Season 3, Episode 33: Parasocial Relationships

This episode tries to rapid-fire answer your mailbag questions, including ones on blushing, comorbid autism diagnoses, marijuana as therapy, pornography addiction, and whether you can outgrow a diagnosis.  

Sidenote: It's been so long since I've podcasted, I'm rusty This episode, recorded on Father's Day, riffs briefly about fatherhood and mental health (while making a cool announcement) before delving into parasocial relationships.  We discuss what parasocial relationships are using diverse examples such as Dora the Explorer, Taylor Swift, and social media influencers. 

This is a snow day episode (meaning I was able to record it since school was cancelled due to inclement weather).  In this episode, I discuss pros and cons of diagnosing yourself with a mental health condition (while also introspectively exploring whether I should self-diagnose with autism).  Please let me know your thoughts!

In this shocking episode, I discuss the history and treatment applications of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).  I also respond to a mailbag email about borderline personality disorder. 

Special from Washington, D.C., in this episode, we delve into the difference between service animals and emotional support animals (while addressing some common questions related to both)

Let's get controversial in this episode and discuss Sensory Processing Disorder (also known as Sensory Modulation Disorder-- and a host of other names) 

This episode revisits reading and dyslexia and discusses controversial topics-- like the Reading Wars and Visual Processing Disorder-- along the way 

It's back to school time, and many people are feeling anxious, stressed, and a bit depressed.  I decided to dedicate this episode to the "back to school blues" and their close cousin, the "Sunday scaries."   

This episode is comprised of stories documenting my encounters with animals as a psychologist.  Critters encountered clinically include dogs, geckos, spiders, and all sorts of fauna that graduate student definitely didn't prepare me for. 

In this episode, I discuss the somewhat ill-defined topic of executive functioning and how it can be assessed.  We then talk about executive dysfunction and how it can be tied to ADHD.  My own executive dysfunction is on display throughout the episode.