According to a large study on self injury conducted in 2008 by the University of Queensland, 220,000 Australians injured themselves deliberately without meaning to suicide, in the month prior to the survey. For some people, hurting themselves is a way of coping with overwhelming psychological pain. In this program we hear about what mental processes go on behind this behaviour and we hear from a young woman who openly shares her experience of self injury in order to educate health workers about the best ways to treat people like her.
Young people with severe mental illness have a 15–20 years lower life expectancy than the general population. We hear the story of a young man who after a psychotic episode put on 30kg. Now he’s back to surfing, with the help of an innovative mental health program which links mind and body.
Being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome makes a big difference to some people’s lives—providing them with an identity and an explanation for their daily challenges. The latest version of the psychiatric Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM V) which is due out this month does away with a separate category for Asperger's. In this program we get an insight into being on the autism spectrum and what impact the changes to the criteria may have.
For most people the ability to interact and communicate with each other seems almost second nature – but for those with a condition on the autism spectrum social skills can be difficult to grasp and challenging. We hear from the pioneering autism researcher from the U.K Uta Frith and neuroscientist Chris Frith about what autism and Aspergers Syndrome can teach us about our Social Brain.
Do you have a monkey mind? New Yorker Daniel Smith does. He says chronic anxiety is the only mental disorder which can be both excruciatingly painful and funny at the same time.
