Minding Your Mind

Having a degree of autonomy- the ability to have some control over your life and work- continually comes up as an important factor in good mental health. Why is autonomy so important to us? How can we get more of it? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at  mindingyourmind2@gmail.com  . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about d...

Why do mental services lag so far behind the demand for them? Why is there so much difficulty turning government plans into reality? Federal/State, Labor/ Liberal. How can we fix it all and provide a mental health system that  we all need and deserve? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at  mindingyourmind2@gmail.com  . Let them know any other topics you’d like...

How can our relationship with food become unhealthy? What are the types of eating disorders, and how can each be treated. Ian and James are joined by psychologist, researcher, and director of the Inside Out Institute, Australia’s national institute for research and clinical excellence in eating disorders, Dr Sarah Maguire The “InsideOut Institute Podcast” can be heard at Apple:  https://podca...

If you or someone you care about has a mental health problem, what should you do? Let’s get practical. What do you do? Who do you need to see? How can they help you? What does it cost? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at  mindingyourmind2@gmail.com  . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services y...

Many try to treat mental illness, or improve their mental health, through therapy or counselling with a psychologist, counsellor or psychiatrist. But how does therapy work. If you are going to get your knee fixed, a surgeon can tell you exactly the process they will go through, and how it will work. Let’s try and do something similar with therapy If you have any questions or comments email Ian and...

What is love? The highest, most blissful state known to humans, or something close to a mental illness? What are the different types of love? Obsessive, possessive, ‘I must have her/him’  love; Infatuation and ‘in love’, which have similarities to certain kinds of mental illness. Why can love become possessive and turn ugly? What about selfless love, where you just want what is best for the o...

Doctors who specialise in mental health, psychiatrists, are at the top of the tree when it comes to treating those with mental illness. But what can psychiatrists do, that a counsellor or psychologist can’t? When does someone experiencing a mental health issue need to see a psychiatrists, rather than a counsllor If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at  mindingyourmind2@gm...

What is Long Covid, who is most at risk of getting it, and why are we talking about it on a podcast about mental health? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at  mindingyourmind2@gmail.com  . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services you can contact Head to Health at  www.headtohealth.gov.au &...

Sadly, we’re all going to die. Most of us spend our lives desperately trying to ignore that uncomfortable truth, but is it a good idea to spend some time thinking and talking about death before it gets too close? If so, how do we actually do it? What about those who are dying – do they want to talk about death, or desperately avoid the subject? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and J...

When threats are right in front of us, whether it be a sabre toothed tiger or Covid, we are usually pretty good at taking action. But what about threats that we know are coming, but which are a little further away, like Climate Change? Why can it seem so hard to get the same type of unified action to deal? Is it the fault of politicians? Or of the three year electoral cycle, that incentivises shor...

In Covid lockdown there were clear rules to follow. Now, things have changed and Governments are urging us to exercise personal responsibility. The onus has now shifted to us to assess risk and make sensible decisions, even though we often lack access to the information we need to do so. How do we assess the risk of getting Covid from getting on a plane or a bus, going to the pub or letting our ki...

In 2021 we recorded 49 eps of Minding Your Mind. In this ep, James and Ian run through their favourite topics and guests, and the pieces of information and advice that have stayed with them. If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services you can...

It’s all very well to make resolutions, but how do you stop them dissolving into well intentioned nothingness? How do we turn worthy objectives into repeatable actions? How do you make something that is difficult but good for you, like exercise, a habit? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover...

We examine Irish psychiatrist Anthony Clare’s 7 secrets of happiness. What are they? What did he miss? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services you can contact Head to Health at www.headtohealth.gov.au   Beyond Blue at www.beyondblue....

What is the relationship between mental and physical health? What sort of physical health issues are those with mental illness more likely to experience? What implications does this have for the way we treatm both physical and mental health? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out...

When does something you enjoy - alcohol, drugs, online porn,  shopping, your phone -  become an addiction? Are some more prone to addiction than others? What are the most successful ways to break addictions? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression a...

Christmas is supposed to be this perfect family day, but what if it’s not? What if every year the same sniping, arguments and resentments re-surface until it ends in drunken tears? Is Christmas compulsory, or is it sometimes wiser to duck it? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find ou...

How do parents, children, siblings and partners influence each other’s mental health? How do families patterns of behaviour continue to influence us as we grow older? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services you can contact Head to Health...

Ketamine has been used as horse tranquiliser but it might also be able to help treat mental illness. We discuss it, and other novel mental health treatments. Do they work? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services you can contact Head to He...

Over the last 20 years, a lot has been done around the world to raise awareness of mental health. Miranda Wolpert, Director of Mental Health at the UK’s Wellcome foundation, joins us to discuss the results of a worldwide survey of attitudes toward mental health, and the future of research and treatment. If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let t...

Schizophrenia might be the most difficult to understand mental illness. Why do some people hear voices? How do you treat schitzophrenia? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services you can contact Head to Health at www.headtohealth.gov.au &nb...

Some great thinkers, writers and painters have experienced mental illness, but so have plumbers, accountants and school teachers. Is there a link between creativity and mental illness? If so, then when you treat the mental illness, is creativity lost? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. T...

Our reliance on technology - phones, screens, apps – is often seen as detrimental to mental health, but there are innovative ways new technology can help us diagnose and treat mental illness, and improve our mental health. If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depress...

If you can’t get to sleep and don’t get enough sleep, it can affect your mood and your mental health. Why does insomnia happen and what do you do about it? If you have any questions or comments email Ian and James at mindingyourmind2@gmail.com . Let them know any other topics you’d like them to cover. To find out more about depression and support services you can contact Head to Health at www.head...

How does your brain change from when you are born until, let’s be optimistic, you reach 100? Is it like a bell curve? Does it start out not being able to do much at all, then increase its’ capacity through childhood, coast along in adulthood until it starts to slow down? Or is it not like that at all? Do different parts of your brain – the rational, the emotional, risk-assessment etc – evolve at d...