Naked Insights Podcast - Honest Talks about Trauma, Health and Relationships

Few mental health experiences are as feared, misunderstood, or stigmatised as psychosis. Popular culture often portrays it as madness, danger, or a complete break from reality. But what if psychosis is far more complex than we've been led to believe?

In this thought-provoking episode, Adele and Dr Lindsay Aikman explore psychosis through a compassionate, evidence-based lens, asking a difficult but important question:

Is psychosis simply a loss of reality or can it sometimes be understood as an attempt to survive overwhelming reality?

Together, they explore:

🧠 What psychosis actually is and the many different ways it can present

⚡ The early warning signs and stages of psychotic experiences

🌪️ The role of trauma, stress, attachment disruption, and overwhelming emotional states

🔬 What happens in the brain during psychosis, including the impact of dopamine, threat detection, and altered perception

🫥 The overlap between psychosis, dissociation, spiritual experiences, and extreme states of consciousness

💊 Current approaches to treatment, including medication, psychotherapy, family support, and recovery-oriented care

❤️ Why people experiencing psychosis are often far more frightened than frightening

This episode challenges simplistic explanations and explores the human experience beneath the diagnosis. Rather than viewing psychosis solely as a symptom to eliminate, we ask what meaning, function, or survival strategy may be hidden within the experience itself.

🎧 Join us for a nuanced conversation about one of mental health's most misunderstood conditions and discover why understanding psychosis requires us to look beyond symptoms and into the stories, relationships, and realities that shape them.

Topics Covered: Psychosis, Schizophrenia, Trauma, Dissociation, Dopamine, Spiritual Emergency, Mental Health, Recovery, Attachment, Psychotherapy, Severe Mental Illness.

At first glance, Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder can look remarkably similar. Both can involve intense emotions, impulsive behaviour, relationship difficulties, and periods of crisis. But beneath the surface, these are fundamentally different conditions and understanding the difference can be life-changing.

In this episode, Adele and Dr Lindsay Aikman cut through the confusion and explore one of the most commonly misunderstood distinctions in mental health.

Together, they unpack:

🧠 Why Bipolar Disorder is primarily a disorder of mood, while Borderline Personality Disorder is often a disorder of self, attachment, and emotional regulation

⏳ The crucial difference between sustained mood episodes and rapid emotional reactivity

💔 How trauma, attachment wounds, and fear of abandonment shape borderline presentations

⚡ What mania and hypomania actually look like and why they're very different from emotional dysregulation

🫥 The role of dissociation, identity disturbance, and chronic feelings of emptiness in borderline personality disorder

🔬 What neuroscience and clinical research tell us about the origins of both conditions

💊 Why the treatments differ so significantly and why getting the diagnosis right matters

We also explore the reality that some people live with both conditions, creating a far more complex clinical picture than social media often portrays.

This episode challenges simplistic labels and explores the human experience beneath the diagnosis. Because understanding whether someone is struggling with a mood disorder, a trauma-related disorder, or both can be the difference between feeling misunderstood and finally receiving the right help.

🎧 Join us for a thoughtful, compassionate, and evidence-based conversation about two of the most commonly confused diagnoses in mental health.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), also known as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD), is one of the most misunderstood and stigmatised diagnoses in mental health. Too often, people are labelled as manipulative, attention-seeking, or difficult, without anyone asking a far more important question:

In this episode, Adele and Dr Lindsay Aikman explore the deeper reality behind the diagnosis, moving beyond stereotypes to understand what life feels like when your sense of self, safety, and connection becomes unstable.

Together, they unpack:

🧠 Why BPD may be better understood as a disorder of self-coherence rather than simply emotional instability

💔 The powerful role of childhood trauma, emotional invalidation, neglect, and attachment disruption

🌪️ Why relationships can feel life-or-death, and how fear of abandonment can trigger overwhelming emotional reactions

🫥 The hidden role of dissociation, fragmentation, depersonalisation, and feeling unreal

🔬 What neuroscience tells us about emotional regulation, threat detection, and the brains of people living with BPD

🤝 How therapies such as DBT, Mentalization-Based Therapy, and the Conversational Model help people rebuild a stable sense of self

Most importantly, this episode offers a message of hope. Recovery is possible. Many people with BPD go on to build stable relationships, meaningful lives, and a stronger, more integrated sense of who they are.

This is a compassionate, evidence-based conversation that challenges stigma and asks us to look beneath the behaviours to the human being underneath.

🎧 Join us as we explore what happens when the self feels unsafe — and how healing begins when we learn to feel real, connected, and whole again.

Depression. It’s a word often used loosely to describe a bad day, but the clinical reality is far more complex than just "feeling sad."

In this episode, Adele and Lindsay peel back the layers of one of the most common yet misunderstood mental health conditions to explore what’s really happening when "the color is sucked out of life."

We unpack:
🧠 The Clinical Reality: Understanding DSM-5 criteria and the persistent loss of pleasure.
⚖️ Depression vs. Burnout: How to distinguish between being overloaded and being clinically depressed.
💥 The Compass of Shame: Why depression leads to withdrawal and how self-attack keeps the cycle going.
🔍 Beyond the Brain: The surprising role of nutrition, movement, and daily routines in recovery.
🚩 Living with Values: How taking a stand for what matters can be the first step toward healing.

This episode moves beyond labels to offer a compassionate, multi-system look at treatment and recovery.

🎧 Tune in for a deeper understanding of the path back to a colorful life.

Self-Compassion. Is it just "soft and fluffy" indulgence, or is it actually the ultimate tool for high performance and resilience?

In this episode, Adele and Lindsay challenge the myth that being hard on yourself is the only way to succeed. They dive into why true self-compassion is a "wise system" that requires immense courage.

We unpack:
🧠 Myth-Busting: Why self-compassion isn't selfish, weak, or self-indulgent.
⚖️ The Strength of "No": How setting firm boundaries is a core act of kindness.
💥 Threat vs. Soothing: Understanding your nervous system and moving out of "attack mode."
🔍 The Three Flows: Insights from Compassion Focused Therapy on giving and receiving kindness.
🚩 Performance & Wisdom: Why moving slower and being kinder actually leads to better long-term results.

This episode reframes self-compassion as a space of true strength and the foundation for lasting change.

🎧 Tune in to learn how to turn your inner critic into your greatest ally.

"Everything happens for a reason." "Just look on the bright side." We’ve all heard it, and we’ve all said it, but when does optimism become harmful?

In this episode, Adele and Lindsay explore the phenomenon of Toxic Positivity: the minimization and invalidation of real human emotions in the name of "staying positive."

We unpack:
🧠 Intention vs. Impact: Why well-meaning advice can feel like a shut-down.
⚖️ The Cost of Suppression: How pushing down "negative" emotions drives stress deeper into the body.
💥 Emotional Bypassing: Recognizing when we use optimism to avoid difficult truths.
🔍 Stoicism vs. Silence: The difference between healthy resilience and harmful emotional masking.
🚩 The Power of Being Seen: How to create a space where difficult emotions are bearable, not intolerable.

This episode is a vital look at why we need to embrace the full spectrum of the human experience to truly heal.

🎧 Tune in to discover why it’s okay, and necessary, to not be okay.

Not all manipulation is obvious and not all of it is chaotic. Some of it is calculated, under wraps and highly strategic.

In this episode, Adele and Lindsay unpack Machiavellianism, one of the “Dark Triad” traits, and explore how it shows up in real life, relationships, and systems of power.

We dive into:
 🧠 What Machiavellianism actually is and how it differs from narcissism and psychopathy
 ♟️ The psychology of strategic thinking, control, and long-term manipulation
 💥 Why Machiavellian traits can be hard to spot and often mistaken for competence or confidence
 🔍 How these patterns show up in workplaces, relationships, and leadership dynamics
 🚩 The difference between a healthy strategic approach and harmful manipulation

This episode moves beyond the stereotypes to explore the subtle, often invisible ways power and control operate and how to recognise them without oversimplifying human behaviour.

🎧 Tune in for a clinically grounded look at one of the most misunderstood traits in modern psychology.

Psychopath. It’s a word that instantly conjures fear, danger, and “otherness.” But how much of what we believe about psychopathy is actually true?

In this episode, Adele and Lindsay cut through the headlines and Hollywood portrayals to explore what psychopathy really is and what it isn’t.

We unpack:
 🧠 The clinical reality of psychopathy vs the “monster” stereotype
 ⚖️ The difference between psychopathy, sociopathy, and antisocial traits
 💥 Why not all psychopathic traits are violent — and how they can show up in everyday life
 🔍 The role of biology, environment, and early development
 🚩 How to recognise harmful patterns without oversimplifying or sensationalising

This episode challenges the fear-based narrative and replaces it with clarity, context, and clinical insight.

🎧 Tune in for a deeper, more accurate understanding of one of psychology’s most misunderstood constructs.

“Narcissist” has become one of the most overused (and misunderstood) terms in modern psychology. But what happens when clinical language gets turned into a weapon?

In this episode, Adele and Lindsay unpack the growing trend of labelling difficult people as narcissists and why this can do more harm than good.

We explore:
 🧠 What narcissism actually is and how it differs from everyday difficult behaviour
 ⚠️ The risks of over-labelling and pathologising normal relationship conflict
 💥 How psychological terms are being used to avoid accountability or oversimplify complex dynamics
 🔍 The difference between true narcissistic patterns and unmet needs, attachment wounds, or poor communication
 🌱 How to respond to challenging relationships without defaulting to diagnosis

This episode isn’t about defending harmful behaviour, it’s about bringing precision, responsibility, and nuance back into psychological conversations.

🎧 Tune in for a grounded, clinically informed look at one of the most misused labels in mental health today.

Welcome back to the podcast.

This first episode marks the beginning of a new season, and it feels important to say that this one is a little different. Not louder. Not shinier. But more grounded, more honest, and more clinically anchored.

Over the last few years, conversations about mental health have exploded and in many ways that’s a good thing. But alongside that, we’ve also seen a lot of oversimplification, polarisation, and certainty where there should actually be nuance, care, and humility.

Psychology, trauma, health, and relationships don’t exist in neat boxes. They’re lived in real bodies, real systems, and real lives, often under pressure, often alongside grief, illness, or complexity that doesn’t resolve quickly.

This season is about slowing those conversations down. About stepping away from soundbites and into experience. About asking not just what helps, but for whom, when, and why.

I’m really pleased to be joined this season by Dr Lindsay Aikman. Lindsay is a clinical psychologist who has worked across eating disorder services, acute mental health, and hospital settings in the UK. She’s someone who has sat with the sharp end of distress, risk, and long-term recovery and who brings both depth and discernment to these conversations.

Together, we’ll be exploring a range of topics across health, trauma, relationships, and psychology AND where we are gently debunking some myths, questioning some assumptions, and talking honestly about what actually supports healing versus what just sounds good on paper or online.

In this episode, we explore:
 🧠 Why so much mental health advice is oversimplified and sometimes misleading
 💥 The myths that keep people stuck in cycles of confusion and frustration
 👩‍⚕️ What working on the frontline of psychology actually teaches you about healing
 🔍 Why there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to mental health
 🌱 What this season will unpack from trauma and attachment to mental health disorders and beyond

This isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about having better conversations. Conversations that respect complexity, honour the nervous system, and recognise that real change often happens quietly, over time. 

🎧 Tune in as we challenge assumptions, unpack complexity, and bring a more thoughtful lens to mental health.

So if you’re someone who’s curious, thoughtful, and maybe a bit tired of being told there’s a single right way to heal, you’re in the right place.

We're really glad you’re here.