Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories Craig Heacock MD
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- Health & Fitness
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How do we find a way out of the darkest depths of despair? Psychiatrist Dr. Craig Heacock hosts a deep dive into powerfully moving stories of hope and healing, as well as topical explorations of psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and psychedelics.
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Psychoanalysis, Dissociation, MDMA and What Lies Beneath
Here Dr. H sites down with Jenny, a psychoanalyst who shares her moving, then horrifying, then eventually cathartic tale of plumbing the depths of her traumatized psyche, first with years of psychoanalysis, then with five MDMA-assisted therapy sessions. This is a story of numbing and forgetting, then re-opening and remembering...of finding a way to make sense of a life of protective dissociation.
Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive psychotherapy training in Colorado with Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/
BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ -
What I'm thinking about now-- MDMA, Sleep Meds, Motivation, Bipolar vs Borderline, and more
In this solo episode Craig shares his current thoughts on MDMA medicalization, sleep meds, ADD, motivation vs self-discipline, benzos, how long to stay on psych meds, a change and a proposed addition to his top 10 med list, borderline vs bipolar, and marriage.
Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive training with Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/
BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ -
Eating Disorders, Body Image, and Building an Alliance-- A Conversation with Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani
Dr. H sits down with Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani, a nationally recognized expert on eating disorders to explore a wide range of topics including:
• etiology and the relative influence of temperament, culture, and concomitant psychiatric illness
•anorexia as a qualitatively different kind of treatment challenge
•treatment ambivalence, building the alliance, respecting protectors
•anosognosia and its relationship with severity of illness
•how to talk about weight, body image, and eating with mindful/respectful language
•thin privilege and fatphobia
•involuntary treatment
•orthorexia and food rules as a cultural disease
•GLP-1 agonists and bariatric surgery
Dr. G
https://www.gaudianiclinic.com/team
Sick Enough-- A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders
https://www.gaudianiclinic.com/sick-enough
Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive training with Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ -
Sex, Drugs, and Neglect-- Self-Destruction and the Repetition Compulsion
The driving force of so many of our self-destructive tendencies is not conscious, it’s an unconscious drive called the repetition compulsion, where we try to reenact early child traumas or deficits, often consciously hoping for a different result but unconsciously walking directly and knowingly into the flames. One of the central tasks of therapy is often helping people identify their repetition compulsions and doing the deeply uncomfortable work of making different choices. For the repetition compulsion feels right, at the deepest levels of being, because it was wired into us during early childhood. Self-destructive decisions smell like home cooking, they are the blue light that draws in the unsuspecting moths over and over and over, even when they see what’s about to happen.
Here Dr. H's patient Katey describes how early emotional neglect and toxic parental modeling led her down a path of almost two decades of self-destruction, with an ongoing battle between her healthier and more resilient parts and her wounded repetition-seeking masochistic parts. Who would choose superficially “sweet” boys with good drugs and little emotional connection….why Katey would, and did, and this is her story of why she did that for so long and how she eventually broke free.
Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive training with Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/
BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ -
Psychiatry in the ER
The rising tide of psychiatric emergencies in the US most commonly ends up in the emergency room, where psychiatrists are almost never found and the brunt of the heavy lifting falls on emergency medicine physicians. Here Dr. H sits down with Dr. Treve Henwood, an emergency med physician and host of the Rural EM podcast to explore the often overwhelming challenges inherent in trying to effectively manage and treat these psychiatric crises.
BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ -
At the Crossroads of Psychiatry, Psychedelics and Spirituality--- Dr. H on the Radically Genuine Podcast
This is an interview Dr. H did a few months ago on the Radically Genuine podcast. Although we posted about this interview on our Instagram feed back in August, we thought this was worth re-releasing on the main BFTA feed. Of all the podcast interviews Dr. H has done, this one might be the most interesting and relevant for our listeners.
Here Dr. H discusses the deep structural problems with current psychiatry, the confusion around psychiatric diagnoses and nosology, controversies and mistaken beliefs about psychiatric meds, problems with informed consent and involuntary treatment, why med management is doomed to fail, psychedelics as a portal into psychospiritual and trauma healing, pearls about ketamine treatment, and other topics.
Radically Genuine Podcast
https://www.drmcfillin.com/
BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
Customer Reviews
Fantastic show with a few flaws
First, this is a show unlike any other on the market. The perspectives are varied and the host is a human being and speaks to their own flaws and biases and shares the human side of being a therapist.
I only have one real complaint about the show. Men are serious crisis in the mental health space and there are so few episodes that focus on men and their issues, other than addiction.
There are so many great female guests from all backgrounds and variety of trauma and so few male guests with stories outside of addiction and addiction recovery.
There isn't a podcast around that shares male perspectives on eating disorders, abuse, and how men are raised in Western Society and unpacking the small box we're all put in.
Therapy and mental health is one of the areas where women are much more represented than men and it would be nice to see a bit more focus to help normalize mental health for men. Just my 2c.
Understanding my family
My wife and 15y.o. daughter are both Type I Bipolar, and my 20y.o. son is Type II Bipolar.
All three are stable thanks to medication, but my son’s TRD has robbed him of any real joy or passion forever several years.
This podcast gives me a deeper understanding and empathy for all three of them, as well as an appreciation for my own therapist.
Humanizing Psychiatry
Thanks to Dr Heacock’s episode with Saj Razvi, I found my calling as a therapist! I was in grad school, wondering what I would do with my clinical degree and heard the episode that changed my trajectory. Every episode after that has been an absolute delight. He humanizes psychiatry through honesty, humor, and storytelling. I am forever grateful to this podcast - Dr Heacock and all of his guests. Thank you.