Remember that dress? In All in the mind recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead, Claudia Hammond delves into the psychology and neuroscience of our visual experience. How do we know we all see the same colours? And why do adults look away from other people’s faces when they’re trying to concentrate? We hear from the visual neuroscientist trying to work out exactly what we all see when we look at colours and from the psychologist training the police and te...
May 07, 2019•35 min
Claudia talks to Catherine Loveday about her new research trying to find out why some people have difficulty navigating and what strategies might help. Madeleine Finlay reports from the 'Extreme Imagination' conference at Exeter University about people with aphantasia who have no mind's eye - who can't visualise friends, family, objects or anything. She meets people with the condition and the researchers trying to understand it. And the musical all about depression, 'A Super happy story about fe...
Apr 30, 2019•29 min
When ex-footballer Clarke Carlisle went missing in 2017 his wife Carrie thought the worst: he had severe depression and had already attempted to take his own life. Found safely in Liverpool, he then spent weeks in a psychiatric hospital and 18 months in therapy. Clarke’s whole sense of identity was tied up with football and the buzz it gave him. So a knee injury at 21 made him feel like a failure and pushed him towards destructive behaviours with alcohol and marathon computer game sessions. Carr...
Apr 23, 2019•29 min
Claudia busts some myths in neuroscience. She meets scientists attending the British Neuroscience Association's Christmas symposium on Neuromyths. She talks to Professor Chris MacManus about myths around left and right and how we use the different sides of our brain. She discusses with Duncan Astle from Cambridge University about the brain myths that have been used in education in primary schools. Cordelia Fine from Melbourne University discusses the myths about the differences between male and ...
Dec 18, 2018•28 min
A year ago a community organisation in Tyne and Wear called Citizens UK brought together people from schools, mosques, churches, politicians and the NHS to address mental health issues in their area. Claudia Hammond revisits the scheme a year on, to examine how a wide variety of local improvements now appear imminent. It follows months of hearing hundreds of personal testimonies and winning commitment from decision makers and those in power, to pledge to take action. What can those of us who wou...
Dec 11, 2018•28 min
What is self-care and what's the evidence that it works for anxiety and depression in young people? Claudia talks to Professor in Evidence Based Practice and Research at UCL, Miranda Wolpert and Maggy Van Eijk, author of Remember this when you're sad - Lessons learned on the road from self-harm to self-care. They discuss how useful is self-care and what are the kinds of strategies that work. Liam Hill from the University of Leeds explains why mathematical ability might relate to ball catching sk...
Dec 04, 2018•28 min
Antidepressants are a helpful treatment for many, but some people do have problems when they stop taking them. A recent review of the evidence about antidepressant withdrawal symptoms found more people may experience them for longer than previously thought, and many people describe these symptoms as severe. But the study has come in for some criticism over data analysed and the fact that withdrawal symptoms also may vary by antidepressant type. So what does this mean in practice? Claudia Hammond...
Nov 27, 2018•28 min
Claudia Hammond finds out how MDMA assisted psychotherapy could help treat people with alcohol dependence. Trials are in their early stages but initial results are promising. Could this in the future be a new way to treat an addiction which ordinarily can have high relapse rates? Clinical psychologist, Laurie Higbe, explains how she and co therapist, Dr Ben Sessa, conduct the therapy and why MDMA might work at helping tackle the causes of alcohol addiction. Also, why city traders who can detect ...
Nov 20, 2018•28 min
Claudia visits a specialist personality disorder clinic in South London where she meets Jo, Susan and Chanelle to talk about what it's like to have a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Psychotherapist, Merryn Jones explains why long term, regular group and individual therapy can help people cope with the intense emotional difficulties often caused by traumatic early life experiences. New research on why agreeable people might be worse at managing their money. Sandra Matz from Columbia...
Nov 13, 2018•28 min
Happy Birthday to us! All in the Mind is 30 years old this month and to celebrate we’ve searched the archive to bring you clips of Anthony Clare, the original presenter of the programme, and a very young Claudia Hammond as a reporter. Professor Catherine Loveday is in the studio with Claudia to discuss the pieces of psychology research which have had the biggest impact on them in that time. Last month Donald Trump called for civility after pipe bombs were posted to ten of his most vocal opponent...
Nov 06, 2018•28 min
55,000 people worldwide completed the BBC Loneliness Experiment. It is the largest survey of loneliness ever done. The results are unique in their scope and reach and were revealed first at an event in the Reading Room of Wellcome Collection. At the live event, presented by Claudia Hammond, musician Jazz Morley and poet Daljit Nagra perform and talk about how their creativity was driven by their loneliness. Philosopher Julian Baggini challenges the idea that loneliness is always a negative exper...
Oct 01, 2018•1 hr 4 min
1. Distraction - devoting time to hobbies, study or work
Oct 01, 2018•14 min
2. Taking up new social activities or joining a club
Oct 01, 2018•15 min
3. Changing your thinking to make it more positive
Oct 01, 2018•11 min
4. Starting a conversation with someone
Oct 01, 2018•9 min
5. Talking to Friends or family about your feelings
Oct 01, 2018•10 min
6. Look for the good in everyone
Oct 01, 2018•13 min
7. Reflecting on why you feel lonely
Oct 01, 2018•8 min
Claudia Hammond hosts the All in the Mind Awards Ceremony from Wellcome Collection in London and meets all the All in the Mind Award finalists. Back in November we asked you to nominate the person, professional or group who had made a difference to your mental health. Throughout the current series we've been hearing the individual stories of the nine finalists, and this edition offers the chance to recap the people and organisations who've made a huge difference to other people's lives - and of ...
Jun 26, 2018•28 min
Susie McKinnon doesn't have amnesia but can't remember her own past. She has Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory syndrome where she knows an event happened but has no recollection of being there herself. She tells Claudia what it is like and memory scientist Brian Levine from Baycrest in Canada explains more about what the syndrome's existence tells us about the nature of memory and knowledge. In the All in the Awards, Rosa explains why she nominated Ian, her manager while working at Chur...
Jun 22, 2018•28 min
As the population ages, Parkinson's disease is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease. Symptoms of tremor and difficulties with co-ordination are well known, but memory problems or cognitive decline also affects over 30% of patients. Until now doctors had no reliable way of predicting which people will develop these cognitive symptoms or how serious they'd get. Now a team at Kings College London has found a way of doing this before symptoms even begin using an MRI brain scanner. Claudia H...
Jun 12, 2018•29 min
KIM stands for Knowledge, Inspiration and Motivation. It is a mental health group running activities for people around Holywell in North Wales and is the latest group finalist in the All in the Mind Awards. They were nominated by Hannah who explains why she sought their help as a teenager. Sophie Forster from Sussex University talks about her new research on smell blindness. One of the awards judges, Mandy Stevens, talks about some of the best ways to find help for your own mental health. Also, ...
Jun 05, 2018•28 min
Is it possible to take the guesswork out of the prescription of medication for psychosis? Medication is available for the distressing experiences of hallucinations or delusions, but anti-psychotics only work for about three quarters of people and psychiatrists currently have no good way of working out who those people are. New research at Kings College London is trialling a type of scan that's been around for some time - a PET scan - but using it in a new way to detect whether a person's brain h...
May 29, 2018•29 min
Claudia Hammond visits the RHS Feel Good Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. The garden is part of the 70th birthday celebrations for the NHS and was proposed by occupational therapist Andrew Kingston and designed by Matt Keightley. It highlights the benefits of gardening for mental health. After the show the garden will be replanted in the grounds of a hospital in Archway. Michael Scullin is Director of the Sleep, Neuroscience and Cognition Lab at Baylor University in the US and he has a useful ...
May 22, 2018•28 min
Claudia hears from Fiona who nominated the nurse who gave her treatment for bladder cancer for the 2018 All in the Mind Awards. Fiona explains why her experience of childhood trauma re-surfaced when she realised what her treatment for bladder cancer would involve. And why nurse Tanya went the extra mile to manage her anxieties and make the treatment as trauma free as possible. Also in the programme for people who find it difficult to drop off at night, how does writing a to-do list help? Michael...
May 15, 2018•28 min
Claudia Hammond's guest is University of Cambridge clinical psychologist Tim Dalgleish The vision of autonomous vehicles on our roads is becoming a reality, but in order for driverless cars to succeed, not only does the technology need to be faultless, but it's essential they can interact with pedestrians safely. So we need to know more about how pedestrians deal with the cars. Claudia Hammond takes a driverless ride with Prof Ed Galea of the University of Greenwich who's just conducted a trail ...
May 08, 2018•29 min
How do our minds view policies that we don't really like, once they become a reality? New research shows that once they actually take place, our mind set changes - and surprisingly we stop minding quite as much. So have we been overestimating the amount of opposition to new initiatives? Kristin Lauren from the University of British Columbia has found that we rationalise the things we feel stuck with. There's been much research on the link between exercise and depression, but to what extent does ...
May 01, 2018•29 min
In the first of a new series Claudia Hammond meets the first of the nine finalists for the All in the Mind Awards 2018. We hear from Helen who nominated Sarah's Runners, a running group in Tunbridge Wells who helped her after her husband took his own life when she was pregnant with their second child. The group meets twice a week and their ethos is far from personal bests on the track but all about people being included and getting the best they can from exercise. Claudia goes running with Helen...
Apr 24, 2018•28 min
All in the Mind: The Loneliness Experiment launches the world's largest ever survey of its kind on loneliness. Britain is the "loneliness capital of Europe" according to the Office for National Statistics. Loneliness is likely to affect all of us at some point in our lives and is not only distressing, but is implicated in health problems such as an increased risk of heart disease. For some people loneliness occurs because of a change in circumstances such as after bereavement, becoming unemploye...
Feb 14, 2018•28 min
Claudia finds out what can be done to help children whose parents have a mental illness and who may end up becoming their carers. She talks to Kiera and Ambeya who have lived with their parents' depression and schizophrenia and she meets Alan Cooklin, the founder of Kidstime, a charity which aims to support families where one or more parent has a mental illness. Claudia talks to the psychologist who finds out why our perceptions of the amount of exercise we do can change its health benefits. And...
Dec 19, 2017•28 min
