All in the Mind

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and we all know it comes before a fall. But in her new book Take Pride, Jess Tracy, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, argues that pride is the glue that holds societies together and that it can explain much of human success.

How often do you use words like mad, crazy and schizophrenic in every day conversation? What impact does this have on people with mental health problems? To discuss this we brought together Niall Boyce, the Editor of the Lancet Psychiatry, linguist Dr Zsofia Demjen, and Clive Buckenham, an ambassador for Time to Change.

There's plenty of evidence to suggest that exercise is good for our mental health. And there's an increasing interest in the idea of green exercise - the idea that exercising outdoors might be even better. Bur why is this? Claudia Hammond takes a bike ride with Dr Mike Rogerson who researches how exercising in different environments can influence psychological well-being.

Four people are tasered every day in the UK and a man who's been at the receiving end describes how much it hurts. But new evidence suggests it could also affect thinking and memory. Professor Rob Kane from Drexel University in the US tasered students and then measured their ability to recall facts in the hours after being tasered. He found serious deficits: the tasered group mirrored the ability of a 78 year old man with mild cognitive impairment, with some of the taser victims performing so poorly in cognitive tests that they could be diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. Claudia Hammond asks what implications these new findings have for the timing of police interviews after somebody has been tasered.

Claire experienced amnesia after she had viral encephalitis and she has lost memory of most of her life. Her experience, along with the lesion or abnormality she had in her brain, has inspired an exhibition called Lesions in the Landscape, a collaboration with artist Shona Illingworth at The Gallery in Southwark Park, London. Claudia visits the exhibition, meets Claire and Shona and hears from Catherine Loveday, Principal Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster about the way this artistic collaboration has cast light on the nature and meaning of memory and memory loss.

There's been a lot of comment about the mental health of the US Presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, with much armchair speculation about the various psychiatric disorders he might be suffering from and why these should rule him out from high office. But Dr Margaret McCartney tells Claudia why the trend to #diagnosetrump is unacceptable and stigmatising for mental health issues.

And finally Dr Catherine Loveday tells Claudia about more evidence that walking makes you feel good. The mere act of putting one foot in front of the other for a few minutes seems to improve our mood, wherever we do it.

Claudia Hammond hosts the All in the Mind Awards Ceremony from Wellcome Collection in London and meets all the All in the Mind Award Finalists.

Back in November we asked you to nominate the person, professional or group who had made a difference to your mental health.

Throughout the current series we've been hearing the individual stories of the nine finalists, and this edition offers the chance to recap the people and organisations who've made a huge difference to other people's lives - and of course to hear comments from the judges and winners from each of the three categories.

Winner in the personal category was Jane Clement nominated by her friend and neighbour Charlotte Forsyth. Charlotte's daughter died in the hospital where Charlotte worked. She was grateful for the down to earth approach of Jane who has helped her cope with grief and depression.

Glasgow's Common Wheel project won the group or project award. They use bicycle building as a therapy to help people with a range of mental health issues. By learning to strip, service and rebuild bicycles, clients gain a new skill and a sense of achievement. By concentrating on bicycle building they dwell less on their mental health issues.

The professional category winner was case worker Amy Wollny from Turning Point. After spending half his life in prison 'John' was helped to turn his life around. For the first time in his life he has regular employment and is in control of his own behaviour.

The event is hosted by Claudia Hammond.

Judges are author Matt Haig, clinical psychologist Linda Blair, mental health campaigner Marion Janner, and Kevan Jones MP.

Produced by Adrian Washbourne and Julian Siddle.

Many people say they feel better when they're out in nature. And some projects deliberately get people involved in conservation, horticulture or farming in order to take advantage of the benefits to health and well-being in the great outdoors. It's known as green care and a new report from Nature England suggests it could play a bigger part in our mental health services. Claudia Hammond visits a Care Farm - Church Farm near Stevenage in Hertfordshire to examine the therapeutic benefits.

In the final candidate for this year's All in the Mind Awards we hear of a care worker who was nominated for making a real difference to a victim of a violent assault succumbing to post traumatic stress disorder but whose life is turning around as a result of seemingly effortless intervention.

For conversations to work we need to take turns to speak and it's something we learn when we're very young and then hone as time goes on. But there are also moments where no one is speaking and it's those lapses in conversation which might give us a clue as to how all this turn-taking takes place with precise millisecond timing. Claudia Hammond speaks to Elliott Hoey, from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, about this research.

Could you be one on the 2.5% of the population psychologists have dubbed "supertaskers". These are people who are able to deal with a multitude of different tasks all at the same time? Now a team in Australia has put together an online test so that you can find out for yourself.

We've had a lot of response to our discussion on education and exam stress. Claudia Hammond looks at a radical system designed to end exam stress forever - by doing away with exams and using artificial intelligence to carry out much more nuanced assessments. The research is being done at the University College London Knowledge Lab, and Claudia went along to see how it all works.

And a strong bond between mother and daughter is at the heart of our latest interview with a finalist in the All in the Mind awards. We hear from the daughter who has nominated her mother for an award. Ellie, who's 20, explains why she thinks her mother should get an award for the support she's given her since her diagnosis with depression, psychosis and a personality disorder at the age of 14.

Summer temperatures might be tempting you to eat outside, but maybe you live in a part of the country where your barbecues are blighted by aircraft noise and where you're woken in the morning by the roar of planes overhead? Some people insist that the noise affects their mental health. The evidence for the link between aircraft noise and depression has been patchy, but a major new study suggests there is a link. Claudia Hammond discusses the evidence with project leader and epidemiologist Professor Andreas Seidler from Dresden University.

We've another finalist in the All in the Mind Awards - this week from your nominations for the professional who'd made a real difference to your mental health.

If you've ever stuck your tongue at a young baby and watched it copy you back, you've observed early imitation - a key concept in developmental psychology. But is a new study about to overturn what psychology textbooks have been telling us for years? Psychologist Janine Oostenbroek of York University discusses her results.

With expert comment from Dr Catherine Loveday, Principal Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster.

The impact of gut bacteria on our cardiovascular system and metabolism has been well-researched. But how about the effect on our minds? Scientists are examining the possibility that these bacteria might influence our moods. John Cryan, who's Professor of Anatomy and Neuroscience at University College Cork, has just published a review of the current state of the field in the journal Genome Medicine. So could we see a day when certain gut bacteria are used in the treatment of depression and anxiety? We brought together John Cryan with Phil Burnett, who's a neuroscientist working with psychiatrists at the University of Oxford.

Is the murder rate rising? Think you know what proportion of the population are immigrants or how many people voted in the last election? Ipsos Mori Social Research Institute has been conducting worldwide research to explore how accurate people's perceptions are about the reality of what's happening in their country. They've found we're not terribly good it. Their Global Director Bobby Duffy came into the All in the Mind studio to discuss what's going wrong with our thinking.

And we've the latest on the nine finalists in the All in the Mind Awards - the Depressed Cake Shop where the cakes are grey on the outside and bright on the inside, and they're getting people talking about depression in a very unique way.

Presented by Claudia Hammond.

As every summer, exams are in the news. We look at whether the pressure to do well in exams is having an effect on children's mental health.

Looking beyond anecdotal evidence, we ask why, when considering education, is it so difficult to find firm data from which to draw conclusions and make recommendations?

And we hear from Today's finalist in the All in the Mind Awards.

The Tomorrow Project is a suicide prevention project established in response to the needs and concerns of local communities, in Nottinghamshire affected by suicide.

We meet people who have been helped by the project and discuss the kind of services it provides.

For many, working with animals is a dream job and every year thousands of students compete to get into vet school. But whilst life as a vet isn't always easy, surprisingly the suicide rate amongst vets is four times greater than among medical doctors. This fact came to prominence in research back in 2004 and steps have been taken to address it. Yet the exact reasons are still unclear. Claudia hears from vet Richard Hillman and meets Rosie Allister, who's based at Edinburgh University researching the wellbeing of vets, and is the Chair of Vetlife Helpline.

There's been a lot of talk about the technology behind self-driving cars, but what about the psychology? As the first UK trials begin examining how other drivers, cyclists and pedestrians react to coming across a car that's driving itself, Claudia travels to the Transport Research Laboratory in Surrey, to meet its Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Stevens, to discuss the behaviour psychologists and car manufacturers need to understand before autonomous vehicles hit the road.

Our latest finalist in this year's All in the Mind Awards is a boss called Blair with an unusual relationship with her employee, Steven. She doesn't just pay him and supervise him. She has supported him through some of the hardest times in his life.

In the UK there are around a hundred unfilled Consultant Psychiatrist posts. Claudia Hammond discusses with Sir Simon Wessely, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, why there is such a shortage, and the knock on effect for patients. Why does psychiatry seem to be the poor relation when compared with other branches of medicine and what can be done to persuade more trainee doctors to consider psychiatry as a career?

In the next of our series of features on the shortlist for the All in the Mind Awards, Claudia meets a GP who has helped one patient with a range of mental health issues, giving advice to her when she was admitted to hospital - despite not being in the same country at the time - and helping her to manage mental health complications associated with childbirth.

Are you bored? Don't worry it could be good for you. Research into boredom suggests an uncluttered schedule might be a good thing, giving us the chance for a bit of creative thinking. Sandi Mann, Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire talks to Claudia about the benefits of boredom.

With expert comment from Dr Catherine Loveday, Principal Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster.