How comfortable are you in talking about sex and suicide? No matter what, we each have a close relationship with and strong opinions about sex and suicide. Talking candidly about them can be difficult – with each they can fill us with unease, bring up distressing memories, force us to sit with uncertainty and with fear. *This episode has a significant focus on suicide. If you need to talk to someone, please visit the Mindframe website where you will find a list of contacts. Guests: On the...

For most of human history, mental illness has been largely untreatable. Sufferers lived their lives - if they survived - in and out of asylums, accumulating life's wreckage around them. In 1948, all that changed when an Australian doctor and recently returned prisoner of war, working alone in a disused kitchen, set about an experimental treatment for one of the scourges of mankind - manic depression, or bipolar disorder. That doctor was John Cade and in that small kitchen he stirred up a...

Many people across Australia and the world are afraid to talk about suicide. A common misconception is that talking about it will encourage and lead to suicide. In episode 11 of It’s A Mind Field!, we start the conversation about suicide and some of the myths around it. We take a  first-hand look at the factors that drive suicidal thinking and behaviour and reveal the powerful effect that holding space for someone going through this can have. *This episode has a significant focus on...

Australia is a country that lives for sport; in the 2021 lockdown, millions of people were glued to the Olympics in Tokyo and football grand finals. But what about the mental health of athletes when they’re off the field? Renowned sports psychiatrist Dr Ranjit Menon joins It’s A Mind Field! to discuss the mental health of high-performance athletes. On December 14 2012, the world watched in horror as a deadly school shooting unfolded at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in the United...

Episode Nine of It’s A Mind Field! explores Aboriginal mental health and suicide.  Research shows that Indigenous people in Australia are twice as likely to die by suicide than non-Indigenous Australians. The suicide rate of Indigenous Australian children is amongst the highest in the world and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged between 15 and 24 are almost four times more likely to commit suicide than non-Indigenous people of the same age. In today’s episode, we hear the voices of...

Imagine that life is a video game and at the start of the game, everyone is gifted 90,000 ‘bonus hours’, to spend doing whatever tickles their fancy  How would you spend this time?  Would you explore the world with those you love the most?   Would you kick-back and watch re-runs of Sex and The City?  Or maybe rescue twelve dogs and start a commune in Alaska.   However you’d spend this time doesn’t matter; what matters is it's yours.   I’m sorry to break this brief moment of fantasy; life is...

Drugs destroy lives…..or do they? Everyone has an opinion about drugs, and usually a robust one.  For some people living with mental health issues, the impacts of drug use can be devastating and even fatal. However, for some, intoxication can also be a source of joy, inspiration, and self-knowledge. What do you reckon? This episode features two of Australia’s most prominent and influential voices around all things related to drugs, and their opinions might not be the ones you...

In today’s episode, we examine some of the things we hold near to our hearts but might be afraid to talk about. We talk openly about suicide from those with personal experience and what the research says. This is a story of hope, not despair.  We then have an interview we hope you’ll love as much as we do!  We interview a sex worker who specialises in working with clients who have dementia, living within aged care facilities. Though eye-opening, this is a story of tenderness, not...

Have you ever felt lonely? Are you lonely now? French writer, Honoré de Balzac wrote that “solitude is fine but sometimes you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.” Ain’t that the truth! In this episode, we investigate what causes loneliness and how it is different from solitude. And where does our drive to connect come from? How and why do we connect, with words or without them? Though it can feel like it sometimes, you’re not alone. We promise!  Dr Michelle Lim is a Senior Lecturer in...

Is there a connection between religious involvement and mental health? Hell yeah! Though it is a long and complex relationship indeed. For some, religion and sport has been a source of deep joy and connection, whereas for others it has been an irritant. Of course, there are many shades in between. Funnily enough, the exact same thing could be said about sport. What do you reckon?  Carole Cusack is a Professor at Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include...

In this episode, we unearth the connection between invisible illness and its propensity to result in 50 shades of displacement -- from friends, family, work, visibility in public discourse, and the home itself. Join in on our chats with SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTS: LIVING WITH INVISIBLE ILLNESS author Kylie Maslen, and Yfoundations CEO Pam Barker. Kylie Maslen is a writer, critic and the author of SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTS: LIVING WITH INVISIBLE ILLNESS. She lives on unceded Kaurna Country in...

In this episode of It’s a Mind Field! We’re focusing on youth and some of the challenges that young people have faced in the past and still deal with today. Our expert interview is with 2010’s Australian of the Year, Professor Pat McGorry. Pat is a psychiatrist known world-wide for his development of early intervention and youth mental health services and for mental health innovation, advocacy, and reform. Leon speaks to him about the difficulties navigated by young people and mental illness,...

Welcome to It’s A Mind Field! In this first episode of ‘It’s A Mind Field!’ presenter, Leon Fernandes, has a conversation with Australia’s premier ‘Psychologically Diverse Citizen’, Fay Jackson, about the discrimination, stigma and self-stigma that PDCs like her experience every day. The show’s three presenters then have a chat about what Fay had to say, and how discrimination, stigma and self-stigma affect them in their daily lives, in ‘Club Mind’. In ‘Outside The Box’, we hear from a...

Welcome to this 13 episode pilot season of ‘It’s A Mind Field!’ an audio-based multimedia community engagement project for, by and about Australians with lived experience of mental health challenges, launching on 23 July 2021. We are Caroline Savransky, Chris Jaeger and Leon Fernandes  – all experts by experience. Join us as we discuss the issues that matter to us all as we manage our lives through our challenges. For this pilot season, we talk through 13 themes chosen by a poll of experts...