This episode of Safe Space Radio features Glenn Close talking about her relationship with her sister Jessie, who is bipolar, and how they are working together to advocate for people living with major mental illness.
mental illness
Mental Health at the Coffee Shop with Mary Allen Lindemann
Mary Allen Lindemann is co-founder of Coffee By Design in Portland, Maine. She remembers how one coffee shop worked to become a safe place for those with mental illness. Mary Allen is trained in de-escalatation, and she tells a story about using these skills when a staff member became ill.
Living with OCD with Monica
OCD, Panic, and Llamas with Paula Matlins
Obsessive Confession with Rob
In this episode of Safe Space Radio, psychotherapist Rob talks about his own anxiety, which makes him feel an insatiable need to confess things to those around him, and which can also lead to debilitating panic attacks. He talks about the various therapies he’s tried, including two which have greatly reduced his anxiety in the …read more »
Anxiety in Photos with John William Keedy
Connecting with People with Dementia with Steven Sabat
In this episode of Safe Space Radio, neuropsychologist Steven Sabat discusses how he’s been able to find ways of communicating with people with advanced dementia by recognizing and honoring their enduring personhood. He talks about the failure of standard tests of mental ability to register the social awareness of people diagnosed with dementia, and the …read more »
Recovery Through Music with Michael Skinner
Songwriter Michael Skinner used music as a way to heal from the abuse he suffered as a child. Michael talks about his adult experiences with PTSD, his often-frustrating encounters with the mental health system, and his efforts to resist the stigmatizing label of “mental illness.” He also explores songwriting as an important healing tool in …read more »
Child Abuse and Physical Health 25 Years Later with Vincent Felitti
Dr. Vincent Felitti talks about his groundbreaking research to show that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s, like abuse, neglect and severe family dysfunction) are correlated not only with mental illness and addiction, but also with physical illnesses like heart disease, lung disease and even auto-immune diseases.
Restraints in Mental Hospitals with Bob Stains
This episode of Safe Space Radio features Bob Stains of the Public Conversations Project. He talks about the use of restraints on patients in mental hospitals and discusses facilitating a series of conversations in which both the workers who apply restraints and the people to whom restraints have been applied are able to talk about their experiences …read more »
Loving a Brother with Schizophrenia with Isa Mattei
This episode of Safe Space Radio features therapist Isa Mattei talking about her relationship with her brother, Artie, who had schizophrenia. She describes her mother’s fierce determination not to have Artie institutionalized, which kept him integrated in the family and also sometimes subjected his siblings to chaotic and often frightening interactions—yet Isa felt very seen …read more »
Parenting Life-Threatening Depression with Rachel
This episode of Safe Space Radio features Rachel talking about her son’s severe depression and multiple suicide attempts. Rachel names the sense of ambiguous loss she feels now that her son lives in a state mental hospital, and how her daily visits to him can bring their own sense of shame and self-doubt. She offers …read more »
Commitment to a Mentally-Ill Parent with Jeneen Interlandi
Harvard Nieman Fellow Jeneen Interlandi talks about her father’s bi-polar disorder. She describes the painful and extraordinary measures her family had to go through to get him into treatment, including restraining orders, getting him arrested, and hiring a lawyer to broker an agreement to get him to take medicine as a condition of leaving jail. …read more »
Self-Care and Intergenerational Mental Illness with Beth Erlichman
This Safe Space Radio episode features personal trainer Beth Erlichman, whose mother and daughter both live with mental illness. Beth describes how her experiences growing up with her mother transformed the way she supported her daughter after a psychotic break, and how internal family systems therapy helped her befriend the young, frightened parts of herself …read more »
Having a Child with Schizophrenia with Cheryl Ramsay
Safe Space Radio interviews Cheryl Ramsay about her two sons, one with schizophrenia who is in treatment and one with an undiagnosed mental illness and addiction who avoids the mental health system. Cheryl describes the deep self-doubt she feels about whether she somehow could have made a difference at each step of the way. She …read more »
On Having a Mother with Bi-Polar Disorder with Valerie Gamache
Safe Space Radio interviews family educator Valerie Gamache about her relationship with her mother who had bi-polar disorder. Valerie describes the ways her family tried to keep the “Big Secret,” to the point that a friend thought her mother had actually died since Valerie spoke so little about her. She also talks about her encounters …read more »
Having a Brother with Schizophrenia with Alicia Barnes
Alicia Barnes talks about her brother, Josh Barnes, who had schizophrenia. Alicia describes Josh’s fears that he had brought mental illness on himself, and how medication impacted his creativity and sense of purpose in writing and playing music. She remembers how stigma kept him from talking about his illness and speaks about becoming involved with …read more »
Healing on the Blank Page with Diane Morrow
Living with Schizophrenia with Elyn Saks
This episode of Safe Space Radio features law professor and Macarthur Fellow Elyn Saks talking about her experience of living with Schizophrenia. When diagnosed, Elyn was given a grave prognosis and told that she might never live independently. With the help of psychoanalysis and medication, however, she returned to law school and is now an …read more »
On Being a Psychiatrist with David Moltz
David Moltz is a psychiatrist in Portland, ME. In this episode, David talked about his reasons for going into psychiatry and the things he finds most difficult about the profession and the things he loves. He speaks about the use of power, the difficulty of deciding whether to commit someone to a hospital, how he …read more »
Bi-Polar Disorder and Addiction with Christiane Wells
Writer Christiane Wells talks with Safe Space Radio about her experience living with bi-polar disorder and addiction. Chris spent a decade in and out of psychiatric hospitals while addicted to crack, not taking her medication and struggling with suicidal thoughts. She describes how she found the will to take care of herself and change her …read more »
Stigma and Being Bipolar with Deb McCarthy
An interview with Deb McCarthy, the author of the blog Living in Stigma. Deb describes her experience of feeling written-off by the mental health system after multiple psychiatric hospitalizations and 77 ECT treatments failed to help her. After being willing to try anything that might help her, she met a new psychiatrist who took a …read more »
From Bipolar Disorder to Bipolar In Order with Tom Wootton
This episode of Safe Space Radio features author and trainer Tom Wootton on his transition from “Bipolar Disorder to Bipolar In Order.” Tom describes how current treatment paradigms teach people to view their highs and lows as problems to be gotten rid of, and his belief that it’s possible to stay aware of intense moods …read more »
Medicating Mental Illness with Robert Whitaker
This episode of Safe Space Radio features award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker on how some psychotropic medications may worsen the long term outcomes of people with severe mental illness. Since the advent of psychotropic medication, the numbers of Americans on psychiatric disability has tripled. Rob notes that people with schizophrenia tend to do better in some …read more »
Trauma, Fear and Denial with Jessica Stern
Research professor Jessica Stern is an expert in the connection between trauma and terrorism. In this interview she talks about her experience following a rape at age 15, and how her story was not believed by the police—resulting in more than 40 other children being targeted. Jessica describes living with PTSD, and experiencing a confusing …read more »
Understanding Anorexia and Eating Disorders with Lori Galperin
An interview with therapist Lori Galperin about how to have a non-judgmental relationship to an eating disorder. Lori describes the many roles that eating disorders serve in the life of a young person, and the importance of not getting into power struggles to try to remove it. She highlights anorexia as an attempt to turn …read more »
The Inner Feelings of Bulimia with Julia Jarvis
Julia Jarvis talks about her struggle with bulimia and her recovery. Julia describes her profound experience with feeling she was bad, and keeping a journal of her daily sins. She credits her recovery with the loosening of a rigid and punitive theology, prozac, and the community she found in Adult Children of Alcoholics.
The Care of Eating Disorders with Patrice Lockhart
Suicide, Depression, and Zen Meditation with Cheri Huber
Suicide Among Returning Vets with Pete MacMullan
Pete McMullan is the Suicide Prevention Coordinator for Veterans Affairs in Maine. Pete describes the painful readjustment recently returned vets face in trying to relate to their peers and the warning signs of suicide risk for families. He tries to help young vets lift the self-judgment and isolation they struggle with.
