Labelling & language in mental health & alcohol with Dr Lucy Foulkes

The Alcohol 'Problem' Podcast

In this episode we talk to Dr Lucy Foulkes about labelling and language in the context of mental health and alcohol issues. We discuss how labels like alcoholic or schizophrenia may serve an important role for people to identify or respond to problems, but also carry important implications for stigma and recovery. We explore how there are many similarities between the pros and cons of labelling in mental health and for alcohol issues, but some important differences.
Dr Lucy Foulkes is a senior research fellow at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL. Her research focuses on mental health and social cognition, particularly in adolescence. She is the author of the book Losing Our Minds: What Mental Illness Really Is And What It Isn't (Penguin Random House, 2021), which explores how we talk about mental health and illness.

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Chapitres

1. Labelling & language in mental health & alcohol with Dr Lucy Foulkes (00:00:00)

2. Labelling & language in mental health (00:01:24)

3. Labelling & language in alcohol use (00:04:25)

4. Continuums of use and problems (00:06:38)

5. Stigma (00:09:32)

6. Beliefs and effects on behaviour (00:16:28)

7. Addressing 'mild' problems (00:19:18)

8. The need for categories (00:21:15)

9. Alcoholic self-labelling and AA (00:25:19)

10. Peer support alternatives to AA (00:28:49)

11. Public stories and lived experience (00:31:41)

12. Alcohol & mental health overlap (00:33:53)

13. Lucy on alcohol & Dry January (00:38:58)

14. Where next for language and labelling (00:40:01)