In the last two years, online searches for ‘toxic positivity’ have spiked. In this discussion from the Cheltenham Science Festival, we find out what toxic positivity is, and how it can hurt you and people around you.

In front of a live audience, Claudia Hammond is joined by psychologist Dr Linda Blair, GP and educator Dr Anisha Patel, and wellbeing consultant and content creator Benjy Kusi.

Linda has been interested in the rise in the use of the term ‘toxic positivity’ and has noticed how it is having an impact on our wellbeing. She reveals why it is important for us not to suppress ‘negative’ feelings and emotions.

Anisha was diagnosed with bowel cancer when she was 39. She authored the book Everything You Hoped You’d Never Need To Know About Bowel Cancer, where she speaks about her diagnosis and treatment journey. She experienced first-hand the harm that toxic positivity can do.

Benjy works with many different companies to help improve their inclusion and wellbeing practices. He is the author of the book Hope This Helps and posts frequent videos about lots of tricky issues on TikTok and Instagram.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth Editor: Holly Squire

You probably know the video game Tetris, perhaps you’ve even played it, but have you ever thought about it as therapy? Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Emily Holmes from Uppsala University, about her work using Tetris as a psychological intervention for unwanted memories. During the pandemic many ICU workers found they were experiencing intrusive memories about the traumatic events they had experienced. Prof Holmes and her colleague, consultant clinical psychologist Dr Julie Highfield, ran a trial offering Tetris therapy to ICU workers and showed they could reduce intrusive memories significantly.

Next, you may have seen headlines this week suggesting that teenage brains could be worryingly and irrevocably changed by excessive internet use. It is the latest in a recent surge of concern about teenagers' relationship to technology. Claudia and studio guest, Sarah king from Sussex University, dig into the research and discover that the evidence isn’t as worrying as the headlines make it sound.

And do you have a secret? Apparently most of us do and we can't resist thinking about them even though that rumination can impact our wellbeing. Claudia discusses the psychology of secrets with Dr Michael Slepian from Columbia University in New York.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Lorna Stewart Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Studio Manager: Emma Harth Content Editor: Holly Squire

ICU workers testimony clips taken from https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000j22z

When it comes to mental health, what's going on with young people - particularly, teenage girls?

There's been a lot of coverage in the media recently regarding mental health difficulties facing boys, not least around the struggle to get to grips with 'modern masculinity'; undoubtedly, it's a tough time to be a young man.

But looking at figures for mental health problems in children and teens, there's clearly something going on with girls too. For some years now, research has shown that more girls are experiencing problems than boys, with a troubling spike in difficulties showing up in the late teens. In some years, twice as many girls as boys have what the research calls “probable mental health disorders” - with rates of eating disorders charting four times higher and rates of self-harm up to seven times higher in girls than in boys.

All sorts of factors can affect those figures, from whether people are prepared to discuss how they feel, to how those feelings are labelled. But these don’t explain why statistics over recent years continue to show a disparity between boys and girls.

On today's programme, Claudia explores the issue with help from a variety of guests, visiting King's College London's (KCL) Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience to speak to Gemma Knowles, a lecturer in epidemiology and youth mental health; Craig Morgan, professor of social epidemiology and co-director of ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health; and Valeria Mondelli, a clinical professor of psychoneuroimmunology - about their work with young people in the UK and beyond, trying to uncover the deeper causes and to find new solutions.

She also hears from some of the young people involved in a major study into mental health, conducted by the team at KCL and spanning nearly a decade.

Claudia is joined by Dr Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist, who brings her own professional experience to bear discussing the trends and challenges of youth mental health.

Organisations offering information and support relating to mental health can be found at BBC Action Line: bbc.co.uk/actionline

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Lucy Taylor Studio Manager: Emma Harth Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Editor: Holly Squire

Claudia finds out about a new approach to childhood anxiety - an intervention for anxious parents to help them manage their own fears and how they impact their parenting. She meets parents on the course run by Sussex Partnership NHS Trust and talks to Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton from Sussex University who explains what can be done to help prevent mums and dads transmit their own fears to their children. Pamela Qualter from Manchester University discusses new findings on what predicts mental well-being in children. After several suicides in St Ives in Cambridgeshire, residents decided to prioritise mental health and make it a place where people are encouraged to open up about their feelings in the pub, barbers and even at Pilates. Olivia Crellin reports. Also in the programme, research has found that people who live in areas of high air pollution experience more psychosis. But why and what might be the mechanism? Pamela Qualter discusses.

Claudia talks to Professor Steven Rogelberg about the science of meetings. Should we get rid of them altogether? Or what can we do to improve them? Also, how can we help those with dementia sleep better? Professor Susan McCurry and Dr Alpar Lazar discuss the latest research on sleep-regulation for people with dementia. And how good are we at estimating the size of our bodies? Claudia visits Birkbeck, University of London where Renata Sadibolova and Professor Matthew Longo conduct an experiment to see how good Claudia is at estimating her body size.

Claudia Hammond explores the psychology of motivation and procrastination with an audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival. Is willpower a good source of motivation? And why being a chronic procrastinator is bad for your health but there are ways to stop. Claudia is joined by guests: BBC presenter and Team GB triathlete, Louise Minchin, who talks about her route from journalist to representing team GB in triathlon world championships; Fuschia Sirois from Sheffield University, who discusses procrastination, why we do it and how we can stop; and Ian Taylor from Loughborough University, who discusses some of the best ways to motivate ourselves to achieve our goals.

Claudia undergoes a novel treatment for her spider phobia. She meets Professor Sarah Garfinkel at her Sussex lab who has trialled a new technique which involves tuning in to the beat of the heart and finding a quicker way to dampen down and reduce arachnophobia. Does it work for Claudia and does the method allow her to get closer to Terry the tarantula? Also why stepping into someone else's shoes doesn't mean you'll see their point of view and can even mean you can become more entrenched in your own, original views. And are empathic cars the vehicles of the future?

New research shows that we are more envious of someone else's covetable experience before it happens than after it has passed.

Non-Disclosure Agreements can be used to prevent employees discussing allegations of misbehaviour in the workplace with friends, family and even a therapist. But what is the impact of this silence? Claudia Hammond talks to psychologist Nina Burrowes about the effect of not talking about abusive behaviour and Zelda Perkins shares her experience of signing an NDA and the impact it had on her mental health.

Leonardo da Vinci produced some masterpieces but historical accounts show he struggled to complete his works - did da Vinci have ADHD?

Claudia visits The Listening Place – a small charity that provides support for anyone who, for whatever reason feels that life is no longer worth living. Visitors are able to speak to the same trained volunteer for an hour every fortnight. Claudia talks to Jon who first visited the charity 18 months ago when he was in desperate need of support. She meets volunteer Lucy who supported Jon during his time at The Listening Place.

Also, new research that suggests that even those whose lives don't revolve around logic and numbers can have an appreciation for mathematical "beauty".

The studio guest is Professor Catherine Loveday from the University of Westminster.

Producer: Caroline Steel

Universities globally are increasingly being asked by students for trigger warnings on course material that could cause distress and the universities are responding. But what is the evidence they work? All in the Mind talks to Mevagh Sanson, one of the psychologists who has done the first empirical research to find out. The conclusion is – they don’t. She talks to Claudia about the research and its implications. Also, there are many myths about Vincent van Gogh and his mental health. His creative genius has been linked to his struggles with his mental health but as curator at Tate Britain, Carol Jacobi explains he only experienced episodes of mental illness in the last 18 months of his life and far from being a symptom of his illness, he painted in order to stay well. Claudia and Carol discuss why some of the myths about Vincent Van Gogh, his incredible genius and his mental health still persist today. Mathijs Lucassen from the Open University joins Claudia to discuss the government's select committee enquiry into reality TV.

Claudia visits Café Conversations – a weekly meet up in West London for people who are feeling lonely. The café group was organised by Louise Kay who felt lonely after her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and wants to help people in the same position. The dark triad, a term coined by psychology researchers, is a group of three personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Claudia speaks to Professor Scott Kauffman from Columbia University; he has decided enough focus has been given to dark personality traits so he created a light triad: faith in humanity, treating people as ends unto themselves and humanism. He explains how we all have light and dark traits within us and also how to find out how light or dark your own personality might be. Artist Chuck Mullin explains how and why she conveys her anxiety and depression through drawing cartoon pigeons. Also, listeners who have shared their experiences of aphantasia and spatial navigation.

Producer: Caroline Steel

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 teachers that it’s ok if people look away when they talk to you. It doesn’t mean they’re lying. It could mean they’re concentrating.

Producer: Caroline Steel

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 feeling Super sad'. How to make the experience of depression into an uplifting musical. Catherine Loveday tells Claudia about new research looking into why people with depression seek out sad music and explains that, contrary to the idea that it maintains low mood, people with depression find it calming and even empathetic.

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.

Carrie responds to the question sometimes asked by well-meaning people: How could he put you through this?.

“Clarke didn’t put me through anything. This illness [severe depression] invades and puts all of you through it collectively.”

The Carlisles share their tips for recovery: asking for professional help; talking openly to their children about feelings; their daily marks-out-of-ten check in; how much the Pixar film Inside Out taught them about emotional resilience.

Does what we eat have an impact on our mood and memory? And should we be thinking about brain health when we make diet choices? Claudia Hammond speaks to Dr Ellen Smith from Northumbria University about the latest food supplement taking TikTok by storm; Lion's Mane mushrooms. We are used to foods being promoted for their physical health benefits, but this one is being claimed to reduce brain fog, improve memory and fend off Alzheimer's disease. Claudia asks what the science says and discusses with studio guest Dr Sarah King from the University of Sussex whether and what we should be eating to boost our cognition.

And Claudia's off to see a new play; This Might Not Be It is currently on at the Bush Theatre, London. It tells the story of two administrators in an NHS mental health clinic and addresses the challenge of staying optimistic in a system that is struggling. Claudia is accompanied by mental health campaigner James Downs, and speaks to the writer of the play, Sophia Chetin-Leuner. Studio guest Sarah King discusses why drama is so powerful in helping us connect with people's stories.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Lorna Stewart Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Studio Manager: Tim Heffer Editor: Holly Squire

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 female brains. Anne Cook from the BNA talks about some historical myths which have been busted but why others still persist. Emma Yhnell from Cardiff University talks about whether brain training really works.

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 would never dream of doing stand-up learn about human nature from comedians? Comedian Robin Ince who of course co-presents The Infinite Monkey Cage here on Radio 4 has written a book all about this called I'm a Joke and So Are You. He discusses the value his audiences get from him openly discussing anxieties on stage......

If you're a fan of old films you might well have noticed that they were cut together with much longer shots than we tend to see these days - with an average change of image every ten seconds in the 1930s and 40s to just four seconds currently. Celia Andreu Sanchez from the Autonomous University of Barcelona has looked closely at impact this has on the way we pay attention to movies, with surprising results.

Psychologist Prof. Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster is this week’s studio guest.

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 skills and his work with pupils at a primary school in Bradford. Claudia discusses schadenfreude with historian of emotions, Tiffany Watt-Smith and psychologist, Wilco Van Dijk from the University of Leiden.

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 is joined by the survey’s author John Read, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, and by Dr Sameer Jauhar, Senior Research Fellow, King’s College London.

Poor mental health in the construction industry is ‘the silent epidemic’, reporting more suicides than any other profession. Greater mental health support for construction workers is now identified as a priority area. Claudia Hammond examines Mates in Mind, a new initiative to improve mental health in the sector by increasing awareness and the confidence amongst its predominantly male workforce to openly discuss the issues.

And do eye movements reveal more about our personality than previously thought? Claudia Hammond speaks to Sabrine Hoppe from the University of Stuttgart who carried out the first real world study that appears to find a relationship between our changing eye movements with our distinct character traits.

Studio guest is Dr Mathijs Lucasson from the Open University

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 their own heartbeat may have better instincts when they have to make quick decisions on what's happening in the financial markets. Professor Sarah Garfinkel from the University of Sussex explains why the heart can be a powerful source of information guiding our behaviour without us being consciously aware of it. And Stephanie Johnson from the University of Colorado discusses her research exploring the relationship between risk taking and entrepreneurial behaviour and the toxoplasma gondii parasite.

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 business school explains that it's not because agreeable people are more cooperative negotiators but that they just care less about money. Also in the programme what is emodiversity and can experiencing a range of negative and positive emotions be protective for your mental health? Tim Dalgleish from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences unit at the University of Cambridge explains.

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 opponents. As America goes to the polls for midterm elections we hear about a new piece of research that suggests civility in politics is not dead. Dr Jeremy Frimer, from the University of Winnipeg in Canada, explains his new research on how approval ratings vary before and after volunteers read tweets by Donald Trump.

And what impact does a year in the Arctic have on your mental state? Claudia talks to research psychologist, Dr Anna Temp, who travelled to Svalbard to find out what impact a prolonged stay has on the mental health of scientists working there. How do they cope with the total darkness of the polar nights? And what's it like to be cooped up with 10 of your colleagues and polar bears lurking outside?

Producer: Lorna Stewart

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 experience. And Claudia discusses the results of the Wellcome supported research with Professor Christina Victor of Brunel University and Professor Pam Qualter of Manchester University.

1. Distraction - devoting time to hobbies, study or work

2. Taking up new social activities or joining a club

How stressed out do you get by TV quiz shows? And would that change if you were a contestant yourself? Cognitive researchers at the University of Arizona have studied back-episodes of Mastermind to find out how people react in high-stress situations - particularly how much they blink. Their findings offer insight into how blinking changes in stressful and mentally challenging situations – but also what it can tell us about cognitive processes. Claudia Hammond hears from BBC presenter and Celebrity Mastermind "Champion of Champions" 2019, Samira Ahmed, and speaks to Bob Wilson, associate professor in cognitive science and psychology at the University of Arizona, about the research.

Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgotten what you came in for? Studies show that changing your physical location can "bookend" thoughts and shape how our memories compartmentalise information. Now a new study has been looking at whether shifts in our moods can do the same. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, used music to elicit specific emotions in subjects, so they could assess how changes in emotional states might affect how memories are formed. Claudia hears from assistant professor of psychology, David Clewett, one of the paper’s authors.

And this week's studio guest Catherine Loveday, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Westminster, explains why anger can on occasion be a rather useful emotion.

Organisations offering information and support relating to some of the issues covered in this series of All In The Mind can be found at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Lucy Taylor Studio Manager: Tim Heffer Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Editor: Holly Squire

3. Changing your thinking to make it more positive

4. Starting a conversation with someone

5. Talking to Friends or family about your feelings

6. Look for the good in everyone

7. Reflecting on why you feel lonely

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 course to hear comments from the judges and winners from each of the three categories.

The event is hosted by Claudia Hammond.

Judges are Olympic athlete Dame Kelly Holmes, mental health campaigner Marion Janner, Mathijs Lucassen lecturer at the Open University, and manager of mental health services, Mandy Stevens

Produced by Pam Rutherford and Adrian Washbourne.

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 Church's shoes after her experience of psychosis while studying at University. The Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 killed at least 50 million people but many who survived were left overwhelmed by depression. Laura Spinney explains more about the effects of Spanish Flu on the mind.

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 Hammond meets neuroimaging researcher Heather Wilson, and Marios Politis, the Lily Safra Professor of Neurology and Neuroimaging at Kings College London to examine the benefits of its predictive power.

We hear about the last Group Finalist in this year's All in the Mind Mental Health Award : 22 The Avenue is a mental health telephone helpline which has been going for 15 years in York - and it's funded by the council. The staff there have been nominated by Jackie who has been receiving support from the team on and off for much of that time.

Medical Historian Sarah Wise uncovers the archive of celebrated 19th century psychiatrist Sir Alexander Morison, held in his home city of Edinburgh, He made a serious attempt to raise the professional profile of 'lunatic' attendants / keepers - a job that was very looked down on, but crucial in the burgeoning world of both public-sector and private asylum care. The archive offers a unique insight into a voice that up until now has gone missing in mental health history.

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, neuropsychologist and writer, Paul Broks talks about grief and how his wife's death changed his views on the importance of magical thinking.

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 has an overactive dopamine system which might be able to predict which drugs will work. Claudia Hammond talks to Oliver Howes, Professor of Molecular Psychiatry, King's College London and Sameer Jauhar, Senior Research Fellow, King's College London who've been conducting this game changing research.

We hear from the latest finalist in the All in the Mind Awards - someone who knows just what it's like to struggle for many years with mental health issues and to deal with some of worst things that can happen in life. Douglas, who's had to deal with a combination of physical and mental pain, nominated his GP Jens Foell for an award in the Professional category.

What type of personality dictates whether we're prepared to stand up to someone dropping litter, chatting during a movie or more serious transgressions such as verbal abuse? It takes a certain type of person to say something, rather than to sit there and fume. So who is the most likely to stand up to anti-social behaviour? Markus Brauer, who's Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, has been investigating just that. How did he go about it?

Increasing numbers of people are avoiding the news, and a recent update to Ipsos’s Global Trends 2023 report has found that the current state of the world is causing people to focus on their own lives, rather than broader, global problems. Mike Clemence, associate director of trends & futures at Ipsos, talks Claudia Hammond through the findings and the "polycrisis" we find ourselves in. Coverage of these crises can have a psychological impact, Roxane Cohen Silver, distinguished professor of psychological science, medicine, and public health at the University of California Irvine, tells Claudia how media exposure to traumatic events can cause acute symptoms of stress, and what we can do to protect ourselves.

Whistleblowers do the important job of calling out wrongdoing in an organisation. So why are so many treated badly, even though they’ve done the right thing? And how can people be encouraged to raise concerns at work? Claudia speaks to Amy Edmondson, professor of leadership and management at the Harvard Business School, about "psychological safety" – the belief that you won’t be punished for speaking up.

And Claudia is joined in the studio by Daryl O’Connor, professor of psychology at the University of Leeds, to take us through some of the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology. We discuss whether compassion is a limited resource and if the emotional words we use can affect our heart health.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Sophie Ormiston Studio Manager: Tim Heffer Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Editor: Holly Squire

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 suggestion to alleviate exam stress.

All in the Mind awards, this week the finalist is Fiona Sadler a pastoral support advisor at a primary school in Norfolk. Fiona was nominated by Stephanie because of all the support she has shown over the years. They first became friends when Fiona found a note in Steph's son's school bag.

Post Olympic Blues. Dr Mathijs Luccassen from the Open University reports on the difficulties athletes face when they return from the Olympics.

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 Scullin from Baylor University explains. Studio guest, Professor Daryl O'Connor from the University of Leeds talks about the relationship between conscientiousness and stress. And,is yawning really as contagious as we think it is, or does it depend on who is doing the yawning? John Drury from Sussex University talks about his latest research.

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 to assess the detailed response of other road users.

Some of us are much more likely to take risks than others. One way of spotting the risk-takers is to look at how they behave, but do our brains hold clues as well. Joe Kable, Associate Professor of Psychology at the university of Pennsylvania, has unravelled the system in the brain that could help predict the degrees of risk we're prepared to take.

And Claudia meets the third of the nine finalists for the All in the Mind Awards 2018. We hear from Maddie, a professional actor- nominated by her childhood friend and now health economist Stephanie.

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 exercise prevent depression, rather than help with it? An international team including Brendon Stubbs, a post-doctoral research physiotherapist at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, has identified 49 studies from around the world which followed non-depressed people for an average of seven years asking them how much exercise they did. The results are striking.

And Claudia meets the second of the nine finalists for the All in the Mind Awards 2018. We hear from Nathan who's nominated Judith, a counsellor at the Oxfordshire Association for the Blind who has played a huge role in addressing Nathan's mental health issues since his sight began to decline.

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 and finds out why Sarah and the group have been such a huge support to her after her bereavement. Catherine Loveday explains how running helps with improving mood and even cognitive function. Also in the programme, Claudia talks to Professor Coral Dando about research published this week showing that eye witnesses recalled more information more accurately when interviewed by an avatar in a virtual reality environment rather than a real person. So why do the social pressures of an interview with a human impact on our ability to recall events in the past? Have you ever felt 'Gigil'? It's a Tagalog word meaning 'to want to squeeze or pinch someone because you cherish them so much. Claudia talks to Tim Lomas about his lexicon of 'untranslatable words' related to wellbeing from other languages which can't easily be translated into English. Catherine Loveday discusses a new way of understanding how different parts of the brain communicate: brain entropy. What is it and why might caffeine increase it.

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 unemployed or starting university. And while some tend to adapt to their new lives and the feeling of loneliness fades others are less able to shake off their pain.

The Loneliness Experiment, devised by Professor Pamela Qualter and colleagues, aims to look at causes and possible solutions to loneliness. And we want as many people as possible to fill in our survey, even if they've never felt lonely, because we want to know what stops people feeling lonely, so that more of us can feel connected. To launch the Experiment Claudia Hammond is joined by Olivia Laing, author of Lonely City, and psychology professor, Pamela Qualter, an expert in loneliness in young people.

Building on the success of 2016's Rest Test, which was the largest global survey on rest, Radio 4 will explore the topic of loneliness in a further collaboration with the Wellcome Collection.

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 Dame Kelly Holmes is one of the judges for the All in the Mind Awards. She talks about the mental health struggles she faced just months before winning two gold Olympic medals. She explains why it was so hard to talk about her feelings at the time and why she believes it's so important people are more open about their own mental health difficulties. Also another awards judge, Mandy Stevens, explains how to do square breathing and why it's such a good technique to help tackle anxiety and panic attacks.

How good is your intuition - those hunches you follow because you're convinced you're right? Alas, if you think you're good at it, evidence shows you're probably not. Claudia Hammond hears the latest research from Dr Mario Weick from the University of Kent

There's still time for you to enter the 2018 All in the Mind Awards. This is your chance to nominate someone who's made a difference to your mental health. You could nominate a group or project or maybe a friend, a therapist, a partner, a nurse - anyone who's really been there for you. We hear from GP Daniel Dietch - one of last year's finalists on the impact being nominated had on him after being put forward by a patient with bi-polar disorder.

Medication taken by some people with psychosis or schizophrenia is designed to reduce delusions and hallucinations. What it doesn't tackle are the additional problems with memory and decision-making. Claudia Hammond meets Dr Natasza Orlov of Kings College London who's been trialling mild electrical stimulation to the brain aimed specifically at these symptoms. Could it improve everyone else's memory as well?

And we catch up on what's happened to the very first high flying graduates we've been following who've been fast- tracked into mental health social work.

Producer Adrian Washbourne.

Claudia Hammond finds out why films are being made of residents of a care home in South West London. They all have dementia and the story of their lives is told through photos, interviews and music and their beneficial effects are being studied in a small NHS trial. Claudia meets 92 year old May and her daughter, Valerie to find out what the film has done for her and why this kind of reminiscence therapy is so effective. Claudia talks to psychologist John Bargh about the power of the unconscious mind, why sad music makes people spend more and how we can use our unconscious mind's susceptibility to our own advantage. And why a community organisation in Tyne and Wear called Citizens UK has brought together people from schools, mosques, churches, politicians and the NHS to ask what their top priority should be. Find out why they all voted for mental health and what they're going to do about it. Psychologist Dr Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster also explains why just believing that you do less exercise than your friends is likely to make you die earlier even if it's not true and a she discusses a recent study investigating the therapists' habits that most annoy their clients.

Our sense of reward motivates us and is essential for survival - influencing the hundreds of decisions we make every day about what feels good and what doesn't. Claudia Hammond meets Ray Dolan, Wolfram Schultz and Peter Dayan, winners of this year's Brain Prize, in front of an audience at London's Royal Institution, to discuss their ground-breaking work on how the brain recognises and processes reward.

The trio's discoveries have revolutionised our understanding in how our brain's reward system can motivate us, give us the best chance in life and influence the way we learn. So when the system malfunctions, it can lead to big problems such as obesity, gambling and addiction. But as understanding of this brain system continues to be unravelled Claudia Hammond hears why this happens and what can be done to control it.

Have you ever considered rowing across the Atlantic? How about making it even more challenging by doing it whilst wearing an ECG monitor and filling in psychological questionnaires? Claudia Hammond speaks to the first Austrian woman to row the Atlantic, Ciara Burns, who collected data throughout her 42 day crossing. And to the professor who studied the data, Eugenijus Kaniusas from the Vienna University of Technology, about the three big dips in mood along the way. Ciara talks about the emotional highs and lows of rowing to America, about the night skies, meeting whales, and how it feels when the Atlantic comes crashing down on you.

Sports psychologist Peter Olusoga from Sheffield Hallam University, discusses mental preparation for an adventure like Ciara's and how being in the middle of the Atlantic, with the astronauts on the international space station as your nearest other humans, can provide a lasting perspective change.

Peter also describes a new piece of research showing that smelling other people's sweat, collected whilst they watched scary films, can help us to be more observant and overcome a well-established psychological effect known as inattentional blindness.

And Claudia talks to Tiago Pereira, a Portuguese psychologist who is calling for psychologists to put a full stop to poverty. He says that psychologists are uniquely placed to communicate the causes and consequences of poverty, and to use that information to demand governmental policy changes.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond

Producer: Lorna Stewart

Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald

Production Co-ordination: Siobhan Maguire

Editor: Holly Squire

All in the Mind Awards: Claudia Hammond launches the 2018 All in the Mind Awards - a chance for anyone who has received help for a mental health problem, to recognise the people and organisations who have gone above and beyond the call of duty

1 in 3 of us will experience problems with our mental health at some time in our lives, and help and support from people around us can make all the difference in how we cope day to day and helping us on the road to recovery. Between now and the end of January 2018 the Radio 4 All in the Mind Awards is seeking listeners' experiences of brilliant mental health care and to recognise the people - the unsung heroes who helped make the difference.

The judging panel this year includes Star Wards founder Marion Janner; director of nursing and mental health services Mandy Stevens; Dr Mathijs Lucassen lecturer in mental health ; and Claudia Hammond, psychologist and All In The Mind presenter.

There are 3 categories for the awards, the individual, professional or project

Individual Award : An individual family member, friend, boss or colleague who offered significant support

Professional Award: A mental health professional whose dedication, help and support made a really significant difference to you. This could be a psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, nurse, volunteer or other professional

Project Award: A mental health project or group you took part in, which made a big difference to your recovery or the way you cope.

The winners of the awards will be announced during a ceremony to be held at the Wellcome Collection in London in June 2018

Attachment theory: For decades researchers have been interested in how the attachment between parents and their babies might affect how the baby develops into an adult. Elizabeth Meins, Professor of psychology at York University argues that this body of research is now being misinterpreted , leaving parents feeling anxious about whether they're doing the right thing

Children's willpower: The popular image of children is that they have short attention spans and want everything right now. But a new analysis of 50 years of data from the Marshmallow Test - a classic test of self control suggests that children are getting better at delaying gratification. John Protzko of University of California Santa Barbara explains why it's happening.

Claudia Hammond's studio guest is fellow judge Mathijs Lucassen , lecturer in mental health at the Open University.

Claudia Hammond's guest is Catherine Loveday, Principle lecturer in Psychology at the University of Westminster

If you have sisters or brothers you probably know all about sibling rivalry. But if you're a parent who despairs over your children squabbling, fear not. Claudia Hammond hears how sibling rivalry can be handled and can have an upside. It's something that should be embraced argues child psychologist Linda Blair, author of a new book Siblings.

What insights can diaries and letters from prisoners of war can give us into the imprisoned soldier's minds? We hear from historian Clare Makepeace who has spent years studying the diaries and letters of POWs and Mark McDermott Professor of Health Psychology at the University of East London to discuss the psychological impact the confined experience can have.

And new evidence on the link between inflammation in the body and depression. It's the first study ever published showing that inflammation can lead to alterations in how specific new brain cells are formed - a process that leads to depression in a third of patients. As Patricia Zunszain of Kings College London explains, drugs targeting these mechanisms could be the effective antidepressants of the future - drugs which don't tackle mood, but which encourage the creation of new brain cells.

Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Christopher French from Goldsmiths, University of London about the strange phenomenon of sleep paralysis. As many as 1 in 20 people will experience vivid hallucinations while falling asleep or waking up while also completely unable to move. People also describe a very powerful sense of fear and the feeling of being crushed or that an intruder or something supernatural is there with them. Despite being relatively common, this sleep anomaly is little understood. Even less well known or understood is the frightening experience of 'Exploding Head Syndrome' where someone perceives abrupt and very loud noises when going to sleep or waking up.

Also can a robot deliver therapy via your smartphone? Claudia talks to Alison Darcy - Stanford University researcher who's created Woebot - an artificially intelligent chatbot designed to treat depression. Woebot, uses cognitive-behavioural therapy and is available via Facebook messenger. Alison explains how it works and that it's not a replacement for traditional therapy, but it's the first tech based treatment to have been properly scientifically tested and peer reviewed..

Simon Wessley, outgoing president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity MIND discuss mental health awareness campaigns with Claudia. Do they overload already stretched mental health services? Or are they vital to helping people understand their own mental health and are they changing the wider landscape of how these conditions are understood, talked about and de-stigmatised?