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As we saw in How Can Therapists and Parents Support Transgender Teenagers?   There are high rates of suicide, self-harm and depression in transgender youth. One of the ways to decrease these awful mental health outcomes is medical transitioning, where transgender youth transition from the gender they were assigned at birth to their affirmed gender by developing the characterised physical features of their affirmed gender. An effective way of medical transitioning is by Hormone Replacement Therapy because masculine hormones can make fat move away from the hips and thighs and deepen the voice. Whereas feminine hormones can make body fat move towards the hips and thighs and lead to the development of breasts. However, Hormone Replacement Therapy focuses on physical benefits for transgender youth, and yet this is a psychology podcast and I am a firm believer in the biopsychosocial model. Therefore, in this biological psychology podcast episode, we’re going to be investigating the psychological benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy on transgender youth. This is going to be a lot of fun. If you enjoy learning about how hormones affect our behaviour, mental health and self-image, then you’ll love today’s episode. Today’s podcast episode has been sponsored by Biological Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also, you can buy the eBook directly from me at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley   How Hormone Replacement Therapy Improves Physical and Social Wellbeing? The main piece of research we’ll be using for this podcast episode comes from Doyle et al. (2023) because they did a large meta-analysis that got data from 46 journal articles. These articles were based on interviews with people who had taken hormones and people that hadn’t, as well as analyses of people taking hormones over longer periods of time. The research clearly shows that gender-affirming hormone therapy reduces depressive symptoms as well as psychological distress in transgender people. Also, what I find really interesting is that the research shows that hormone therapy helps transgender people improve in key areas of psychosocial functioning. Mainly in trust and self-control. Furthermore, the researchers noted that hormone therapy mostly leads to a decrease in distress in transgender people and doesn’t necessarily lead to an increase in positive emotion states. In other words, hormone replacement therapy leads to a decrease in depression, isolation and sadness and doesn’t really promote feelings of positivity. Which I think is an idea finding because I don’t think hormone replacement therapy needs to promote positive feelings as that will be a byproduct anyway of the process. For example, if you have depression, sadness and you’re isolated and hormone replacement therapy reduces those symptoms then you’re going to feel better anyway. And I’ve talked to my trans friend a lot and they always tell me how much better they feel after starting hormone therapy. In addition, Doyle et al. (2023) doesn’t provide a clear explanation of why these benefits happen. We aren’t sure if this has something to do with chemical changes in the brain or from improved body image or a mixture of the two. Personally, from everyone I’ve heard from trans people, it mainly comes from their improved body image and they feel a lot more comfortable in their own skin. But of course, there are going to be other factors as well at play. When it comes to improvements in quality of life, there is some evidence of this but these results are complicated by the emotional changes that occur during hormone therapy. For instance, in a lot of studies where participants are taking masculinising hormones, these hormones tend to decrease emotions whereas feminising hormones tend to increase emotions in participants. Since participants on feminising hormones report emotional imbalances, increased emotional expressions and mood swings. Moreover, there is no clear way to tell how existing gender stereotypes affect people taking gender-affirming hormone therapy. Yet researchers do know that these factors do impact the participant’s report on their overall quality of life. Finally, whilst Doyle et al. (2023) has some strong conclusions about the benefits of gender-affirming hormone therapy, there are gaps in the literature too. Since it is difficult to get control groups of a good size for randomised, controlled studies as well as study sizes tend to be small. Yet I personally think that is mainly because the transgender community is so, so tiny compared to the rest of the population. Also, the data could be skewed by the studies using a volunteer sample of transgender people, instead of other more representative or stratified samples. Biological Psychology Conclusion At the end of this biological psychology podcast episode, the takeaway message is very clear. Hormone therapy for transgender people decreases psychological distress, depression and it improves lives. As well as this is even more important when we consider depression plays a major role in self-harm and suicide behaviour that is scarily common in the transgender community. And thanks to Doyle et al. (2023), we now understand that hormone therapy helps transgender people a lot and it might very well save their lives. Therefore, whilst there are gaps in the literature, and let me just say there are gaps in all academic literature, it is research that proves and supports the importance of this life-saving and life-affirming therapy for transgender people. I know in the USA in particular there are a lot of laws going through at the moment in the year of writing this episode in 2023, that aim to restrict gender-affirming medical practice. I’ve seen some funny reasons given including how banning gender-affirming medical practices will help people and improve lives. That is a lie and Doyle et al. (2023) proves that. Banning transgender medical care will not help anyone, but it will lead to increased rates of depression, isolation and sadness. And then that will have a knock-on effect on increased rates of self-harm and suicide so let’s not allow life-saving medical care to be banned because this episode shows us, physical healthcare can have massive benefits for our physical and mental health.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Biological Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also, you can buy the eBook directly from me at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley   Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References Doyle, D. M., Lewis, T. O., & Barreto, M. (2023). A systematic review of psychosocial functioning changes after gender-affirming hormone therapy among transgender people. Nature Human Behaviour, 1-12. Eisenberg, M. E., Gower, A. L., McMorris, B. J., Rider, G. N., Shea, G., & Coleman, E. (2017). Risk and protective factors in the lives of transgender/gender nonconforming adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 61(4), 521-526. Eisenberg, M. E., Gower, A. L., McMorris, B. J., Rider, G. N., Shea, G., & Coleman, E. (2017). Risk and protective factors in the lives of transgender/gender nonconforming adolescents. Journal of adolescent health, 61(4), 521-526. http://transpulseproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Impacts-of-Strong-Parental-Support-for-Trans-Youth-vFINAL.pdf Iverson, Jo. (2020). Once A Girl, Always A Boy. Berkeley, CA: She Writes Press Perez-Brumer, A., Day, J. K., Russell, S. T., & Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2017). Prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation among transgender youth in California: findings from a representative, population-based sample of high school students. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(9), 739-746. SANSFAÇON, A. P., GELLY, M. A., FADDOUL, M., & LEE, E. O. J. (2020). Parental support and non-support of trans youth: towards a nuanced understanding of forms of support and trans youth's expectations. Enfances, Familles, Generations, (36). Seibel, B. L., de Brito Silva, B., Fontanari, A. M., Catelan, R. F., Bercht, A. M., Stucky, J. L., ... & Costa, A. B. (2018). The impact of the parental support on risk factors in the process of gender affirmation of transgender and gender diverse people. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 399. Veale, J. F., Watson, R. J., Peter, T., & Saewyc, E. M. (2017). Mental Health Disparities Among Canadian Transgender Youth. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 60(1), 44–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.09.014 I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

During October 2023, I spent three days working in a Gender Identity Clinic up in Newcastle, England and I got to experience a little bit of what it’s like to work in the service. I learnt a lot about how Gender services run, what is involved and how brilliant the people there that work there. Yet most importantly, I learn how great transgender people are as well. which I already knew because I have a lot of transgender friends and I’m trans non-binary myself, but this work experience cemented my positive regard for these critical, life-saving services even more. Therefore, in this podcast episode, we’ll be looking at what happens at a Gender Identity Clinic, what I learnt from them and why I fully support these services. If you enjoy learning about transgender healthcare, mental health and clinical psychology then you’ll love today’s episode. This podcast episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology and Transgender Clients: A Guide To Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also, you can buy the eBook directly from me at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley   What Is A Gender Identity Clinic? And A First Lesson Simply put and I actually think Bing defines a Gender Identity Clinic rather well, “A gender identity clinic is a medical facility that provides support and treatment to individuals who experience gender dysphoria. It accepts referrals from all over the UK for adults with issues related to gender. The clinic is a multi-disciplinary administrative and clinical team, including psychologists, psychiatrists, endocrinologists, speech and language therapists, and nurses. They work together in order to provide holistic gender care, focusing on the biological/medical, psychological and social aspects of gender.” Source: https://gic.nhs.uk/about-us/ In addition, this is actually one of my first reasons why I really like Gender Identity Clinics as a psychology person, because they’re very holistic. Which, as I’ve mentioned on the podcast before, is flat out critical to delivering the best possible care for our clients. This is even more for Gender Dysphoria because there is a psychological dimension too it, but then there are social and biological aspects which interact. It is only by interacting and looking at these three types of factors we can possibly hope to help our clients to the best of our abilities. Be it through Hormone Replacement Therapy so trans people can have the physical body they want, or the psychological dimension so they can increase their confidence and feel okay in their own body, or the social aspects by wearing gender-affirming clothing. Addressing all these dimensions of a client’s experience is flat out critical and I’m really glad that this approach is baked into Gender Identity Clinics. An Overview Of What I Did In Those Three Days Before I start talking about some of the specific lessons I learnt during these three days, I wanted to give you an overview of what I did. Also, I should mention that in my experience, Gender Identity Clinics are made up of psychology, speech and language therapists, General Practitioners (for our international audience this what the UK calls its doctors) and nurses. I think that’s all of them but as you can see, it is very much a multi-disciplinary approach which is brilliant. Therefore, like most work experience situations, you’re given to one of the disciplines and you spend the day with them. On the Monday, I spent it with a brilliant nurse that I got on well with and I learnt a lot from her. When I first met her she was looking over some blood test results for a woman that had just started her Hormone Replacement Therapy so I got to learn all about that, the different levels they look for and the importance of liver function testing. Afterwards, the nurse had a video appointment with a woman to see how she was getting on. Since it tends to be about every six months, a client gets a “check-in” appointment so the Clinic can make sure everything is okay, the client is happy and to see if anything has changed. This is when I learnt that after a few years of being on Hormone Replacement Therapy, the effects and changes start to level off. Meaning for the first year or two, the client might notice a lot of changes because of the hormones and this makes them really help. Yet then the effects start to level off. In addition, I learnt during this call what the term “Pathway” means in Gender Identity Clinics. This is basically their route through the Clinic starting off with their assessment and diagnosis, all the way to whatever their desired end is. For example, if a client only wanted to be diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria then the pathway would be short(ish) for them because they would get the diagnosis and be discharged from the clinic. Yet if someone wanted a diagnosis and then a gender-affirming surgery that had a long waiting time on the NHS then their pathway would be longer. This was a great video call that taught me a lot about transgender people, how kind and helpful they are and there was one thing in particular that the client said that still sticks in my mind. For historical context, my work experience was around the time the UK’s governing political party had their party conference and broadcasted tons of evil, foul lies about transgender people to the nation. This was a depressing time to be transgender. However, the client on the video call mentioned how whilst the political atmosphere was upsetting, the vast majority of people in their experience couldn’t care less that they’re trans. And that was very affirming for me because that is largely true I think, because this topic is so politicised, sometimes it’s hard to remember that the vast majority of people are okay and support transgender people. I’ll always be grateful for that reminder because I think that helped me a lot as well. Then in the afternoon, I was mainly sitting with a former placement student and going through a lot of their research. Something I’ll talk about more later on because that is critical to understand. What Happened On Tuesday? As a future clinical psychologist, I really did enjoy Tuesday because I’ve been checking out NHS Assistant Psychologist job descriptions lately and every single one of them requires you to have what’s known as MDT experience. This means jobs want you to have experience in Multi-Disciplinary Meetings, so on Tuesday I went to one. It was brilliant in a very nerdy sort of way. Since we all went into this big conference room and sat around a table and everyone was there more or less. You can the Clinical Leads, the head of the service who was a brilliant clinical psychologist, you had speech and language, psychiatrists, nurses and so on. And my personal favourite bit about all of this was there were free homemade biscuits being passed round because it was close to Halloween. Therefore, for the next 90 minutes, everyone spoke about their cases, they wanted to bounce ideas off each other and there were some good discussions. Granted a lot of the cases, which I would just double-check, like the professional would tell everyone their thoughts and because everyone is really good at their jobs, there was nothing to point out or problems with their thinking. Towards the end of the meeting, a nurse joined us online and she was going through her caseload and there were some more complex cases and it was really interesting to listen to. Personally, I was surprised how long this MDT meeting went on for because that was only because I had never been to an MDT meeting before. Yet I was talking to a nurse later on and some of MDTs go on for three hours, I think that was the record at that particular service. As a result, I really enjoyed this experience because it did give me critical experience that will hopefully benefit my future career as a clinical psychologist. Then the rest of Tuesday was sitting in on appointments like Monday and checking sure that clients were okay, which was great. As well as I was sitting with a placement student and we were talking for hours about different aspects of the service and client experiences. Including some interesting research the service was doing. What Happened On Wednesday At The Gender Identity Clinic? Before this work experience, I had no idea that there were small versions of MDT meetings because at this service, there are things called Huddles. These particularly happen on a Wednesday and these are meant for less complex cases that people take along so they can still talk about them and get ideas, but they need the level of insight that a large-scale MDT meeting provides. Also, these Huddles require the presence of at least three different professions. In our Huddle, we had psychology, nursing and psychiatry, and I think speech and language might have made an appearance too. Again, this is another good piece of experience for me because it shows how the NHS works, how dedicated everyone is to multi-disciplinary and holistic approaches to transgenderism. And it also shows me that you can adapt and come up with new ideas to solve problems within problems. For example, if every single case had to go through MDT then I imagine (and this isn’t fact) that those meetings would be rather time-consuming, so coming up with the Huddle idea means everyone can use their idea more effectively. Finally, besides from sitting in on some more appointments, I had maybe one of the most important conversations I have ever had as a future clinical psychologist. I was talking to this wonderful female GP and she used to be a Commissioning Officer for NHS England and we were talking about Gender Identity Services, how they’re set up and whatnot. I’ll talk more about that in the research section, but she was talking about how on paper the Services might “cost” a lot of money but in reality, these Gender Identity Clinics are very affordable and cheap for the NHS. Since we know from the research and I’ve mentioned this on previous podcast episodes, gender-affirming practices save lives, decrease suicide rates and improve the mental health of transgender people. Therefore, these Gender Identity Clinics perform these affirming practices and treatments, and if we talk in cold calculations that all policymakers seem to love, these services mean transgender clients are far, far, far less likely to commit suicide. Meaning they can work, pay tax and contribute to the economy. Something policymakers are always interested in. Therefore, if you compare the money spent on Gender Identity Clinics and the money transgender people pay in tax and other economic activities through working. Then Gender Identity Clinics become very cost-effective for the NHS. Furthermore, possibly one of the most sobering reminders of why this area is so important is because transgender children are committing suicide a lot more now. Since the GP was telling me that ever since the UK government decided to shut down the Gender Development Service, which is the UK’s under-18 Gender Dysphoria service, the children on the waiting list for treatment have reached double-digit suicide rates for the first time. When the service was open the suicide rates for children were in the single figures. As a result, I will never let this go but the fact is clear. When transgender healthcare is restricted, this kills people and in this case, transgender healthcare being restricted to children increases the chance of them dying. Personally, even as I was trying that section, I was getting a little upset because I never wanted to have that conversation. It isn’t natural to have to talk about child suicide but because of the foul and awful decisions of policymakers and politicians and other people that know less, we have to talk about child suicide rates. And as much as it upsets me, it also gives me more determination to do sometimes, to help people and help improve lives. Lessons Learnt From Working In A Gender Identity Clinic In addition to the lessons I’ve already mentioned above, I want to talk about some specific lessons that I’ve learnt during these three days and why they’re important to current or future clinical psychologists. The People Who Work In Mental Health I think one of the most important things to recognise is just how amazing and brilliant people are who work in mental health settings. I’ve worked in NHS settings before and everyone in the NHS is extremely kind, compassionate and they truly want to do what’s best for their service users. This was exactly what I had expected and I didn’t really think too much of it, because this is exactly how people who work in mental health settings should be. However, this could be my upbringing, where I live in the world and the mainstream media, but I was really pleased with how supportive, passionate and dedicated the workers at the Gender Identity Clinic were. I know this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, but professional who work at Gender Identity Clinics are some of the nicest, most passionate and hardworking people I have had had the pleasure of working with. Therefore, I think this is important to realise as current or future clinical psychologists, because I think sometimes we sometimes don’t understand there are other people who are just as passionate about psychology as ourselves in the world. For example, I’m currently doing my clinical psychology Masters and I am very passionate about the topic (hence the podcast and books) but my passion comes through in different ways compared to other students. So sometimes I do feel a minor disconnect between myself and other psychology students, so it was nice going into the Clinic and meeting other professionals that are just as passionate about this area as me. Understanding Comorbidity If you study clinical psychology then you might have come across the disconnect in clinical psychology between the academic research and the real-world implications.  For example, academic research empirically focuses on a single mental health condition and excludes participants from research that have two or more mental health conditions. This is great for research purposes because it allows us to focus on the effects and treatment outcomes for one single condition. Yet in reality, humans are rarely that clean cut because of comorbidities, where someone has two or more conditions. And this was something I found really interesting about the MDT meeting on the Tuesday because I got to hear about this in an applied setting. As well as I am having to be a little vague because this is a sensitive topic for a lot of clients so I will not be sharing too much publicly. Yet once you start working in mental health settings, you’ll start to see, appreciate and understand that sometimes it is “rare” to see someone with a single mental health condition because humans are not that simple. Therefore, as much as I want to elaborate on this section, I really need to refrain from doing so because I was told this podcast episode will probably attract a lot of haters that might try to misquote me in an effort to hurt the amazing clients that myself and the service are trying to help. Need For Research Something I found really interesting about Gender Identity Clinics is because they are so politicised, they are so judged by the government and all the transphobes are looking for any excuse to shut down all these life-saving services. There is a massive focus on research within Gender Identity Clinics. Now I’ve seen NHS services focus on research before because research is a critical part of healthcare, but Gender Identity Clinics thankfully take this focus to the next level. Additionally, when I asked about there was such a focus on research, I was told the following, but I need to reword it for our international listeners. A few years ago in the UK, there was a legal case brought forward by a transgender client who basically accused the Tavistock Clinic of trying to push the client through transitioning and a bunch of other stuff. The Tavistock Trust lost the case unfortunately because the Trust couldn’t provide evidence for the effectiveness and life-saving nature of gender-affirming practices. As well as because this was a court case against a Gender Identity Clinic, the mainstream media focused a lot of attention on it and they did a very thorough job reporting on it. Further, adding to the false public narratives that turns public opinion against these critically important services. Overall, this was a landmark court case in the UK because this was the legal case that was instrumental in bringing down the Gender Identity Development service for under 18s. Remember earlier when I mentioned those increasing rates of child suicide, this court case was a major factor behind it. As a result, in an effort to prevent another court case being so easily lost, there is a massive focus on research being done by these services. Because without this research that supports the gender-affirming work these clinics do and the lives they save, then there will be more court cases, more losses and more clinics will be shut down. Resulting in more trans people being denied the medical, social and psychological services they desperately need to prevent the worse mental health outcomes. Like suicide. And I do find this particular section upsetting because I know as a trans non-binary person as much trans healthcare in the UK is on a knife’s edge and I know the consequences of what happens if these clinics go away. People die. It is as simple as that and that I find distressing, but it also hardens my resolve about why I want to support trans people and trans healthcare as much as I possibly can. Overall, there is always a massive need for research in clinical settings, but even more so in Gender Identity Clinics. And one thing I have learnt from this work experience is the importance of research and how research has the power to save services and all the good they do in the world, so I will never ever take conducting research for granted again. Know And Learn More Than You Think Finally, I’ve written about this before in a few different places, but there will be times when you realise you know a lot more than you think. For example, there’s a tiny extract from Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 4 (coming out in March 2024) that introduces this topic well. “The idea for this reflection actually came from a Prospectus Evening that I attended with some friends after a long day of testing on participants, and as much as the university wanted us to believe otherwise, this entire event was the university just marketing itself and wanting to keep us on. They had a forensic psychologist, social psychologists, cognitive people and a bunch of clinical psychologists there, and after helping myself to the free pizza and catching up with my Final Year Project supervisor socially, I went back over to my friends to see they were talking to a lecturer of mine, a clinical psychologist. And what really struck me were the questions they were asking. They weren’t dumb questions, they weren’t ignorant questions (well that ignorant) and they weren’t questions that made me question why the hell they wanted to go into clinical psychology (well slightly). They were simply basic questions that they would have known the answers to if they had taken clinical psychology modules.” My point here is that if we’re listening, trying to learn and we actively engage in learning or any sort of work experience, then you naturally pick up stuff that you didn’t realise you had learnt. The example above contains a lot of stuff about what I had learnt in clinical psychology that I considered basics but in reality, it was specialised knowledge I was surprised other people with an apparent interest in clinical psychology didn’t know. I was reminded about this again during this work experience, because on the Wednesday after I returned to Kent I went the trans social group I go to, and there were a few conversations. I was surprised I was able to follow the conversations perfectly and I could actually add the conversations in quite a lot of depth. And it just struck me how much I had actually learnt in those three days. As a result, my point is that whenever you do psychology work experience, you may think you didn’t learn anything but in reality, you probably learnt a lot more than you ever thought possible.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Working With Children and Young People: A Guide To Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also, you can buy the eBook directly from me at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley   Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Throughout my clinical psychology education, there have been multiple times when a lecturer, an academic resource or a paper has mentioned that clinical cutoffs aren’t the best and they are problematic. Yet they have never gone into any great detail about the advantages and disadvantages of clinical cutoffs and why they are not good for our clients. I wanted to change this, not only for my own education but so I can educate others have the pros and cons of the cutoffs. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn about the advantages and disadvantages of clinical cutoffs and why they might disservice our clients instead of helping them. If you enjoy learning about mental health, psychotherapy and diagnosis then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 5: Thoughts On Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. As always the references for today’s podcast episode are at the bottom of the page. What Are Clinical Cutoffs? Within clinical psychology, we use clinical cutoffs as thresholds for mental health conditions so we can see if someone’s symptoms and mental health difficulties meet the criteria for a specific diagnosis. There are some pros and cons of clinical cutoffs and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on in today’s episode. In addition, as a small example that is related to clinical cutoffs, a lot of psychometric tests use clinical cutoffs to measure if someone has a mental health condition and what the severity is. For instance, in my research, I like using the Mental Health Inventory-5 because it’s easy and validated and it uses the following clinical cutoffs. This study used the Youden Index to determine the MHI-5 cutoff point because it is the least dependent on population prevalence, giving a cutoff point of 76 (Kelly et al., 2008). Whereas the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 uses the following: Depression, Anxiety and Stress scores from each subscale were calculated by adding up the item scores with the severity of depression reflecting 0-9=Normal depressive symptoms, 10-13= mild depressive symptoms, 14-20= moderate depressive symptoms, 21-27= severe depressive symptoms and 28+= extremely severe depressive symptoms. Anxiety severity was reflected in scores of 0-7= normal anxiety symptoms, 8-9= mild anxiety symptoms, 10-14= moderate anxiety symptoms, 15-19 severe anxiety symptoms and 20+ extremely severe anxiety symptoms. Stress severity was reflected in scores of 0-14= normal stress symptoms, 15-18= mild stress symptoms, 19-25= moderate stress symptoms, 26-33= severe stress symptoms and 34+= extreme severe stress symptoms (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). As a result, you can see how different psychometric scales have different clinical cutoffs to help them determine if a mental health condition is present and the severity of the condition. What Are The Advantages Of Clinical Cutoffs? Let’s start off by focusing on the positive aspects of clinical cutoffs, because they can be very useful at times. Firstly, clinical cutoffs allow us to diagnose mental health conditions in a standardised way so we can ensure consistency across different mental health settings as well as professionals. For instance, if you’re using the Mental Health Inventory-5 in your diagnosis, it doesn’t matter if you’re assessing people in Manchester and they get a score of 80 or people down in Dover and they get a score of 80. Both of those numbers should mean the exact same thing in terms of the severity and presence of a mental health condition so that allows country-wide standardisation of diagnosis. Even though, I will add I’ve spoken a lot on the podcast before about the inconsistency of diagnosis amongst mental health professionals and there is a lot of literature on the topic. Hence, you could argue clinical cutoffs help to get rid of some inconsistency but it certainly doesn’t solve the problem of inconsistency like it claims to. This is why the DSM-5 isn’t that great. Secondly, one of the aspects that I like about clinical cutoffs is that it provides clients with a way to access treatment. Personally, in an ideal world, I am a firm believer that everyone should get access to mental health support when they need it most before they get so severe that their life is in danger. For example, I cannot get mental health support for my eating disorder until I am dangerously underweight so I’m going to keep getting more severe without any support. Anyway, the reason why clinical cutoffs allow people to access treatment is because they can make individuals eligible for specific treatments, insurance coverage and support services. This is why in the UK, you cannot get access to eating disorder support until you meet the clinical cutoffs for your Body Mass Index and you have to be dangerously below your normal weight. Which is silly because the BMI is a useless and outdated concept which I covered on a past episode. Although, to put a positive spin on this advantage, I want to mention that from a public services perspective, I understand why clinical cutoffs are needed. Since there will never be enough staff, money or support available for every single person who needs it and there definitely isn’t enough staff or money for preventive mental health support. Therefore, clinical cutoffs help public services to target their support to the people who need it most so they can focus on these individuals. Finally, from a clinical research perspective, clinical cutoffs are very useful because standardised cutoffs give researchers a clear criteria for inclusion in their study. This can help them create more valid and credible studies that can improve our understanding as well as treatment of mental health conditions. In my opinion, this is a big advantage of clinical cutoffs because it is a way of knowing that your research participants do have the mental health condition to clinically significant levels, so this allows you to design and set up more valid experimental and control groups. This is an issue I have with mental health research done at university by Masters, undergraduates and even some PhD students, because university students are easier to get to. They make up the majority of the research samples even when they’re studying depression, and believe me, I know and I understand that depression, anxiety and other conditions are prevalent amongst university students. Yet from an empirical standpoint for better or for worse, part of me would like researchers to engage with clinical populations that have reached the clinical cutoff of the mental health condition that they’re investigating. It isn’t a perfect idea but it is the world we live in. What Are The Disadvantages of Clinical Cutoffs? As you can tell already, I am a little critical of clinical cutoffs because I’ve already mentioned some extra disadvantages in the previous section. Yet we still need to investigate some more disadvantages. Firstly, a disadvantage of clinical cutoffs is that they oversimplify mental health conditions by boiling them down into a set of numbers. They completely dismiss the complexity of mental health and they overlook the nuances of someone’s experience. The issue with oversimplifying mental health is that it can lead to misdiagnosis and it does lead to overlooking the people that need mental health support. For example, if we look at my eating disorder, I told the medical doctor (yes I have massive issues I was seen by a medical doctor for a psychological condition) that I’ve been losing a kilogram a week for about 2 months, I’ve made myself physically sick twice in the past few months through malnutrition, this is linked to my rape and I am barely eating a thousand calories most days because I am terrified to eat. Still because my Body Mass Index was okay, he said I was fine and let me go. It is ridiculous. I need the support and I was courageous enough to ask for the support as much as I didn’t want to, and then the medical doctors just turned me away. Secondly, our next disadvantage builds off the last one because clinical cutoffs are very inflexible. Clinical cutoffs are very rigid so these fail to account for social, individual and cultural differences in how someone’s symptoms and difficulties manifest. Again, this means that people might not receive a diagnosis or the mental health support they really need. One example that shows the individual differences is when someone has anorexia nervosa and Atypical Anorexia. Both of these people have anorexia but one person has the extreme weight loss amongst all the other diagnostic criteria, but the person with Atypical Anorexia doesn’t have the extreme weight loss and still has all the other diagnostic criteria. Therefore, these are essentially the exact same condition, both are very deadly, but Atypical Anorexia doesn’t meet the clinical cutoff for mental health support at times. It makes no sense when two people have the same deadly condition, but only one type of person gets mental health support from what I’ve seen. Finally, the last major disadvantage of clinical cutoffs is that they tend to focus on deficits as well as pathology (what is wrong with someone) instead of their resilience and their strengths. You can tell that clinical cutoffs arose from the biomedical model that sees mental health conditions as evil disorders that needs to be cured at all costs instead of seeing them as conditions that a person lives with and needs to develop adaptive coping mechanisms to help them thrive in their everyday life. Just because a person has a mental health condition doesn’t make them flawed, evil or messed up. It just means they need a little more support to decrease their psychological distress, improve their lives and take back control of their lives so they can live their ideal life. Clinical cutoffs dismiss that approach to mental health care completely. They imply that someone has a mental disorder that needs to be cured and fixed because there is something wrong with a person. I completely reject that notion like the majority of modern clinical psychology. Clinical Psychology Conclusion At the end of this mental health podcast episode, I want to say that I was rather surprised at how I was a little more critical of clinical cutoffs than I thought I was going to be. I won’t deny there are advantages, like clinical cutoffs mean we can diagnose mental health conditions in a standardised way, they allow clients to access treatment and they’re useful for designing standardised research samples in clinical research. Even though there are disadvantages within each of those advantages. Additionally, the disadvantages of clinical cutoffs include oversimplifying mental health, they’re inflexible and they pathologise a person’s mental health difficulties. Ultimately, whilst there will not be an end to clinical cutoffs for a good long while because we don’t have anything to replace them with, probably until we come up with a valid and widely accepted alternative for the DSM, we need to be weary about them and not accept clinical cutoffs are perfect. As aspiring or qualified psychologists, it is our job to balance the use of clinical cutoffs with a holistic approach to mental health care so we can understand, appreciate and value the unique context and experience of every single client that we see. Never ever reduce your client to a mere set of numbers as impossible as that might seem at times when we have the pressure of waiting lists, bosses and policy breathing down our necks. And that’s before we think of our ever-increasing caseload. Clinical cutoffs are a tool for our jobs, and not a perfect tool at that.     I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 5: Thoughts On Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References Pros and Cons of the DSM in Mental Health Diagnosis - Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/dsm-friend-or-foe-2671930. Summary of Representative Clinical Depression Screening Tools. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/ESRDQIP/Downloads/Summary-of-Representative-Clinical-Depression-Screening-Tools.pdf. The Pros and Cons of Mental Health Diagnosis - MHM Group. https://mhmgroup.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-mental-health-diagnosis/. What if Some Mental Disorders Weren't Disorders at All?. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shouldstorm/202008/what-if-some-mental-disorders-werent-disorders-at-all. Whiteley, C. (2024) Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 5: Thoughts On Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy . CGD Publishing. England. Will a Diagnosis Do More Harm Than Good? The Pros and Cons of .... https://www.millennialtherapy.com/anxiety-therapy-blog/pros-and-cons-of-diagnostic-labeling. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

When it comes to clinical psychology, it is a very white, female, middle-class professional and I’ve spoken and written about the various reasons why this is the case and why this needs to change urgently. Diversity will always be critical within clinical psychology and related mental health professions, but a major reason why clinical psychology isn’t that diverse is because of barriers to the profession. For different groups of people, even including white men, there are different barriers that can limit access to the clinical psychology profession, but this doesn’t mean that all barriers are the same height. Therefore, in this psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what these barriers are, why they aren’t always the same height and what we can do as profession to help flatten and hopefully outright eliminate some of these barriers. If you enjoy learning about careers in psychology, mental health professions and more then this is a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 5: Thoughts On Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Are All Barriers In Clinical Psychology The Same Height? (Extract From Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 5) When I was flicking through the December 2022 edition of The Psychologist Magazine, there was this article from a man talking about him feeling out of place and almost like an imposter on the UK’s NHS “Aspiring Clinical Psychologist” scheme. It's a scheme designed to help people who cannot undertake a Masters nor undertake unpaid work experience to get work experience and a partial education towards becoming a fully qualified psychologist. In the article, the man was talking about how much of a fraud he felt because he was white, wasn’t from an ethnic minority and he didn’t have any other characteristics that would disadvantage him. The only reason he was on the scheme was because he was from a poor background so he couldn’t undertake unpaid work experience or do a Masters degree. And then the article went on to talk about how he realise he did belong on the scheme but it still made him think about his own privileges and that not all the barriers in clinical psychology are the same height. The barriers to the profession were a lot lower for him compared to a black person from a poor background. Personally, this got me thinking about my own privileges and disadvantages, but firstly I want to mention that this man might have been white and he didn’t have any other disadvantages besides the fact that he was from a poor background. He still 100% deserved to be on this scheme because he met the criteria, he needed the help and it benefited all the future clients he was going to see. He was suffering from self-doubt and imposter syndrome, which is understandable, but he shouldn’t have felt that way about himself. Furthermore, I think the reason why this really got me thinking is because of my own appearance, status and disadvantages. Since I am a white male from a middle class family in a poor area. Those are my advantages and those have been very useful to me in my life. Also, I am gay but you would never know from looking at me so I can hide that part of myself very well if needed. As well as I am part of the trans community as a non-binary person but again, you would never be able to tell. Then finally, I have suffered really bad mental health and I had tons of lived experience of mental health difficulties behind me. You would think that would certainly be an advantage in clinical psychology and it very much can be, but people are still weary. And there are still unconscious biases at play during the recruitment process, even within clinical psychology. Yet again, you would never know I have had horrific mental health in the past, because I hide it very well. Therefore, what got me thinking about this article was that I definitely know how this man feels. Since there have been times I have wanted to apply for minority-focused bursaries, opportunities and more but I have stopped myself because I don’t feel disadvantaged at times. Of course, I am perfectly aware that I am disadvantaged and there have been times when people in positions of power have made that perfectly clear to me in very non-subtle ways. However, I keep telling myself the same lie over and over again about how I don’t need these things. Even though it would have helped me, my future and my career if I had applied for these things a few years ago. It’s interesting that I try to convince myself that I am perfectly okay even now, but I am not because I am disadvantaged and I shouldn’t be scared to recognise it. On the whole, when it comes to myself, in the future if there is an opportunity that comes up for minorities. Then I need to be more open and honest with myself about looking into it and allowing myself to apply if I think I meet the criteria. For everyone else reading this, if there is an opportunity that you meet the criteria for, whether it’s aimed at minorities or not, you should go for it. Getting a job in psychology is hard enough for all of us, but it is even harder for other people that face more barriers than most. Look for opportunities, exploit them and help yourself to build a Resume or the career that you want. Don’t let self-doubt, imposter syndrome or anything else hold you back.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 5: Thoughts On Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology Reference Whiteley, C. (2024) Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 5: Thoughts On Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy . CGD Publishing. England. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

With Halloween only being a few days away, I wanted to take this opportunity to understand the psychology behind this massive holiday. Of course, you could argue that there's no social psychology behind Halloween but actually there is research and quite a few arguments explaining that Halloween has a massive social function in modern, western society. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you'll learn why is Halloween important, what are the social functions of Halloween and more. If you enjoy learning about applied psychology, social psychology and more then this is a brilliant episode for you. Today's psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What Is The Social Function Of Halloween? When we consider that the modern, western holiday of Halloween is a billion-dollar industry that often lasts two months based on an ancient Celtic holiday, we need to ask ourselves why. Why do people love Halloween so much so that I see Halloween decorations in supermarkets in late August and early September right up until Halloween? At that point in the calendar year, there is a very creepy mix of Halloween and Christmas decorations up in the supermarkets and that is just creepy. So why do stores dedicate two months to this very popular holiday? How do they know they can make an insane amount of money from Halloween? In addition, considering that the Celtic holiday that modern Halloween is based on is ancient and it was designed to ward off evil spirits and celebrate the dead, why has it endured? Some academics have proposed that Halloween has a social function that is deeply rooted in our biology. Since the fear emotion that is caused by humans believing something is dangerous or threatening makes adrenaline as well as other hormones get released into our bloodstream. Ultimately, preparing the body for our fight or flight response. Logically, this would make sense if fear was something that humans avoided because surely being scared is horrible. It is, but the fact that fear is horrible doesn’t stop people from chasing it. As a result of if we make threatening scenarios within a safe environment, for example seeing a gory horror film in the safety of a cinema, then this terror and fear becomes socially sanctioned. This helps to contain our fear too. Therefore, this connects to Halloween because the costumes we use, enjoy and go out in allow people to experience some made-up fear. Especially, as Halloween is essentially an imaginative form of play for both adults and children. I know a lot of university students and my friends are looking forward to going to Halloween parties next week at the time of writing. My new friend is going to go to one with the Rock and Metal Society, and I think me and my housemates are going to do some pumpkin carvings. Whilst the Halloween party is scarier, both situations involve us creating a scary scenario in a safe, controlled environment. In terms of the literature itself, American sociologist Amitai Etzioni argued that Halloween is popular in modern society because it acts as a tension-management ritual that allows us to play out and express our collective fantasies, anxieties and fears. He wrote that in a 2000 article in Sociological Theory and I think it’s largely true because we never get to play or dress up as witches, vampires, monsters and warlocks amongst other creatures. We are all scared of these monsters and it’s interesting that for one night of the year, we get to not be afraid of these monsters. We get to express our fears and perhaps conquer them or at least understand that they aren’t as scary as imagine. In addition, Dr Jason Parker, a psychology lecturer at Old Dominion University, supports this argument. Since in 2002, he spoke about how Halloween allows us to get a physical response because of us facing and being exposed to the physical expression of our fears, and this allows us to experience the feeling of accomplishment as well. All because Halloween plays with our emotions and allows us to feel like we overcame our fears. In other words, if you have a fear of witches and their magic, Halloween allows you to see, interact and experience witches in the real world. Then you experience the physical reaction of fear and the associated emotions and by the end of the night because you are alright, you are safe and nothing bad happened, you can feel accomplished as you overcame your fear. A final academic argument comes from a 2008 article by Cindy Dell Clark who proposed that Halloween is a complex process where the inversion of meaning is very common and important. Since according to her research, Halloween is popular because children gain “ascendance” through costumed trick-or-treating as well as us, adults, support the anti-normative themes of the holiday. Another way of putting her argument is that Halloween is the one day of the year when the social world can stop making sense and that’s okay. In other words, it is perfectly fine and socially sanctioned for adults not to be socially normal (like grown-ups dressing up and partying like kids) and for kids to get candy from strangers wearing fun costumes. It gives everyone a break from the social norms of the year. Furthermore, Professor Tamar Kushnir from Duke University, discussed in 2019 why we turn our fears into Trick-or-Treating. We do this because the scary and fear-inducing situations presented to us don’t present a true danger, so this stimulated fear is a good way to practise the experience of being afraid whilst there not being a true danger. As well as most people enjoy the process of being a little scared too, so people find joy in the process too.   Finally, death is our greatest fear and Halloween represents this fear in many different ways. For example, death as ghosts, zombies, demons and skeletons. Halloween represents all manners and forms of death so Halloween allows humanity to capture how we feel about death and one day no longer being here. As well as Robert Langs writes in his book Death Anxiety and Clinical Practice about how Halloween allows us to celebrate life with a great awareness of the inevitability of death. Subsequently, if we link this idea back to the evolutionary and biological argument, Langs is effectively pointing out how our awareness that life eventually ends in life is fundamental to human evolution. This results in humans being anxious about death and these anxieties lurk and ruminate inside our minds, but they are never addressed in psychotherapy for a range of reasons. Probably because death is still too taboo within Western societies to discuss openly. As well as our psychological defence mechanisms of denial and repression play an active role in this lack of address too. Nonetheless, it is Halloween that allows us to acknowledge and celebrate that death will come for us all and that’s okay. It is a part of life and that is why living and having a joyful and meaningful life is so important. And let’s face it, Halloween is a much more fun way of dealing with death anxiety than talking about it in therapy, right? Social Psychology Conclusion Whilst it’s very rare that I remember to actually do holiday-themed podcast episodes because I’m normally too busy to remember this would be a good idea until after the holiday, I really did enjoy today’s episode. Since now we all understand why Halloween endures, why people spend hundreds, thousands and sometimes even tens of thousands of dollars on Halloween decorations and how a pagan ritual survived 2,000 years and is bigger than ever. We understand that all now. Halloween allows us to enjoy being scared and it evokes our fear response. Halloween teaches us that being scared is okay and we can feel accomplished in the fact that we face our fears and survive. Since we know we can face our fears, fantasies and nightmares, like witches and vampires, and know we will still survive. As well as Halloween allows us to confront our fears and anxieties around Death as a single united society. Ultimately, Halloween is a wonderfully unique holiday. Sure, there are monsters, people dressed up in costumes and fear-inducing situations abound. Yet it is truly the only night of the year when every single person in the Western world is united in their fearful scenario in a safe, controlled environment. And there is magic in that. There is magic and a wonderful social function in knowing that everyone is the same for a single night, a single holiday, a single fearful situation where everyone is scared and hopefully having a lot of joy. Isn’t that just strangely wonderful?     I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Social Psychology References and Further Reading Alhabash, S., Kanver, D., Lou, C., Smith, S. W., & Tan, P. N. (2021). Trick or drink: Offline and social media hierarchical normative influences on Halloween celebration drinking. Health communication, 36(14), 1942-1948. Howington, A. Unmasking Halloween. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/psychology-yesterday/202310/the-psychology-of-halloween Rogers, N. (2002). Halloween: From pagan ritual to party night. Oxford University Press. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Something I flat out love about talking with fellow psychology students is that you get talking about different mental health conditions. As well as because a lot of university students, especially in psychology seem to have different mental health conditions and difficulties, or at least the ones I talk and become friends with, I often get thinking about new conditions that I haven't focused on before. For example, I was talking with a new friend the other week about how they next sad and depressed at this time of year. So I started wondering if they had Seasonal Affective Disorder, and when I asked them a few nights ago about it, they weren't sure but it was possible. Of course, I'm not going to say anything more about SAD to my friend because it isn't my business, but I wanted to learn more for my own knowledge and entertainment. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you'll learn what is Seasonal Affective Disorder, what is the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria of Seasonal Affective and what are some treatment options for Seasonal Affective Disorder. If you enjoy learning about mood disorders, mental health and more then this will be a great episode for you. Today's psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by CBT For Depression: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Depression.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Note: as always nothing on this podcast is ever any sort of official advice. What Is Seasonal Affective Disorder? Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a depressive episode that happens in the autumn and/or winter months and it resolves itself in the summer months when there is more light and the seasons become “happier” and less “depressing”. Although, in the third quarter of 2024, I did cover on the Psychology News Section of the podcast (or maybe I saw an article on it. I forget) that it is possible to get Seasonal Affective Disorder in the summer months and it resolves itself in the winter months. That’s a fascinating idea and I look forward to seeing more research on that aspect of the condition in the coming years. In addition, in the United States of America roughly 5% of the adult population experiences Seasonal Affective Disorder. As well as Sad is believed to be caused by the disruption to a person’s circadian rhythm that is caused by the decreased sunlight exposure that everyone experiences as the days get shorter and the nights get longer. Now I am saying this for information purposes but I do believe in this reason because serotonin and a biological basis for depression has been debunked over the years. Especially by Read and Moncrieff (2022). However, it is apparently believed that this decreased sunlight exposure leads to a decrease in the neurotransmitter serotonin that is important for regulating and stabilising our mood. Moreover, according to Melrose (2015), women are 4 times more likely to experience Seasonal Affective Disorder than men, as well as it tends to first manifest itself in early adulthood, so somewhere between 18 and 30 years old. And at first I thought this finding was strange but in reality it isn’t. Since it turns out that the further you live away from the equator (that have the longest amounts of sunlight), the more prevalent Seasonal Affective Disorder is. For example, according to an article by Horowitz (2008), only 1% of Floridians have Seasonal Affective Disorder but 9% of Alaskans do. In addition, besides from depressed mood, some symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder can include, difficulty in concentrating or thinking, loss of interest in activities, sleeping for long hours (also known as hypersomnia), changes in appetite and lack of energy or feelings of malaise or fatigue. What is The DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria For Seasonal Affective Disorder? From time to time I really like to look at the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for different mental health conditions because it's interesting, insightful and good to be aware of. Not because the DSM is good or even a fine system and it certainly has flaws. Yet it is interesting to think about.  Therefore, when it comes to Seasonal Affective Disorder, the DSM-5 focuses on the lifetime pattern of mood episodes. These mood episodes can be depressive, hypomanic or manic, so feeling extremely good instead of having a depressed mood. As well as when a client has Seasonal manic episodes as part of their Seasonal Affective Disorder, their depression may not regularly occur during a specific time of year. In other words, there might not be anything Seasonal about it.  Also, the DSM makes use of different Criterions that have to be met in order for a diagnosis to be given. For example, Criterion A requires a client to have a regular temporal relationship between the onset of a major depressive, hypomanic or manic episode and a particular time of year, like the autumn or winter, in bipolar disorder type 1 and 2 cases. As well as these don't include cases where there are clear effects of seasonally related psychosocial stressors. For instance, if you aren't employed every winter for some reason.  When it comes to Criterion B, Seasonal Affective Disorder requires a full remission or a change from major depression to hypomania or mania or vice versa at a characteristic time of year. For example, the depression disappears in the summer months. Penultimately, Criterion C requires a client in the past 2 years to show that their manic, hypomanic, or major depressive episodes have a temporal seasonal relationship, as well as no non-seasonal episodes of that polarity have occurred during that 2-year period. In other words, a client needs to show that in the past 2 years, they have experienced a depressive, hypomanic or manic episode that starts in the winter months and goes in the summer months. Finally, Criterion D requires that the number of depressive, hypomanic or manic episodes that happen seasonally outnumber any nonseasonal manic, hypomanic, or depressive episodes that might have happened over their lifetime. That’s it for the Criterions then in terms of signs and symptoms, the DSM-5 requires the major depressive episodes that happen in a seasonal pattern to be often characterised by prominent energy, hypersomnia, weight gain, overeating as well as a craving for carbohydrates. Also, this specifier can be applied to the pattern of major depressive episodes in bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, or major depressive disorder, recurrent. Moreover, the onset and remission of the major depressive episodes that happen as part of Seasonal Affective Disorder happen at characteristic times of the year. This feature we spoke about earlier. What Are Some Treatment Options For SAD Clients? As a result of Seasonal Affective Disorder being related to a lack of sunlight, the condition is typically treated by getting clients to be exposed to more sunlight. Therefore, some clients push themselves to spend time outdoors or move closer to a window facing the sun. Whereas for other clients, SAD is treated using Bright Light Therapy because this gives the client more exposure to “sunlight”. In this situation,  clients are exposed to a full-spectrum fluorescent light box that emits brightness similar to real sunlight. Thankfully, Bright Light Therapy is now recognised as a first-line treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder   and clients might start to feel an improvement in their symptoms after using the lightbox for only 20 or 60 minutes a day. As well as research shows that lightboxes are most effective when they’re used early in the morning. Another treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder can be using Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors because this is shown to improve depressive symptoms. Yet again, the issues with this treatment still remain. Especially, because when you combine the published and unpublished data, anti-depressants, SSRIs and more biological treatments for depression are next to useless. Finally, another treatment option for Seasonal Affective Disorder (and this is something else that my friend mentioned too) is that SAD could be caused by a Vitamin D deficiency. Since as humans our vitamin D levels naturally falcate throughout the year depending on the amount of sunlight available to us. Therefore, we normally have to make up for this deficiency through our dietary intake as we cannot produce vitamin D as effectively in the winter as there is less sunlight available to us. As a result, when it comes to treating Seasonal Affective Disorder, good eating habits and/ or Vitamin D supplements are important so clients can make sure to maintain their Vitamin D levels. And ultimately fight against seasonal depression. Clinical Psychology Conclusion Often we focus so much on depression that we tend to forget that other mood disorders exist. That's why I really enjoyed this podcast episode because we got to see that Seasonal Affective Disorder is characterised by depressive, manic or hypomanic episodes starting in the winter months and ending or changing in the summer months for at least the past 2 years.  Also, we got to see that Bright Light Therapy is an effective treatment for SAD. Which to me is oddly hopeful because it just goes to show that interventions for certain conditions don't need to be scary, expensive and time-consuming. SAD can be treated with an affordable Light Therapy lamp and as long as the client does this early in the morning for at least 15 minutes a day then hopefully they should start to see an improvement. And considering most of the interventions we learn about on the podcast take on psychotherapy that takes 3 months at least according to NICE guidelines. Light therapy is a pretty fascinating treatment option and that's why different mental health conditions are great to learn about, because you never know what's going to excite you. For me it was light therapy, for you it might have been completely different.  That's one of the many joys of learning about the fascinating world of mental health.  Don't you agree?   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET CBT For Depression: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Depression.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References And Further Reading Bertrand, L., d'Ortho, M. P., Reynaud, E., Lejoyeux, M., Bourgin, P., & Geoffroy, P. A. (2021). Polysomnography in seasonal affective disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 292, 405-415. Cotterell, D. (2010). Pathogenesis and management of seasonal affective disorder. Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry, 14(5), 18-25. Do, A., Li, V. W., Huang, S., Michalak, E. E., Tam, E. M., Chakrabarty, T., ... & Lam, R. W. (2022). Blue-light therapy for seasonal and non-seasonal depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 67(10), 745-754. Galima, S. V., Vogel, S. R., & Kowalski, A. W. (2020). Seasonal affective disorder: common questions and answers. American family physician, 102(11), 668-672. Horowitz, S. (2008). Shedding light on seasonal affective disorder. Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 14(6), 282-287. Melrose S. (2015). Seasonal Affective Disorder: An Overview of Assessment and Treatment Approaches. Depression research and treatment, 2015, 178564. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/178564 National Institute of Mental Health. Seasonal Affective Disorder. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/seasonal-affective-disorder Roecklein, K. A., & Wong, P. M. (2020). Seasonal affective disorder. Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, 1964-1966. Thalén, B. E., Kjellman, B., & Wetterberg, L. (2020). Phototherapy and melatonin in relation to seasonal affective disorder and depression. In Melatonin (pp. 495-511). CRC Press. UGA Today. (2015, January 20.) Vitamin D deficiency, depression linked in study. https://news.uga.edu/vitamin-d-deficiency-depression-linked-in-study/ I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Whenever a crime happens, a victim has to gather up the courage to go to a police station or dial 999 or 911 and they have to report the crime by making an allegation that a crime has occurred in the first place. Sometimes these allegations are true, other times they are not. When these allegations are not true then this can be deemed as a false allegations, even if the crime did actually happen. Therefore, in this forensic psychology episode, we’ll be exploring what is a false allegation drawing on different research because by knowing what a false allegation actually is. Psychologists can start to understand why people make false allegations as well as why the police and other people deem real allegations to be false. If you enjoy learning what about crime, the criminal justice and criminal psychology then this is a brilliant episode for you. This psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations: A Forensic And Criminal Psychology Guide To False Allegations of Rape, Sexual Abuse and More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Important Note: I just wanted to add that this podcast episode and the associated book that this is an extract from is definitely not to implying that all allegations involving these crimes (like rape, sexual abuse amongst others) are false. This is NOT the message of the book at all and time after time in this book, we are reminded about the true number of how many allegations are real. It is extremely rare for someone to lie about rape and other horrific crimes. What Are False Allegations? (Extract From Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations COPYRIGHT 2024 Connor Whiteley) Kicking off the book and the forensic psychology of false allegations, we need to understand what these actually are before we can explore the psychology behind them. This is even more important when we consider that false allegations aren’t really anything to do with psychology, so why are forensic psychologists still interested? That’s what we’ll explore in this first chapter. Therefore, false allegations are all about miscarriages of justice. Since if a false allegation is made then this does have the potential to lead to a criminal investigation, court and maybe even a conviction based on a false allegation. As you’ll see throughout the book it is rarely that simple but it can happen. As a result, a miscarriage of justice is rather difficult to define, because the easiest definition we’ll be using for this book is when an innocent person gets convicted for a crime they didn’t commit. On the surface that sounds like a perfect definition, and in theory it certainly is, but if we want to apply that definition to the real world then we experience one problem after another. Since whilst a miscarriage of justice is when a court of appeal overturns a conviction (Naugton, 2005). This is important to know because miscarriages of justice are the results of false allegations. But an overturned conviction doesn’t always mean the person was believed to be innocent. A conviction could be overturned due to police mishandling the evidence, a witnessed lied or another of a whole range of factors. Therefore, as you can start to notice, this is more of a legal question than a psychological question but I promise you the link between psychology and miscarriages of justice is coming up soon. On the whole, it is very, very difficult to get a true rate of fake allegations as that depends on the definition being used. For example, a researcher or another person couldn’t use all non-guilty verdicts to imply that a false allegation against the accused has happened. When in reality all a non-guilty verdict means is that it was beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did not commit the crime. Another example that makes the true rate hard to know about is “unfounded claims” were no supporting evidence is found. These are different to false allegations because in false allegations no crime actually happened, but in unfounded claims, an offense could have happened but there is no evidence of it ever happening. This is certainly a reason why I like legal stuff because it is so complex but extremely interesting at the same time. In addition, recanted accusations aren’t evidence that no offense occurred because different people recant their statements for different reasons. Including the reconciliation between partners. As well as this is before we consider the clear difference between false allegations and false convictions. It is these differences that make a true rate of false allegations next to impossible to know. So are false allegations a problem and why should we care? Why We Need To Care About False Allegations? Of all the different types of false allegations, child sexual abuse is one of the most important areas and this is the area where the most false allegations are made. As well as this will be the focus of the book because it is such a heart-breaking, important and unfortunate area of human behaviour. For example, Poole and Lindsay (1998) found that false allegations make up 5%-8% of all child sexual abuse cases and this only includes those cases that involved intentional false allegations. Therefore, because this is only focusing on malicious motives behind the false allegation, this covers up a much, much greater number of child sexual abuse cases. Whereas other studies propose that false allegations make up between 23%-35% of all cases (Howitt, 1992). And I have to admit that yes, at first this might sound very high but if we convert these percentages into real numbers, the numbers get scary. If a police force had, let’s say, 1,000 sexual abuse cases. According to these numbers 230- 350 of these cases would be false, allegations. That would mean a hell of a lot of time, police resources and emotional distress would be wasted. Just because someone decided to make a false allegation. And then my personal pet hate is that those 350 fake cases would cast doubt on the millions of real ones. In addition, it is important to remember that in this book, we will talk about a lot of numbers. But it is critical that we remember that behind each of these numbers there is a ton of trauma, distress and more negative experiences for the child and family. This is even more important when we consider that the consequences of false allegations include a child being removed from home, the father being made to live away from home and imprisoned and even well-intentioned false allegations can take a toll on family life (Howitt, 1992). As well as false denials by victims of abuse can equally as damaging. (Lyon, 1995). Overall, this is why it is of immense interest to psychologists, because someone making a false allegation, that is a human behaviour. Also, the consequences, the emotional trauma and the pain that the child and family experience, they are all human behaviours and considering psychologists are experts on the matter. That is why we are so critical to understanding why this awful facet of human behaviour happens in the first place. But let’s explore more about why are false allegations so problematic for psychologists?   I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations: A Forensic And Criminal Psychology Guide To False Allegations of Rape, Sexual Abuse and More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Forensic Psychology Reference and Further Reading Whiteley, C. (2024) Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations: A Forensic And Criminal Psychology Guide To False Allegations of Rape, Sexual Abuse and More . CGD Publishing. England. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

By the time this podcast episode goes out a lot of psychology students would be choosing their projects for their dissertation so they can graduate with Honours at the end of their degree, last than a year away. The vast majority of students might have no idea or not simply care what project they pick, but if you can find a project that you’re going to enjoy then it can seriously improve your final year. Therefore, in this episode, you’ll learn how choosing a dissertation project worked at my university, why it’s flat out critical that you pick one you’re going to enjoy and why choosing the right academic to work with is critical as well. If you enjoy learning about university, student life and what it’s like to be a university psychology student then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Third Year Survival Guide: A Psychology Student’s Guide To The Final Year Of Their Undergraduate Degree. CGD Publishing . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Why Is Choosing The Right Psychology Dissertation Project Critical? (Extract From Third Year Survival Guide COPYRIGHT 2024 CONNOR WHITELEY) Ask any university psychology student and they will tell you that the Final Year Project or dissertation, as it is called by some universities, is the most important part of your Final year at university. And as much as I want to say that it flat out isn’t, I can’t. Your Final Year Project might not be as do-or-die as everyone makes out but it is critical and it will form a lot of your final grade for your Final Year. Therefore, deciding on what Final Year Project you want to do is critical because your degree, your happiness and your ability to enjoy the next academic year basically depends on this single decision. In addition, my Final Year Project was a cognitive psychology project (even though I hate cognitive psychology) studying transfer learning in retrieval-based learning tasks using EEG equipment so we could see the neuro-evidence involved in this type of learning for the first time. How Do Students Go About Choosing A Final Year Project? As a result in my experience, the way how choosing a Final Year Project works is that in May or June of your second year at university, you’re emailed a list of projects that you can sign up for. This list includes all the projects that the psychology academics at your university are offering. You can look at this list and find out the project title, description, name and how many people can apply for the topic. This is where my first insider tip comes from. If you have a particular academic in mind that you want to work with, definitely email them before this list is published and they might hold a space for you until you can officially apply through the list. As whenever a person signs up through this list, the student’s information gets passed onto the academic so they can sort through the applications. This is why you normally have to email the academic as well so they can hear why you’re interested in the project and want to work with them. Yes, at times choosing a Final Year Project really is like a job application. Anyway, after you’ve looked at this list, you need to decide what project you want to apply for. You might want to apply for a couple in case one of them gets oversubscribed but just follow your own university’s advice about this part of the process. However, when choosing your Final Year Project I cannot stress these factors enough when making your decision. Why Is Choosing The Right Academic Important? Every single year without fail I hear horror stories about students having a nightmare with their academic supervisor because of how busy and useless they are. The entire point of an academic supervisor is to help you, be there to answer questions and have meetings with you so you can do your best. That all depends on the supervisor themselves. This year I know a ton of students that were struggling with their Final Year Project because they couldn’t get a meeting with their supervisor, their supervisor was rubbish at answering questions and students just had one problem after another with their supervisor. How do you solve this? Obviously by choosing a good supervisor, but if you’re in your second year at university and you happen to run into some psychology third-years, definitely ask them about their supervisor and any horror stories they’ve heard. You need this information so you can make an informed decision about what to do and who to pick as your supervisor. Also, I want to mention that even the most boring-sounding project can be made brilliant by a great supervisor. For example, I have no interest at all in cognitive psychology and yet, I loved my Final Year Project because of the supervisor and his PhD student. Your supervisor really can be the difference between a terrible Final Year Project and a great one. At least in terms of how much you enjoy it. Finally, I should just say from what I’ve heard about supervisors from my friends this year. Avoid Heads of School because they always tend to be extremely busy and don’t have time for Final Year Project students and the questions they want to ask. Even though they would call me a liar, my friends would agree with me. Why The Project Itself Is So Important? I really doubt this would be a major surprise to you but choosing the right Final Year Project itself is so critical. Let me just explain why in a very scary sentence. You will be spending the next academic year of your life researching this topic. Do you really want to be researching something you hate for the next year? Of course not. You would hate that, your happiness would die and you would just hate your life. I don’t want that for you. Therefore, you either need to choose a project that you naturally love, or you need to choose a project with a brilliant supervisor. That will make the next year so much better for you. Personally, I decided on the latter because for my Final Year Project, I naturally would have loved a forensic or clinical psychology topic since these are the areas I love in psychology. Yet I don’t like change, I wanted to be more social and I knew my supervisor from my placement year was brilliant and he did socials. That’s important for something I’ll talk about later on. Therefore, I decided to ado a Final Year Project with my placement supervisor because I knew how great he was, there would be socials and I knew I would have a lot of fun. Also, I really wanted to experiment with EEG equipment so I choose that Final Year Project so I could use a certain type of equipment. Overall, whenever it comes to choosing a Final Year Project, only you know what will make you happy, make you passionate and make you look forward to the year ahead. That is what a Final Year Project is all about. You will be researching your Project for the next year and if you choose a project without thinking about it and what would make you happy then you might regret it. I’ve heard a lot of stories this year about students that have hated their Final Year Projects. I don’t want you to be one of them. Therefore, please just think about your Final Year Project, consider what would make you happy and consider who you want your supervisor to be. All those factors are critical and might very well be the difference between a great Final Year and one that you hate.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Third Year Survival Guide: A Psychology Student’s Guide To The Final Year Of Their Undergraduate Degree. CGD Publishing . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. University Student Life Reference Whiteley. C. (2024) Third Year Survival Guide: A Psychology Student’s Guide To The Final Year Of Their Undergraduate Degree. CGD Publishing . England. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

I highly doubt there is a single person that has never heard of the idea that power corrupts people. Also, I think a quote I’ve heard from somewhere is “absolute power corrupts absolutely” I don’t know where I came from but it’s true for the most part. However, whilst a lot of people have heard about the corrupting influence of power, a lot of people don’t know how or why power corrupts people. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn how does power corrupt people. If you enjoy learning about power, privilege and social psychology then you’ll enjoy this podcast episode for sure. This psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social And Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. How Does Power Corrupt People? Typically, and I think this happens because it’s easier to see, we think about powerful leaders and people in charge. Since it is generally these people that we see as powerful people who take advantage, take more than their fair share of resources and these people selfishly strive for even more control and power. We typically think about powerful leaders as getting corrupted because the world is filled with dictators and so-called “strong man” leaders, so this allows us to easily see the damage that a powerful, despotic leader can cause. However, we need to acknowledge that once a person has power then this can lead to corruption (typically moral corruption) and bad behaviour. So, how and why is power associated with corruption? How Does Power Change Someone’s Self-Perception? The first way how powerful people can become corrupt is because their power changes their self-perceptions. Since philosopher Terry Price argues that powerful people engage in a mechanism known as “exception-making” where they don’t believe the rules and laws of society apply to them. This is a very, very easy source of corruption and I can easily think of five, ten, maybe even twenty politicians and celebrities that fit this category. In addition, it’s worth noting there is research evidence that the more powerful a person is, the more they focus on their egocentric needs and desires, as well as they were less able to see other people’s perspectives. Personally, I think this is really interesting because if we draw on Piaget’s work from developmental psychology, then children before the age of 7 work in the exact same way. They focus on their own needs and desires and they often fail to understand or see the point of view of others. Which looking at some celebrities and politicians, I think calling them 7-year-old children is an insult to children. Anyway, this “exception-making” is even more problematic for people in positions of authority and power who could exploit the people they are in charge of. Power Gives Someone Privilege The second reason why power corrupts is because powerful people have a lot of resources that they can use to their benefit. Therefore, this allows the powerful people to achieve and experience things that less powerful people can only dream of. For example, fine dining, fast cars, penthouse apartments and so on. In other words, powerful people get special treatment and this can lead to corruption because powerful people can buy their way out of trouble. We can all see this relatively easily because the Criminal Justice System does operate on two tiers, because powerful people can hire the best lawyers, they can bail themselves out of whatever trouble they find themselves in and they can throw whatever money they need to make it go away. I’m sure we can all think of famous politicians and celebrities that have done this in the past few years. In addition, powerful people can intimidate and threaten other people too. I see this repeatedly in films, books and I sometimes use this in my Bettie English Private Eye Mysteries, when a character says “Don’t You Know Who I Am?”. Then after a powerful person does this, it’s normal for a less powerful person to back down or they support that powerful person and benefit from their alliance. In the short term, this tends to benefit the person but longer term this can make the person powerful themselves but it can corrupt them too in the bitter end. As a result, to make it clear, powerful person threatening others can lead to corruption because it shows they can bend others to their will, manipulate them and subjugate them. All of these are immoral behaviours. Why Doesn’t Power Have To Corrupt? So far, we’ve looked at what can make someone become corrupt and this connects to moral grey areas too. Yet being a powerful person doesn’t have to make you corrupt, because there are a lot of wonderful, kind and highly influential celebrities and politicians, so power does not always corrupt. The difference between these corrupt and uncorrupted powerful people is “socialised” power, this is power used to benefit others, and “personalised” power, this is power used for personal gains, according to a range of leadership scholars. Therefore, some people argue the best way to stop power corrupting someone is to keep them humble, because it’s important that powerful people are humble when evaluating their behaviour objectively. Since these powerful people need to realise that their power isn’t their right, instead it is given to them. Also, their power can fleeting, and it’s important that the people closest to the leader (like their inner circle) actually keep the leader accountable to stop them becoming corrupted. Social Psychology Conclusion Overall, in this podcast episode, we learnt that power can corrupt people because it changes the powerful person’s self-perceptions so they don’t believe laws and rules apply to them. Also, it gives them privileges other people don’t normally have so they can get out of trouble easily in addition to threatening and intimidating others. At the end of the day, we all need to know (especially leaders and powerful people) that it is our obligation, our duty, our moral responsibility to use our power to benefit others. We should never abuse any power we have because this can be illegal at times and it is always immoral behaviour that has the power to harm others. Something we should never ever do.     If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Social Psychology: A Guide To Social And Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Social Psychology References Case, C. R., & Maner, J. K. (2015). When and why power corrupts: An evolutionary perspective. In Handbook on Evolution and Society (pp. 460-473). Routledge. Cislak, A., Cichocka, A., Wojcik, A. D., & Frankowska, N. (2018). Power corrupts, but control does not: What stands behind the effects of holding high positions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(6), 944-957. DeCelles, K. A., DeRue, D. S., Margolis, J. D., & Ceranic, T. L. (2012). Does power corrupt or enable? When and why power facilitates self-interested behavior. Journal of applied psychology, 97(3), 681. Giurge, L. M., Van Dijke, M., Zheng, M. X., & De Cremer, D. (2021). Does power corrupt the mind? The influence of power on moral reasoning and self-interested behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(4), 101288. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/202402/how-and-why-power-corrupts-people Morales, M. (1997). The corrupting influence of power. In Philosophical Perspectives on Power and Domination (pp. 41-53). Brill. Price, T. L. (2010). Understanding ethical failures in leadership. Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era, 402-405. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

The week after this social psychology podcast episode goes out, tens of millions of university students throughout the northern hemisphere will go-to university for the first time, or you’ll return for another academic year. This gives them another year to make lifelong friendships filled with laughter, hope and maybe even love. Be it companionate or romantic love. But how do we make and maintain friends as adults? This is a topic I struggle with massively and it is a major factor at the moment in my horrific mental health. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn how to make and maintain friends as an adult, why this is important and four important tips to help you do this. If you enjoy learning about social psychology, friendships and relationships then this is a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Psychology Of Relationships: The Social Psychology Of Friendships, Romantic Relationships and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Why Are Friendships Important? I know a lot of you wonderful listeners and readers are psychology students and professionals so I won’t spend too much time on this topic. However, friends have a wide range of very important functions for us because essentially friendships make us happier because they give us opportunities to laugh, enjoy our lives and they add so many layers to our social lives that we simply cannot get from being alone. There are references for today’s episode at the bottom of the page by the way. Personally, I flat out love having friends (coming from a person who barely has any) because they make me laugh, I get to learn about things I never normally would and I get to experience different lifestyles that I could never dream about. For instance, I recently experienced something amazing because I went up to the midlands to see my best friend whilst they were with their parents. And I experience a completely accepting family that couldn’t care less their eldest was queer with a boyfriend and they allowed their eldest to do whatever they wanted. As well as they supported their eldest no matter what and no matter how horrific their mental health. The really shocking thing to me was my best friend’s parents actually researched ways to actively help and support their mental health. That is such a violently alien concept for me that I lately shocked my best friend with all my “basic” questions about what their life was like. Anyway, friendships help me to realise things about my own life. In addition, friendships are protective factors against mental health difficulties. Since if you don’t have friendships then this can increase the chance of you developing hypertension, depression as well as diabetes. In my experience, if I didn’t have my best friend these past few weeks, I highly doubt I would even be around because they have been a critical part of my mental health support. It’s one of the reasons why I want more friends so I can have a much, much wider social support network. Overall, friendships provide us with connections and it is these social connections that are critical to our overall mental health and wellbeing. How To Make and Maintain Friends As An Adult? You Should Figure Out What Matters To You As adults, we thankfully get to decide the different sorts of people who get to be around us in our social groups. Now I’m using the plural form here because I covered a psychology news article a few episodes ago saying how “variety is the spice of life” in friendships meaning you’re being off with a mixed friendship group that is made up of people who are similar and different from yourself. Anyway, as an adult, we need to figure out what matters to us and we can intentionally build a life that incorporates these things and aspects. You could easily call these, our core values or interests. Therefore, it’s important that you take the time to think about what matters to you and put yourself in places where similar people might be. For example, some of my core values include, being or supporting the LGBT+ community, being kind, active and being interested in learning in all its forms. This is one of the reasons why I’m going to my university’s LGBT+ coffee morning this next week and I’ll go to as many society events as possible this academic year so I’m in the same places as people who share my similar interest. As an adult, this might mean joining different social groups, volunteering or finding a group that does the same hobby as you. You need to put yourself out there and into places with similar interests. You Should Draw On The People You Have For a lot of people, shredding and cutting school friends off or friends that you have grown up with is perfectly normal, and it is simply put of growing up. In fact, the day I write this post, I got a Facebook notification about it being the birthday of a very old school friend that I don’t talk to anymore. It’s a shame that we don’t talk but he could have messaged me, I could have messaged him. It is simply a part of growing older, and I have so many things wrapped up in past friendships anyway. Anyway, there will be some people from your childhood that are brilliant for you because they help you to grow and use them to expand your social network. In fact, these don’t have anything to do with these childhood friends, even friends you make as adults you can use to expand your social circle. For instance, taking an American university example, you’ll be getting a new roommate or dormmate (sorry I have no idea what Americans call these people). You could see your roommate as a new way to meet future friends in addition to your roommate becoming a possible friend. Whereas an example from my personal life is me and my best friends are working this year on my best friend introducing me to lots of people who I might become friends with. I have no issue with this whatsoever, because I seriously need more friends and my best friend does have some attractive friends. So… I’m not opposed to making people more than friends. In other words, use the people in your life to make new friends. You Have To Push Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone Even if you don’t have PTSD, anxiety and depression like me, making new friends is extremely scary. Even before my sexual assault I was terrified of making friends, that’s just more basic autism but still, I know it is tough. Yet you have to put yourself out there, you need to put yourself outside your comfort zone and you need to take a step into the unknown if you are ever going to make friends. The main reason why I didn’t make friends for the first three years of my degree besides the 2 years of COVID-19) was because I was too scared to go outside my comfort zone. The only reason I met my best friend is because I stepped outside my comfort zone and went to a particular social group that flat out terrified me at first. More because of child abuse but it was scary. Then the only reason why I managed to make another friend was because I was brave and asked for his Instagram. I had never done that before and I was scared and nervous but I did it. And I haven’t looked back. Universities are a great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone in a safe, controlled and supportive environment. You Need To Put In The Work Friends don’t just happen without effort. Friendships like any other sort of relationship require you to work at it and put effort in. Thankfully, this so-called “effort” is fun enjoyable and you’ll love it. Yet you still need to reach out, show up and demonstrate that you actually have an interest in the friendship. In addition, you need to maintain the friendship by talking to the other person, planning and doing fun things or just talking to them. Unfortunately, there will be times when you have to cut people off because they aren’t making an effort. Yet there will be plenty of people who show an interest back and they are the friendships you want to develop and pursue. This is even more important when we consider that we all only have so much time in the day so we need to choose who we want to spend our time on. Not everyone should be part of our life and we all get out what we put into relationships. The only real reason why me and my best friends are friends is because despite them having an awful time for the first 9 months of our friendship because of their housemates. I kept texting them, making plans with them and showing that I wasn’t going anywhere. Now I will mention that the current joke between us is that I was obsessively texting my best friend and pursuing the friendship. In reality, this isn’t a joke but because of how my best friend is with other people, they didn’t recognise this as weird or concerning. I’ve learnt my lesson and toned it right down with a friend I’m currently “working” on, but still. If you have a friendship you want to pursue, then do the maintenance work but invest in a friendship wisely, intentionally and you’ll be reaping the wonderful rewards after a while. Social Psychology and University Student Life Conclusion As someone who seriously needs more friends, I have to admit that this is a critical podcast episode to do because we all need more friends. More high-quality friendships especially. Friendships are there to make us laugh, enjoy life and stop us from being lonely. Yet friendships are there to support us and protect us from harm, depression and other mental health difficulties too. Therefore, whether you’re going to or returning to university next week, please remember the following: ·       Figure out what matters to you ·       Draw on who you already have ·       Push yourself out of your comfort zone ·       Put in the work to maintain your friendships Believe me, I know making friends is hard, so hard. Yet it is so worth it because friends are brilliant and there isn’t a better place to make friends than at university. So please, use your time at university to have fun, socialise and make some brilliant friendships that will hopefully be lifelong, full of laughter and they will support you no matter what. Because true friends support you whether you’re having the best time of your life or the darkest day of your life.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Psychology Of Relationships: The Social Psychology Of Friendships, Romantic Relationships and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Social Psychology References and Further Readings Alsarrani, A., Hunter, R. F., Dunne, L., & Garcia, L. (2022). Association between friendship quality and subjective wellbeing among adolescents: a systematic review. BMC public health, 22(1), 2420. Cacioppo, J. T., Hughes, M. E., Waite, L. J., Hawkley, L. C., & Thisted, R. A. (2006). Loneliness as a specific risk factor for depressive symptoms: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Psychology and aging, 21(1), 140. Demir, M., Özdemir, M., & Weitekamp, L. A. (2007). Looking to happy tomorrows with friends: Best and close friendships as they predict happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 243-271. Güroğlu, B. (2022). The power of friendship: The developmental significance of friendships from a neuroscience perspective. Child Development Perspectives, 16(2), 110-117. Lu, P., Oh, J., Leahy, K. E., & Chopik, W. J. (2021). Friendship importance around the world: Links to cultural factors, health, and well-being. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 570839. Tang, D., Lin, Z., & Chen, F. (2020). Moving beyond living arrangements: the role of family and friendship ties in promoting mental health for urban and rural older adults in China. Aging & mental health, 24(9), 1523-1532. Yang, Y. C., Boen, C., Gerken, K., Li, T., Schorpp, K., & Harris, K. M. (2016). Social relationships and physiological determinants of longevity across the human life span. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(3), 578-583. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

One of my favourite topics in psychology actually comes from developmental psychology because I love learning about attachment and attachment styles. Since our attachment styles are critical to our mental health, the relationships we form and attachment impacts so many aspects of our lives. Therefore, some people need therapy to help readjust their attachment styles and help them so they can have healthier relationships and improve their lives. That’s why in this clinical psychology podcast episode, we’re going to be looking at what is attachment-based therapy, how does it work, when is it used and more. If you enjoy learning about developmental psychology, mental health and attachment then this will be a brilliant episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental And Child Psychology .   Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What Is The Difference Between Attachment-Based Therapy and So-called Attachment Therapies? Before we dive into the main topic for today’s episode, I want to confirm a very dangerous, disgusting and outrageous misconception that I would rather not have to deal with. In this episode, we are NOT talking about the disgraceful, unproven and possibly harmful “attachment therapy” that was developed in the 1970s for children with behavioural challenges. Especially autism. These so-called therapies involved physical deprivation, restraint, boot camp-like activities, discomfort and physical manipulation. These so-called therapies are a disgrace and thankfully they have been investigated and firmly rejected by mainstream psychology as well as medicine. We are not talking about those therapies in this podcast episode. What Is Attachment-Based Therapy? Instead, we’re talking about attachment-based therapy that is a type of brief, process-oriented counselling where the therapeutic alliance is based on rebuilding and developing trust and centres on the client expressing emotion. Also, the attachment-based approach to therapy examines the connection between a client’s early attachment experiences with their caregivers and their ability to develop normal and healthy emotional and physical relationships as an adult. The ultimate goal of the therapy is to build or rebuild a trusting and supportive relationship that will help the client to prevent and/ or treat mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety. In addition, attachment-based therapy was developed, as you would expect, from Bowlby’s attachment work in the 1960s. Since Bowlby proposed that strong early attachment to at least one caregiver was needed for a child to have a sense of security and a supportive foundation to explore the environment (also known as the secure base). Then Bowlby described there being four types of attachment which we know as secure attachment, avoidance attachment, anxious attachment and disorganised attachment. How Does Attachment-Based Therapy Work? I think every single reader and listener here must be familiar with Bowlby’s attachment work therefore out of respect for all you wonderful people, I will not be explaining Bowlby’s work again in any real depth. I know none of you are stupid. As a result, because babies without a healthy attachment foundation grow up to be fearful, insecure, confused and ultimately become depressed and even suicidal in adolescence. It’s important that babies form trusting relationships with caregivers or with a therapist so the client is better prepared to form strong bonds in other relationships. Personally, I would like to add that depression and becoming suicidal in adolescents is a little more complex than attachment style, at least in my personal experience. Yet I certainly think having an insecure attachment style doesn’t help matters and it would have been lovely to have a secure attachment style growing up. Anyway, in Attachment-Based Therapy, clients explore their childhood so they might need to discuss their early relationship with their caregiver and their family dynamics growing up as well as any significant childhood experiences. Afterwards, the client and therapist might explore the connection between their childhood relationships and their adult ones to see how the past could have influenced the present. Also, this could lead to the client and therapist talking about what skills the client might want to improve in their current relationships and improve their emotions and behaviours. Interestingly, attachment-based therapy can involve working with a family member too as well as this type of therapy can be used alongside other forms of therapy too. Personally, I love the idea of doing attachment work with a client and family member, because that is the root cause of the attachment style. It was the caregiver that caused the attachment difficult so getting the client and the family member to work together now to improve the client’s attachment is actually a brilliant idea that would have a lot of good benefits. Also, I understand how attachment work can fit very nicely alongside other mental health approaches like systemic and humanistic. When Is Attachment-Based Therapy Used? Since this sort of doubles as an approach instead of a pure therapy in its own right, an attachment-based approach to mental health can be very useful in couple, group, family and individual therapy. Due to this approach helps both children and adults to mend and recover from fractured family relationships. That’s why adopted children, Care Experienced children, adolescents who are depressed and/ or suicidal, children of depressed parents and children who have experienced abuse and trauma even more so at the hands of a caregiver, can all benefit from attachment-based therapy. Overall, I should note that whilst some studies have shown Attachment-based therapy to be effective and it does have benefits for clients, the evidence base isn’t as strong as other forms of therapy. What Can Clients Expect In Attachment-Based Therapy? When a client goes for Attachment-Based Therapy, they know that the goal of this therapy isn’t only to repair their family relationship, because the therapist can work with the client alone or with the family as a group. Also, the therapist works with the family to build and strengthen their caregiver-child bond as well as the therapist helps the child to develop into an independent adult with high self-sufficiency. In addition, when it comes to therapeutic work with individuals, the therapist aims to help the client overcome any effects of the negative early attachment difficulties that they have by establishing a secure bond with the client. Then after this relationship is solidified, the therapist can help the client to communicate more openly and help them to better explore and understand how their current feelings and behaviours are associated with their early childhood experiences. Clinical Psychology Conclusion In my experience and because of my own attachment difficulties in the past (to a much lesser extent the present), I always enjoy looking at attachment because I know it is absolutely critical. And whilst we always think of it as traditionally a development psychology topic, it does have a massive impact on mental health and clinical psychology too. Therefore, I think what I want to unofficially say at the end of this podcast episode, is that whether you’re a current or future clinical psychologist or another type of therapist, definitely have an understanding of attachment-based work. Learn some of the tips, tricks and techniques that will help a client to overcome their attachment difficulties, because you will probably need it in the future and your clients could very well find it to be invaluable. Even though I never went for attachment-based therapy, my therapist still used a few ideas and notions from this type of work, and it has been really, really useful. So I know in the future as I continue on my clinical psychology journey, I’ll want to learn some more about attachment-based work and I hope you will too.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental And Child Psychology .   Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Recommended Reading American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Adult Attachment Relationships. Cicchetti, D., Toth, S. L., & Rogosch, F. A. (1999). The efficacy of toddler-parent psychotherapy to increase attachment security in offspring of depressed mothers. Attachment & Human Development, 1(1), 34-66. Collado‐Navarro, C., Navarro‐Gil, M., Pérez‐Aranda, A., López‐del‐Hoyo, Y., Garcia‐Campayo, J., & Montero‐Marin, J. (2021). Effectiveness of mindfulness‐based stress reduction and attachment‐based compassion therapy for the treatment of depressive, anxious, and adjustment disorders in mental health settings: A randomized controlled trial. Depression and Anxiety, 38(11), 1138-1151. Collado‐Navarro, C., Navarro‐Gil, M., Pérez‐Aranda, A., López‐del‐Hoyo, Y., Garcia‐Campayo, J., & Montero‐Marin, J. (2021). Effectiveness of mindfulness‐based stress reduction and attachment‐based compassion therapy for the treatment of depressive, anxious, and adjustment disorders in mental health settings: A randomized controlled trial. Depression and Anxiety, 38(11), 1138-1151. Daniel, S. I. (2006). Adult attachment patterns and individual psychotherapy: A review. Clinical psychology review, 26(8), 968-984. Diamond, G., Diamond, G. M., & Levy, S. (2021). Attachment-based family therapy: Theory, clinical model, outcomes, and process research. Journal of affective disorders, 294, 286-295. Dozier, M. (2003). Attachment-based treatment for vulnerable children. Attachment & Human Development, 5(3), 253-257. Ewing, E. S. K., Diamond, G., & Levy, S. (2015). Attachment-based family therapy for depressed and suicidal adolescents: Theory, clinical model and empirical support. Attachment & human development, 17(2), 136-156.  Levy, S., Mason, S., Russon, J., & Diamond, G. (2021). Attachment‐based family therapy in the age of telehealth and COVID‐19. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 47(2), 440-454. Lewis, A. J. (2020). Attachment-based family therapy for adolescent substance use: A move to the level of systems. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 486200. Russon, J., Morrissey, J., Dellinger, J., Jin, B., & Diamond, G. (2021). Implementing attachment-based family therapy for depressed and suicidal adolescents and young adults in LGBTQ+ services. Crisis. Russon, J., Smithee, L., Simpson, S., Levy, S., & Diamond, G. (2022). Demonstrating attachment‐based family therapy for transgender and gender diverse youth with suicidal thoughts and behavior: A case study. Family Process, 61(1), 230-245. Russon, J., Smithee, L., Simpson, S., Levy, S., & Diamond, G. (2022). Demonstrating attachment‐based family therapy for transgender and gender diverse youth with suicidal thoughts and behavior: A case study. Family Process, 61(1), 230-245. Tsvieli, N., Lifshitz, C., & Diamond, G. M. (2022). Corrective attachment episodes in attachment-based family therapy: The power of enactment. Psychotherapy Research, 32(2), 209-222. Waraan, L., Rognli, E. W., Czajkowski, N. O., Aalberg, M., & Mehlum, L. (2021). Effectiveness of attachment-based family therapy compared to treatment as usual for depressed adolescents in community mental health clinics. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 15, 1-14. Waraan, L., Rognli, E. W., Czajkowski, N. O., Mehlum, L., & Aalberg, M. (2021). Efficacy of attachment-based family therapy compared to treatment as usual for suicidal ideation in adolescents with MDD. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry, 26(2), 464-474. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

As aspiring and qualified psychologists and people interested in psychology, we read, listen and learn a lot of content about different mental health conditions. Yet as great as academic content is for helping us understanding a mental health condition, depression and anxiety, it is only lived experience that can possibly help us to truly understand what a condition is like for a client or service user. You can read as many academic papers on depression as you want but until you talk or listen to people who have or are currently experiencing depression then you will never be able to fully understand how depression impacts a person. Especially in their everyday life. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, I’ll be talking about my experience of a major depressive episode, which is still on-going as I finish off this blog post. You’ll learn about how it’s impacting me, what triggered my depression, the challenges depression gives me and more. If you enjoy learning about mental health, lived experience and depression then this is going to be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Abnormal Psychology: The Causes and Treatments For Depression, Anxiety And More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Why Am I Talking About Experiencing Depression? Note: this is a cleaned-up audio transcription from the recording I made when I was experiencing a wave of depression. I did not realise I was as depressed as I was when I was making the record, so there will be grammatical errors. Since this is spoken word and not written word. I’ve hinted at my depression and declining mental health in the past two episodes. Therefore, the reason why I'm talking about this is because since Saturday, so seven days now, I've been having quite a major depressive episode, and I've never actually had this before. Sure, I've had one or two days of being depressed, and I mean going through quite crippling depression, but I've never had it for seven days.   And yes, it's sort of gotten a little better, but I'm still quite depressed now, though. For example, the only reason why I can actually record this and sound relatively normal in terms of this is what I normally sound like, at least I hope so, is because I've just been texting my best friend because they wanted to know about what plant pot they had in their bedroom. And I was like, "Oh God, I'm gonna have to go and look."   So, I did that, and we were talking, and we were texting to and fro for a bit, and I was making fun of them for their mason jars here. Thankfully, this helped me to have quite a bit of energy. But I know that will seriously dip, though. I thought, right now I feel good, I've got to do this.   Overall, the reason why I'm talking about this is, one, because of the practical issue that I just spoke about. Two, as a future clinical psychologist, or maybe even qualified psychologists and people interested in lived mental health experiences, it is really important that we do understand not only what academia says about a mental health condition, but we also hear about it from those people with a life experience. Of course, I do not have a depression diagnosis. To be honest, I do have a scary feeling that I'm not actually gonna get any better by saying "over the next week." And because I have been feeling depressed for two weeks, this is just off the top of my head, so don't quote me on this, that's actually all you need for a depression diagnosis, of course, as long as you meet the other criteria too, though. So, at the moment, I don't have a depression diagnosis, and I'm hoping that I won't ever have to get one. So, I'm talking about this just so we can all understand lived-like experiences here.   An Overview Of My Week I already mentioned earlier that this all started on Saturday, but there's something larger that's going on here. So, as you guys know, I experienced sexual violence back in April, and that has really messed with my mental health. That has been quite debilitating, and I've been doing tons of different bits to try and get better in that sense. But I'm still on a waiting list for specialist rape counselling, which is taking a toll on my mental health because I need this support, but I can't get it because it turns out there's a lot of people that get raped. So, it takes a while for a place to open up for you, which is tragic. And I'm basically coping as best I can with my mental health getting worse as the months go by, especially my PTSD. And I mean, like, I think I've had two days of depression since my, so to like 19 weeks ago tomorrow at the time of recording. I've not had it for seven days before. In addition, what happened was that on Saturday, I started to feel quite depressed. I started to feel really down, and it was a struggle to get out of bed. Thankfully, I had a friend coming round at 2:00 just because we had already planned it, and I wanted to spend time with him because we get on really well. But the problem was, was that I couldn't get out of bed. It took me a long time to have a shower, not as much as the next day though. And it took me a while to do everything. So, thankfully, I was ready for when he came around at 2:00, but I wanted to do stuff before then. I wanted to do some writing, I wanted to do some podcast work and other stuff, but that really didn't happen. Me and my friend had a really nice four and a half hours. It was really nice talking. We spoke about Halo Lore. We basically talked about a bunch of nerd stuff, then we talked about relationships and other bits and pieces, basically stuff you normally talk with your friends about. Then he left, and then I was just like, oh, right, I'm actually quite sad now. I'm actually feeling ridiculously lonely and everything. And then it was a full-on night of just PTSD. I mean, if there was a sound, I would have a massive reaction. There were tons of intrusive thoughts about sexual violence. That was not fun. On the Sunday, it was even worse. And because it was so dark and so bad, I can't actually go into all of the details, but it was absolutely horrific. All I’ll say is it took me 3 hours and 20 minutes just to have a shower because the interesting thing about depression is that because it's a low mood, it really impacts your energy levels. So then what happened was that around 2:00 pm, I finally decided, right, I am gonna have a shower. I'm gonna move heaven and earth to have a shower. Well, the issue with that is that you need to get up from the sofa, then you need to go upstairs, then you need to get your clothes, get your towel, go into the bathroom, have a shower, get changed, etc. So, when you think about it, there are actually quite a few steps to anything that we do. And normally, I can normally do that all in, like, 20 minutes. On Sunday, it took me 3 hours, 20 minutes to have a shower. I mean, that was just like... It took me 15 minutes just to get up the stairs. But then I actually had to come back down, so I was depressed about that, and it was ridiculous. It wasn't until I actually got in the shower at 5:00 pm, and I was just like, there's no point in me actually having a shower because it's 5:00, and to me, that's pointless. But I was like, I've been trying to do this for three hours. I've got to try. And then, as the night went on, my mental health deteriorated. I broke my favorite mug. I smashed my favorite mug ever. Oh, God. I mean, I was actually quite devastated because it's this half-liter mug, which is just amazing. I've had it since 2019, since I first came to university, so I broke it, and then I just called my best friend, and we spoke for, like, an hour and a quarter, and then they were just like, "Right. You need to go home. You need to be around people," and, etc. So, I went... I got back to my parents at half past midnight that night because me and my friend had a really heartfelt conversation. We'd had a really detailed one. Over the next two days, it was just constant depression. I was in and out of it because my parents work during the days, I was alone. Again, quite depressed. I couldn't really do anything. I had no energy. And then when they were back, it was fine because I was around people, so we could talk and stuff. Some stuff happened, but, I mean, that's just family. And then I came back Wednesday because I saw my great aunt, who lives, like, nearby. Then I came back. Now, bear in mind, when my mug had shattered that night, I actually hadn't cleaned it up because I was just like... My mental health was so bad, I didn't have the capacity to actually clean it up. So, then I walked in at Wednesday, and I was just like, "Oh, my God, I'm back here. I've got to clean the mug. I've got to do tons of stuff." It took me an hour and 40 minutes just to clean that mug up. And that did not make me feel great. So that all happened. Following on from this, yesterday, thankfully, I was able to do a few bits, but it was the energy levels that were really concerning me, because it was more of a thing about being in and out of depression and it basically not stopping and me not being able to reliably do stuff. I managed to do, I don't know, let's say four hours of stuff. It really wasn't that, it was more, like, two and a half because I tried to do some stuff. It was so unproductive. And considering I'm normally used to doing seven hours with ease of different bits and pieces, that was quite shocking, and that was actually quite bad. Quite bad. Unfortunately, today it's just been more of the same. There has been a lot of other very traumatic things going on in the background. But again, just to keep this podcast easy to listen to, or at least nice to listen to, I'm not gonna go into it. I just had to pause the podcast because I thought I heard a noise outside. I thought I was going to have a bad reaction. And then I felt a massive hit of depression almost hit, though. So, I've got to keep going with this, otherwise, it's not gonna get done. What Triggered This Depressive Episode? As with all mental health conditions and difficulties, there are always going be triggers and different aspects of this which make your mental health worse. Thankfully the only highlight of being depressed for seven days is that there are moments when you can actually think clearly. Oh, believe me, it happens extremely rarely, but they still happen. As a result, the thing that really triggered my depression and the thing that keeps making me feel worse is one, of course, the sexual violence. Two, just being really lonely because I really don't have many friends. And my best friend, they went back to the midlands to see their family and spend time with their friends. As well as basically, everyone I know is out there doing really cool stuff. They're going away, they're having fun, they're seeing their other friends. And because of my PTSD, because of everything else, my issue is that I actually can't do the same. Then there's also been some relationship stuff that were present. My best friends have been doing some relationship stuff. The LGBT+ society at my university, some of those conversations have been about past and current romantic relationships. And as someone who's been through sexual violence and also child abuse that was very homophobic, it's sort of like... I don't know if I can have that.I know logically, I can, but I mean, like, there's gonna be so much work to actually do that for. So that really didn't help me. And also, PTSD is bad enough, but when it comes to going outside, that doesn't help. But also, something I've been finding a lot lately when I've been going outside, like, going shopping is a nightmare. For instance, I tend to forget a lot. I find it really hard to focus. So as you can expect, it's really tough going out. As well as in my mind, if you're going go out properly, like, you're going to go somewhere, you do tend to need a friend just to make it more, enjoyable. And you can do it as a shared experience. But because my only real friend is actually not here at the moment, that's really tough. What Are The Challenges Of Experiencing Depression?  Moreover, there are four main challenges which I'm really struggling with at the moment. The first one is an inability to watch stuff because it's bad enough when I'm in and out of being depressed, which is another major problem because I can just be going along, then a wave of depression can just hit me. It can also be linked to triggers. For example, I can be doing stuff, then an intrusive thought comes out that's really bad, quite traumatic. Then it knocks me for six, and then I get depressed, and I just lay on the stairs, on the sofa, or wherever I am for half an hour to an hour. That's bad enough. But when I'm depressed, I also have a massive problem. I can't watch stuff because I can't watch things on the TV or any streaming service because of sexual references and sex scenes, which never used to bother me whatsoever. But because that's how bad my mental health is at the moment, I can't watch any of that because it's too distressing, it's too triggering, which is annoying. As a result, that was another reason why me and my best friend, we were on the phone for two and a quarter hours last night, as they were going through and compiling me a list of different series and films which I might be able to watch. But as I said to them, the main problem with that is, and just know I am extremely grateful that they did that. And I'm definitely gonna start watching some of it at some point. But some of it is that, yeah, you can have this list, you can have stuff to do, but you don't have the energy to actually do it, or you don't have the executive function to do it, which is an issue. My third major challenging of experiencing depression is loss of pleasure. I've always known this is a depression symptom, but I've never had to experience it before. So, you can be doing stuff which you normally flat-out love. Like earlier today, I was flat-out loving doing some business stuff, but I wasn't enjoying it. It was just like, "Wow, this is actually quite boring." And sure, I sort of picked the more mundane aspects, but I still enjoy it. I still don't mind doing it. It's so important to me. I did not enjoy it. Normally, I can do some reading, I can do a hobby, or I can do anything that I find really fun. No, not this week. I've just lost pleasure in most things, which is why I'm a bit concerned about this list that my friends put was they really love all of these programs. I don't wanna be the type of person who turns around and says, "Oh, thank you for doing this, but I really don't like this. I couldn't really care less about this." I'm pretty sure that's just the depression, but still, I don't want to do that even though I think that might be the case. But I will honestly try and enjoy this stuff. But the main issue that I've been having is energy. I know this is linked to a low mood, but the energy is that I really only have so much energy to be able to do stuff in the day. And I like to think of this in terms of spoons theory. I've done an autism podcast episode maybe two years ago on spoons . So, the idea of this, and this is done by Christina someone, is that there's the idea that you only have so many spoons in terms of energy throughout the day, and every time you do something, you take away a spoon. Let's say you have 10 spoons. Then what happens is that if you get up, then you could lose a spoon. If you go to work, if you have a shower, then you lose another spoon. Then if you get the kids ready, take them to school and get to work, that's another spoon. Then you have a really hard day at work, you have lots of meetings, you're working a very high-pressure job. Let's say that actually takes five spoons away from you. That means you've only got two spoons left by the time you get home from work. But then let's say you've got to pick up the kids, and then you've got to do dinner. Both of those activities takes away your two spoons. Therefore, after you've cooked dinner, you might not have even served it up yet. You're completely exhausted, and you have no energy whatsoever. That's how you can think about energy levels in terms of spoons. That's something I found quite annoying yesterday, was that I was trying to do stuff, I wanted to do stuff, I had no energy after a while to do it whatsoever. What am I trying to do to feel better? I'm between a rock and a hard place. The reason why I'm sort of in a rock and a hard place is quite simply because what I need is my rape counseling to start. Nonetheless, that can't happen because I'm still on the waiting list. And my contact at this charity that I'm gonna be seen by, she's on annual leave until the 27th of August. That's five days away, at the very least. And in the meantime, I sort of keep suffering. Of course, it's not the charity's fault. This is just how life works. But she can't chase it, and she can't say, "Right, this person needs help ASAP. Can we please try and fit them in?" So that's what I really, really need, and that's the sort of the solution. As soon as I start processing my rape and everything, then everything will get better. But until then, I am trying to do one or two things. I'm calling my best friend every night. We're having quite long conversations about each other's day, how I'm doing. And it's nice because it's social connection when I normally wouldn't get any social connection, which is quite a depressing fact, but that's just my life at the moment. And then the only other thing which I'm really doing because this week's been quite difficult because, I mean, I can't go back to my parents again because they're away, and the whole point is that I'm lonely. So I can't just go somewhere else to be lonely. That defeats the whole point. The only other thing I'm doing is I'm seeing my private therapist this week and next week. Both of us have agreed she's not a rape specialist. So, it's a case of me just talking to her. To be honest, like, I'm educating her about sexual violence because I've done so much research in the past 19 weeks. And I mean, it's nice just having someone to talk to, but I know it's sort of just sticking plaster on a very crumbling wall at the moment. Oh, no. Actually, the only other last thing that I'm doing, though, is that next week, I'm going up to see my best friend in the midlands. So, we can see each other, we can go to this city that I've always wanted to go to, more for a laugh than anything else. But this got quite a reputation. And originally, I wanted to go by myself, but my best friend was like, "You can't. You just can't. Like, I don't think you'll be able to cope." Of course, they said in much more polite terms than this, but I was just like, "You're right," and I'm really annoyed that I just can't go out without having a meltdown, without having an inability to make decisions and just getting overwhelmed, anxiety, PTSD, etc. So, all fun, not. As a result, I'm going up to see them, and their parents are going be there. And, I mean, I get on great with their parents. Their parents are lovely. And I might be able to meet their brother, which would be nice because I've been wanting to meet him for ages. Ultimately, there’s a lot's going on. I'm just trying to hang in there. And I don't know if this was a useful podcast episode, but I hope you got something out of it.      I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Abnormal Psychology: The Causes and Treatments For Depression, Anxiety And More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Cunningham, S., Hudson, C. C., & Harkness, K. (2021). Social media and depression symptoms: a meta-analysis. Research on child and adolescent psychopathology, 49(2), 241-253. Malgaroli, M., Calderon, A., & Bonanno, G. A. (2021). Networks of major depressive disorder: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 85, 102000. Shorey, S., Ng, E. D., & Wong, C. H. (2022). Global prevalence of depression and elevated depressive symptoms among adolescents: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(2), 287-305. Smith, M. M., Sherry, S. B., Ray, C., Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (2021). Is perfectionism a vulnerability factor for depressive symptoms, a complication of depressive symptoms, or both? A meta-analytic test of 67 longitudinal studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 84, 101982. Whiteley, C. (2024) CBT For Depression: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Depression . CGD Publishing. England. Whiteley, C. (2024) Social Media Psychology: A Guide To Clinical Psychology, Cyberpsychology and Mental Health.  CGD Publishing. England. Whiteley, C. (2024) Working With Children and Young People: A Guide To Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy.  CGD Publishing. England. 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