We are delighted to speak with Lisa Conway-Hughes, known to many as Miss Lolly! Lisa is a Financial Advisor, mother, author, podcaster, MENSA member, feminist icon, and all round great lass! (We're really big fans!) She speaks about the importance of financial planning and mental wellbeing. We highly recommend her book 'Money Lessons'. For more information on this fantastic lady please visit her website: https://misslolly.com/about-miss-lolly/ 

In this episode Jasmine, Neil and Olivia have a sprawling and hopeful conversation about mental health. Olivia speaks about her experience with depression, seeking help, medication and doing guided self-help with the NHS psychological therapies service - IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies).

We talk about some Cognitive Behavioural Treatment (CBT) techniques, and concepts. One of these concepts is how Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours are related: that our thoughts lead to our feelings, which then affect how we behave.

Trigger warning: there is a mention of suicidal ideation in this episode.

If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here:

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Email: [email protected]

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123 ***

This is the second half of our conversation with Issy about her experience with anorexia and disordered eating. She describes the over and back of her recovery, how telling people about her experience as an inpatient can be both liberating and constraining, and her frustration at association of eating disorders and vanity in the media. Issy’s reflections on identity, illness and agency are insightful and hearing about what she has been through is extremely moving. The first half of our conversation is called "15 Year Olds Aren't Really That Forgiving".

(Trigger Warning) Think about whether you want to hear descriptions of eating disorders, restriction and bulimia before listening.

If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here. We love feedback!

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: Wearebreakingmad

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123 ***

In this episode Jasmine and Maev chat to the wonderful Issy about her experiences with Psychologists and Psychiatrists for Anxiety, Depression and Anorexia. More to follow in Part 2! 

We love feedback! If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here:

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: Wearebreakingmad

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123, or over email at [email protected] ***

In this episode Jasmine and Maev got to ask Dr Mark Freestone all their burning questions about psychopaths. Mark has worked in forensic psychiatric settings and been researching psychopathy for years. He also advised on the character of Villanelle in Killing Eve and has recently had a book published called “Making a Psychopath: My Journey into 7 Dangerous Minds”. 

Get the book here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1119425/making-a-psychopath/9781529106541.html

We love feedback! If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here: 

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: Wearebreakingmad

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123, or over email at [email protected] ***

In Part 2 of this interview Elena speaks candidly about how having children shed new light on her own childhood, and how people, and families, can get caught in cycles of hurt. We talked about family members experiencing mental health problems and how easy it is to fall through the cracks between different services.

CBT Model of Behaviour, Thoughts and Feelings:

https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/5aspects.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

The Padesky model: https://padesky.com/newpad/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/v6no_1_2_present_model_currentweb.pdf

If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here:

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Instagram:

Email: [email protected]

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123, or over email at [email protected] ***

If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here:

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Email: [email protected]

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123, or over email at [email protected] ***

Elena spoke to Jasmine about what it was like to grow up with a dad who was a drug dealer and drug user, what it is like to work in forensic settings and how the advice you give others is sometimes still hard to follow for yourself. In this episode Elena is vulnerable, incredibly wise and totally hilarious.

If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here:

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Email: [email protected]

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123, or over email at [email protected] ***

Emma is a Music Therapist and PhD student. We talked to her about what music therapy is (and what it isn't), people pleasing and what getting psychodynamic psychotherapy is like. 

Show notes: 

- Bion's theory of containment: Bion, W. R. (1962). A theory of thinking. Parent-infant psychodynamics: wild things, mirrors and ghosts, 74-82.

If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here:

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_ Email: [email protected] Instagram: Wearebreakingmad

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123, or over email at [email protected] ***

In this episode we got to talk to Ben about his experience with mental health difficulties and suicidal feelings, being bereaved by suicide and his practice as an existential phenomenological psychotherapist.

If you want to get in touch with us about the podcast you can find us here:

Twitter: @Breaking_Mad_

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: Wearebreakingmad

Show Notes:

- We spoke about this respite centre: https://www.maytree.org.uk/

- Informal coercion in psychiatric practice:

Valenti, E., Banks, C., Calcedo-Barba, A., Bensimon, C. M., Hoffmann, K. M., Pelto-Piri, V., ... & Tubini, J. (2015). Informal coercion in psychiatry: a focus group study of attitudes and experiences of mental health professionals in ten countries. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 50(8), 1297-1308.

Hotzy, F., & Jaeger, M. (2016). Clinical relevance of informal coercion in psychiatric treatment—a systematic review. Frontiers in psychiatry, 7, 197.

- Psychiatrists asking about suicide: McCabe, R., Sterno, I., Priebe, S., Barnes, R., & Byng, R. (2017). How do healthcare professionals interview patients to assess suicide risk?. BMC psychiatry, 17(1), 1-10.

- Thomas Szasz on mental illness being constructed: Szasz, T. (1979). The myth of mental illness. In Biomedical ethics and the law (pp. 121-130). Springer, Boston, MA.

- On the evolution of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM): Kawa, S., & Giordano, J. (2012). A brief historicity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: issues and implications for the future of psychiatric canon and practice.

*** If you are experiencing distress or struggling to cope, please reach out to the Samaritans at (+44) 116 123, or over email at [email protected] ***