Mental Health Book Review: It’s not your Journey by Rebecca Lombardo

Overall Rating:

The Mental Health Book Club Podcast really liked this book. Sydney gave it 5* and Becky 4*. Sydney felt a particular connection with this book as she shares a Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis. Rebecca also talks about her Bipolar, Anxiety and Depression diagnosis.

Rebecca’s honesty and sincerity comes through in her writing. She is so open about how her life has been and is affected by her mental illness. She discusses medication, treatments and hospitalisation as well as the daily struggles she faces. Her honesty is so moving especially as she discusses her attempt to take her own life.

The courage she shows as she navigates her illnesses is incomparable. The strength she shows as she faces grief, family and other life events is relatable to everyone. Even after publishes let her down she continues to move forward.

The raw emotion and honesty in this book will make it hard for anyone to put down. We were lucky enough to also get an interview with Rebecca to go alongside our review.

Find it at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com, iTunes or where ever you get your Podcasts.

Mental Health Book Review: Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness by Alisa Roth

Overall Rating:

The Mental Health Book Club Podcast enjoyed this book, Becky gave it 5* and Sydney gave it 4*.

This book blows open the way America treats the mentally ill in their justice system, from encounters with the police to standing in front of the judges, to being in prison. The stories Alisa chose will break your heart and shock your core, yet they are only the tip of the iceberg of examples.

This book is thoroughly researched and open about the limits it had when accessing the system. Alisa details not just the problems but goes through any solutions she came across as well. The depth of information in this book is vast and to its credit.

This book not only questions the American justice system but makes the reader question what is going on in their own country. Being British Becky and Sydney did just that. Reducing the stigma and improving the treatment of the mentally ill could reduce those within the justice system.

We recommend you read this book as it will show you that any one of us could end up in some of these situations.

Find our full review and interview with Alisa at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com, on iTunes or where ever you get your podcasts.

Mental Health Book Review: In my Heart: A book of feelings by Jo Witek and illustrations by Christine Roussey

Overall Rating:

The Mental Health Book Club Podcast loved this book, both Becky and Sydney gave it 5*.

This book is a fantastic read and is a must for schools, children’s libraries as well as children’s bookshelves. The books heart concept is perfectly represented by the cut-out heart which decreases in size as the book moves on.

It is fun, beautiful and a great teaching tool. The book explains emotions in a simple and yet profound way. Children are able to understand the variety of emotions we feel and understand how you might feel them physically.

The book can be read alone by advanced readers, but more usefully it can be read with an adult to help start a conversation around emotions and their validity.

Find our full review at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com, on iTunes or where ever you get your podcasts.

Episode 85 – Personality Disorders with The Secret Psychiatrist

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses all personality disorders, suicide, self-harm, impulsivity, substance mis-use and unusual behaviour

If you feel suicidal call 999/911 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 84 – Re-release of Episode 6, Sydney talks about Borderline Personality Disorder

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this episode contains discussion about suicide, panic attacks, anxiety, self-harm and depression.

This Episode supports Episode 4,  Episode 5 and Episode 83

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on

Anxiety support groups:

Anxiety UK

  • Infoline: 08444 775 774 (Mon-Fri 9:30am – 5.30pm)
  • Text Service: 07537 416 905
  • Or visit their website http://bit.ly/1DRRCUb

 Better Help

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity:

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Information sources:

Mind

Re-think Mental Health

The American Psychological Association

World Psychiatry. 2015 Jun; 14(2): 234–236.

Very Well Article: Borderline Personality Disorder is More Common Than You Think

Optimum Perfermance Institute Article: The history of BPD

MentalHealth.net: DSM-5: The ten personality disorders: cluster B

Gulf Bend Centre: Alternative Diagnostic Models for Personality Disorders: The DSM-5 Dimensianal Approach

Personality Assessment in the DSM-5 By Steven K. Huprich, Christopher J. Hopwood Pg 47-48

Psychology Today: Borderline Personality Disorder: Big Changes in the DSM-5

Harv Rev Psychiatry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2007 Apr 26.

About Kids Health: Your effect on your childs attachement

National Insitiute of Mental Health: Borderline Personality Disorder

Psych Central: 7 Myths of Borderline Personality Disorder

Camden and Islington NHS Trust: Myth Busting

Mental Health Book Review: If I Could Tell You How It Feels by Alexis Rose

Overall Rating:

The Mental Health Book Club Podcast enjoyed this book, both Becky and Sydney gave it 3*.

Alexis writes an honest and poignant account of how she lives with PTSD. The book is open and insightful. Alexis articulates her emotions and symptoms with compassion and intellect. The book can give any reader an insight into what it is like to live with PTSD and how Alexis copes.

The book is well written and structured with a mixture of essays and poems entwined with her accounts. Alexis talks about grief, parenting, loss, therapy and so much more. She shows what it can be to be a survivor and how to go on living.

Find our full review and interview with Alexis at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com, on iTunes or where ever you get your podcasts.

Mental Health Book Review: Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes by Holly Bourne

Overall Rating:

The Mental Health Book Club Podcast loved this book, both Becky and Sydney gave it 5*.

This book is written as a powerfully profound story of Olive who is struggling with her mental health. Refusing to know her diagnosis she attends Camp Reset to get the intense treatment she needs.

While there she meets other adolescents, who share her struggles in their own unique way. Yet together they can unite to find their own way to fight their struggles and help the world be a little kinder.

The book is filled with humour while dealing with some serious points. Our favourite moment was, of course, the Alpaca moment, which we even recreated when we visited an alpaca farm recently.

This book stands up to the stigmas around mental illness while also being a fantastic novel for young adults and adults alike.

Find our full review and interview with Holly at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com, on iTunes or where ever you get your podcasts.

Mental Health Book Review: A Brotherly Lesson by Brady R Wilson and Anne Hartinger

Overall Rating:


The Mental Health Book Club Podcast enjoyed this book, Becky and Sydney both gave it 4*.

This book is a fantastic children’s book that deals with a tough topic in an honest and heart-warming way. The book allows children to understand some symptoms and treatments for mental illness through very relatable characters.

Children can read with or without parents to help them understand mental illness in a way which is on their level. The images are very cute and child friendly.

Great book for anyone who has or works with children and would like to help them understand mental illnesses.

Find our full review at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com, on iTunes or where ever you get your podcasts.

Episode 83 – It’s Not Your Journey by Rebecca Lombardo and Author Interview

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide, hospitilisation and multiple diagnosis of mental health conditions.

Find Rebecca Lombardo online at:

Twitter

Website

Podcast

Get the book here

Rebecca Lombardo’s shout outs: Dyane Harwood, Kirk Patrick Miller, Matt Pappas, Stigma Fighters and Davina Lytle.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Book 34 – The Stranger on the Bridge by Jonny Benjamin


In 2008, twenty year-old Jonny Benjamin stood on Waterloo Bridge, about to jump. A stranger saw his distress and stopped to talk with him – a decision that saved Jonny’s life. Fast forward to 2014 and Jonny, together with Rethink Mental Illness launch a campaign with a short video clip so that Jonny could finally thank that stranger who put him on the path to recovery. More than 319 million people around the world followed the search. ITV’s breakfast shows picked up the story until the stranger, whose name is Neil Laybourn, was found and – in an emotional and touching moment – the pair re-united and have remained firm friends ever since. The Stranger on the Bridge is a memoir of the journey Jonny made both personally, and publicly to not only find the person who saved his life, but also to explore how he got to the bridge in the first place and how he continues to manage his diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. Using extracts from diaries Jonny has been writing from the age of thirteen, this book is a deeply personal memoir with a unique insight on mental health. Jonny was recognised for his work as an influential activist changing the culture around mental health, when he was awarded an MBE in 2017. He and Neil now work full-time together visiting schools, hospitals, prisons and workplaces to help end the stigma by talking about mental health and suicide prevention. The pair ran the London Marathon together in 2017 in aid of HeadsTogether. Following the global campaign to find the stranger, in 2015 Channel 4 made a documentary of Jonny’s search which has now been shown in 14 territories.

Episode 79 – Addiction with The Secret Psychiatrist

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses Christmas which can be difficult for some and magical for others but this is our take on it

Addiction Help

Recovery 24 hour confidential help and advice in the UK 0203 553 0324

Mind’s addiction resources and helpline information

In the USA:

Drugabuse Hotline: 1-877-628-6974

National Drug Helpline: 1-888-633-3239

If you feel suicidal call 999/911 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Intreview 14 – Jason Hyland author of Stop Thinking Like That

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses the impact of addiction on mental health, suicide, and depression.

Find Jason Hyland Online at:

Twitter

Instagram.

Website

Get the book here

We were so happy to speak to Jason Hyland about his book Stop Thinking Like That No Matter What. We discuss addiction, and the impact that drugs and alcohol had on Jason’s life and how different it is today. Jason now works in the Mental Health Field helping people over come life’s challenges.

You can support the Mental Health Book Club and get early access to episodes and extended episodes with as little as $2 a month to get advance access to our episodes and a range of other awards. We hope to be able to donate money to a range of mental health charities once we reach certain targets.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 78 – Stop Thinking Like That: No Matter What by Jason Hyland

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses addiction.

Find Jason Hyland Online at:

Twitter

Website

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Interview 13 – Matthew Williams author of Somthing Changed: Stumbling through Divorce Dating and Depression

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses the impact of divorce and depression.

Get the book here

We were so happy to speak to Matthew Williams about his book Something Changed: Stumbling through Divorce Dating and Depression. We discuss the impacts of divorce on a young family, what made Matthew start his blog and then change it into a book and what is coming next for him.

You can support the Mental Health Book Club and get early access to episodes and extended episodes with as little as $2 a month to get advance access to our episodes and a range of other awards. We hope to be able to donate money to a range of mental health charities once we reach certain targets.

Find Matthew Williams on:

Twitter

Website

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 76 – Something Changed, Stumbling Thorough Divorce, Dating and Depression by Matthew Williams

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses depression, the complex world of online dating and the impact of divorce.

Find Matthew Williams Online at:

Twitter

Website

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 74 – Our Review of November’s Happiful Magazine

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

This podcast discusses positive affirmations and maintaining long distance friendships.

Get the magazine here

Chris Winson #365daysofcompassion

Action for Happiness

This is our fourth review Happiful Magazine, each month Sydney and Becky will pick an article each from the latest edition to discuss on the podcast.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do: Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Interview 12 – William Pullen author of Run for Your Life

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses difficult situations such as grief, loss of relationship, childhood emotional neglect and more.

Get the book here

We were so happy to speak to William Pullen about his book Run for Your Life: Mindful Running for a Happy Life. We discuss more about dynamic running thereapy and how to use it and how it was developed.

You can support the Mental Health Book Club and get early access to episodes and extended episodes with as little as $2 a month to get advance access to our episodes and a range of other awards. We hope to be able to donate money to a range of mental health charities once we reach certain targets.

Find William Pullen on:

Twitter

www.williampullenpsychotherapist.com

www. dynamicrunningtherapy.co.uk – get the app here

William Pullen TedX Talk

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 73 – Run for Your Life: Mindful Running for a Happy Life by William Pullen

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses depression, anxiety, mindfulness and Sydney abd Becky’s poor sporting ability!

Find William Pullen Online at:

Twitter

Website

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

 

Episode 72 – Siblings and Mental Health with The Secret Psychiatrist

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses childhood abuse, incest and Paedophilia.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 71 – A Brotherly Lesson by Brady Wilson and Anne Hartinger

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide.

Get A Brotherly Lesson here

Twitter

This is our final episode in our kids week special. You will find our review of the book followed by another fantastic interview with Brady. It was such a pleasure to speak to him and we think that this book is a fantastic starting point to help people talk about mental health with children.

You can support the Mental Health Book Club and get early access to episodes and extended episodes with as little as $2 a month to get advance access to our episodes and a range of other awards. We hope to be able to donate money to a range of mental health charities once we reach certain targets.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 70 – Scrambled Heads by Emily Palmer

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses Anorexia Nervosa.

Get Scrambled Heads here

Facebook

This is our second episode in our kids week special. You will find our review of the book followed by our fantastic interview with Emily. I was such a pleasure to speak to her and we think that this book is a fantastic starting point to help people talk about mental health with children.

You can support the Mental Health Book Club and get early access to episodes and extended episodes with as little as $2 a month to get advance access to our episodes and a range of other awards. We hope to be able to donate money to a range of mental health charities once we reach certain targets.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

 

Episode 69 – In my Heart A book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Illustrated by Charlotte Roussey

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Book 33 – It’s not your Journey by Rebecca Lombardo

Follow Rebecca Lombardo as she details two years of her twenty-five year battle with mental illness and what brought her to attempt to take her life in 2013. As she recovered from that attempt, she continued to write in the hopes that she would help purge some of the pain in her life. What she never expected was that she could help others as well. This book quite simply began as a blog and became a book; where she opens up about her real and raw emotions during those two years.

Set aside any preconceived notions you may have about what a book should be and put yourself in the shoes of someone struggling daily with a disease she could not control, despite the support of her loving husband. Even with the struggles, Rebecca attempts to offer the reader support and guidance as she begs them not to follow her path.

This book is the true story of one woman that fights a battle inside her mind every single day and attempts to document what she is feeling to help others while she helps herself. This is the second edition of It’s Not Your Journey.

At 44 years of age and happily married for 15 years, Rebecca can finally say that she is on her way to reaching her dream. Not only does she hope to help people that are struggling with depression, she hopes to help everyone realize that you are never too old to find your voice.

Book 31 – Stop Thinking Like That by Jason Hyland

Hyland’s charismatic, witty, and candid writing style brings you onto the couch with him as he takes you through the wallows of addiction and alcoholism at its greatest depths, to a rejuvenated, motivated, inspirational rebirth. He is an example that addiction does not discriminate and puts to rest the stigmas attached. He was a man who seamlessly had it all with a bright future ahead, but the power behind drugs and alcohol took a stranglehold on him, halting any progression. Stop Thinking Like That is not your typical addiction story leaving you sad and depressed, rather you end each chapter inspired and uplifted.

After a nearly two-decades long run in and out of the bowels of the diseases he finally surrendered and found the courage to ask for help. His journey in recovery gives hope to anyone facing great challenges in life, that no matter how far down you have dropped, you can pick yourself up, and be even better than you ever imagined. During his first couple months sober, a newfound passion and burning rush filled him within. This passion has brought to light what is now Stop Thinking Like That. All the while living in a sober-home with upwards of eighteen other addicts and alcoholics, he relentlessly pursued his passion of spreading the message of hope. His tireless efforts ooze through the pages in his quest to find the greatest version of himself that exists. He leaves you wanting to jump out of you chair and attack life, with constant motivation and reminders of what we are capable of despite how lost we may feel we are.

Hold on tight, because this journey is one exhilarating roller coaster ride that will leave you inspired to be a better person and with the drive to help others. No matter the adversities you face in life, you can overcome them and live out the life you always dreamed of. Hyland is living proof that anything is possible if you want it bad enough.

Book 30 – Something Changed: Stumbling through Divorce, Dating and Depression by Matthew Williams

Life can change forever in a moment…

In the aftermath of marriage breakdown how do we pick ourselves up and start again?

In August 2014 Matthew Williams was forced to do just that. In Something Changed he navigates us through his journey with wit and wisdom, taking in divorce, dating and self-discovery while facing the dark spectre of depression.

Hopes and fears, laughter and tears – all are encountered along the way to learning some important lessons about love, loss and life.

‘Have you ever noticed how life’s biggest lessons are also the most painful? Maybe that’s just life’s way of making sure we don’t forget them…’

Book 29 – Run for your life: Mindful Running for a Happy Life by William Pullen

**As heard on Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s ‘Feel Better, Live More’ Podcast**

We all know how a long walk, a slow jog or a brisk run can free our minds to wander, and give us a powerful uplifting feeling. Some call it the ‘runner’s high’, others put it down to endorphins. But what if we could channel that energy and use it to make positive change in our lives?

William Pullen is a psychotherapist who helps people dealing with anxiety, lack of motivation and addition, to work through their issues using his revolutionary method, Dynamic Running Therapy. He believes that we need a radical new approach to mindfulness: an approach that originates in the body itself.

Whether you are looking for strategies to cope with anxiety, change or decision-making, or simply want to focus your mind while pounding the streets, Run for Your Life offers a series of simple mental routines that unleash the meditative, restorative powers of exercise.

Interview 11 – Lyn Worsley author of The Resilience Doughnut


Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses difficult situations such as grief, loss of a relationship and more.

Get The Resilience Doughnut books here

We were so happy to speak to Lyn Worsley about her books The Resilience Doughnut: The Secret of Strong Kids and The Resilience Doughnut: The Secret of Strong Adults. We discuss more about the model how to use them  and doughnut moments. If you are a Patron of the Podcast you will have access to an exended interview with additional information about how the model was created and some of Sydney and Becky’s inegration of the Resilience Doughnut into their life.

You can support the Mental Health Book Club and get early access to episodes and extended episodes with as little as $2 a month to get advance access to our episodes and a range of other awards. We hope to be able to donate money to a range of mental health charities once we reach certain targets.

Find The Resilience Doughnut on:

Twitter

www.resiliencedoughnutuk.com

www.resiliencereport.com

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 66 – The Resilience Doughnut

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses difficult situations such as grief, loss of a relationship and more.

Find Resilience Doughnut  at:

Twitter

The Resilience Doughnut Website Australia

The Resilience Doughnut Website UK

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Interview 10 – Karen Manton Author of Searching For Brighter Days: Learning To Manage My Bipolar Brain

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide, phantom pregnancy,  forcible restraint, hospitalisation and sectioning.

Get Searching for Brighter Days: Learning to manage my Bipolar brain  Here

We were so happy to speak to Karen Manton about her book Searching for Brighter Days: Learning to manage my Bipolar Brain from Trigger Publishing’s Inspirational series. We discuss more about her mental health journey from misdiagnosis to finally being given the correct diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. All that was missing was a glass of wine and a cheese board!

Find Karen Manton on:

Twitter

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 63 – Searching for Brighter Days: Learning to manage my Biopolar Brain by Karen Manton

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses psychosis, a phantom pregnancy, and infidelity.

Find Karen Manton at:

Twitter

Facebook

Triggr Publishing Website

Get her book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 62 – Interview with Kate Majid CEO Shaw Mind Foundation

Trigger Warning: This podcast discusses Mental Health in Schools, self-harm in young people  and the important work of the Shaw Mind Foundation.

We were so privileged to speak to Kate Majid, CEO of  Shaw Mind Foundation. I found it really fantastic when Kate was talking about the importance of mental health in schools and how their petition was the first by a charity to prompt a parlimentary debate. This was another fantastic interview and I learnt so much. Hope you enjoy this episode.

If you are interested in getting involved with the consultation for Mental Health Education in schhols you can do so at the Department for education: https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/

Self-harm in teenage girls BBC article

Support Hope on her epic bike journey from Lands End to John O’Groates with mental health training on the way at: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=HopeVirgo&pageUrl=1

Find Kate Majid on Twitter

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 61 – Interview with Dr Elaine Beaumont

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses Sydney’s treatment with Compassion focused Therapy and trauma.

We were so privileged to speak to Dr Elaine Beaumont PhD Lecturer and co-author of The Compassionate Mind Workbook. We speak about Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). This was a fantastic interview and I learnt so much. Hope you enjoy this episode.

Find out more about Dr Elaine Beaumont and CFT at:

Beaumont Psychotherapy

Dr Elaine Beaumont on Twitter

 

 

The Compassionate Mind Foundation

Chris Winson on Twitter #365daysofcompassion

Mary Welford on Twitter

 

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Interview 9 – Holly Bourne Author of Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes?

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide, impulsivity, relationships and teenage mental health issues.

Get Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? Here

We may have been utter fan girls in this interview as we got the chance to speak to one of our favourite authors – Holly Bourne. Holly’s Young Adult books often have characters who are dealing with mental health issues and we often wonder what it would have been like to have these when we were younger. We really could have spent a lot longer talking to Holly as we found out that she actually was in the year below Becky at the same collage!

Find Holly Bourne on:

Twitter

Holly’s Website

Holly talks about vedic meditation and you can find out more here.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 59 – Are We all Lemmings and Snowflakes by Holly Bourne pt 2

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide, impulsivity, relationships and teenage mental health issues.

The NHS Five Steps to Mental Wellbing

Find Holly Bourne at:

Twitter

Holly’s Website

Get her book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do: Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Video on Marijuana and the Brain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s27f7Jzy2k0&feature=youtu.be

Episode 59 – Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? By Holly Bourne pt 1

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide, impulsivity, relationships and teenage mental health issues.

The NHS Five Steps to Mental Wellbing

Find Holly Bourne at:

Twitter

Holly’s Website

Get her book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do: Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Interview 7 – Annie Belasco Author of Love and Remission

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses panic attacks and anxiety after dealing with Cancer.

Get Love and Remission Here

We were so privileged to speak to Annie Belasco author of Love and Remission: My Life, My Man, My Cancer. Annie is such a fantastic and inspirational women who fought breast cancer and won but during that time suffered with her mental health. Becky describes this book as Bridget Jones meets cancer.

Follow Annie Belasco:

Twitter: twitter.com/BelascoAnnie

Annie Belasco’s website

PANDAS Charity

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 54 – Love and Remission by Annie Belasco pt 2

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses Annie’s battle with Breast Cancer, mental ill health and anxiety.

Find Annie on:

Twitter

Instagram

Annie’s Website

Get her book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do: Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 54 – Love and Remission by Annie Belasco pt 1

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses Annie’s battle with Breast Cancer, mental ill health and anxiety.

Find Annie on:

Twitter

Instagram

Annie’s Website

Get her book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do: Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Book 29 – A brotherly Lesson by Brady R Wilson

Riding in a rocket ship, escaping from erupting volcanoes, and jumping on the backs of jelly fish are all wild adventures, but for Bryan and Robbie it is just another day of fun! When Robbie gets sick, Bryan learns about what mental illness is, what mental illness can look like, and how to support his brother be his best.

A Brotherly Lesson uses a relatable story and vivid images to make mental health understandable for young kids. The book is meant to be an introduction to mental illness, emotions, depression, but also support, family, hope, and health.

All proceeds will go towards donating a copy to local elementary schools

Book 28 – Scrambled Heads by Emily Palmer

Scrambled Heads is children’s book about mental health. The book can support children who are suffering with their mental health, but also their siblings, family, friends, classmates and also children of parents who are suffering with poor mental health. The book is easy to understand and explains mental health in a fun way, to help break the taboo of talking about mental health.

Book 27 – In my Heart: A book of feelings by Jo Witek and illustrations by Christine Roussey

Sometimes my heart feels like a big yellow star, shiny and bright.
I smile from ear to ear and twirl around so fast,
I feel as if I could take off into the sky.
This is when my heart is happy.
Happiness, sadness, bravery, anger, shyness . . . our hearts can feel so many feelings! Some make us feel as light as a balloon, others as heavy as an elephant. In My Heart explores a full range of emotions, describing how they feel physically, inside. With language that is lyrical but also direct, toddlers will be empowered by this new vocabulary and able to practice articulating and identifying their own emotions. With whimsical illustrations and an irresistible die-cut heart that extends through each spread, this unique feelings book is gorgeously packaged.

Book 26 – Searching for brighter days: learning to manage my bipolar brain by Karen Manton

Trigger are proud to announce Theinspirationalseries, partner to their innovative Pullingthetrigger range. Theinspirationalseries promotes the idea that mental illness should be talked about freely and without fear.

Growing up in a deprived area of North East England in the 1970’s, alcoholism and violence played a huge role in Karen’s everyday family life. But things were only to become more difficult when, at the age of seventeen, she began her battle with anxiety and depression, an illness nobody recognised.

At times feeling as though she was locked inside her own mind, Karen tried to make sense of her heightened and intense emotions. Her reality became a devastating, deteriorating state of existence, and no one seemed to understand what was happening to her.

A number of harrowing, recurrent and often bizarre episodes – including a phantom pregnancy, a nightclub assault, and an unhealthy obsession with a celebrity – eventually lead to Karen being sectioned under the mental health act and taken into hospital. It then took years and many more dramatic relapses before doctors would finally give her the correct diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

This is a no-holds-barred, inspirational true story of how, despite losses and difficulties along the way, Karen Manton learned to manage her illness, stay out of hospital, and find those ‘brighter days’.

Book 25 – The Resilence Doughnut: The Secret of Strong Kids and The Resilience Doughnut – The Secret of Strong Adults

The Resilence Doughnut: The Secret of Strong Kids

Or get a papareback copy here

This thoughtful, accessible, inspirational and well written book outlines a model that can provide ourselves and our children with the capacity to face, overcome and be transformed by adversity. In Seven bite size chunks, the Resilience Doughnut model represents the outside influences that build resilience in children and protect them from stress or adversity. The model is a helpful guide for parents, teachers counsellors and anyone caringly concerned with their health, wellbeing and success in life. This book has the potential to bring resilience into the common language of families.

The Resilience Doughnut has become a foundational ecological model of resilience used by practitioners all around Australia and is quickly spreading to other countries. The work of the Resilience Doughnut across a whole organisation builds student and/or staff awareness of the coping resources available and enhances a culture of resilience. To date the Resilience Doughnut has worked directly with schools and corporate and community organisations to build the resilience of young people, adults, staff and the community. The programs have shown an increase in resilience scores for all students, with those showing signs of anxiety and depression having the most to benefit over a long period of time. The key focus for these programs is to activate the strong and intentional connections in the community and existing relationships around each child.


The Resilience Doughnut – The Secret of Strong Adults

Applying the principles of the Resilience Doughnut model promotes emotional resilience for employees in the workplace, young adults in transition, adults managing their mental health, and all adults going through life’s inevitable challenges. In this ever changing world, the only constant is change, so enabling people to confidently cope with this inevitable change with a practical and usable model is refreshing. The model gives the reader an insight into their own resilience as well as provides them with ways to build on their strengths to help cope with the tough stuff.

The Resilience Doughnut has become a foundational ecological model of resilience used by practitioners all around Australia and is quickly spreading to other countries. The work of the Resilience Doughnut across a whole organisation builds staff awareness of the coping resources available and enhances a culture of resilience. Programs using the Resilience Doughnut model have been used with adults in mental health units, rehabilitation services and organisations to increase staff morale with success. Results show those who have significant positive intentional relationships also have high personal and social competence and subsequently report low anxiety and depression symptoms. From these studies Resilience Doughnut programs to enhance positive connections with purpose and meaning have been introduced in corporate and school staff.

Episode 53 – My Intitial Thoughts of The MHFA Adult Course

 

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses my impressions of the Adult Mental Health First Aid Course day 1 which covers depression and suicide.

Find out more about the course here.

Sponsor

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do: Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

You can change the number of columns in your galleries by dragging a slider in the block inspector in the sidebar.

Interview 6 – Alexis Rose Author of If I Could Tell You How It Feels: My Life Journey With PTSD

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses self-harm, prisons, justice system, suicide and poor treatment of mental illness.

Get Book 1 here: Untangled: A story of resilience, courage, and triumph

Get Book 2 here: If I Could Tell You How It Feels: My Life Journey With PTSD

We were so privileged to speak to Alexis Rose author of If I Could Tell You How It Feels: My Life Journey With PTSD. It was an amazing discussion, covering topics from mental health and family life, stigma, and impacts of PTSD. We hope to get Alexis back on the podcast in the future to discuss her upcoming chapter in a book due to be published in September.

Follow Alexis Rose:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/atribeuntangled/

Alexis Rose blog

 

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 50 – If I Could Tell You How It Feels by Alexis Rose pt2

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, flashbacks, grief and parenting with mental illness.

Find Alexis on Facebook

Follow her blog here

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do:

Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 50 – If I Could Tell You How It Feels by Alexis Rose pt1

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, flashbacks, grief and parenting with mental illness.

Find Alexis on Facebook

Follow her blog here

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do:

Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Interview 5 – Alisa Roth Author of Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses self-harm, prisons, justice system, suicide and poor treatment of mental illness.

Get the book here

It was an absolute pleasure to speak to Alisa Roth author of Insane: America’s criminal Treatment of Mental Illness. We could have talked for hours about Alisa’s book, we think this interview is fascinating but at times the conversation is graphic.

Follow Alisa Roth:

Twitter : @alisa_roth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alisa.roth.90

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisa_roth_reporter/

Alisa Roth’s Website

 

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity

Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Book 22 – Love and Remission by Annie Belasco

In her mid-twenties with a stable job, Annie Belasco was on the hunt for a man. She wanted to settle down, have children, buy a house; in other words, be a normal Essex girl. But then one day, she felt a lump. Breast cancer. The two words that would derail Annie’s life and cause her immense trauma. Suddenly, she realised how short her life had really been, and the very idea of finding love seemed impossible. As her hair fell out and her mental health deteriorated, she began to question if she would actually survive. Struggling with an identity crisis and worryingly low moods, she wondered if she’d ever be able to live the normal life that had been within her reach only months earlier. Love and Remission tells the tale of a young woman in search of love, remission, and mental wellbeing.

Book 21 – If I Could Tell You How It Feels: My Life Journey With PTSD by Alexis Rose


If I Could Tell You How It Feels is a series of essays and poems about living authentically with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Alexis Rose takes us on a journey into the reality of living with triggers, flashbacks, and the challenges of working through trauma. She writes with intimate vulnerability about the tough subjects of family, friendships, loss, grief, parenting, and therapy.
With a sense of universal hope and honesty, the author collaborated with artist Janet Rosauer to add a dramatic and soulful dimension to many of the chapters.

Whether you are a survivor, someone living with a mental or chronic illness, a professional working within the mental health industry, or you are simply interested in learning more about the intricacies of living and thriving with PTSD, this book will provide new insights and an appreciation of this invisible illness that affects millions of people around the world.

Episode 48 – Insane America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness by Alisa Roth Pt 3

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses police shootings, self-harm, body fluids and suicide.

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do:

Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 48 – Insane America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness by Alisa Roth Pt 2

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses police shootings, self-harm, body fluids and suicide.

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do:

Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

TV Documentries

Live and Death Row – BBC

Cruel and Unusual – Channel 4

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 48 – Insane America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness by Alisa Roth Pt 1

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses police shootings, self-harm, body fluids and suicide.

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

*Sponsor*

Happiful Magazine

Thanks to the lovely people at Happiful Magazine who have sponsored Sydney to attend the Mental Health First Aid Course this July.  We will be bringing you some special episodes on the course as Becky has completed the young people’s Mental Health First Aid Course.

If you haven’t heard of Happiful Magazine before here is what they are trying to do:

Their mission is to create a healthier, happier, more sustainable society. Aiming to provide informative, inspiring and topical stories about mental health and wellbeing. They want to break the stigma of mental health in society, and to shine a light on the positivity and support that should be available for everyone, no matter their situation. The e-magazine is free. Hard copies are available, see their website for more details.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

The Secret Psychiatrist: @thesecretpsych

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Mental Health Book Review: Stand Tall Little Girl by Hope Virgo

Overall rating:

Hope Virgo writes so openly about her own experience with the eating disorder Anorexia Nervosa. It is truly eye opening about certain aspects of the condition that are not often talked about so candidly particularly the competitive nature of anorexia and how it pretends to be your friend but when it really isn’t.

The inclusion of her mother’s perspective of Hope’s condition, how she felt about missing the signs and how she dealt with her other children and the breakdown of her relationship with Hope’s dad. This is important because mental health conditions are tricky and difficult, and Hope was able to hide it from her mum.

Hope also discusses the nature of relapse in mental health which is always difficult for people to understand even if you have been there. Whilst Hope can consider herself in control most of the time – she still faces some challenges with the foods that she eats. She discusses how she dealt with that relapse and how the help was not available despite seeking it which is devastating. During this time her mum is there supporting Hope and it is wonderful that Hope is continuing to talk about Anorexia.

For the Full Review:

Episode 41 pt1

Episode 41 pt2

Interview 2 – Hope Virgo Author of Stand Tall Little Girl

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses anorexia nervosa, purging, self-harm, suicide and eating disorders.

Get our next book here

It was an absolute pleasure to speak to Hope Virgo author of Stand Tall Little Girl where we talk about her journey with Anorexia Nervosa, treatments, hospitilasation, her supportive family, stigma and more.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Episode 33 – Eating Disorders with The Secret Psychiatrist

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 41 – Stand Tall Little Girl by Hope Virgo pt2

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses anorexia nervosa, purging, self-harm, suicide and eating disorders.

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Episode 33 – Eating Disorders with The Secret Psychitrist

 

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 41 – Stand Tall Little Girl by Hope Virgo pt 1

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses anorexia nervosa, purging, self-harm, suicide and eating disorders.

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:

Becky: @BLawrence85

Sydney: @sydney_timmins

Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast

Facebook

Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/MHBCpodcast/

Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Timmins-1695774814065575/

Episode 36 – Clown and I by Ryan Heffernan Pt 2

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses mania, depression, suicide and extreme behaviour (violence towards animals).

Get our next book here

Ryan’s Blog: https://clownandi.com/

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:
Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast
 
Facebook

Episode 36 – Clown and I by Ryan Heffernan Pt 1

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses mania, depression, suicide and extreme behaviour (violence towards animals).

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:
Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast
 
Facebook

Book 20 – Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness by Alisa Roth

An urgent exposé of the mental health crisis in our courts, jails, and prisons

America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. As many as half of all people in America’s jails and prisons have a psychiatric disorder. One in four fatal police shootings involves a person with such disorders.

In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to show how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker.

Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look. Insane is a galvanizing wake-up call for criminal justice reformers and anyone concerned about the plight of our most vulnerable.

Episode 35 – Suicide and Depression with The Secret Psychiatrist

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide, self-harm and depression.

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

The Secret Psychiatrist

www.thesecretpsychiatrist.com

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Episode 34 – Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses suicide, sexual assault, rape, stalking, bullying and depression.

Get our next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

Theatre group: Peer Productions – Losing it

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Social Media

Twitter:
Podcast: @MHBC_Podcast
 
Facebook

Book 17 – Stand Tall Little Girl by Hope Virgo

‘I know how anorexia makes you feel: you think she is your friend, you think she can solve everything and make you feel amazing … but she will destroy you and everything around you, piece by piece.’ – Hope Virgo.

For four years, Hope managed to keep it hidden, keeping dark secrets from friends and family. But then, on 17th November 2007, Hope’s world changed forever. She was admitted to a mental health hospital. Her skin was yellowing, her heart was failing. She was barely recognizable. Forced to leave her family and friends, the hospital became her home. Over the next year, at her lowest ebb, Hope faced the biggest challenge of her life. She had to find the courage to beat her anorexia.

In Stand Tall Little Girl, Hope shares her harrowing, yet truly inspiring, journey.

Book 15 – Clown and I: Riding the Wildling Spirit – A Bipolar Memoir by Ryan Heffernan

Clown & I is a dangerous, steamy and soulful memoir from Ryan Heffernan, a man with bipolar disorder. Ryan really should have lived in another time. International celebrities get sweaty and spanked and life can be grandiose. But personal ruination forever lurks in this confronting exploration of how one man tries to fit in and make sense of the elusive “real world”. Laced with love, lust, heartbreak, bad boozing and poverty, Clown & I is a one-of-a-kind entry from a man in this genre. It is a dreamy and philosophical global odyssey – a diamond sparkle, spiritual and sensual insight into bipolar, stormy personal relationships, and the hard, street truths of dicey mental health in a society that won’t always yield. But hope, beauty, dreamchasing, and Ryan’s wondrous son, are the undisputed emperors in his eccentric universe. This is one little boy laid bare…

Book 14 – Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

TV Series:

You can’t stop the future.
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

Episode 29 – Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder with The Secret Psychiatrist

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses extreme cruelty to animals.

Get our next book here

The Secret Psychiatrist

www.thesecretpsychiatrist.com

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on:

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

NHS Website Mental Health Resources

Episode 28 – Childhood Abuse with the Secret Psychiatrist

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses childhood physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as neglect. This episode may be distressing to some listners and may not be suitable for younger listners.

Get our next book here

The Secret Psychiatrist

www.thesecretpsychiatrist.com

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

If you need support with child abuse:

NSPCC 0808 800 5000
 
Childline
0800 1111
 
In the US
Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline
(1800) 4-A-child
(1800) 422-4453

Research

Call for Participants: Social Media, Young Adults and Wellbeing

Is social media important to you? Do you use it frequently? Is it an everyday part of your life?

We are very interested to hear from you about this.

We are doing research to learn about the way young adults 18 – 34 years use social media, what they use, how much they use it, and why they do.

We are curious to learn from you and your beliefs about the impact that social media has had on your life and those around you, how you feel when using it, and any good and bad things about using social media?

We hope to use your thoughts to help to make social media safer for young adults like you.

This survey is completely anonymous.

We expect that the survey will take around 15 mins to complete

This research project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of The University of Melbourne. Human Ethics ID: 1750388

For more information about the project, or to complete the survey, please follow the RedCap Survey link below. You may open the survey in your web browser by clicking the link below: Social media use, young adults and well-being

If the link above does not work, try copying the link below into your web browser: https://redcap.healthinformatics.unimelb.edu.au/surveys/?s=3CM3P3R7HM

If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact the researchers: Professor Lynette Joubertljouber[email protected] Paul [email protected]

Episode 24 – Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Pt2

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses self-harm, suicide, drug abuse and destructive behaviours.

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

Samaritans on:
116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness
0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity
Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Dialectical Behaviour therapy – notes

Background/overview

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a cognitive behavioral treatment developed by Marsha Linehan, PhD, ABPP. It emphasizes individual psychotherapy and group skills training classes to help people learn and use new skills and strategies to develop a life that they experience as worth living. DBT skills include skills for mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Developed in the 1980’s by Dr Marsha Linehan as a result of her own practice of treating women with histories of chronic suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, urges to self-harm, and self-mutilation in the 1970’s. After some discussion with colleagues she identified that she was treating women who met the criteria for BPD. She originally started their treatment with CBT and wanted to investigate it’s effectiveness in helping people whose suicidal thoughts were as a result of extreme pain and distress. During this time some three significant issues were found to be particularly troublesome in the treatment of these individuals:

  1. The unrelenting focus on change which is a key component of CBT felt invalidating to the individual client and so clients responded by withdrawing from treatment, by becoming angry, or by vacillating between the two. This resulted in a high drop out rate. And, obviously, if clients do not attend treatment, they cannot benefit from treatment.
  2. Clients unintentionally positively reinforced their therapists for ineffective treatment while punishing their therapists for effective therapy. In other words, therapists were unwittingly under the control of consequences largely outside their awareness, just as all humans are. For example, the research team noticed through its review of audio taped sessions that therapists would “back off” pushing for change of behavior when the client’s response was one of anger, or emotional withdrawal, or shame, or threatened self-harm. Similarly, clients would reward the therapist with interpersonal warmth or engagement if the therapist allowed them to change the topic of the session from one they didn’t want to discuss to one they did want to discuss.
  3. The sheer volume and severity of problems presented by clients made it impossible to use the standard CBT format. Individual therapists simply did not have time to both address the problems presented by clients – suicide attempts, urges to self-harm, urges to quit treatment, noncompliance with homework assignments, untreated depression, anxiety disorders, etc, — AND have session time devoted to helping the client learn and apply more adaptive skills.

So Linehan and her research team added dialectics and validation to the standard CBT model

They added in new types of strategies and reformulated the structure of the treatment.

So, the new strategies, are known as Acceptance-based interventions, or validation strategies.

Adding these communicated to the clients that they were both acceptable as they were and that their behaviors, including those that were self-harming, made real sense in some way.

Further, therapists learned to highlight for clients when their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors were “perfectly normal”, helping clients discover that they had sound judgment and that they were capable of learning how and when to trust themselves.

The new emphasis on acceptance did not occur to the exclusion of the emphasis on change: Clients also must change if they want to build a life worth living. Thus, the focus on acceptance did not occur to the exclusion of change based strategies; rather, the two enhanced the use of one another.

In the course of weaving in acceptance with change, Linehan noticed that a third set of strategies – Dialectics – came into play. DBT therapists and patients aim to adopt a dialectical world view, with its emphasis on holism and synthesis of opposing perspectives.

This worldview enables the therapist to blend acceptance and change in a manner that results in therapeutic movement, speed, and flow in individual sessions and across the entire treatment. This counters the tendency, found in treatment with clients diagnosed with BPD, to become mired in arguments, polarizing positions, and extreme positions. Beyond the dialectical worldview, specific dialectical strategies used in session, such as the devil’s advocate technique, irreverence, and the use of metaphor can help to prevent the therapist and client from becoming stuck in the rigid thoughts, judgments, feelings, and behaviors that can occur when emotions run high, as they often do in the treatment of clients diagnosed with BPD. Thus, these three sets of strategies and the theories on which they are based form the foundations of DBT.

it is now recognized as the gold standard psychological treatment for people with BPD. In addition, research has shown that it is effective in treating a wide range of other disorders such as substance dependence, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders. 

Goals of DBT

To have a life worth living

Its unique to each individual – it could be music, books, horses, crafts etc

It is not a suicide prevention program and is not a way for people to stop doing behaviours that bother others

DBT helps the individual who needs it

In other words, there is hope if you feel suicidal and DBT is one of those ways to overcome those feelings

Crisis plan

I had a crisis plan that all clients had to agree to. It listed their expectations of me and what I should expect from them.

It also had the agreed goals that I wanted to achieve from therapy:

Short term:

  • practise the use of skills in everyday life e.g. at home and with friends
  • reduce impulsive behaviour e.g. spending, etoh, meds, eating and destructive expression of anger

Long term:

  • the ability to have emotions but not react impulsively e.g. expressing needs to Husband in a way that isn’t destructive
  • to experience joy and positive emotions freely without shame

I agreed to a 14 month therapy plan 2 sessions per week one therapy session and a 2.5 hr skills session. The use of the DBT crisis phone, attend all sessions, work at reduce suicidal behaviours, work collaboratively with the therapist, reduce therapy interfering behaviours such as using alcohol, drugs or attending hung over, arriving late and forgetting my homework.

Defining DBT

Dialectical – philosophy known as a dialectic which is 2 things that seem opposite to each other but in fact can both be true at the same time e.g. everyone is doing the best they can, but everyone also needs to try harder

in DBT the main dialectic is balancing acceptance with change you have to try different things to get the life you want you have to be motivated and work harder

DBT therapist is in a kind of dance understanding where you are coming from and also pushing you when they can

B is Behaviour and that is anything that can be reinforced and rewarded

Reinforcer is anything that is likely to get the behaviour to occur again

e.g. study hard get an A on your exam the A is the reinforce and you are more likely to study hard again or giving your dog a treat if he sits the treat is the reinforcer

in DBT therapists work with you to establish target behaviours

things you are working to increase and often in the beginning decrease to make your life better e.g. suicidal thoughts, self-injury, restricting meals, bingeing and purging, using drugs or alcohol, engaging in risky sexual behaviour, reckless driving, physical aggression, and shoplifting

therapy which is different to other types of therapy traditions

main goals:

  • stay alive
  • stay in therapy until you can meet your goal which is the most important and gives the individual a life worth living

DBT therapists job to know how hard it is to change and simultaneously push you to keep you moving forward

DBT therapists also believe that therapy with someone is really a relationship between equals so asking a question about their lives would mean they would more than likely just respond honestly

Therefore the work in DBT therapy is done by both of you

DBT has been and still is being researched and has been shown to be most effective with people who have difficulty regulating their emotions meaning that your life may feel a bit like an emotional rollercoaster and will help you if:

You are more effected than your friends if plans are cancelled or things don’t go your way

You cry at movies a lot or even commercials

You feel like you were born into the wrong family like you are a lion cub born into a family of house cats

https://behavioraltech.org/resources/faqs/dialectical-behavior-therapy-dbt/ 

Components of DBT (full DBT)

Four modes of treatment

  1. Structured individual therapy – focus on behaviours and dialectics the balance between acceptance and change. You will also be asked to do some tracking of your emotions and behaviours between sessions
  2. Skills group – 2-2.5 hrs long where you learn a new skill to manage emotions tolerate distress and have effective interpersonal relationships
  3. Skills coaching – calling your therapist to help use your skills and not engage with your target behaviours
  4. Consultation team – less obvious support each other and do the best treatment possible
  1. Individual therapy

Individual therapy typically involves weekly one-to-one sessions with a DBT therapist. Each session lasts approximately 45–60 minutes.

The individual sessions have a hierarchy of goals, including:

  • To help keep you safe – by reducing suicidal and self-harming behaviours.
  • To reduce behaviours that interfere with therapy – by addressing any issues that might come in the way of you getting treatment.
  • To help you reach your goals and improve your quality of life – by addressing anything that interferes with this, such as other mental health problems like depression or hearing voices, or problems in your personal life such as employment or relationship problems.
  • To help you learn new skills to replace unhelpful behaviours and help you achieve your goals.

Your DBT therapist is likely to ask you to fill out diary cards as homework which you can use to monitor your emotions and actions. You will be asked to bring these cards with you to your therapist each week to help you look for behaviour patterns and triggers that occur in your life. You then use this information to decide together what you will work on in each session.

Behaviour Chain analysis

It looks at your patterns of behaviour in a particular situation – something happened, then what happened next, and then this happened, then this happened, then I though this, then the problem behaviour happened, and then this happened – so you describe the chain of events

So it’s like a series of questions your Doctor might ask or you have a problem with your computer, it is refusing to print a document and you go through a problem solving process e.g. has it worked before, is it plugged in to the power, is it switched on, is the computer talking to the printer, is it out of paper

So, in DBT it’s about identifying the target behaviour (the self-harm or injury, the binge eating, the purging, the drinking alcohol, the reckless driving etc)

Then assess the controlling variables – what is it that’s causing this behaviour

Always asking what’s the function of this behaviour? (what’s keeping it going what’s reinforcing it?) but usually we don’t know even if it seems obvious because if it was obvious someone would have moved in and changed it by now

So you go through the process with an open mind to see the variables that make this behaviour happen again and again

You usually go through the situation chronologically – earlier to later and ideally the problem behaviour is three-quarters of the way through so there is stuff before the behaviour and stuff after it

Both the therapist and client work through the problem as it is the easier to repeat the chain for similar behaviours allowing the clinician and client to identify the variables that keep coming up that explains the behaviour as well as identify if there is something missing

When I was doing this with my therapist she would put it on her white board and we would draw out the events with arrows and thoughts that would pop in – it was more like we were just having a conversation about the event but we were then adding meaning to it and directionality as to what parts impacted other parts and she would validate me and my feelings

So, the chain analysis is split into five sections

  • Vulnerabilities
  • Prompting event (the thing that made the story turn)
  • The links in the chain of events
  • The problem behaviour
  • The consequences

Sometimes you will find that there are things missing – in the video that I have posted in the show notes Dr Charles Swenson talks about one of his clients that he was talking to and doing a chain analysis. They are talking about an event were the client punched the boss in the head and he asked why, and they say because they were angry. He follows this up with do I need to know this will this happen when you are angry should I get some protective gear and they were like no I am angry most of the time so that shows something in the chain analysis is missing – and the client says well he smirked at me and that’s the important prompting event and then you can look into why they have this pattern of behaviour that if someone smirks at them the deserve to be hit. Showing that sometimes the prompting event isn’t easily recognised the first time around

When with your therapist what will often happen is that the chain doesn’t get discussed directly in the form described above the vulnerability, the prompting event, the links, the problem behaviour but it will often begin with the problem behaviour

Step 1: describe the prompting behaviour

Whilst doing this you need to be:

  • Specific and detailed and not using vague terms
  • Identify what you did, said, thought, felt and identify what you didn’t do
  • Describe the behaviour as if you need someone to act out what you did
  • If the behaviour was something you didn’t do ask yourself if a) you did not know you needed to do it b) you forgot it and later it never cane to your mind to do it c) you put it off when you did think about it d) you refused to do it when you thought about it e) you were wilful and rejected doing it or some other behaviour, thoughts or emotions interfered with you doing it
  • If a or b was the cause, then move to step 6

Step 2: describe the prompting event

What was it that started the whole chain of behaviour?

  • Begin with the environment even if you don’t think it was a result of an environmental prompt possible questions to help the person get there are:
  • What exact event precipitated the start of the chain reaction?
  • When did the sequence of events that led to the problem behaviour begin? When did the problem start?
  • What was going on right before the thought of or impulse for the problem behaviour occurred?
  • What were you doing/thinking/feeling/imagining at that time?
  • Why did the problem behaviour happen on that day instead of the day before?

Step 3: describe specific vulnerability factors before the prompting event.

  • What factors or events made you more vulnerable to reacting to the prompting event with a problematic chain? Areas to examine are:
  • Physical illness; unbalanced eating or sleeping; injury
  • Use of drugs or alcohol; misuse of prescription drugs
  • Stressful events in the environment (positive or negative)
  • Intense emotions, such as sadness, anger, fear, loneliness
  • Previous behaviours of your own that you found stressful coming into your mind

Step 4: describe in excruciating detail the chain of events that led to the problem behaviour. Imagine that your problem behaviour is chained to the precipitating event in the environment. How long is the chain? Where does it go? What are the links? Write out all links in the chain of events, no matter how small. Be very specific, as if you are writing a script or play. Links in the chain can be:

  • Actions or things you do
  • Body sensations or feelings
  • Cognitions (i.e. beliefs, expectations or thoughts)
  • Events in the environment or things others do
  • Feelings and emotions that you experience

What exact thought, feeling, or action followed straight after the prompting event? Then what followed that and so on

  • Look at each link in the chain after you write it. Ask yourself if there was any other thoughts, feelings or actions that could have occurred. Could someone else have thought, felt acted differently in the situation? If so explain how they could see it differently
  • For each link in the chain ask whether there is a smaller link that you could add in and describe further.

Step 5: describe the consequences of the behaviour. Again be specific, how did the other person react immediately or later? How did you feel immediately following the behaviour? Later? What effect did the behaviour have on you and your environment?

Step 6: describe in detail at each point where you could have used a skilful behaviour to head off the problem behaviour. What key links were the most important in leading to the problem behaviour. If you eliminated these behaviours, the problem behaviour probably would not have happened.

  • Go back to the chain of behaviours following the prompting event. Circle each link where if you had something different, you would have avoided the problem behaviour.
  • What could you have done differently at each link in the chain of events to avoid the problem behaviour? What copy behaviours of skilful behaviours could you have used?

Step 7: describe in detail prevention strategy for how you could have kept the chain from starting by reducing your vulnerability to the chain.

Step 8: describe what you are going to do to repair important or significant of the problem behaviour.

  • Analyse: what did you really harm? What was the negative consequences you can repair?
  • Look at the harm or distress you actually caused others, and harm or distress you caused yourself. Repair what you damaged, e.g. you broke a window and you bring them flowers – fix the window. Repair a betrayal of trust by being very trustworthy long enough to fit the betrayal, rather than trying to fix it with love letters and constant apologies. Repair failure by succeeding, not by berating yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvI6qstjdn8

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/drugs-and-treatments/dialectical-behaviour-therapy-dbt/dbt-sessions/#.Wnm04JPFLOQ

http://www.dbtselfhelp.com/html/diary_cards1.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuhImFdGW_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s44Lo-9b-Q

Diary card

In between the sessions I would be asked to keep a diary card which I have added an example in the show notes which would help me, and my therapist see how my week had been. I would record my urges giving it a rating between 1 and 5 (1 being the least and 5 being the highest urge) to self-harm, suicide, and use alcohol/drugs. I would also rate my emotions and my vulnerabilities so if I was in pain, sad, shame, anger and fear. I also identified some problem behaviours for me it was spending, drinking and taking alcohol and rate those on urges again 1 – 5. I then would identify if I followed through on my urges e.g. did I self-harm or did I drink, or did I take alcohol. The last section identified if I felt joy and if I used skills on a 0 – 7 scale.

And what it means by skills is if I was applying the skills I learnt from skills training ro actual life.

0 – did not even think about using skills

1 – thought of using skills but did not (did not want to)

2 – thought of using skills but did not (although wanted to)

3 – tried skills (but could not use them)

4 – tried skills (but it did not help)

5 – tried skills (and it helped)

6 – used skills (but it did not help)

7 – used skills and it helped

It also asked if I wanted to quit therapy – which would be always addressed first in a one on one therapy session

Indicate my confidence of controlling my emotions, behaviours and thoughts

If I used the DBT phone (which they would have a report about)

Did I attend the skills session this week?

On the back of the card it had a list of the skills and then I could indicate I had tried and worked on the different skills

Skills training in groups

In these sessions DBT therapists will teach you skills in a group setting. This is not group therapy, but more like a series of teaching sessions. There are usually two therapists in a group and the sessions typically occur every week. The room is sometimes arranged like a classroom where your skills trainers will be sat at the front. The aim of these sessions is to teach you skills that you apply to your day-to-day life.

There are typically four skills modules:

  1. Mindfulness – a set of skills that help you focus your attention and live your life in the present, rather than being distracted by worries about the past or the future. The mindfulness module may be repeated between modules and sessions may often start with a short mindfulness exercise. (See our pages on mindfulness for more information.)
  2. Distress tolerance – teaching you how you can deal with crises in a more effective way, without having to resort to harmful behaviours such as self-harm.
  3. Interpersonal effectiveness – teaching you how to ask for things and say no to other people, while maintaining your self-respect and important relationships.
  4. Emotion regulation – a set of skills you can use to understand, be more aware and have more control over your emotions.

In these group session you may be asked to do group exercises and use role-play. You are also given homework each week to help you practise these skills in your day-to-day life. By completing the homework weekly, you might find that these skills gradually become second nature and you become better at dealing with difficult situations.

When I did each of these modules where 8 weeks and new people would join the group after each block and others would “graduate” from skills training.

Those 8 weeks were split into 2, the first two weeks focused on mindfulness which is a core module and then 6 weeks on one of the additional modules, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation and distress tolerance.

Each of the modules had handouts – each person was given a skills handbook which I still have and have purchased the second edition (link in the show notes)

Mindfulness

https://bemindful.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAy_3Ssyqqg

https://mrsmindfulness.com/an-introduction-to-mindfulness-melli-obrien-interviews-prof-mark-williams/

What is mindfulness?

Simply means awareness – awareness of what’s happening as it’s happening both in the inside world and the outside world. It comes from a very ancient word, but it’s probably easiest to understand if you think of its opposite mindlessness. Mindlessness – where you keep forgetting to do things, you don’t listen properly, you’re not attending properly, the world is going by without you really being there for it or here for it and mindfulness is the awareness that emerges when you make a decision to train your mind, to some extent, to check in more often to how things are.

It’s a way of living awake, with eyes wide open.

It’s a set of skills, mindfulness practice is the intentional process of observing, describing, and participating in reality non-judgmentally, in the moment and with effectiveness

Why does DBT use mindfulness

A characteristic of BPD is people’s inability to regulate their emotions (emotion dysregulation) and things that may seem trivial for some can be extremely triggering for someone with BPD because of judgements we make about situations and what others are thinking.

I found this fantastic example on the cognitive behavioural Los Angeles website: http://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/mindfulness-in-dbt

e.g. you are a shop assistant at a clothing shop and you like the part of the job where you like interacting with customers, you like clothes and you like the working environment. But there is one part of the job that you don’t like is folding jeans (for me I loved folding jeans!) it’s boring but you need to do it for a part of your day but as you are folding the jeans your mind starts to wonder and you start making negative judgments about everything like your job sucks, this is stupid, this is a waste of time etc.

Rather than spending the time focusing on folding the clothes, your mind is busy telling all kinds of disturbing stories about this task, and will likely trigger emotions such as anger, resentment, even despair and as a result it impacts your emotions for the rest of the day. Another aspect of BPD is this issue were certain emotions can linger for a long

What’s worse, these emotions have a way of impacting the rest of your day. Now instead of tolerating 30 minutes of an unpleasant chore, you spend the whole day in a foul mood, judging all aspects of your job negatively, feeling worse every minute. Because being in a bad mood for most of the day, more days than not, is very unpleasant, you start having judgments about your mood, thinking, “I can’t take this anymore.” So, what started out as a relatively insignificant thing has caused a lot of suffering.

A mindful approach to this dilemma would be to approach the unpleasant task in the spirit of acceptance, willing to engage in it without engaging in a lot of judgments about it. The moment you notice a judgment, your turn your mind to folding the clothes, aware of the sensation of the fabric against your fingertips. Noticing the movement of your arms. Describing the smell of the new fabric as it reaches your nose in waves. By fully engaging in the task, repeatedly turning the mind to it, there is little room for negative attributions. You may now even find it to be a calming, soothing activity. This is one-way mindfulness can help avert an emotional downward spiral.

Mindfulness can help us to make the best decisions because we can get into the wise mind which I will talk about shortly. But because people with BPD have often grown up in an invalidating environment with people around you constantly telling you that what you are feeling is wrong you start to question everything. You don’t believe how you are feeling about situations e.g. someone has said that you did a good job and instead of taking that as a positive you think they are lying, they are just saying it because that’s what people do, they don’t really mean it and so you get angry instead of feel pride for a job well done. Or you are upset about someone who told you that it was time to stop dressing like a student even though you had been wearing trousers and blouses to work. You feel offended because you had tried really hard and you tell someone that it upset you and they say it’s something to not get upset and sad about and you believe them. Over time you start to lose who you really are and no longer believe your own emotions and what they are telling you. People who have become really good at being a self-invalidator you start to live lives that are inconsistent with your own values and dreams if at this point you still have them! They don’t find it important when their needs are being sacrificed for those of someone else. All of this results in people who do not do what is best for themselves, which is a hard way to live life. As a result, they are unhappier, and thus more prone to becoming emotionally dysregulated.

Mindfulness can help with that emotional dysregulation by way of helping to relinquish the struggle with painful emotions. One of the reasons people develop emotion dysregulation is because they try to quash or control their emotional responses to things. This just doesn’t work – I know this intimately because I spent years and years just trying to control my anger and then when I failed to control it then I would end up feeling shame and guilt and then more anger, so I was kind of stuck in this cycle.

Mindfully experiencing emotions is the opposite of the control strategy. With mindfulness, you simply observe what comes up with the emotion.

In skills training mindfulness covered seven skills in three sets:

  • Wise mind
  • What skills of observing, describing and participating
  • How skills of non-judgmentally, one-mindfully and effectively

Wise mind

So, wise mind is one of the three states of mind: wise mind, emotion mind and logical mind. Wise mind us the inner wisdom that each of us have, when we access this we can say that we are in wise mind. Wise mind consists of emotion mind and logical mind and the integration of them together. So imagine this all in a venn diagram which are two overlapping circles, emotion mind is in one circle, logical mind in the other circle and that interlocking section in the middle is the wise mind.

For people with BPD we tend to get stuck in emotion mind, and particularly for me the logical mind is no-where to be seen so I had to do a lot of work to try to develop a wise mind approach to different situations.

What skills in mindfulness

These are the skills that you employ whilst doing mindfulness you observe, you describe and participate. You do each of them one at a time.

Observe: pay attention on purpose to the present moment that you are in

Describe: you put the observations into words – example describe what it’s like to record the podcast.

Participate: to fully engage in the activity, become immersed in whatever you are doing

How skills in mindfulness

These skills are related to the what skills, how do you do the what skills of observe, describe and participate, you do that non-judgmentally, one-mindfully and effectively. Unlike the what skills that you practice one at a time (although you could argue that observe and describe have a lot of overlap) you practice the how skills all at the same time.

Non-judgmentally: stick to the facts, don’t evaluate if what you are observing describing or participating in are good or bad, accept each moment, acknowledge the difference between what is helpful and harmful, safe and dangerous but don’t judge those thoughts, acknowledge your values, wishes, emotional reactions but don’t judge and when you find yourself judging yourself, don’t judge your judging

One-mindfully: rivet yourself to now, be completely in the present moment, one thing at a time like right now I am doing this podcast, notice if your mind wants to be only half-present, and the want to be somewhere else physically or mentally, the desire to do something else acknowledge that thought and then come back to one thing at a time. The mind will wonder. Let go of distractions if things are distracting you keep going back to what you are doing again and again. Concentrate your mind if you find yourself doing two things at once go back to one thing at a time.

Effectively: be mindful of your goals in the situation and do what you need to achieve them, focus on what works e.g. don’t let emotion mind get in the way) play by the rules, act as skilfully as you can, do what is needed for each situation and not what you wish it to be, the one that’s fair or the one that’s more comfortable. Let go of wilfulness (the barriers that you put in place to stop you being effective, deciding not to use skills because it is just too difficult to use them) and not choosing to do something that may achieve your goal.

There are several apps that you can download to your phone to practice mindfulness.

Interpersonal effectiveness 

The idea of interpersonal effectiveness skills will help you to maintain current relationships and help you develop new relationships and deal with conflicts that occur in relationships. Interpersonal effectiveness gives you the skills to be able to effectively communicate with others your own needs.

So, the main aims of this module are to:

Be skilful in getting what you want and need from other people

Build relationships and end destructive relationships

Walk the middle path (maintain relationships)

You learn about the things that get in the way of you being interpersonally effective such as not having the skills, not knowing what you want, emotions are getting in the way etc.

As part of this module you learn the skills of DEAR MAN, DEAR GIVE, DEAR FAST and it will help you to identify which situation the skills would be most important and effective

Describe

Express

Assert

Reinforce

(Stay) Mindful

Appear Confident

Negotiate

Describe: the situation that you are in stick to facts and tell the other person exactly what you are reacting to

Express: your feelings or opinions about that situation – the other person doesn’t know what you are feeling

Assert: what it is that you need so ask for what you want or say no clearly. Again, don’t assume others know what it is that you want

Reinforce: or reward the person ahead of time by explaining the positive effects of getting your needs met, at this point you could also identify the negatives if you don’t get what you need.

(Stay) Mindful: stay focused on your goal and employ the broken record if needed e.g. you keep asking or you repeatedly say no

Ignore attacks so if the person tries to attack you change the subject, ignore the threats, comments and attempts they are making to get you to say yes or ignore you needs. Don’t respond to those attacks (which is easier said than done) ignore any distractions and keep making your point.

Appear confident: use a confident voice, confident body language eye contact

Negotiate: be willing to give a little to get what it is that you are asking for, offer other solutions, if the other person thinks they will not met your need then reduce what you are asking (but don’t give everything e.g. there is a certain time I expect to see my husband come through the door and he didn’t and didn’t tell me I asked if he could call and he said no just assume that I am never going to be home by a particular time). You can always ask the other person what they could do to help met your needs.

Example: I went to the fridge to find that you had used all the milk. This really embarrassed me as I had offered our guest a hot drink and couldn’t deliver it. I would really like it if you could tell me when you finish the milk, or the milk is getting low and we need more. That would really be appreciated and would make me less frustrated with you if you did that. Thank you.

DEAR MAN, GIVE skills if you want to maintain the relationship

 (be) Gentle

(act) Interested

Validate

(use an) Easy manner

(be) Gentle: no attacks (no expressing anger), no threats (don’t describe painful consequences), no judging (if you loved me you would x) and no sneering (eye rolling, smirking, etc.)

(act) Interested: listen to the other persons point of view, don’t interrupt, use body language that shows you are listening e.g. leaning forward, eye contact etc.

Validate: using both words and actions show that you understand and empathise with the other person about the situation

(use an) Easy manner: smile! Use humour, soft voice

DEAR MAN, FAST skills to maintain your self-respect

(be) Fair

(no) apologies

Stick to values

(be) truthful

(be) Fair: fair to yourself and the other person, validate your own feelings and wishes as well as the other person

(no) apologies: don’t over apologise about your opinion, about your request, about disagreeing

Stick to values: don’t sell out what you believe

(be) truthful: don’t lie don’t act helpless, don’t exaggerate or make up excuses

Emotion regulation

The goal of this module is to reduce the emotional suffering an individual is suffering from. The key message is that even though emotions can be difficult particularly for people suffering from BPD they are actually important and have a function to play in our daily lives. One thing I wanted was to get rid of my emotions which is not the one of the goals of this module.

What happens is that it gives people the skills to be able to regulate emotions that you want, not regulate emotions that other people tell you that you should and reduce the intensity that those emotions are felt.

In terms of the chain analysis emotion regulation can help you in reducing the vulnerabilities that you may be experiencing, which in turn helps your emotions to not become painful and increase your resilience to emotions. By this DBT skills help you to reduce the peaks of emotions that you feel and then help you to recover from extremes of emotion.

This module requires you to use core mindfulness skills particularly non-judgmental stance and observations and helps you then to be able to describe those emotions.

For me the only emotion I could feel and recognise was anger but not everything is anger sometimes it was sadness coming out as anger. Or shame coming out as anger. This module takes you back really to the beginning of your understanding of emotions because unless you know what the emotion is you cannot effectively regulate it.

So this module takes you through 8 key emotions, anger, disgust, envy, fear, happiness, jealousy, love, sadness, shame and guilt.

DBT skills teaches you a model of how to describe emotions and how to then put a name to that emotion, it talks you through the prompting events, your vulnerabilities because there are things that can impact how you deal with emotions, the biological changes in the body that emotions can cause, e.g. how changes in the brain impact your nervous system with the unconscious increase in heart rate and temperature and the body sensations that accompany the emotion and how that links in with how you then express that emotion in body language, words and actions. At that point you have a better understanding as to what the emotion is and then can name it but there is a possibility that you are expressing a secondary emotion rather than the primary emotion. E.g. when I express anger and in reality, its sadness or fear.

e.g.

You had wanted to go out with friends but they have all cancelled, your start to feel your heart rate increasing, your temperature rising, your muscles tightening, your fist clenching, your teeth clamping together and tension in your jaw. Resulting in your shouting at the people who have let you down = anger but underlying that you are sad, you blame yourself for the friends cancelling, your irritable and grouchy and you are seeing the world in a negative light.

So when you feel the emotions you are taught to be able to change those emotions by checking the facts, does your emotion match the situation are you making assumptions about why everyone has cancelled? Is that really the case?

If you have identified that your emotion is not aligning with the facts – you are to blame but everyone has the flu which has been going around – your anger is not fitting in or isn’t effective, I mean being angry at people who are sick isn’t going to help. So, you decide to use opposite action skills, you do the opposite to what you feel like doing and that will change your emotion.

If the facts are the problem, as in say someone has said that they would be somewhere at a certain time and they turn up three hours later than the issue is that the person turned up three hours late and hasn’t acknowledge the issue. When using problem solving you realise that you would benefit by using your DEAR MAN skills to tell them that you are both sad and angry that the person was late and hasn’t apologised and that you would appreciate that apology. As a result of approaching the problem with this solution then it will help you to reduce negative emotions.

The other part of this module is strategies that will help to reduce your vulnerability in everyday life, particularly when you are in emotion mind by using the acronym ABC PLEASE.

A – accumulate positive emotions which is split into 2 – short term and long-term. Short term do pleasant things that you can do right now and long-term make changes in your lifestyle maximizing the positive events occurring

B – build mastery, do things that make you feel successful and competent as that helps with making you not feel helpless and hopeless and for me completely useless

C – Cope ahead of time with emotional situations rehearse and plan ahead for emotional situations and the best way for you to deal with it. I spent a lot of time practicing certain skills such as DEAR MAN and ways to change my emotions when they were not supported by the facts.

PLEASE

These skills are teaching you to look after your mind by taking care of your body. Most people identify that emotions are more difficult when you are sick, or if you haven’t had enough sleep and this is what the PLEASE skills address, so PL is treat (p)hysica(l) illness, balance (eating), (altering) avoid mood-(a)ltering substances, get (e)xercise

Distress tolerance

In distress tolerance the idea is to help the client gain the skills needed and the ability to survive times of crisis without making things worse e.g. when I would have an overload of emotions I would self-harm, drink, take OTC medication etc.

This module is important because of two things.

  1. Pain and distress is part of everyday life unfortunately. There are times that everyone will feel overwhelmed and so dealing with those in a non-destructive way will improve the person’s life. If you don’t accept that fact that this will increase the clients suffering.
  2. Developing distress tolerance is important when you are trying to change your behaviour because pain and suffering can hinder your ability to change behaviours

This module comprises of two main strategies, crisis survival skills and reality acceptance or radical acceptance skills.

So, in crisis survival you are taught STOP skills, pros and cons of behaviours, TIP your body chemistry, distract with wise mind ACCEPTS skills, self-soothe with the five senses and improve the moment that you are in.

STOP skills

S: STOP don’t just react stay in control regardless of what your emotions are trying to get you to do on impulse.

T: Take a step back, take a break if you need to, take a deep breath and think about your next step hold back the impulsivity

O: Observe, and notice what is happening inside and outside of your body, observe what is happening in the situation you are in.

P: proceed mindfully, take charge and decide what you plan to do next and act with awareness not just on auto-pilot where you can get carried away with your emotions. What is going to make the situation better or worse?

Pros and cons are used when you have a decision to make about two different options, what are the pros and cons of the situation if you act on your urges that are being governed by your emotions and what will happen if you don’t act on that urge.

TIP skills – changing your body chemistry (new skill I didn’t do this one)

T: Tip the Temperature of your face with cold water helps you calm down fast

I: Intense exercise helps to calm the body when it is revved up by emotion.

P: paced breathing – breath deep in the belly, slowing down the breath, breathing out longer than in

P: paired muscle relaxation – whilst breathing into your belly, tense your body muscles, notice the tension in your body, while breathing out say the word relax in your mind and let go of the tension and feel the difference in your body

Distracting skills

Wise Mind ACCEPTS

Activities: watching tv, doing a jigsaw, listen to music, exercise, play sports, go out, play cards, crosswords or word searches

Contributing: volunteer, help friends or family, surprise someone, give things away, call someone

Comparisons: compare your feelings now to another time when you felt different, think of those coping the same as you or less than you, compare to others less fortunate

Watch reality shows about other’s problems (I found this the most difficult as I would use it as a way to tell myself of and invalidate my own feelings.)

Different Emotions: read emotional books or tv shows, or listen to emotional music

Pushing away: push the situation away for a period of time, mentally leave the situation, notice ruminating and yell no, refuse to think of the painful situation

Other thoughts: count to ten, count colours in a painting or a poster or outside, watch tv or read

Other sensations: squeeze a ball, listen to really loud music, have a hot cold shower

Self sooth using the senses

Taste: eat your favourite food, chocolate, drink coffee, tea hot chocolate, eat your favourite childhood food, add some spice to your food

Touch: have a hot bath, or shower, pet your dogs/cats, have a massage, stroke a fluffy pillow, hug someone, feel your worry stone

Hearing: listen to music, listen to an open fire, nature sounds, hum, sing to your favourite songs

Smell: nice smelling candles, bath bombs, spritz aftershave or perfume, coffee, the smell of a book, fresh air in the countryside

Vision: buy a beautiful flower, go to a scenic spot and observe, watch a sunrise or sunset, watch your dog’s playing

Reality acceptance

Split into radical acceptance, turning the mind, willingness, half-smile and willing hands and allowing the mind: mindfulness of current thoughts.

So, there are certain things in life that we just have to accept because we cannot change it such as things that you have done in the past, and that can cause pain if we keep thinking about it and going back and telling ourselves off.

Radical acceptance: is accepting something all the way, accepting it in your heart, mind and body. When you accept the reality and stop fighting against it because reality is not what you want it to be then it will just continue to cause you pain.

There are several things that need to be radically accepted: reality is as it is the facts of the past and present are what they are regardless of whether you like it or not. There are always limitations on the future not only for yourself but for everyone. There is always a cause to every situation that can cause pain and suffering. Life can be worth living even with painful events in it.

I was diagnosed with MS during the time I was going through DBT and radical acceptance was a key to helping me deal with my discomfort. So, I have RRMS, what does that mean, the uncertainties, the realisation that as a result of the illness I probably wouldn’t be accepted for permanent residency, would I be able to continue work? All these questions in my mind at the same time as hoping that they got it wrong, but usually MS is diagnosed only when everything else has been ruled out. I have spoken in other podcasts about when I arrived back in the UK how each time when I changed NHS trust areas that they would say no its wrong. So, I had to radically accept the situation, this was just the situation I was in, it wasn’t going to change, and my life would be unpredictable.

There are many reasons why accepting reality can prove beneficial to the individual going through DBT.

  • Rejecting what is happening wouldn’t change the fact that I had RRMS
  • The way for me to deal with the situation I was in would only happen if I accepted it e.g. accept that there are times when I am exhausted and may need extra rest
  • Pain can’t be avoided it tells us something important, the reason why I got diagnosed was because I was experience a change in the way my body felt and ignoring wouldn’t have changed the reality that I was sick
  • Rejecting the fact that I had MS would have just caused me more suffering – don’t get me wrong that is not easy to do
  • Refusing to acknowledge the situation would just keep you stuck, angry, bitter shame, guilt
  • Acceptance may lead to sadness, but calmness often follows

As I said this is not always the case there are times when I wish things were different, that I have hope that they got it wrong but then I need to turn the mind, in DBT we are told to imagine a fork in the road or if you are British a t-junction, you have two choices, acceptance or rejection. You have to purposefully turn your mind to acceptance to keep you on the path to radical acceptance.

Willingness

As part of acceptance you have to be willing to participate in your world. So you must have the right attitude when approaching life. So going back to the MS example I had two options I could fight against the diagnosis, and ignore anything was wrong get really distressed when I couldn’t continue and then retire to my bed hide under the duvet and refuse to live my life, or I could choose to acknowledge what was happening, change some of the things I was doing to allow myself to be able to better deal with my condition, take my medication and face the world. If I was being wilful which at times I certainly was I would have just given up and felt out of control.

Half-smile and wiling hands

These are both techniques to accept reality with your body.

Half-smile is where you relax your face, neck and shoulders and slightly raise the corners of your mouth and adapt a relaxed facial expression as a way to accept reality. Our emotions can be partially controlled by our facial expressions and can give people some control over the emotion they are feeling.

Willing hands are similar to half smile but were clenched fists and hands can influence your feelings of anger if you are able to relax your hands, arms and shoulders then you send the message to your brain and is a way of you doing the opposite to what you might be feeling.

Dealing with addiction (new part of skills)

DCBA

D: Dialectical abstinence

C: Clear mind and Community reinforcement

B: Burning bridges and building new ones

A: alternate rebellion and adaptive denial

Dialectical abstinence is the blending together complete abstinence and harm reduction, whilst not doing the harmful behaviour there are going to be times when you slip up and so then the aim would be to minimise the damage you have been doing.

e.g. drinking whisky because I wanted to be numb, but I chose alcohol I didn’t like to try to make me not repeat the behaviour.

Clear mind is similar to wise mind but comprises of addict mind and clean mind combining the memory of addict mind and the fact that you are clean again having the knowledge that relapse is not impossible but that it is not inevitable.

Community reinforcement, being in certain situations will make it more difficult for you to make the best decision, e.g. continuing to be friends with your drug dealer, or going to a bar to socialise if you have an issue with alcohol but to have a compromise and find other ways to ensure that your lifestyle is more rewarding than your past addictive behaviours.

Burning bridges is you accepting that you will not engage with the addictive behaviour ever again. As previously stated you get rid of the things that will enable you to full back into addictive behaviours. E.g. tell your friends that you are quitting.

Building bridges helps you to deal with cravings that you may get by changing the image and smell opposite to the thing you are addicted to.

Alternative rebellion if one of the reasons for your addictive behaviour is to push back against what is expected, or as a way to combat boredom then try other things to use as a rebellion that is not so destructive such as: shaving your head, unmatched shoes, dye hair a wild colour – I went purple, dress up or down, get a tattoo (I got two), so many other things you can do.

Adaptive denial is when you cannot get rid of the urge and craving for the addictive behaviour you can try to change that behaviour for another one e.g. urge to have alcohol, have something sweet or savoury. Or try to put of the behaviour, so at the moment I am struggling once again with binge eating so I am taking it 5 minutes at a time, and I have increased it to 30 minutes at a time if I can keep putting it off it means at that time I can cope at this time and each subsequent time and slowly I will get to the point when I know I don’t want it.   

DBT skills session format

First half review everyone’s homework

Break

Mindfulness practice

Skills session

Telephone crisis coaching

DBT often uses telephone crisis coaching to support you in using new skills in your day-to-day life. This means that you can call your therapist between your therapy sessions when you need help the most, such as in the following situations:

  • When you need help to deal with an immediate crisis (such as feeling suicidal or the urge to self-harm).
  • When you are trying to use DBT skills but want some advice on how to do it.
  • If you need to repair your relationship with your therapist.

However, you can expect your therapist to set some clear boundaries. For example, calls are usually brief and the hours that you can call them will be agreed between you and your therapist. They may also agree some other rules with you where, in particular circumstances, you may be asked to wait 24 hours before contacting your therapist.

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/drugs-and-treatments/dialectical-behaviour-therapy-dbt/dbt-sessions/#.Wnm04JPFLOQ

How effective is DBT

There has been a large amount of research on the use of DBT in the treatment of BPD which was at one point identified as a mental health condition that was untreatable. DBT is now the gold standard for the treatment of BPD, with evidence showing a decrease in deliberate self-harm, and an increase in reported quality of life which I can personal vouch for is that without DBT I don’t think I would be here. I was part of a study performed in the Hunter and whilst speaking with my therapist at the time she identified that she thought that I would have responded well to the control therapy because I was so motivated.

A systematic review and meta analysis of a reseach study about the efficacy of DBT showed that there might be some bias in terms of publication bias (results with less favourable outcomes not published) and inflation of results by bias (which is tried to be controlled for on RCT) in the result reported and that when people where followed up that the results were unstable.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2605200?redirect=true

https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/search?q=effectiveness+of+DBT+to+treat+borderline+personality+disorder

https://behavioraltech.org/about-us/founded-by-marsha/

https://behavioraltech.org/research/evidence/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20113305

Episode 23 – Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Pt1

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses self-harm, suicide and destructive behaviours.

 

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediately.

Samaritans on:
116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness
0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity
Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Episode 20 – Our thoughts on The Quiet Room and Made You up

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses self-harm, violent behaviour, sexual assault,  drug abuse and suicide.

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly.

Samaritans on:
116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness
0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity
Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Episode 19 – The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses self-harm, violent behaviour, sexual assault,  drug abuse and suicide.

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly.

Samaritans on:
116 123 (UK)
116 123 (ROI)
Find out more at their website http://bit.ly/2wMpKZ5

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness
0121 522 7007
http://bit.ly/1s7txdq

Mind The Mental Health Charity
Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
Text: 86463
http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Mental Health Book Review: Autism Anxiety and Me by Emma Louise Bridge

Our Review

Overall rating:

Sydney’s rating:

Becky’s rating:

This is our first non-fiction book that we have read for the Mental Health Book Club Podcast. The book is written by Emma Louise Bridge, a 24-year-old female diagnosed with Autism and this is a collection of her diary entries exploring Emma’s world. After each diary entry Penelope Bridge, Emma’s mother, adds her own thoughts about the entries and summarises the main points that have a profound impact on Emma’s life.

We read about different scenarios that Emma faces which provide a real insight into the differences in the way a person with autism processes the world. Emma describes different ways of thinking, such as, literal thinking, theory of mind the impact changes in routine may have. There is also a lot of discussion on the issues that people may face as a result of hypersensitivities in terms of sound and touch and how Emma would find certain textures and noises difficult to handle.

This book really has two separate audiences – young people who might relate to the feelings and situations Emma describes, and those who are wanting to find out more about the impact of autism. The diary is interesting due to the insights into the workings of Emma’s mind and although Penelope’s summaries pull you out of Emma’s mind and sometimes detracts from the diary itself, it does provide valuable information that the second audience may be seeking.

Listen to our full review at:

Mental Health Book Club Episode 9

Book 9 – The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett

Book Blurb

At seventeen Lori Schiller was the perfect child — the only daughter of an affluent, close-knit family. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Lori Schiller had entered the horrifying world of full-blown schizophrenia. She began an ordeal of hospitalizations, halfway houses, relapses, more suicide attempts, and constant, withering despair. But against all odds, she survived. Now in this personal account, she tells how she did it, taking us not only into her own shattered world, but drawing on the words of the doctors who treated her and family members who suffered with her.

In this new edition, Lori Schiller recounts the dramatic years following the original publication — a period involving addiction, relapse, and ultimately, love and recovery.

Moving, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting, THE QUIET ROOM is a classic testimony to the ravages of mental illness and the power of perseverance and courage.

Episode 16 – Acute Stress Disorder

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this episode contains discussion about rape, assult, violence robbery and gun crime.

Get the next book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on

Anxiety support groups:

Anxiety UK

  • Infoline: 08444 775 774 (Mon-Fri 9:30am – 5.30pm)
  • Text Service: 07537 416 905
  • Or visit their website http://bit.ly/1DRRCUb
 Better Help

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity:

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Acute stress disorder

Introduction and statistics

Acute stress disorder or acute stress reaction is a mental health condition similar to Post traumatic stress disorder, diagnosed within a month of the traumatic experience occurring. These traumatic events involve a threat or actual death, series injury, physical violation (rape, robbery/assault) to individuals or others

Within one month of a trauma, survivors show rates of Acute Stress Disorder ranging from 6% to 33%.

Rates differ for different types of trauma. For example, survivors of accidents or disasters such as typhoons show lower rates of ASD. Survivors of violence such as robbery, assaults, and mass shootings show rates at the higher end of that range

Prevalence of acute stress disorder:

  • Motor vehicle accident – 13% to 21%
  • Mild traumatic brain injury – 14%
  • Assault – 16% to 19%
  • Burn – 10%
  • Industrial accident – 6% to 12%
  • Witnessing a mass shooting – 33%
  • Rape – 94%

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/problems/acute-stress-disorder.asp

https://mindcology.com/mental-health/anxiety/statistics-acute-stress-disorder-infographic/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/acute-stress-disorder

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/acute-stress-disorder-in-adults-epidemiology-pathogenesis-clinical-manifestations-course-and-diagnosis

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jts.2490050309/full

Definition of Trauma

Trauma has both a medical and a psychiatric definition. Medically, trauma refers to a serious or critical bodily injury, wound, or shock. This definition is often associated with trauma medicine practiced in emergency rooms and represents a popular view of the term. In psychiatry, trauma has assumed a different meaning and refers to an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful, or shocking, and which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/problems/acute-stress-disorder.asp

Diagnosis

DSM-5 diagnostic criteria

A. Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation in one (or more) of the following ways:

  • Directly experiencing the traumatic event(s).
  • Witnessing, in person, the events(s) as it occurred to others.
  • Learning that the traumatic events(s) occurred to a close family member or close friend. Note: In cases of actual or threatened by death of a family member or friend, the events(s) must have been violent or accidental.
  • Experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event(s) (e.g., first responders collecting human remains; police officers repeatedly exposed to details of child abuse). Note: This does not apply to exposure through electronic media, television, movies, or pictures unless this exposure is work related.

B. Presence of nine (or more) of the following symptoms from any of the five categories of intrusion, negative mood, dissociation, avoidance, and arousal, beginning or worsening after the traumatic event(s) occurred:

Intrusion symptoms

  • Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the traumatic event(s). Note: In children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the traumatic event(s) are expressed.
  • Recurrent distressing dreams in which the content and/or affect of the dream are related to the events(s). Note: In children older than 6, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.
  • Dissociative reactions (e.g., flashbacks) in which the individual feels or acts as if the traumatic event(s) were recurring. (Such reactions may occur on a continuum, with the most extreme expression being a complete loss of awareness of present surroundings). Note: In children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur in play.
  • Intense or prolonged psychological distress or marked physiological reactions in response to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic events.

Negative Mood

  • Persistent inability to experience positive emotions (e.g., inability to experience happiness, satisfaction, or loving feelings).

Dissociative Symptoms

  • An altered sense of the reality of one’s surroundings or oneself (e.g., seeing oneself from another’s perspective, being in a daze, time slowing.)
  • Inability to remember an important aspect of the traumatic events(s) (typically due to dissociative amnesia and not to other factors such as head injury, alcohol, or drugs).

Avoidance symptoms

  • Efforts to avoid distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings about or closely associated with the traumatic event(s).
  • Efforts to avoid external reminders (people, places, conversations, activities, objects, situations) that arouse distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings about or closely associated with the traumatic event(s).

Arousal symptoms

  • Sleep disturbance (e.g., difficulty falling or staying asleep, restless sleep)
  • Irritable behavior and angry outbursts (with little or no provocation) typically expressed as verbal or physical aggression toward people or objects.
  • Hypervigilance
  • Problems with concentration
  • Exaggerated startle response

C. The duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criterion B) is 3 days to 1 month after trauma exposure. Note: Symptoms typically begin immediately after the trauma, but persistence for at least 3 days and up to a month is needed to meet disorder criteria.

D. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

E. The disturbance is not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., medication or aocohol) or other medical condition (e.g., mild traumatic brain injury) and is not better explained by brief psychotic disorder.”

Read more: http://traumadissociation.com/acutestressdisorder

ICD-10

Acute stress reaction F43.0

A transient disorder that develops in an individual without any other apparent mental disorder in response to exceptional physical and mental stress and that usually subsides within hours or days. Individual vulnerability and coping capacity play a role in the occurrence and severity of acute stress reactions. The symptoms show a typically mixed and changing picture and include an initial state of “daze” with some constriction of the field of consciousness and narrowing of attention, inability to comprehend stimuli, and disorientation. This state may be followed either by further withdrawal from the surrounding situation (to the extent of a dissociative stupor – F44.2), or by agitation and over-activity (flight reaction or fugue). Autonomic signs of panic anxiety (tachycardia, sweating, flushing) are commonly present. The symptoms usually appear within minutes of the impact of the stressful stimulus or event, and disappear within two to three days (often within hours). Partial or complete amnesia (F44.0) for the episode may be present. If the symptoms persist, a change in diagnosis should be considered.

Acute:

  • Crisis reaction
  • reaction to stress
  • Combat fatigue
  • Crisis state
  • Psychic shock

http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/F43.0

ICD-11 Beta draft

QF64 Acute stress reaction

Description

Acute stress reaction refers to the development of transient emotional, somatic, cognitive, or behavioural symptoms as a result of exposure to an event or situation (either short- or long-lasting) of an extremely threatening or horrific nature (e.g., natural or human-made disasters, combat, serious accidents, sexual violence, assault). Symptoms may include autonomic signs of anxiety (e.g., tachycardia, sweating, flushing), being in a daze, confusion, sadness, anxiety, anger, despair, overactivity, inactivity, social withdrawal, or stupor. The response to the stressor is considered to be normal given the severity of the stressor, and usually begins to subside within a few days after the event or following removal from the threatening situation.

Inclusions

  • Acute crisis reaction
  • Acute reaction to stress

Exclusions

  • Post traumatic stress disorder (6B70)

https://icd.who.int/dev11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f675461815

Symptoms

Symptoms fall into the following five categories:

  • Intrusion symptoms/re-experiencing the trauma (involuntary and intrusive distressing memories of the trauma or recurrent distressing dreams)
  • Negative mood / distress (persistent inability to experience positive emotions such as happiness or love)
  • Dissociative symptoms (feeling numb, detached, emotionally unresponsive (daze) time slowing, seeing oneself from an outsider’s perspective, thoughts or feelings don’t seem real or don’t seem like they belong to you, reduced awareness of surroundings)
  • Avoidance symptoms (avoidance of memories, thoughts, feelings, people, objects, activities, or places associated with the trauma)
  • Arousal symptoms/ anxiety (difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritable behavior, problems with concentration, unable to stop moving/sit still, being constantly tense and on guard, becoming startled too easily)

https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/acute-stress-disorder

https://www.healthline.com/health/acute-stress-disorder#symptoms

Who’s at risk?

Several factors can place you at higher risk for developing ASD after a trauma:

  • Having gone through other traumatic events
  • Having had ASD or PTSD in the past
  • Having had prior mental health problems
  • Tending to have symptoms, such as not knowing who or where you are, when confronted with trauma
  • a history of dissociative symptoms during traumatic events

https://www.healthline.com/health/acute-stress-disorder#risk-factors

Treatments

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to have positive results. Research shows that survivors who get CBT soon after going through a trauma are less likely to get PTSD symptoms later.

Another treatment called psychological debriefing (PD) has sometimes been used in the wake of a traumatic event. However, there is little research to back its use for effectively treating ASD or PTSD. I

Medications

  • SSRI’s or benzodiazepines

Risk of developing PTSD

  • The diagnosis was established to identify those individuals who would eventually develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
  • Those that do not get ASD can develop PTSD later on and that is 4-13% of people who have suffered a traumatic event.
  • 80% of people who are diagnosed with Acute stress disorder go on to develop PTSD

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/problems/acute-stress-disorder.asp

Prevention or more reducing the likelihood of developing Acute Stress Disorder

Early treatment – within hrs of the trauma. People who are at high risk jobs/situations could find benefit from preparation training and counselling to reduce the individual’s risk.

https://mindcology.com/mental-health/anxiety/statistics-acute-stress-disorder-infographic/

https://www.emaze.com/@AITTTZOR/Acute-Stress-Disorder

PTSD Diagnosis

DSM-5 Criteria for PTSD

Full copyrighted criteria are available from the American Psychiatric Association (1). All of the criteria are required for the diagnosis of PTSD. The following text summarizes the diagnostic criteria:

Criterion A (one required): The person was exposed to: death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence, in the following way(s):

  • Direct exposure
  • Witnessing the trauma
  • Learning that a relative or close friend was exposed to a trauma
  • Indirect exposure to aversive details of the trauma, usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, medics)

Criterion B (one required): The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced, in the following way(s):

  • Intrusive thoughts
  • Nightmares
  • Flashbacks
  • Emotional distress after exposure to traumatic reminders
  • Physical reactivity after exposure to traumatic reminders

Criterion C (one required): Avoidance of trauma-related stimuli after the trauma, in the following way(s):

  • Trauma-related thoughts or feelings
  • Trauma-related reminders

Criterion D (two required): Negative thoughts or feelings that began or worsened after the trauma, in the following way(s):

  • Inability to recall key features of the trauma
  • Overly negative thoughts and assumptions about oneself or the world
  • Exaggerated blame of self or others for causing the trauma
  • Negative affect
  • Decreased interest in activities
  • Feeling isolated
  • Difficulty experiencing positive affect

Criterion E (two required): Trauma-related arousal and reactivity that began or worsened after the trauma, in the following way(s):

  • Irritability or aggression
  • Risky or destructive behavior
  • Hypervigilance
  • Heightened startle reaction
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Difficulty sleeping

Criterion F (required): Symptoms last for more than 1 month.

Criterion G (required): Symptoms create distress or functional impairment (e.g., social, occupational).

Criterion H (required): Symptoms are not due to medication, substance use, or other illness.

Two specifications:

  • Dissociative Specification. In addition to meeting criteria for diagnosis, an individual experiences high levels of either of the following in reaction to trauma-related stimuli:
    • Depersonalization. Experience of being an outside observer of or detached from oneself (e.g., feeling as if “this is not happening to me” or one were in a dream).
    • Derealization. Experience of unreality, distance, or distortion (e.g., “things are not real”).
  • Delayed Specification. Full diagnostic criteria are not met until at least six months after the trauma(s), although onset of symptoms may occur immediately.

Note: DSM-5 introduced a preschool subtype of PTSD for children ages six years and younger.

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/PTSD-overview/dsm5_criteria_ptsd.asp

Episode 14 – Autism and Anxiety

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses topics that some people may find difficult, including talk about suicide, self-harm and substance misuse.

Our next book is Autism Anxiety and me by Emma Louise Bridge and you can find out more about the book  here.

Useful contacts:

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Autism and Anxiety

Statistics

 

  • Without understanding, autistic people and families are at risk of being isolated and developing mental health problems.
  • Autism is much more common than many people think. There are around 700,000 people on the autism spectrum in the UK – that’s more than 1 in 100. If you include their families, autism is a part of daily life for 2.8 million people.
  • Autism doesn’t just affect children. Autistic children grow up to be autistic adults.
  • Autism is a hidden disability – you can’t always tell if someone is autistic.
  • While autism is incurable, the right support at the right time can make an enormous difference to people’s lives.
  • 34% of children on the autism spectrum say that the worst thing about being at school is being picked on.
  • 63% of children on the autism spectrum are not in the kind of school their parents believe would best support them.
  • 17% of autistic children have been suspended from school; 48% of these had been suspended three or more times; 4% had been expelled from one or more schools.
  • Seventy per cent of autistic adults say that they are not getting the help they need from social services. Seventy per cent of autistic adults also told us that with more support they would feel less isolated.
  • At least one in three autistic adults are experiencing severe mental health difficulties due to a lack of support.
  • Only 16% of autistic adults in the UK are in full-time paid employment, and only 32% are in some kind of paid work.
  • Only 10% of autistic adults receive employment support but 53% say they want it.
  • http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/myths-facts-stats.aspx

In the USA

  • When compared to countries with top-performing kids, the United States is #3 for the most autism diagnoses in the world. This list of 17 competing countries that outperform the US academically, and who we could also find recent autism data on; it’s not a list of the whole world, and it doesn’t include autism rates older than 2004.
  • https://www.focusforhealth.org/autism-rates-across-the-developed-world/

Background

  • Autism is listed in the Diagnostic and statistics manual for mental disorders DSM-5 it is not viewed as a mental health disorder but a neurological disorder
  • Autism spectrum conditions have a genetic component intermixed with the way people interact with their environment.
  • People are born with autism but how they express it depends on their genes and their environment.
  • The term autistic spectrum disorder is what describes the commonalities in an individual’s autistic behaviour coupled with emotional and/or sensory differences.
  • People on the autism spectrum can have a co-occurring mental health condition
  • Often treated with psychotropic medications such as SSRI’s.
  • Co-occurring mental health conditions include:
    • Hyperactivity
    • Depression
    • Anxiety
  • Issues occur when people on the autism spectrum try to access appropriate and effective treatment that takes into account their individual needs as a person with autism,
  • It’s not possible to treat the mental health condition and autism separately as the two are linked
  • Autism impacts the person and so does their mental health condition.
  • You need to understand how each works on the other. This can mean it is difficult to identify which aspect is causing the issue, the autism, the mental health condition or a combination of the two.

Purkis, J., Goodall, E., & Nugent, J. (2016). The Guide to Good Mental Health on the Autism Spectrum. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Diagnosis

  • Diagnosis of these conditions are based on criteria in the DSM-5 and the ICD-10 placing people into categories based on symptoms and presentation.
  • These categories are continuing to develop and will change over time with the most notable being the criteria for Asperger’s syndrome being replaced with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder.
  • A diagnosis is only helpful if the individual gains some benefit e.g. subsidised treatment or simply as a way to help a person understand how they feel and how they behave and struggle to connect with others.
  • https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/diagnosis/dsm-5-diagnostic-criteria

Autism Spectrum Disorder           299.00 (F84.0)

Diagnostic Criteria

A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive, see text):

  1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity (the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit), ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
  2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
  3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.

Specify current severity

Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted repetitive patterns of behavior:

Level 1 ‘requiring support’

Level 2 ‘requiring substantial support’

Level 3 ‘requiring very substantial support’

(See table 1).

B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):

  1. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypies (are rhythmic, repetitive, fixed, predictable, purposeful, but purposeless movements that occur in children), lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia (meaningless repetition of another person’s spoken words), idiosyncratic phrases (Idiosyncratic language refers to language with private meanings or meaning that only makes sense to those familiar with the situation where the phrase originated)).
  2. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns or verbal nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat food every day).
  3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g, strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interest).
  4. Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interests in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).

Specify current severity:

Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour

Level 1 ‘requiring support’

Level 2 ‘requiring substantial support’

Level 3 ‘requiring very substantial support’

C. Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in later life).

D. Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.

E. These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay. Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder frequently co-occur; to make comorbid diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, social communication should be below that expected for general developmental level.

Note: Individuals with a well-established DSM-IV diagnosis of autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified should be given the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Individuals who have marked deficits in social communication, but whose symptoms do not otherwise meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder, should be evaluated for social (pragmatic) communication disorder.

Specify if:
With or without accompanying intellectual impairment
With or without accompanying language impairment
Associated with a known medical or genetic condition or environmental factor
(Coding note: Use additional code to identify the associated medical or genetic condition.)
Associated with another neurodevelopmental, mental, or behavioral disorder
(Coding note: Use additional code[s] to identify the associated neurodevelopmental, mental, or behavioral disorder[s].)
With catatonia (refer to the criteria for catatonia associated with another mental disorder, pp. 119-120, for definition) (Coding note: Use additional code 293.89 [F06.1] catatonia associated with autism spectrum disorder to indicate the presence of the comorbid catatonia.)

Table 1.  Severity levels for autism spectrum disorder

Severity levelSocial communicationRestricted, repetitive behaviors
Level 3
“Requiring very substantial support”
Severe deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills cause severe impairments in functioning, very limited initiation of social interactions, and minimal response to social overtures from others. For example, a person with few words of intelligible speech who rarely initiates interaction and, when he or she does, makes unusual approaches to meet needs only and responds to only very direct social approachesInflexibility of behavior, extreme difficulty coping with change, or other restricted/repetitive behaviors markedly interfere with functioning in all spheres. Great distress/difficulty changing focus or action.
Level 2
“Requiring substantial support”
Marked deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills; social impairments apparent even with supports in place; limited initiation of social interactions; and reduced or  abnormal responses to social overtures from others. For example, a person who speaks simple sentences, whose interaction is limited  to narrow special interests, and how has markedly odd nonverbal communication.Inflexibility of behavior, difficulty coping with change, or other restricted/repetitive behaviors appear frequently enough to be obvious to the casual observer and interfere with functioning in  a variety of contexts. Distress and/or difficulty changing focus or action.
Level 1
“Requiring support”
Without supports in place, deficits in social communication cause noticeable impairments. Difficulty initiating social interactions, and clear examples of atypical or unsuccessful response to social overtures of others. May appear to have decreased interest in social interactions. For example, a person who is able to speak in full sentences and engages in communication but whose to- and-fro conversation with others fails, and whose attempts to make friends are odd and typically unsuccessful.Inflexibility of behavior causes significant interference with functioning in one or more contexts. Difficulty switching between activities. Problems of organization and planning hamper independence.

 

Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder 315.39 (F80.89)

Diagnostic Criteria

A. Persistent difficulties in the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication as manifested by all of the following:

  1. Deficits in using communication for social purposes, such as greeting and sharing information, in a manner that is appropriate for the social context.
  2. Impairment of the ability to change communication to match context or the needs of the listener, such as speaking differently in a classroom than on the playground, talking differently to a child than to an adult, and avoiding use of overly formal language.
  3. Difficulties following rules for conversation and storytelling, such as taking turns in conversation, rephrasing when misunderstood, and knowing how to use verbal and nonverbal signals to regulate interaction.
  4. Difficulties understanding what is not explicitly stated (e.g., making inferences) and nonliteral or ambiguous meanings of language (e.g., idioms, humor, metaphors, multiple meanings that depend on the context for interpretation).

B. The deficits result in functional limitations in effective communication, social participation, social relationships, academic achievement, or occupational performance, individually or in combination.

C. The onset of the symptoms is in the early developmental period (but deficits may not become fully manifest until social communication demands exceed limited capacities).

D. The symptoms are not attributable to another medical or neurological condition or to low abilities in the domains or word structure and grammar, and are not better explained by autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder), global developmental delay, or another mental disorder.

  • https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/centers_clinics/pediatric-neurology/conditions/motor-stereotypies/index.html
  • https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/video-glossary/glossary-terms
  • http://www.autism.org.uk/about/diagnosis/criteria-changes.aspx

ICD-10

  • From the coding manual produced in 2015 Autism and Aperger’s syndrome are still considered separate coding categories unlike the DSM-5
  • The ICD-10 is the most commonly-used diagnostic manual in the UK.
  • There are a number of autism profiles,
    • Childhood autism,
    • Atypical autism
    • Asperger syndrome.
  • These are included under the Pervasive Developmental Disorders heading, defined as “A group of disorders characterized by qualitative abnormalities in reciprocal social interactions and in patterns of communication, and by a restricted, stereotyped, repetitive repertoire of interests and activities. These qualitative abnormalities are a pervasive feature of the individual’s functioning in all situations”.
  • A revised edition (ICD-11) is expected in 2018 and is likely to closely align with the latest edition of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).
  • http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/
  • http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/F84

Aspergers Syndrome

  • For many people, the term Asperger syndrome is part of their day-to-day vocabulary and identity,
  • Therefore it is understandable about concerns around the removal from the DMS-5 of Asperger syndrome as a distinct category.
  • Everyone who currently has a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, including those with Asperger syndrome, will retain their diagnosis. No one will ‘lose’ their diagnosis because of the changes in DSM-5.
  • Research found that using the appropriate techniques, the new DSM-5 criteria correctly identified people who should receive a diagnosis of ASD across age and ability. (Kent R.G. et al, 2013)
  • http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asperger.aspx
  • http://www.autism.org.uk/about/diagnosis/criteria-changes.aspx

Asperger’s Diagnosis

People with Asperger syndrome are of average or above average intelligence. They do not usually have the learning disabilities that many autistic people have, but they may have specific learning difficulties. They have fewer problems with speech but may still have difficulties with understanding and processing language.

A. A lack of any clinically significant general delay in spoken or receptive language or cognitive development. Diagnosis requires that single words should have developed by two years of age or earlier and that communicative phrases be used by three years of age or earlier. Self-help skills, adaptive behaviour and curiosity about the environment during the first three years should be at a level consistent with intellectual development. However, motor milestones may be somewhat delayed and motor clumsiness is usual (although not a necessary diagnostic feature). Isolated special skills, often related to abnormal preoccupations, are common, but are not required for diagnosis.

B. Qualitative abnormalities in reciprocal social interaction (criteria as for autism).

C. An unusually intense circumscribed interest or restrictive, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests and activities (criteria as for autism; however, it would be less usual for these to include either motor mannerisms or preoccupations with part-objects or non-functional elements of play materials).

D. The disorder is not attributable to other varieties of pervasive developmental disorder; schizotypal disorder (F21); simple schizophrenia (F20.6); reactive and disinhibited attachment disorder of childhood (F94.1 and .2); obsessional personality disorder (F60.5); obsessive-compulsive disorder (F42).

Symptoms of autism

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/symptoms/

Signs of ASD in pre-school children

Spoken language

  • delayed speech development (for example, speaking less than 50 different words by the age of two), or not speaking at all
  • frequent repetition of set words and phrases
  • speech that sounds very monotonous or flat
  • preferring to communicate using single words, despite being able to speak in sentences

Responding to others

  • not responding to their name being called, despite having normal hearing
  • rejecting cuddles initiated by a parent or carer (although they may initiate cuddles themselves)
  • reacting unusually negatively when asked to do something by someone else

Interacting with others

  • not being aware of other people’s personal space, or being unusually intolerant of people entering their own personal space
  • little interest in interacting with other people, including children of a similar age
  • not enjoying situations that most children of their age like, such as birthday parties
  • preferring to play alone, rather than asking others to play with them
  • rarely using gestures or facial expressions when communicating
  • avoiding eye contact

Behaviour

  • having repetitive movements, such as flapping their hands, rocking back and forth, or flicking their fingers
  • playing with toys in a repetitive and unimaginative way, such as lining blocks up in order of size or colour, rather than using them to build something
  • preferring to have a familiar routine and getting very upset if there are changes to this routine
  • having a strong like or dislike of certain foods based on the texture or colour of the food as much as the taste
  • unusual sensory interests – for example, children with ASD may sniff toys, objects or people inappropriately

Signs and symptoms of ASD in school-age children

Spoken language

  • preferring to avoid using spoken language
  • speech that sounds very monotonous or flat
  • speaking in pre-learned phrases, rather than putting together individual words to form new sentences
  • seeming to talk “at” people, rather than sharing a two-way conversation

Responding to others

  • taking people’s speech literally and being unable to understand sarcasm, metaphors or figures of speech
  • reacting unusually negatively when asked to do something by someone else

Interacting with others

  • not being aware of other people’s personal space, or being unusually intolerant of people entering their own personal space
  • little interest in interacting with other people, including children of a similar age, or having few close friends, despite attempts to form friendships
  • not understanding how people normally interact socially, such as greeting people or wishing them farewell
  • being unable to adapt the tone and content of their speech to different social situations – for example, speaking very formally at a party and then speaking to total strangers in a familiar way
  • not enjoying situations and activities that most children of their age enjoy
  • rarely using gestures or facial expressions when communicating
  • avoiding eye contact

Behaviour

  • repetitive movements, such as flapping their hands, rocking back and forth, or flicking their fingers
  • playing in a repetitive and unimaginative way, often preferring to play with objects rather than people
  • developing a highly specific interest in a particular subject or activity
  • preferring to have a familiar routine and getting very upset if there are changes to their normal routine
  • having a strong like or dislike of certain foods based on the texture or colour of the food as much as the taste
  • unusual sensory interests – for example, children with ASD may sniff toys, objects or people inappropriately

Other conditions associated with ASD

People with ASD often have symptoms or aspects of other conditions, such as:

  • a learning disability
  • attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
  • Tourette’s syndrome or other tic disorders
  • epilepsy
  • dyspraxia
  • obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • generalised anxiety disorder
  • depression
  • bipolar disorder
  • sleep problems
  • sensory difficulties

Autism and Gender

  • http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/gender.aspx
  • Statistics show that more men and boys than women and girls have a diagnosis of autism. Various studies, together with anecdotal evidence have come up with men/women ratios ranging from 2:1 to 16:1.
  • Brugha’s 2009 survey of adults living in households throughout England found that 1.8% of men and boys surveyed had a diagnosis of autism, compared to 0.2% of women and girls.
  • Hans Asperger thought no women or girls were affected by the syndrome he described in Autistic psychopathy in childhood (1944), although clinical evidence later caused him to revise this thinking.
  • In Leo Kanner’s 1943 study of a small group of children with autism there were four times as many boys as girls.
  • In their much larger 1993 study of Asperger syndrome in mainstream schools in Sweden, Ehlers and Gillberg found the same boy to girl ratio of 4:1.
  • In 2015, the ratio of men to women who use NAS adult services was approximately 3:1, and in those that use NAS schools it is approximately 5:1.
  • Lorna Wing found in her paper on sex ratios in early childhood autism that among people with ‘high-functioning autism’ or Asperger syndrome there were as many as 15 times as many men and boys as women and girls, while in people with learning difficulties as well as autism the ratio of men and boys to women and girls was closer to 2:1.
  • This could suggest that, while women and girls are less likely to develop autism, when they do they are more severely impaired. Alternatively, it could suggest ‘high-functioning’ women and girls with autism have been underdiagnosed, compared to men and boys.
  • Women and girls with Asperger syndrome may be better at masking their difficulties in order to fit in with their peers and have a more even profile of social skills in general.
  • Gould and Ashton-Smith (2011) identified the different way in which girls and women present under the following headings: social understandingsocial communicationsocial imagination which is highly associated with routinesrituals and special interests. Some examples are below.
  • Masking Symptoms
  • Interacting Socially more often
    • Girls are often more aware of and feel a need to interact socially. They are involved in social play, but are often led by their peers rather than initiating social contact. Girls are more socially inclined and many have one special friend.
  • Being subject to greater social expectations
    • In our society, girls are expected to be social in their communication. Girls on the spectrum do not ‘do social chit chat’ or make ‘meaningless’ comments in order to facilitate social communication. The idea of a social hierarchy and how one communicates with people of different status can be problematic and get girls into trouble with teachers.
  • Having more active imaginations and engaging in pretend play more often
    • Evidence suggests that girls have more active imaginations and more pretend play (Knickmeyer, Wheelwright and Baron-Cohen, 2008). Many have a very rich and elaborate fantasy world with imaginary friends. Girls escape into fiction, and some live in another world with, for example, fairies and witches.
  • Having interests which are similar to other girls
    • The interests of girls in the spectrum are very often similar to those of other girls – animals, horses, classical literature – and therefore are not seen as unusual. It is not the special interests that differentiate them from their peers but it is the quality and intensity of these interests. Many obsessively watch soap operas and have an intense interest in celebrities.
    • The presence of repetitive behaviour and special interests is part of the diagnostic criteria for an autism spectrum disorder. This is a crucial area in which the male stereotype of autism has clouded the issue in diagnosing women and girls.

Autism and Anxiety

Autistic Traits

Certain autistic traits have an impact upon an individual and their levels of anxiety

e.g. perfectionism, preference for structure and routine and repetitive behaviours can have an impact.

People with autism like to imagine outcomes to situations that they may find themselves in. The idea is to make new experiences aren’t so daunting, but this could also lead to catastrophizing in relation to how to understand non-autistic people and they may create in their minds an unlikely, negative future around misunderstanding other’s motivations.

This can be combated with doing:

  • A SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to allow you to see the entire situation you might face
  • Practicing mindfulness

Thinking styles

Three specific thinking styles associated with autism which are rigid, logical and hyper-focused or fixated thinking styles.

  • Logical thinking – decisions are often made on practical logical parameters rather than having an emotional input (not saying that the person does not have any emotions).
    • This provides the individual the feeling of control and order and allows for the evaluation of options.
    • But can result in misunderstandings when people don’t share the same logic (in Autism Anxiety and Me this can be shown as the issue Emma has with the coat hangers whilst she is volunteering in the charity shop)
  • Rigid thinking – black and white thinking
    • Again, provides the individual with feeling a sense of control and order.
    • Issues occur as people cannot see all possible outcomes in a situation and may focus on the worst. Worries and anxieties that people dislike you even when there is limited evidence for that. Judgements about things/people/situations too quickly before they understand the full picture.
    • e.g. only accepting food in two’s before making it on Emma’s plate
  • Hyper-focused/fixated thinking – broken record
    • Occasionally leads to clarity and/or insight into self/others/situations but can also cause sleeping difficulties due to rumination about certain situations and increased anxiety due to negative focus.
    • The material for the blind had to be the Wallace and Gromit fabric.

Change

People with autism will often have a set of routine that helps them feel in control so changes can cause high levels of anxiety.

Past treatment for children with autism was to ensure that they would be brought up with a strict routine and any changes signalled to the child in advance. However, the world isn’t like this, it’s often unpredictable and change is inevitable. The issues start to become a major issue in adulthood when the individual is unable to retain their rigid routine causing major anxiety because they have not been able to develop coping mechanisms and strategies to developing a resilience when dealing with change.

Some individuals were brought up in complete contrast – they had little to no routine change becomes “routine” itself.

For others change can elicit fear because they feel it’s the end of the world.

Coping with change

If you have a lack of coping mechanisms associated with change it has been suggested that you start by identifying small changes that you can do, plan and take control of those changes and see that changes are manageable. This is called self-integrated change. The more you do this and see the consequences of the change can be controlled and managed the better you will be able to cope.

You could complete a pros and cons list but this is only of benefit if there is a decision to be made so if it is an unavoidable change like your parents have decided to move and sell your house this isn’t going to work.

If it is something you cannot avoid then maybe a SWOT analysis would be more appropriate. This method would allow you to approach the change in a different way and could see it as positive once you have identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Anxiety Journal – allows you to identify triggering events that cause you to feel anxiety.

So a journal would have the date, time, what happened (how you felt) what was happening before you started to feel anxious and possible triggers.

Psychotherapy/counsellor – you may need additional help to deal with your anxiety and autism so you may need professional help and they will be able to help you through situations through role play.

Trusted friends/family – ask people for their opinion on a situation, they can help by challenging your paranoia and catastrophizing (which we see with Emma’s mum Penelope).

Sensory sensitivities

Sensory inputs are affected by:

  • Physical wellbeing
  • Mental wellbeing
  • Tiredness
  • Hunger/thirst
  • Combinations of sensory inputs
  • Temperature
  • Air pressure
  • Task demands
  • Communication demands
  • Mental associations/memories

Sensory aversions can increase he anxiety for both the individual with autism and those around them. Some people with autism will sense others anxiety about the potential of a meltdown. If they come into contact with something they want to avoid. Therefore, everyone needs to have a plan of action that they agree on to reduce everyone’s anxiety.

Communication issues

Common issue – the person with autism fear’s rejection/worry that people won’t understand them and responding in an unkind fashion, there is worry about being hurt by others, and unintentionally hurt others. There is also anxiety about the individual looking stupid and not knowing what to say. An individual with autism has a less well-developed set of social skills as a symptom but those can be learnt. There are often rules surrounding when we use pleases and thank yous.

Ways to dealing with this anxiety by asking a trusted friend/family members opinions about the situation and what you can do next time in a similar situation.

It is important to note that there are people out there that are just mean and unkind and it is okay to avoid those types of people. It can become more complicated if the individual who is mean has some authority over you but there are still ways of dealing with the situation such as going to your boss’s boss.

You can also practice communication by attending groups that have similar interests as you do or social groups for people with autism because that will give you a save environment for practice and is less stressful (as much as social situations can be).

A little bit more on Therapy

There are several different therapy options that could help: as I said before it is important to find a clinician who has experience of people with autism.

  • CBT – people become aware of how they are thinking and those thinking patterns are challenged and patterns changed.
  • Solution focused therapy – is more focused on what the client wants to achieve and focusing on the present and future and not the past. The idea of this therapy is to develop solutions and problem solve.
  • Schema therapy –  development of negative core beliefs 5 domains split into 18 schemas that Nick Dubin boils down to five issues for people with autism
  1. People cannot be trusted
  2. I cannot function adequately in the world
  3. Things are either good or bad
  4. I am inherently worthless/I have worth when I have the approval of others
  5. The world in unpredictable and unsafe
  • Acceptance and commitment therapy – accept that difficult issues exist and skills to deal with painful/negative thoughts to have less impact

Sleep strategies

  • Medication
    • Melatonin
    • Valerian
    • Valium and temazapam
  • Sleep routines
    • Ensuring that the place you sleep is suitable
    • Ensure the bed/sofa is comfortable
    • Ensure that you have the right things on the bed – blanket or duvet
    • Ensuring the room is relaxing
    • The room is dark
    • May find some music soothing
    • Smell in the room – no strong smells
    • Water by the bed
    • Snacks by the bed
    • Suitable sleeping temperature

Social anxiety disorder diagnosis

The Current DSM-5  Definition:

A. A persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be embarrassing and humiliating.

B. Exposure to the feared situation almost invariably provokes anxiety, which may take the form of a situationally bound or situationally pre-disposed Panic Attack.

C. The person recognizes that this fear is unreasonable or excessive.

D. The feared situations are avoided or else are endured with intense anxiety and distress.

E. The avoidance, anxious anticipation, or distress in the feared social or performance situation(s) interferes significantly with the person’s normal routine, occupational (academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or there is marked distress about having the phobia.

F. The fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting 6 or more months.

G. The fear or avoidance is not due to direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., drugs, medications) or a general medical condition not better accounted for by another mental disorder…

Could be considered that all people with autism have social anxiety as often people will feel that every social situation involves the possibility of being judged or evaluated.

 

 

Episode 13 – Autism Anxiety and Me

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses the impact of Autism on Emma and her family, along with interesting tips and insights into how a female with Autism relates to the world.

Get the book here

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly.

Research Study

www.childcaregiverstudy.co.uk

Contact: [email protected] | Tweet

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Find out more about Autism and anxiety with Episode 14

Episode 12 – Depression and Suicide

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses topics that some people may find difficult, including talk about suicide, self-harm and substance misuse.

Our next book is Autism Anxiety and me by Emma Louise Bridge and you can find out more about the book  here.

This episode supports Episode 11

Useful contacts:

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Information in this podcast was taken from:

The Smaritans

Mental Health Foundation Report

World Health Organisation Factsheet

World Health Organisation – Major causes of death in the UK

Office for National Statistics Suicides in the UK

Mental Health Foundation – Depression

The Mayo Clinic – PDD

WebMD – Depression

Pearson Clinical – DSM 5 factsheet PDD

Psych Central – Changes in depressive disorders

American Psychiatric Association – What is Depression?

NHS Choices – Getting Started in Exercise

NHS Choices – Exercise for Depression

Mind in your area

NHS Choices – Psychotherapy

NHS Choices – Anti Depressants

NHS Choices – Depression and Anxiety Self-Help Treatments

NHS Choices – Finding Psychological Services in your area

NHS Choices – Clinical Depression

The Smaritans Media Guidelines for Reporting Suicide

Mind – Depression

Depression Questionnaire

Harvard Health Publishing – What causes depression?

Book 6 – Autism, Anxiety and Me by Emma Louise Bridge

Book Blurb

Surely my way is not always wrong, just because it’s different from other people’s ways? I mean everyone’s way is weird to someone…

In her 24 years Emma has experienced a lot, and much of this has been coloured by her autism and social anxiety. Funny and self-aware, this collection of Emma’s diary entries capture her hidden thoughts and insightful explanations as to why the world can be such a puzzling place.

Wry observations on social rules, friendships, relationships, and facing changes give compelling insight into how Emma confronts challenges, and her determination to live life to the fullest. Helpful advice at the end of each entry also give practical strategies for coping with common issues.

Find our review in Episode 13

Episode 10 – Anxiety, Grief and Depression

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses topics that some people may find difficult, including talk about suicide, bereavment, substance misuse and how people deal with grief and loss.

Our next book is My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga and you can find out more about the book  here.

Research Study

www.childcaregiverstudy.co.uk

Contact: [email protected] | Tweet

Useful contacts:

These organisations provide further information and support about bereavement:

Bereaved Through Alcohol and Drugs (BEAD)

Information and support for anyone bereaved through drug or alcohol use.

Bereavement Advice Centre

0800 634 9494

Supports bereaved people on a range of practical issues via a single freephone number.

Bereavement Trust

0800 435 455

Helpline for people who are experiencing bereavement.

Child Bereavement UK

Helpline: 0800 028 8840

Supports families and provides training to professionals both when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying, or when a child is facing bereavement.

Cruse Bereavement Care

0808 808 1677

[email protected]

Advice to anyone who has been affected by a death, including bereaved military families.

Child Death Helpline

0800 282 986

Helpline for anyone affected by the death of a child of any age, from prebirth to adult, under any circumstances, however recently or long ago.

Lullaby Trust

0808 802 6868

Provides support for bereaved families and anyone affected by a sudden infant death.

NHS Choices

Information on bereavement.

Royal College of Psychiatrists

Information on bereavement.

Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS)

0300 111 5065

A self-help, voluntary organisation which aims to meet the needs and break the isolation of those bereaved by the suicide of a close relative or friend.

 

Information in this podcast was taken from:

WebMD grief and depression

40 life experiences you might have that cause grief

Mind Guide on Bereavment

Mind Guide on Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Mind Guide on Anger

Mind Guide on Suicide

What is Anxiety and Grief

Mind Guide on Loneliness

Mind Guide on Sleep Problems

Psychology Today – When does Grief become Depression

The difference between grief and depression

Mind Guide on Depression

The Five Stages of Grief

The TEAR Model of Grief

NHS Dealing with Loss

 

Episode 8 – Schizophrenia

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses topics that some people may find difficult, including self-harm and suicide, include a section that illustrates an auditory hallucination.

Auditory Hallucination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afbKXWCQMvE

This information was collected from:

The World Health Organisation:

Schizophrenia

Fact Sheet

ICD-10

Harvard Medical School Letter

Rethink Mental Health:

Schizophrenia Facts

Five Myths about Schizophrenia

ICD-10

Medscape:

Schizophrenia

Schizoprenic.com

Schizoprenia and Halucinations

Royal College of Pschatrists:

Schizophrenia

Psych Central – Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Mind:

Schizophrenia

This episode suports Episode 7

Episode 6 – Borderline Personality Disorder

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

Trigger warning: this episode contains discussion about suicide, panic attacks, anxiety, self-harm and depression.

Get the next book here

This Episode supports Episode 4 and Episode 5

If you feel suicidal call 999 immediatly

If you need to talk you can contact:

Samaritans on

Anxiety support groups:

Anxiety UK

  • Infoline: 08444 775 774 (Mon-Fri 9:30am – 5.30pm)
  • Text Service: 07537 416 905
  • Or visit their website http://bit.ly/1DRRCUb
 Better Help

Mental Health Resources:

Rethink Mental Illness

Mind The Mental Health Charity:

  • Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (Our lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays)
  • Text: 86463
  • http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Information sources:

Mind

Re-think Mental Health

The American Psychological Association

. 2015 Jun; 14(2): 234–236.

Very Well Article: Borderline Personality Disorder is More Common Than You Think

Optimum Perfermance Institute Article: The history of BPD

MentalHealth.net: DSM-5: The ten personality disorders: cluster B

Gulf Bend Centre: Alternative Diagnostic Models for Personality Disorders: The DSM-5 Dimensianal Approach

Personality Assessment in the DSM-5 By Steven K. Huprich, Christopher J. Hopwood Pg 47-48

Psychology Today: Borderline Personality Disorder: Big Changes in the DSM-5

. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2007 Apr 26.

About Kids Health: Your effect on your childs attachement

National Insitiute of Mental Health: Borderline Personality Disorder

Psych Central: 7 Myths of Borderline Personality Disorder

Camden and Islington NHS Trust: Myth Busting

Episode 3 – General Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Find out more at www.mentalhealthbookclub.com

This information was collected from:

Rethink Mental Health Anxiety disorder: http://bit.ly/2p6rntK

Mind the Mental Health Charity: http://bit.ly/2whB1kY

NHS: http://bit.ly/2qESLQ1

Anxiety UK: http://bit.ly/2x7py6g

NICE Guidelines for anxiety: http://bit.ly/2h70hzK