All in the Mind

The pen is mightier than the laptop when it comes to notetaking. Or so we used to think. Daryl O’Connor, Professor of Psychology at the University of Leeds, breaks the news to Claudia Hammond that one of her favourite studies showing writing notes rather than typing them is best, hasn’t been replicated. Apparently it’s how much you write – on a computer or on paper – that predicts success.

There have been more than 1100 entries for the All in the Mind Awards and in the Professionals category, 30 year old Libby, who has an eating disorder, nominates her GP, Dr Celia Belk. They’re now finalists and they tell Claudia about their special doctor-patient relationship.

It’s two weeks since the former Minneapolis police officer, a white man, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, who was black. Millions around the world saw the distressing film of his killing but researchers in Utah in the US decided to measure, using big data, how much hearing about racist killings like this, affect the mental health of black Americans.

Dr David Curtis tells Claudia that his team selected 49 high profile cases of either police killing black people, a failure to indict officers accused of such killings, or white supremacist murders. And the results show worsening mental health for black, not white, Americans in weeks where there are two or more of these high profile cases.

And Daryl O’Connor also reports on another American study, this one from the emerging area of research into micro-aggressions – denigrating somebody because of their ethnicity by micro assaults, micro insults and micro invalidations. This research shows exposure to microaggressions is linked to worse PTSD symptoms.

Produced in association with The Open University

Producer: Fiona Hill

Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Catherine Loveday of Westminster University about her new research on our memories during lockdown. Have our memories really got worse during the pandemic?

And Claudia meets the first of the finalists in the All in the Mind Mental Health Awards 2021: we hear about StrongMen - a group set up to support men who have been bereaved. It was nominated by Adam Lee who suffered severe mental health issues following the unexpectedly loss of his daughter. The awards recognise the people and organisations that have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help you with your mental health. Radio 4 listeners nominated the unsung heroes and after a process of sifting through the entries, a judging panel of people with extensive experience of mental health has selected nine finalists, three from each category.

And how come some people have found lockdown to be a positive experience. Is there anything those of us who've found it harder can learn from them?

Producer: Adrian Washbourne

Produced in association with The Open University

What is the best way of getting on with people at home and at work? Psychologists Emily and Laurence Alison have spent their careers working with the police as they build rapport with suspects, sometimes terrorism suspects or perpetrators of domestic violence. And their conclusions about how best to do it have lessons for the rest of us too. They discuss their new book, "Rapport: the four ways to read people".

Claudia catches up with Helen who nominated a finalist in the group category of the 2018 All in the Mind Awards to find out what she’s been up to in the last two years.

What can you do in middle age to protect your brain later on? Everyone’s brain changes as they get older, but some people maintain their cognitive health and others don’t. Rik Henson, Deputy Director of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, has brought together studies using brain scans with research where people in their 80s are asked to look back on their lives to try to work out the impact middle age activity can have on preserving your faculties.

Do we have everything to look forward to in our teens and then realise later what life can throw at us? Bill Chopik Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University, carried out the largest study of its kind to discover when optimism peaks, with surprising results.

Claudia's studio guest is Catherine Loveday, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster.

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Claudia Hammond asks why there is little research in the UK into whether childhood racism can cause mental health problems in the future. She is joined by BBC Broadcaster, Rajan Datar, psychiatrist Kam Bhui and Professor Craig Morgan to discuss the importance of investigating racism and its effects and how recent findings are pointing towards the kinds of changes that need to be made in the future. Claudia catches up with Hannah who nominated the winner in the group category of the 2018 All in the Mind Awards to find out what she’s been up to in the last two years. Also Madeleine Finlay reports on why being double-jointed means you might be more likely to be prone to anxiety.

Producer: Pam Rutherford

What really works when it comes to preventing and dealing with mental health difficulties? Can a world exist in which no one is held back by mental health problems.? That’s the vision of Professor Miranda Wolpert Head of the Mental Health Priority Area at the Wellcome Trust. With £200million to spend over five years, Miranda Wolpert and her team are taking a radical new approach to addressing anxiety and depression in 14- to 24-year-olds. Claudia hears about her new vision in addressing mental health problems in young people

Sleep problems are common in adolescence, and often related to anxiety and depression. But one factor which might be affecting mental health in people in their twenties is how they slept as teenagers, according to new research from Faith Orchard - lecturer at the University of Sussex. She disentangles exactly what is going on and teases apart the specific sleeping difficulties involved in the complex relationship between sleep, anxiety and depression.

We use various mental shortcuts to save our brains effort. One of those is that when we’ve made a choice in the past and rejected one option, we carry on rejecting that option and downgrade the thing we didn’t choose and actively avoid it if we are offered it again. And until now what wasn’t realised was that infants who of course have far less sophisticated thinking processes, do it too. Does this mean it’s intuitive, rather than something we learn to do? Alex Silver from the University of Pittsburgh dissects the evidence

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Have you ever lost a loved one who was still a part of your life in some way? Did it leave you feeling confused or frozen about how to continue with life? Claudia Hammond examines the distressing phenomenon known as ambiguous loss – the enormous challenge of dealing with a loss when you aren’t sure what’s happened, leaving you searching for answers, unable to move on.

The All in the Mind 2021 mental health awards have just been launched, where you can nominate the person or group who has a made a difference to your mental health. Claudia catches up with some of the finalists from the past to see what’s happened to them since, and what the awards have meant for them.

What has the pandemic done to our memories? Anecdotally many report they keep forgetting things they’re sure they would have remembered before. Claudia’s studio guest, Professor Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster examines the new emerging evidence behind this phenomenon.

Our brains are in two halves and they are linked by a structure known as the corpus callosum. But some babies are born without a corpus callosum linking the brain's two sides. A quarter of these babies grow up with serious developmental difficulties, while others have no difficulties at all, suggesting that somehow the brain is compensating,. A researcher at the University of Geneva. Dr Vanessa Sifreddi, has scanned the brains of children aged between 8 and 17 and has found that for some children the two halves of their brains succeed in communicating.

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Claudia Hammond launches the 2021 All in the Mind Awards – a chance for anyone who has received help for a mental health problem to recognise the people and organisations who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

1 in 3 of us will experience problems with our mental health at some time in our lives. Help and support from people around us can make all the difference in how we cope day to day and set us on the road to recovery. Between now and the end of January 2021 the Radio 4 All in the Mind Awards are seeking listeners’ experiences of brilliant mental health care and will recognise the people – the unsung heroes - who helped make the difference.

There are 3 categories for the awards, the individual, professional or project:

Individual Award : An individual family member, friend, boss or colleague who offered significant support.

The winners of the awards will be announced during a ceremony to be held in London in June 2021.

Have you ever wondered what therapists are thinking while people sit opposite them telling them their innermost thoughts? Psychotherapist Philippa Perry discusses her graphic novel Couch Fiction which describes what actually happens during therapy. This can help many of us to understand the therapeutic process better.

And we hear of a really simple way of raising achievement levels in teenagers in disadvantaged groups – by giving them three short writing exercises, taking just 15 minutes each. It might sound a little too simple. But preliminary research by Ian Hadden at the University of Sussex suggests it could have a profound effect.

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Can one person’s story of their struggle with, and recovery from, mental health difficulties help other people with their own mental health difficulties? Claudia Hammond talks to Mike Slade from Nottingham University who is running the Neon trial into recovery stories to find out. Are you more open, less conscientious or more neurotic than you used to be? It used to be thought that personality was fixed in adulthood but it can and does change. Psychologist Eileen Graham has studied data from thousands of people and explains how and which traits are likely to increase or decrease. Also, why are people who’ve had a Covid-19 diagnosis more likely to get anxiety or depression in the three months that follow their diagnosis? Paul Harrison, psychiatrist at Oxford University who led the research, explains.

Professor Catherine Loveday from the University of Westminster is Claudia's studio guest.

Producer: Pam Rutherford

Fake news can travel faster and lodge itself deeper in the mind than the truth. Fact-checking comes too late and lies have already spread like a virus. Claudia Hammond investigates a new approach to pre-bunking misinformation via social media by inoculating the mind through exposing people to a mild dose of the methods used to disseminate fake news.

How underrated is humour? According to Stanford Business School researchers Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, authors of Humour Seriously, the frequency at which we laugh or smile drops rapidly from the age of 23 and the workplace is to blame. But as a tool for resilience and success at work, humour has some surprisingly powerful effects on the mind that we should all embrace.

People with anxiety or depression are increasingly being prescribed spending a certain amount of time in nature. But are so called Green Prescriptions right for everyone? Mathew White of Exeter University discusses his new research that reviews 166 studies which suggest that for some, a walk in nature may be more of a chore than a joy. Could the strong psychological beneficial effects be achieved with a dose of virtual reality instead?

Claudia Hammond’s guest is Daryl O’Connor, Professor of Psychology at the University of Leeds.

Producer Adrian Washbourne

More than two-thirds of adults in the UK have reported feeling somewhat or very worried about the effect Covid-19 is having on their life. The most common issues affecting well-being are worry about the future, feeling stressed or anxious and feeling bored. So what does the data say about what has really happened to the nation’s mental health during the pandemic? Claudia Hammond hears about the short and potential long-term impacts, possible ways to address the effects, and examines the psychological tools to get through an uncertain winter from so called Awe-Walks to the technique of Decentering.

With contributions from:

Producer Adrian Washbourne