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Transcript

Episode 0: Psychophobia* Teaser · psychophobia* podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Psychophobia Podcast.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: OK, so basically I'm sitting here with my producer.
• 0:45
  He's driving me nuts and he's asking me to do a high energy,
• 0:48
  high octane trailer.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't do that because I'm all about authenticity.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: All right, here's another one.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast is called Psychophobia.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm angry, and I'll tell you why I'm angry.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've been working in the mental health system for 25 years.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see it getting better.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: I see people being treated very badly when they need safety,
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: support,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: dare I say it,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: love and compassion.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And what often they receive is a label.
• 1:21
  coercion and a lack of hope in terms of recovery and moving on
• 1:29
  so on this podcast
• 1:30
  we're going to ask very difficult questions we may not have the
• 1:33
  answers but we're
• 1:34
  going to have a dialogue about it and we hope to get people to
• 1:37
  think to question
• 1:39
  and if they could come away with anything at all we would like
• 1:42
  them to come away
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: with informed choice because I think that is what is missing and
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: There are choices in how we treat distress and suffering,
• 1:50
  but people are very misinformed because there's a dominance of
• 1:53
  the medical model
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: and there's a dominance in psychiatry,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: more or less pharmacology or the focus on medication.
• 2:02
  So it's an opportunity to try and share with more people what I
• 2:05
  think is wrong,
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: but more importantly,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: what we could get right.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: And if we get it right, less people suffer.
• 2:11
  If we look at the statistics of mental health in America,
• 2:15
  nothing is getting better.
• 2:17
  If we look at medicine in America,
• 2:19
  excluding psychiatry,
• 2:20
  the advances are incredible.
• 2:22
  Why is medicine the primary dictator of mental health and how
• 2:29
  people are treated?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's not working.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not working because the medical model treats people as things.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: We are not things.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: We are not burgers.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're human beings having a human experience.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you could say, are people getting more destabilized?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Are they having more mental health issues?
• 2:49
  Or is the very system that's meant to be helping them causing
• 2:52
  the rise in mental
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: health in the first place?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: At the heart of this project is what I'm calling a pharmakon,
• 2:59
  which is a Greek word which really Derrida translated as a cure
• 3:06
  and a poison.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So if you like the asterisk represents many things,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: but it represents nuance and it represents things aren't black and white.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: There are no easy answers.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I think people need to be prepared for not getting the answer,
• 3:22
  but maybe to be confronted with very difficult questions that
• 3:25
  are hard to answer.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: So they should be prepared to think and reflect and engage.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: So there are key themes that I think we need to confront as a society.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: One of them is the McDonaldisation of healthcare,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: this idea that,
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: efficiency,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: predictability,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: control...
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: are very, very important to your organisations and the systems.
• 3:49
  Those things are not wrong in and of themselves unless they
• 3:53
  become the core focus.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And when they become a core focus, there are unforeseen consequences.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: including de-skilling, dehumanizing.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if you imagine being trained through a manualized system,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: you're trained to follow a manual,
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: but there's consequences to that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: You pull on less initiative,
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: less creativity,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: perhaps less humanity,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: because you're following often a tick box.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Retraining as a clinician was a second career for me.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And when I first joined the community mental health team,
• 4:33
  I viscerally could not understand why or how we were treating
• 4:37
  people in this way.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: That was over 20 years ago.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see things getting better.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: I see them getting worse.
• 4:45
  So I felt compelled to take the clinical knowledge and if you
• 4:50
  like the clinical
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: success of what works well
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: why certain treatment works well and what we could do differently.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm coming at it with a degree of clinical knowledge.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: and theoretical knowledge and lived experience of observing this.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's got slightly worse.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I feel compelled to call it out.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: My brother said to me once many years ago,
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: if you're going to swing a sword,
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: make sure you have enough room.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I interpret that to mean is,
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: build your credentials,
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: build your experience and then talk to what may be wrong with the system.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Someone else,
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was very lucky to have different people in my life,
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: someone else said to me,
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: if you're going to deconstruct anything,
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: you need to be able to construct it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So arguably,
• 5:39
  I've been spending 20 years knowing how to construct before I'm
• 5:43
  going publicly to
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: help people deconstruct.
• 5:46
  So this podcast,
• 5:47
  I hope,
• 5:48
  will support people make more informed choices and better
• 5:53
  choices.
• 5:54
  I hope it will challenge the very system that is meant to be
• 5:57
  helping people to have
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: a look at itself and to ask difficult questions.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: People can follow along on Substack.
• 6:03
  There's a dedicated psychophobia page and they can also follow
• 6:08
  along on psychophobia.com.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: If they subscribe, they'll receive a regular email.
• 6:14
  reminder about the newsletter and they will have exclusive
• 6:17
  content in terms of editorial.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, apparently I look better because this is airbrushed.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Murda thinks so.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: My confidence is wrecked.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I got the Kardashian treatment.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Basically,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: if this was keeping up with the Kardashians,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: they'd all be fired for not being sycophantic.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Psychophobia podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.