that maintain it. The episode explores evidence based treatment for social anxiety disorder in practice. It also considers developmental risk factors, comorbidity including autism, and the emerging role of digital interventions in improving access to care for children and young people with the condition. Disclaimer: Thank you for listening to this Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD eLearning podcast. This podcast provides information, not advice. The content in this podcast is provided for general information only and is not intended to, and does not amount to, advice that you should rely on. It is not an alternative to specific, professional advice. Although we make reasonable efforts to present accurate information in our podcasts, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in this podcast is accurate, complete or up to date. If you have any questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider without delay. If you think you are experiencing any medical condition, you should seek immediate attention from a doctor or professional healthcare provider. Please note that the views of the interviewees are not necessarily those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dr Patricia Byrne, College of Psychiatrists
The new HSE protocol hopes to tackle long waiting lists for Assessments of Need (AON) for autistic people. However, The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has “several significant concerns” and will not endorse the new protocol in place.Joining Shane to discuss this is Dr Patricia Byrne from the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland.
Interview with Justin Meyer, MD, and Thomas Schulze, MD
Show NotesIn this episode, Simon Western speaks with seasoned psychoanalyst and organisational consultant Dr. Anton Obholzer about the hidden emotional and relational dynamics shaping leadership, organisations and society. Anton is a hugely respected organisational consultant from the Tavistock tradition, and it is a delight to hear his wisdom and insights on this podcast. Moving beyond technical models of management and mental health, the conversation explores organisations as living systems embedded within wider social and political realities. Anton reflects on the Tavistock tradition, the influence of Eric Miller and the importance of understanding organisations not simply as structures of efficiency, but as emotional containers carrying anxiety, projection, creativity and possibility. Simon and Anton discuss leadership as a protective and generative force, creating the conditions for growth, talent and human flourishing.The dialogue explores the erosion of relational life in contemporary society, the dangers of organisations becoming spaces for unmanaged social anxiety, and the increasing dominance of technological and managerial rationality over human connection. They examine the importance of experiential learning, vulnerability, observation and creative practice in sustaining healthy organisations and societies.At the heart of the episode is a deeper question about how we live together in increasingly uncertain times. Rather than retreating into expertise, certainty or control, Anton calls for greater relational awareness, collective responsibility and societal imagination.Key Reflections Organisations are emotional and societal systems, not simply technical machines Leadership involves creating protective spaces where people and creativity can flourish Psychoanalysis offers ways to understand the hidden dynamics shaping organisational life Relational intelligence matters more than purely technical expertise Organisations often absorb and enact wider societal anxieties and fractures Creativity, art and dialogue are essential to organisational and societal health Experiential learning creates deeper awareness than abstract theory alone Technological advancement risks intensifying alienation and loss of human contact Mental health cannot be separated from political, social and organisational conditions Healthy societies require interdependence, vulnerability and collective responsibility KeywordsPsychoanalysis, Leadership, Organisational Dynamics, Tavistock, Anton Obholzer, Simon Western, Eco-Leadership, Relational Intelligence, Systems Thinking, Emotional Containment, Group Relations, Society, Human Connection, Organisational Culture, Creativity, Vulnerability, Interdependence.Brief BioDr. Anton Obholzer is a psychiatrist, Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and both a child and adult psychoanalyst, trained at the Tavistock Clinic and the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London. Alongside his clinical work, he trained as an organisational consultant under Eric Miller at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, helping pioneer the application of psychoanalytic thinking to organisations, leadership, and institutional life.Until 2002, he served as Chief Executive of the Tavistock & Portman Clinics in London and continues as Chairman of the Consulting to Institutions Workshop and Senior Consultant in the Tavistock Consultancy Service. He has designed and directed group relations and management conferences internationally, and lectures widely on organisational change, leadership, and resistance under conditions of stress and turbulence.A Visiting Professor at the Universities of Vienna, Graz, and Innsbruck, faculty member at INSEAD's Advanced Management Programme, and teacher across Europe, Dr. Obholzer has spent decades exploring the unconscious dynamics that shape organisations - especially when systems are under pressure.He is also the co-editor of the influential book The Unconscious at Work, a seminal text that examines how unconscious anxieties and emotional dynamics operate within organisations and institutions. His writings and publications have profoundly shaped the fields of systems psychodynamics, organisational consultancy, and leadership studies.
By David Stephen who looks at electrochemical psychiatry trends and issues to consider. The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland [CPsychI] and the Royal College of Psychiatrists [RCPsych] may choose to collaborate on one of the major opportunities to better explain mental disorders and addictions: electrochemical psychiatry. The objective is to focus on electrical and chemical signals to describe and display mental disorders and addictions. Already, neuroscience has established that neurons with their electrical and chemical signals are responsible for functions. So, because there has not been any major success in explaining the configurations of mental disorders by neurons — which, in part, may be due do their anatomy as cells — the next options are the electrical and chemical signals. Why CPsychI and RCPsych should partner on electrochemical psychiatry There is currently no national or continental Psychiatric Association that is focused on this. The American Psychiatric Association actually released a road map earlier in 2026, towards improving the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, they are having their 2026 Annual Meeting [May 16-20] in San Francisco, with a different theme entirely. Meanwhile, there is a recent debate in the United States about how and when to get off selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [SSRIs], such that both the people on the side of deprescribing or against it have no model of the human mind, to explore how to map the mind for the effects of medications. While it is true that CPsychI and the RCPsych go it alone, respectively, it is possible to have both of them do much better if they collaborated on getting it done. The American Psychiatric Association do not seem to be in a hurry about solving the mind or have it as a central agenda. This gives the CPsychI and the RCPsych the chance to accelerate and get ahead, to bear the might of global psychiatry and mental health, even as the era evolves with newer risks and more unknowns. The CPsychl also need to make a major mark, giving its relatively young existence as well as the importance to lead right even as guess therapies continue in mental health, with little understanding of how they work. While the RCPsych has the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health [NCCMH], the principal advance is what can be explained, or displayed using components of the brain, to move certainty to a better percentage, to shape outcomes. This means the interactions and attributes of electrical and chemical signals can be useful to thoroughly move psychiatry forward for now, according to the postulate in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology. Conceptually, the human mind is the collection of all the electrical and chemical signals, with their interactions and attributes, in sets, in clusters of neurons, across the central and peripheral nervous systems. Simply, the human mind is the sets of signals. There is a recent [May 14, 2026] analysis in The New York Times, Thinking About Stopping an Antidepressant? Here's What to Consider., stating that, "The American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology recently published recommendations about "deprescribing" psychiatric medications. They include the suggestion that doctors re-evaluate "the utility of continuing any particular psychotropic medication" on at least an annual basis." "There are several factors to take into account when deciding whether to stop. As a general rule, experts said people could consider going off their antidepressants when they felt they were back to their normal selves." "Dr. Mark Rapaport, the president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, said he also took into account whether the person had a good support network in place and if they would be experiencing any major life changes in the near future, like moving or starting a new job. "Even good change is associated with stress," he said." "Anoth...
Working to support the wellbeing of others can be immensely rewarding, and a real motivator for why we work in the health sector. But over time, exposure to the suffering of others - particularly those in mental distress and at the risk of suicide - can impact our own wellbeing and how we feel, including experiencing vicarious trauma. In 2025, NHS Sussex developed training that looks at the different ways we can keep ourselves and our colleagues safe. The training provides an overview of vicarious trauma and is made up of three complimentary sections, looking at different aspects of personal resilience, workplace wellbeing and reflective practice. In the first of these podcasts, Dr Brian Solts looks at at various definitions of vicarious trauma and identifies the key groups that may be at risk. He reviews the support needs of staff in roles than might blend into the background of healthcare provision, the 'invisible staff groups', and how vicarious trauma has the potential to bear its mark over time - in terms of emotional, psychological and physiological impacts. Disclaimer: Thank you for listening to this Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD eLearning podcast. This podcast provides information, not advice. The content in this podcast is provided for general information only and is not intended to, and does not amount to, advice that you should rely on. It is not an alternative to specific, professional advice. Although we make reasonable efforts to present accurate information in our podcasts, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in this podcast is accurate, complete or up to date. If you have any questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider without delay. If you think you are experiencing any medical condition, you should seek immediate attention from a doctor or professional healthcare provider. Please note that the views of the interviewees are not necessarily those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Working to support the wellbeing of others can be immensely rewarding, and a real motivator for why we work in the health sector. But over time, exposure to the suffering of others - particularly those in mental distress and at the risk of suicide - can impact our own wellbeing and how we feel, including experiencing vicarious trauma. In 2025, NHS Sussex developed training that looks at the different ways we can keep ourselves and our colleagues safe. The training provides an overview of vicarious trauma and is made up of three complimentary sections, looking at different aspects of personal resilience, workplace wellbeing and reflective practice. In this session, Liz Tucker and Patrick Haywood discuss the role of the workplace in addressing issues to do with vicarious trauma. They look at how the signs of vicarious trauma may show up in frontline roles, when to act as a manager and provide useful tools that can be implemented to help a colleague who may be struggling with vicarious trauma. Disclaimer: Thank you for listening to this Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD eLearning podcast. This podcast provides information, not advice. The content in this podcast is provided for general information only and is not intended to, and does not amount to, advice that you should rely on. It is not an alternative to specific, professional advice. Although we make reasonable efforts to present accurate information in our podcasts, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in this podcast is accurate, complete or up to date. If you have any questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider without delay. If you think you are experiencing any medical condition, you should seek immediate attention from a doctor or professional healthcare provider. Please note that the views of the interviewees are not necessarily those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Working to support the wellbeing of others can be immensely rewarding, and a real motivator for why we work in the health sector. But over time, exposure to the suffering of others - particularly those in mental distress and at the risk of suicide - can impact our own wellbeing and how we feel, including experiencing vicarious trauma. In 2025, NHS Sussex developed training that looks at the different ways we can keep ourselves and our colleagues safe. The training provides an overview of vicarious trauma and is made up of three complimentary sections, looking at different aspects of personal resilience, workplace wellbeing and reflective practice. In this session, Liz Tucker and Eleanor Leigh discuss the importance of building a daily resilience practice. They provide clear and effective tools that you can use at any point during your working day - whether working in-person or remote - to help improve your overall wellbeing. Disclaimer: Thank you for listening to this Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD eLearning podcast. This podcast provides information, not advice. The content in this podcast is provided for general information only and is not intended to, and does not amount to, advice that you should rely on. It is not an alternative to specific, professional advice. Although we make reasonable efforts to present accurate information in our podcasts, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in this podcast is accurate, complete or up to date. If you have any questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider without delay. If you think you are experiencing any medical condition, you should seek immediate attention from a doctor or professional healthcare provider. Please note that the views of the interviewees are not necessarily those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Working to support the wellbeing of others can be immensely rewarding, and a real motivator for why we work in the health sector. But over time, exposure to the suffering of others - particularly those in mental distress and at the risk of suicide - can impact our own wellbeing and how we feel, including experiencing vicarious trauma. In 2025, NHS Sussex developed training that looks at the different ways we can keep ourselves and our colleagues safe. The training provides an overview of vicarious trauma and is made up of three complimentary sections, looking at different aspects of personal resilience, workplace wellbeing and reflective practice. In this podcast, Lucy Tucknott and Molly Booth discuss the impact of reflective practice to reduce the harms of vicarious trauma and break down different models of reflective practice, as well as some barriers that may occur. They explore how developing a deep sense of awareness can help us care for ourselves, whilst we're also caring for others. Disclaimer: Thank you for listening to this Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD eLearning podcast. This podcast provides information, not advice. The content in this podcast is provided for general information only and is not intended to, and does not amount to, advice that you should rely on. It is not an alternative to specific, professional advice. Although we make reasonable efforts to present accurate information in our podcasts, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in this podcast is accurate, complete or up to date. If you have any questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider without delay. If you think you are experiencing any medical condition, you should seek immediate attention from a doctor or professional healthcare provider. Please note that the views of the interviewees are not necessarily those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Gambling disorder is a behavioural addiction that affects a large number of individuals, yet often goes unrecognised. In this podcast, Dr Myooran Canagaratnam is joined by two of the UK's leading experts, Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones and Prof Sam Chamberlain, to explore gambling and its profound clinical, social and psychiatric implications. Drawing on frontline experience, the discussion looks at how gambling disorder presents, those most at risk, and why comorbidity with depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other conditions makes it highly relevant to psychiatric practice. This podcast examines the impact of digital gambling, dopamine-modulating medications, and the wide-ranging spectrum of gambling-related harms. The podcast also offers an overview of evidence-based treatment and the rapidly expanding research which is now underpinned by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] guidance and the gambling levy. Disclaimer: Thank you for listening to this Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD eLearning podcast. This podcast provides information, not advice. The content in this podcast is provided for general information only and is not intended to, and does not amount to, advice that you should rely on. It is not an alternative to specific, professional advice. Although we make reasonable efforts to present accurate information in our podcasts, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in this podcast is accurate, complete or up to date. If you have any questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider without delay. If you think you are experiencing any medical condition, you should seek immediate attention from a doctor or professional healthcare provider. Please note that the views of the interviewees are not necessarily those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Psychiatrists are clashing over antidepressant withdrawal: clinic data shows up to 50% of long-term SSRI/SRI users face severe symptoms, while a major 2025 JAMA Psychiatry meta-analysis claims they're usually mild and brief. We break down both sides, expose the massive limitations in the studies, and reveal what this means for millions on these drugs.
You think you know the Duggars' rules. The matching outfits. The courtship rituals. The no-kissing-before-marriage thing. But there's a list behind the list — and it starts with Santa Claus. In the IBLP, Santa's name was treated as an anagram of Satan. The Duggars erased him from Christmas entirely. And that was just the beginning of a blacklist that went far beyond holiday traditions.Tony Brueski lays it all out. Cabbage Patch dolls, declared demonic — families were told to burn them, not throw them away. Disney, torched in a backyard bonfire. Rock music, even worship music with a beat, taught to give Satan a piece of your child's soul. Harry Potter, Pokémon cards, Monster Energy drinks, Barbies — all gone. The Duggar daughters published the family's “Nike” code word in their own book — yelled in public so every male in the family stared at his shoes when an attractive woman walked by.Then the list moves past toys and into territory that matters. Therapy, called satanic. Psychiatrists, called evil. Mental health medication, called a trap. IBLP published materials linking illnesses to sins — migraines to guilt, osteoporosis to envy. Birth control forbidden even when pregnancy threatened a mother's life. Former members described having tampons confiscated. Infants struck for crawling off a blanket in a practice the family called “encouragement.”Tony connects the dots: every banned item removes one more window to the outside world. And the man who sealed those windows shut was himself accused of harassing 34 women who worked for him. The blacklist isn't about faith. It's about control. Robin Dreeke, Ret. FBI Behavioral Unit Chief, joins Tony for this episode.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS! https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#Duggar #SatanClaus #IBLP #BillGothard #JosephDuggar #JimBobDuggar #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #DuggarBlacklist #CultSurvivors
For many of us, our instinctual response to rising conflict and instability might be to recede further into pragmatism as a way to survive. Yet, if our cultural values and ways of life are what got us here, rooted in narrow-boundary, cold, and logical thinking – then perhaps moments of turbulence like these actually call on us to change our way of thinking entirely. Is this moment our opportunity to pivot toward worldviews that emphasize the intangible qualities of life, and could that shift cause a cascade through our actions and decisions, leading to more balanced decision-making for the betterment of everyone? In this episode, Nate is rejoined by philosopher and neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist for discussion on how our left-brain dominance obscures our sense of value, especially for abstract qualities such as truth, goodness, and beauty. As a way to reclaim an appreciation for these things, he urges us to slow down, create spaciousness, embrace silence and deep listening, and resist the mania for productivity in our modern culture. Nate and Iain also discuss consciousness, panpsychism, and panentheism, exploring the thread that there might be some form of universal current running through everything, uniting us all. Bringing everything together, Iain calls for a recovery of humility, compassion, awe, and wonder and insists that even a small percentage of people genuinely living differently could begin to shift cultural consciousness. How do the things we choose to pay attention to affect our ability to see what's important in the world – and subsequently what we value and prioritize? What would it feel like to treat each day as a gift rather than a problem to solve, and how might that shift our relationship with time, mortality, and meaning? Most of all, is it possible for some subset of humans to reground ourselves and our behavior in the interconnectedness of life, and could those small changes add up to meaningfully alter humanity's current trajectory? (Conversation recorded on March 24th, 2026) About Iain McGilchrist: Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. Iain has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He has published original articles and research papers in a wide range of publications on topics in literature, philosophy, medicine and psychiatry. Iain is the author of a number of books, but is best-known for The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (2009); and his book on neuroscience, epistemology, and ontology called The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World (2021). Show Notes and More Watch this video episode on YouTube Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie. --- Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future Join our Substack newsletter Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners
Welcome to 'The Sublimation Exhibit', the new podcast from the Art and Psychiatry Special Interest Group (ARTSIG). This podcast explores the interface between the arts and psychiatry, exploring ideas around staying creative in mental health. In Episode 2, Dr Alan Baban (RCPsych ARTSIG Chair) interviews Dr Glenn Roberts, the 'story gatherer' for the new book Personally Speaking, about his journey, the importance of stories and storytelling in mental health, and the publication of Personally Speaking: Stories from Psychiatrists.
A diagnostic label should be a flashlight that helps you find your way, not a cage that defines who you are allowed to be. In this episode, Sharlee Dixon sits down with Dr. Alastair Santhouse, a consultant neuropsychiatrist at London's Maudsley Hospital with nearly 30 years of clinical and leadership experience. From treating complex physical-mental health intersections to serving at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr. Santhouse has spent his career at the front lines of human distress. He is the author of “Head First” (2021) and his timely new work, “No More Normal: Mental Health in an Age of Over-Diagnosis” (2025). Together, we explore the modern "diagnostic creep" and the risks of over-medicalizing the natural spectrum of human experience. Dr. Santhouse offers a vital perspective on how psychiatry can pivot to better serve those with severe illness while restoring personal agency and a healthier societal understanding of what it means to be "normal." For more information about “No More Normal: Mental Health in an Age of Over-Diagnosis” by Dr. Alastair Santhouse, please visit: https://www.amazon.com/No-More-Normal-Mental-Over-Diagnosis-ebook/dp/B0DB14K81B For more information about Dr. Alastair Santhouse, please visit: https://www.alastairsanthouse.com For more information about Alastair's other books, please visit: https://www.alastairsanthouse.com/author
Iain Bryson shares the heartbreaking true story of how his life was shattered when his three-year-old daughter was taken to Poland by her mother and never returned. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Iain explains how he unknowingly married into a family he later believed operated like a cult, and how warnings about his daughter being taken eventually became reality. After authorities and international agencies failed to act, Iain traveled to Poland in a desperate attempt to expose what he believed was abuse and trafficking — a decision that ultimately landed him in a Polish prison for 50 months. _____________________________________________ #cultstory #prisontime #truecrime #prisonstory #lockedup #cultsurvivor #prisonexperience #ianbick _____________________________________________ Thank you to Married By The Mob for sponsoring this episode! Visit https://www.marriedbythemob.com/ for tickets! _____________________________________________ Buy Iain's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Love-You-Like-One-Daughter-ebook/dp/B0CYW6XLJT/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=mFPa0&content-id=amzn1.sym.3a079c4e-f938-40c9-a0ed-01ef0e9528e9&pf_rd_p=3a079c4e-f938-40c9-a0ed-01ef0e9528e9&pf_rd_r=146-4590805-2145945&pd_rd_wg=CMgCY&pd_rd_r=d74aa1d8-b984-4ce1-a2d4-597f1415c94c _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Thrown Into a Polish Prison — What Happened 00:30 Ian Bryson's Story — From Father to Prisoner 01:02 Early Life & Upbringing 02:56 College, Career Goals & Future Plans 04:57 Marriage, Life Changes & Red Flags 06:27 Moving to Poland — Warning Signs 07:40 Marriage Struggles & Mental Health Issues 09:47 Becoming a Father & Family Life 10:55 Signs of Abuse — Something Was Wrong 13:00 Separation & Daughter Taken by a Cult 14:47 Desperate Search for Help 17:18 Running Out of Options 18:36 Plan to Rescue His Daughter 20:58 Confrontation in Poland — Everything Changes 23:34 Arrested in Poland & Harsh Jail Conditions 27:41 Language Barrier & Legal Confusion 29:49 First Months Inside a Polish Prison 31:36 Daily Life in Polish Prison 34:05 Cellmates, Survival & Prison Culture 37:22 Learning Polish & Adapting 40:43 Polish Court System & Trial Process 45:14 Psychiatrists, Charges & Mental Evaluations 49:07 Sent to a Psychiatric Hospital 51:41 Forced Medication & Losing Control 54:31 Transfer From Max to Minimum Security 58:28 Prison Hustles, Guards & Survival Tactics 01:04:44 Release From Prison & Starting Over 01:09:03 Fighting to Regain Parental Rights 01:14:08 Finding Purpose & Advocacy Work 01:18:54 Writing the Book & Sharing His Story 01:24:01 Contact With Family & Daughter Updates 01:27:18 The Bigger Fight Against Abuse 01:33:02 Life After Prison — Reflections & Purpose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Iain Bryson shares the heartbreaking true story of how his life was shattered when his three-year-old daughter was taken to Poland by her mother and never returned. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Iain explains how he unknowingly married into a family he later believed operated like a cult, and how warnings about his daughter being taken eventually became reality. After authorities and international agencies failed to act, Iain traveled to Poland in a desperate attempt to expose what he believed was abuse and trafficking — a decision that ultimately landed him in a Polish prison for 50 months. _____________________________________________ #cultstory #prisontime #truecrime #prisonstory #lockedup #cultsurvivor #prisonexperience #ianbick _____________________________________________ Thank you to Married By The Mob for sponsoring this episode! Visit https://www.marriedbythemob.com/ for tickets! _____________________________________________ Buy Iain's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Love-You-Like-One-Daughter-ebook/dp/B0CYW6XLJT/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=mFPa0&content-id=amzn1.sym.3a079c4e-f938-40c9-a0ed-01ef0e9528e9&pf_rd_p=3a079c4e-f938-40c9-a0ed-01ef0e9528e9&pf_rd_r=146-4590805-2145945&pd_rd_wg=CMgCY&pd_rd_r=d74aa1d8-b984-4ce1-a2d4-597f1415c94c _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Thrown Into a Polish Prison — What Happened 00:30 Ian Bryson's Story — From Father to Prisoner 01:02 Early Life & Upbringing 02:56 College, Career Goals & Future Plans 04:57 Marriage, Life Changes & Red Flags 06:27 Moving to Poland — Warning Signs 07:40 Marriage Struggles & Mental Health Issues 09:47 Becoming a Father & Family Life 10:55 Signs of Abuse — Something Was Wrong 13:00 Separation & Daughter Taken by a Cult 14:47 Desperate Search for Help 17:18 Running Out of Options 18:36 Plan to Rescue His Daughter 20:58 Confrontation in Poland — Everything Changes 23:34 Arrested in Poland & Harsh Jail Conditions 27:41 Language Barrier & Legal Confusion 29:49 First Months Inside a Polish Prison 31:36 Daily Life in Polish Prison 34:05 Cellmates, Survival & Prison Culture 37:22 Learning Polish & Adapting 40:43 Polish Court System & Trial Process 45:14 Psychiatrists, Charges & Mental Evaluations 49:07 Sent to a Psychiatric Hospital 51:41 Forced Medication & Losing Control 54:31 Transfer From Max to Minimum Security 58:28 Prison Hustles, Guards & Survival Tactics 01:04:44 Release From Prison & Starting Over 01:09:03 Fighting to Regain Parental Rights 01:14:08 Finding Purpose & Advocacy Work 01:18:54 Writing the Book & Sharing His Story 01:24:01 Contact With Family & Daughter Updates 01:27:18 The Bigger Fight Against Abuse 01:33:02 Life After Prison — Reflections & Purpose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Iran has a new Supreme Leader, the hard-line cleric, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has succeeded his father who was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran. This morning, Iran's woman's football team are facing building pressure as they prepare to leave Australia's Gold Coast after being eliminated from the Asian Cup on Sunday. Fears for their safety has been growing since they failed to sing the national anthem ahead of their first match against South Korea last week. The decision prompted fierce criticism within Iran and in subsequent matches the players sung, or at least mouthed, the anthem's words. Katy Watson, the BBC's Sydney correspondent, is on the Gold Coast where the tournament is being held and talks to Nuala McGovern about what's been happening. There has been a surge of understanding about the menopause and we are better informed on many aspects. However three quarters of women surveyed for a YouGov poll do not know that a new mental illness can be triggered by the hormonal changes associated with the menopause. Those figures come from a YouGov poll commissioned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The College wants to raise awareness about mental health and menopause and the implications for clinical practice. To tell us more about why this was needed now, Nuala is joined by Dr Lade Smith, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Do you have a "hassler" in your life? If so, they could be making you age faster. That's according to new research funded by the US National Institute of Aging. A third of all respondents in the study said they had at least one hassler in their life - that is someone who is creating problems and making your life harder. The study also shows that the impact on your health is worse if they are a family member. Psychotherapist and writer Lucy Cavendish explains how to deal with that difficult person in your life.The singer/songwriter Katherine Priddy played her first gig at the O2 and has since performed at the BBC Proms, and at festivals such as Glastonbury, Green Man and Cambridge Folk, where she was awarded the Christian Raphael Prize for best emerging artist. Katherine tells Nuala about her newly released third album, These Frightening Machines, and performs her track Madeline. Why do some women who commit crimes come to be seen as a definition of evil? The Moors murderer Myra Hindley became an enduring symbol of female wickedness but she is not the only one. Professor Joanna Bourke has written a new book, Five Evil Women. It looks at the fascination with these figures and finds it often reveals as much about society as it does about the crimes themselves. Joanna tells Nuala why she chose these five women and they're also joined by BBC Radio 4 New Generation Thinker, criminologist Professor Stephanie Brown.Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Andrea Kidd
Let help uncork your memoir through a 12 week memoir mentorship program: https://mikecarlon.com/memoir-cohorts/ "Medicine knows a patient's disease, but it does not know the patient — and that is where the real crisis lies." — Dr. Robert Smith In this powerful episode of Uncorking a Story, Mike sits down with Dr. Robert Smith, a nationally recognized pioneer in evidence‑based mental health care and physician‑patient communication. Drawing from his new book Has Medicine Lost Its Mind?, Dr. Smith reveals how our current medical system inadequately prepares doctors for the most common health issues in America — mental health conditions — and why this failure is costing lives, families, and entire communities. From formative early-career mistakes to the creation of the first patient‑centered interviewing method, Dr. Smith shares a compelling journey of awakening, reform, and hope. If you've ever wondered why navigating mental health care feels so broken — or what it would take to fix it — this conversation is essential listening. Key Takeaways: The mental health crisis is rooted in medical education. Doctors receive only 2% of training in mental health, despite mental illness being the most common health condition in the U.S. A powerful personal failure reshaped Dr. Smith's career. A patient's diary — detailing how unheard she felt — sparked his lifelong mission to reform how physicians communicate and treat mental health. Primary care doctors handle most mental health cases — untrained. Psychiatrists see only about 12% of mental health patients; primary care sees the rest, often without adequate preparation. The mind–body split dates back to the 1500s. Deep historical roots shape modern medicine's exclusion of psychological and social factors, to the detriment of today's patients. Untreated mental illness drives society-wide consequences. Divorce, addictions, homelessness, incarceration, and even suicide can often be traced back to missed diagnoses in primary care. Dr. Smith proposes a Second Flexner Report. A federally led investigation could expose systemic failures and force medical education to modernize. Listeners can take action today. Dr. Smith provides tools on his website — robertcsmithmd.com — for contacting political leaders and advocating reform. Buy Has Medicine Lost Its Mind Amazon: https://amzn.to/46Iaw7a Bookshop:https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781493087655 Connect with Dr. Smith Website https://www.robertcsmithmd.com/ X: https://x.com/RobertCSmithMD Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertCSmithMD LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertcsmithmd/ Connect with Mike Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/ If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. If you have not done so already, please rate and review Uncorking a Story on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. #MentalHealthCrisis #HealthcareReform #PatientCenteredCare #MedicalEducation #UncorkingAStory #DrRobertSmith #HasMedicineLostItsMind #PrimaryCareMentalHealth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this Worldviews episode, Jim talks with Iain McGilchrist about consciousness, matter, and the nature of reality. They discuss consciousness as the basis of everything we know, matter as a phase of consciousness that provides resistance and persistence, pan-experientialism and the belief that everything in the cosmos experiences in some form, the whirlpool metaphor for individual consciousness within a broader field, emergent naturalism and nested levels of organization, the question of whether the universe is continuous or granular at the Planck scale, consciousness in animals including chimps and corvids, language as the principal difference between human and animal consciousness, John Vervaeke's distinction between propositional and participatory knowing, the divided brain and how the left and right hemispheres attend to the world differently, the left hemisphere's focus on decontextualized abstractions versus the right hemisphere's grasp of interconnected wholes, how the left hemisphere deals with representations while the right hemisphere experiences presences, living in a world dominated by the relatively stupid left hemisphere, the relationship between consciousness and reality as an encounter rather than naive realism or idealism, relations coming before things, Lee Smolin's argument that time cannot be an illusion, assembly theory's challenge to the block universe, values as ontological primitives that cannot be derived from a valueless cosmos, the distinction between value and values, teleology as a lure rather than determinism using Waddington's creodes metaphor, the three elements of a fulfilled life (belonging to a coherent social group, belonging in nature, and belonging in the cosmos), the breakdown of collective sense making despite increased education levels, the decline in the caliber of political leaders, the distinction between information and wisdom, and much more. Episode Transcript The Master and His Emissary, by Iain McGilchrist The Matter with Things, by Iain McGilchrist JRS EP 154 - Iain McGilchrist on The Matter With Things JRS EP 155 Iain McGilchrist Part 2: The Matter With Things The Emergence of Everything, by Harold Morowitz Time Reborn, by Lee Smolin JRS EP 5 Lee Smolin - Quantum Foundations and Einstein's Unfinished Revolution Iain McGilchrist is a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Consultant Emeritus of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, London, a former research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, and a former Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He now lives on the Isle of Skye, off the coast of North West Scotland, where he continues to write, and lectures worldwide. He is committed to the idea that the mind and brain can be understood only by seeing them in the broadest possible context, that of the whole of our physical and spiritual existence, and of the wider human culture in which they arise – the culture which helps to mould, and in turn is moulded by, our minds and brains.
In late 2023, stones began falling on homes across Thailand, India, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Eswatini - flying through windows with impossible accuracy, striking family members, evading every form of surveillance deployed to catch whoever was responsible. The phenomena continued through 2024 and into 2025. The earliest recorded case dates to 530 CE, which means whatever this is, it's been happening for a very long time.IN THIS EPISODE: From India to Zimbabwe to the Philippines, stones are falling from nowhere, fires are igniting without sources, and investigators remain baffled. *** Psychiatrists are scrambling to understand why AI chatbots are fueling delusions, hospitalizations, and even deaths in vulnerable users who trusted them as confidants.CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Stones From Nowhere00:02:23.135 = Show Open00:03:39.455 = Invisible Stone Throwers, Part One: It Knew When They Gathered00:12:51.515 = Invisible Stone Throwers, Part Two: Smoke Rose From Sealed Suitcases ***00:34:25.800 = Invisible Stone Throwers, Part Three: Lithobolia, The Stone Throwing Devil ***00:45:38.994 = The Chatbot That Convinced People It Was Alive, Part One: You Didn't Hallucinate This ***01:04:51.182 = The Chatbot That Convinced People It Was Alive, Part Two: No Intervention Came ***01:22:19.313 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break PRINT VERSION to READ or SHARE:Invisible Stone Throwers: The Global Outbreak Of Poltergeist Attacks In 2024:https://weirddarkness.com/2024poltergeists/The Chatbot That Convinced People It Was Alive — Then Drove Them Mad: https://weirddarkness.com/aipsychosis/=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: February 12, 2026EPISODE PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/InvisibleStoneThrowersABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all things strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold cases, conspiracy theories, and more. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “20 Best Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a blend of “Coast to Coast AM”, “The Twilight Zone”, “Unsolved Mysteries”, and “In Search Of”.DISCLAIMER: Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.#WeirdDarkness #Poltergeist #Paranormal #ChatGPT #AIpsychosis #Supernatural #TrueStories #UnexplainedMysteries #OpenAI #Haunted
The mental health of the American president is critical to the future of the country–and it's clear to even a casual observer of Donald Trump that his patterns of speech, inability to state the truth on just about any subject, and the apparent joy he gets out of watching other people suffer–indicate that something strange is going on in the way he perceives the world.Psychiatrists are often reluctant to speculate diagnosing someone in the absence of a face-to-face clinical exam. And yet, it appears that Trump has taken several such exams–including brain scans and mental acuity tests–that he brags about, but never releases reports on. Which is why I have brought Frank George, Ph.D. onto the show today. George holds a PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Colorado Boulder, and was formerly the Chief of Behavioral and Biochemical Genetics at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He's an expert on narcissistic personality disorder and writes a popular substack that focuses on Trump's Mental state called “The Gaslight Report” which I highly recommend you take a look at.Get Early Access on Substackhttps://sgcarney.substack.com/Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3PyxGKt94kLzVqkkjEgRFw/join
Cutting Through the Matrix with Alan Watt Podcast (.xml Format)
--{ "The Mass is Easy Prey for Men Like Edward Bernays"}-- Thanks to Stuart for the last minute audio fix! - Why was a woman killed by ICE in Minneapolis? Kristi Noem, Homeland Security - Who is Stephen Miller and what was he screaming about the U.S. and power and force? Economic worries - Chatham House, RIIA, OSS, Intelligence Services - Adam Curtis documentary, The Century of the Self - Century of change and a controlled society - Culture creation - Darwin's "Origin of Species" - Communism, brainwashing youth - World War II, Nuremberg Trials - Hermann Goering - Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud - Sea of unconscious, Propaganda - Psychiatry, Distrust of Public - Mass Marketing, Emotional Fulfilment - Guatemala, President Smear Campaign, War. Selling an Idea - Women's Fashion, Smoking - Exploitation of weaknesses - Behavior motivation, modification, Mind Control - Marketers, Elections, Polls - World War I, Empire building - Psychiatrists and Politicians, Perception distortion - Nazi Germany - Media, Advertising - Bypassing parents of children - Totalitarian system.
What if the way we approach mental health is quietly making things worse? Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Sami Timimi joins Michael Shermer to examine some of the core assumptions behind modern psychiatry. Why have diagnoses such as ADHD, autism, anxiety, and depression expanded so dramatically—and why hasn't increased access to treatment led to better outcomes at the population level? Timimi describes how diagnostic categories have broadened over time and questions whether psychiatric labels function in the same way as medical diagnoses elsewhere in healthcare. Without clear biological markers, he argues, definitions can expand to include forms of distress that were once considered part of ordinary human experience. The conversation also considers the role of meaning, identity, and culture in shaping how people understand psychological suffering. Timimi reflects on the limits of medication and therapy, the unintended consequences of the "mental illness as physical illness" model, and how social media may contribute to the spread and reinforcement of certain diagnostic categories. Dr. Sami Timimi is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He has published more than 150 academic papers and authored or edited over a dozen books, including Naughty Boys, Liberatory Psychiatry, and The Myth of Autism. His new book is Searching for Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress, and Neurodiversity.