Psychology

In this episode, Hank talks about OCD and anxiety disorders in the hope we'll understand what people with actual OCD have to deal with as well as how torturous anxiety disorders and panic attacks can actually be.

Insight into the way OCD can affect a person's daily life, feelings, thoughts and relationships.

Fast facts from the 2014 Survey on Living with Chronic Diseases in Canada

Even though depression and anxiety are different types of disorders, they tend to go together. But why can it happen?

There’s a common misconception that if you like to meticulously organize your things, keep your hands clean, or plan out your weekend to the last detail, you might be OCD. In fact, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is a serious psychiatric condition that is frequently misunderstood by society and mental health professionals alike.

What goes on inside a body that is chronically stressed? Our hard-wired stress response is designed to give us the quick burst of heightened alertness and energy needed to perform our best. However, when activated too long or too often, stress can damage virtually every part of our body.

What is insomnia? And is there any way to break the cycle? Dan Kwartler details the science of insomnia.

Studies suggest that almost a third of us will experience at least one panic attack in our lives. So what exactly is a panic attack, and can we prevent them?

Have you ever sat down to take a math test and immediately felt your heart beat faster and your palms start to sweat? This is called math anxiety, and if it happens to you, you’re not alone: Researchers think about 20 percent of the population suffers from it.

John Green, from Crash Course, talks about what it's actually like to live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

In this episode, Hank talks about mood disorders and their causes as well as how these disorders can impact people's lives.

A video that explains how it feels to have depression

Having a nervous breakdown could seem like the ultimate calamity. Far from it. Handled correctly, it can be a unique opportunity to learn - and to get properly well.

Fast facts from the 2014 Survey on Living with Chronic Diseases in Canada

One of the topic that we've talked about the most is depression. It is a really complicated subject, so we’ve put together some of our episodes about depression to hopefully help you understand more about it.

Even though depression and anxiety are different types of disorders, they tend to go together. But why can it happen?

Humans may not hibernate, exactly, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're totally unaffected by the changing of seasons.

In the 1950s, the discovery of two new drugs sparked what would become a multi-billion dollar market for antidepressants. Neither drug was intended to treat depression at all— many doctors and scientists believed psychotherapy was the only approach to treatment. Neil R. Jeyasingam details how these drugs revolutionized our understanding of depression.

Want to connect with a depressed friend but not sure how to relate to them? Comedian and storyteller Bill Bernat has a few suggestions. Learn some dos and don'ts for talking to people living with depression -- and handle your next conversation with grace and maybe a bit of humor.

Depression is a mental illness that can be harder to understand than other physical illnesses like asthma or high cholesterol. This video looks at the symptoms and treatments of depression and gives some tips for helping a friend who is suffering.

In this episode, Hank walks us through the troubling world of Eating and Body Dysmorphic disorders. Please note, you will need to sign into Youtube and confirm your age to watch this video. Youtube has classified information about eating disorders as inappropriate for children.

When you think about an eating disorder, you might imagine restricting or purging food. But the most common eating disorder has nothing to do with either of those, and chances are you’ve never heard of it.

In this episode, Hank describes some of the most misunderstood psychological disorders out there: Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder.

A video from Psych Hub addressing some common misconceptions about schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia affects 20 million people worldwide, and we don’t exactly know how it develops, or what causes it yet. However, some research has found that it might be an autoimmune condition.

Scientists have learned a great deal about schizophrenia in the past few decades, but public perception of the disorder is still often rooted in outdated myths.

Discover what we know— and don’t know— about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia affects more than 21 million people worldwide. Sufferers commonly experience delusions, hallucinations, cognitive issues leading to problems in decision-making in daily life, loss of self-esteem and withdrawal from society. Rich talks about what it’s like to live with Schizophrenia and his experiences of existing medications.

So, what do Batman and J.R.R. Tolkien have in common? Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It used to be called "Shellshock" and it can be really really really destructive. In this episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank lays out the low down on PTSD and how trauma can affect the brain

An excessive amount of alcohol can cause lots of problems, but lots of people drink fairly regularly without any of these problems. So, how do you know when you drink too much?

This TED video examines the science behind post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Learn how traumatic experiences can linger, causing symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, and negative thoughts that interfere with everyday life.

Explore the science of why opioids are addictive and what can be done to reverse the growing rates of addiction and overdose.

In this episode, Hank takes a look at how the treatment for psychological disorders has changed over the last hundred years and who is responsible for getting us on the path to getting us here.

Underlying so many of our emotional problems lies one phenomenon above any other; shame. Feeling misguidedly and disproportionately ashamed of who we are is at the root of an extraordinary amount of disturbance, rendering us harmful to ourselves and to the world.

Your head feels too big and things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser. Did you step through the looking glass or is it a super rare neurological condition?

While many researchers are focusing on finding a difference in brains of people with dyslexia, some new research suggests it might not just be in their brains, but in their eyes.

Losing half of the world sounds like a weird, abstract dream state. But for those that develop hemispatial neglect, that’s exactly what happens, without them even realizing it.

You might have a roommate who rolls their eyes a lot and leaves sassy sticky notes all over the place, but no matter how frustrating it is, it’s probably not a personality disorder.

Edward Norton and Jim Carrey might be charming actors, but their film portrayals of people with multiple personalities aren’t even close to accurate.

We all struggle with clutter, but something quite distinct might be happening in the brains of those who have the hoarding disorder.

There are a number of stereotypes about bipolar disorder, but they stray pretty far from what the reality is—especially since there are multiple subtypes that all have their own sets of symptoms.

You might know of dyslexia as a reading disorder, but years of research suggests that people with dyslexia might struggle with processing letters because they also have trouble processing rhythm.

Tourette Syndrome in popular culture is often simplified to a poorly timed foul mouth, but that’s only a small part of the story—or sometimes not part of the story at all.

If patients seem to be unaware of their obvious conditions and symptoms, it might not be that they're in denial, but their brain might actually prevent them from realizing their disabilities.

Narcissism isn’t just a personality type that shows up in advice columns; it’s actually a set of traits classified and studied by psychologists. But what causes it? And can narcissists improve on their negative traits?

Explore the medical condition known as bipolar disorder, and learn about its symptoms, causes, and treatments.