Many of us use a social media account, and some of us have been unfortunate enough to be on the end of a ‘pile on.’ To those who have, this can be an excruciatingly painful, and…

With Trump now banned from Twitter for violating terms of service and allegedly advocating what some have called an insurrection, many cite that the site has gone too far. I disagree. Here is why. Pundits stating that the ‘trump ban’ is the start of some censorship on freedom of speech…

John* was a young man and suicidal. He had recently split from his partner and had spent three days drinking. His sleep was erratic, and his mind playing over the same thoughts of guilt and anger. He had begun to feel anxious, his heart beating hard in his chest. The…

COVID 19 has become a disease of the mind, and that is where it can win. We must fight back—thoughts from a psychiatrist. — Denial is natural but a barrier to survival. Denial is a natural defense mechanism against trauma. In most cases, this is not a deep denial, and the person is somewhat aware of the irreconcilable nature of their beliefs with reality. It becomes psychotic in some cases, where the reality is repressed so deeply that a secondary alternative and…

Lessons from my failures and the successes of others. — Over the last few weeks, I have taken a break from social media. I had many reasons, including working as a frontline ward psychiatry trainee in a covid + ward, revising for exams (which to my surprise are still happening in midst of a horrible pandemic,) personal stress, and, most…

It is only this year that Professor John Read published his latest work meta-anlysis on ECT in the in joural ‘Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry’ and catalysed a huge debate about the nature and justification of psychiatric treatments. Although widely disputed in terms of its methodology and contradicting studies finding…

As a psychiatrist, I often work with those for whom the subjective nature of reality is vastly different from what is objectively true. This can provide intense suffering, or release from it. From a metaphysical standpoint, many simply see what is not there, and by hold with this sight a…

I t was only just recently that Barrister Jolyon Maugham was the center of the news. Alongside other legal minds, he had spearheaded campaigns around complicated legal issues concerning ‘Brexit’, the British plan to leave the European Union. Although attempting to uphold legal mandates and ensure oversight to political actions…

Imagine, for a moment, and some of you will not need to imagine, that you are unwell. For you, the world has turned grey and you are beginning to consider that there is nothing left to make you smile. Or, perhaps, that you are feeling that ‘something is wrong’, that…