All in the Mind Folgen

What really works when it comes to preventing and dealing with mental health difficulties? Can a world exist in which no one is held back by mental health problems.? That’s the vision of Professor Miranda Wolpert Head of the Mental Health Priority Area at the Wellcome Trust. With £200million to spend over five years, Miranda Wolpert and her team are taking a radical new approach to addressing anxiety and depression in 14- to 24-year-olds. Claudia hears about her new vision in addressing mental health problems in young peopleSleep problems are common in adolescence, and often related to anxiety and depression. But one factor which might be affecting mental health in people in their twenties is how they slept as teenagers, according to new research from Faith Orchard - lecturer at the University of Sussex. She disentangles exactly what is going on and teases apart the specific sleeping difficulties involved in the complex relationship between sleep, anxiety and depression.We use various mental shortcuts to save our brains effort. One of those is that when we’ve made a choice in the past and rejected one option, we carry on rejecting that option and downgrade the thing we didn’t choose and actively avoid it if we are offered it again. And until now what wasn’t realised was that infants who of course have far less sophisticated thinking processes, do it too. Does this mean it’s intuitive, rather than something we learn to do? Alex Silver from the University of Pittsburgh dissects the evidenceProducer Adrian Washbourne

Have you ever lost a loved one who was still a part of your life in some way? Did it leave you feeling confused or frozen about how to continue with life? Claudia Hammond examines the distressing phenomenon known as ambiguous loss – the enormous challenge of dealing with a loss when you aren’t sure what’s happened, leaving you searching for answers, unable to move on. The All in the Mind 2021 mental health awards have just been launched, where you can nominate the person or group who has a made a difference to your mental health. Claudia catches up with some of the finalists from the past to see what’s happened to them since, and what the awards have meant for them.What has the pandemic done to our memories? Anecdotally many report they keep forgetting things they’re sure they would have remembered before. Claudia’s studio guest, Professor Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster examines the new emerging evidence behind this phenomenon.Our brains are in two halves and they are linked by a structure known as the corpus callosum. But some babies are born without a corpus callosum linking the brain's two sides. A quarter of these babies grow up with serious developmental difficulties, while others have no difficulties at all, suggesting that somehow the brain is compensating,. A researcher at the University of Geneva. Dr Vanessa Sifreddi, has scanned the brains of children aged between 8 and 17 and has found that for some children the two halves of their brains succeed in communicating.Producer Adrian Washbourne

Claudia Hammond launches the 2021 All in the Mind Awards – a chance for anyone who has received help for a mental health problem to recognise the people and organisations who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.1 in 3 of us will experience problems with our mental health at some time in our lives. Help and support from people around us can make all the difference in how we cope day to day and set us on the road to recovery. Between now and the end of January 2021 the Radio 4 All in the Mind Awards are seeking listeners’ experiences of brilliant mental health care and will recognise the people – the unsung heroes - who helped make the difference. There are 3 categories for the awards, the individual, professional or project: Individual Award : An individual family member, friend, boss or colleague who offered significant support. Professional Award: A mental health professional whose dedication, help and support made a really significant difference to you. This could be a psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, nurse, volunteer or other professional. Project Award: A mental health project or group you took part in, either in person or online, which made a big difference to your recovery or the way you cope. The winners of the awards will be announced during a ceremony to be held in London in June 2021.Have you ever wondered what therapists are thinking while people sit opposite them telling them their innermost thoughts? Psychotherapist Philippa Perry discusses her graphic novel Couch Fiction which describes what actually happens during therapy. This can help many of us to understand the therapeutic process better.And we hear of a really simple way of raising achievement levels in teenagers in disadvantaged groups – by giving them three short writing exercises, taking just 15 minutes each. It might sound a little too simple. But preliminary research by Ian Hadden at the University of Sussex suggests it could have a profound effect.Producer Adrian Washbourne