Hoarding Disorder: When You Can’t Let Go

Can you actually become addicted to scrolling? Social media companies are facing lawsuits alleging their platforms are designed to keep users hooked, and some juries are being asked to decide whether that design causes real psychological harm. In this episode, we examine the cases against Meta and YouTube, what neuroscience actually tells us about dopamine and endless scrolling, and whether social media addiction is a legitimate psychological condition. We also look at what research really says about social media and mental health, because the answer is actually more complicated than you’d think.

Stockholm syndrome is one of the most famous concepts in psychology, but there's a problem: it isn't an established psychiatric disorder, and the science behind it is surprisingly weak. In this episode, we trace the bizarre origins of Stockholm syndrome to a 1973 Swedish bank robbery, explore how Patty Hearst brought the idea into the American spotlight, and examine why victims of abuse, coercion, and captivity sometimes appear to bond with the people harming them. Is this really a psychological syndrome, or have we spent fifty years putting a questionable label on human survival?

People are making friends with AI, falling in love with it, and sometimes grieving when their chatbot suddenly changes or disappears. In this episode, we explore the rapidly growing world of AI companionship, why our brains can form surprisingly real attachments to something we know isn't human, and what happens when a chatbot becomes a friend, therapist, romantic partner, or the person you talk to more than anyone else.

When does saving things cross the line into hoarding disorder? In this episode, we get inside the psychology and neuroscience of hoarding, why people can become intensely attached to possessions, and how hoarding differs from OCD. From homes buried in literal tons of clutter to too many animals living under one roof, we explore why letting go can feel almost impossible, even when the consequences become dangerous.

You can be walking, talking, texting, and making terrible decisions, all while your brain has quietly stopped recording the night. In this episode, we explore the neuroscience of alcohol-related blackouts, the difference between fragmentary brownouts and complete en bloc blackouts, and how alcohol disrupts memory formation. Then we take it somewhere much darker, with a real murder case in which the killer claimed to have been in an alcohol blackout, raising a disturbing question: what happens when someone commits the unthinkable and genuinely can't remember doing it?

Looksmaxxing has gone from an obscure internet term to a full-blown beauty obsession, complete with mewing, facial exercises, jawline hacks, ratings, and increasingly extreme ways to “improve” your appearance. In this episode, we break down what looksmaxxing actually means, where these trends came from, and why the pursuit of a better-looking face can quickly turn from harmless grooming into obsessive body checking and unrealistic beauty standards.

Postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis are often talked about as though they're interchangeable, but they're very different conditions. In this episode, we break down PPD versus PPP, what psychosis actually looks like, what's happening in the brain and body after childbirth, and how a loving mother can become so disconnected from reality that she does something completely unimaginable. We also tackle the myths, the new treatments, and why understanding the difference can literally save lives.

A doctor with an ice pick, a Nobel Prize, and thousands of altered lives. In this episode, we explore the desperate conditions that made lobotomy seem like a miracle, the doctors who championed it, and how Walter Freeman turned a radical brain surgery into one of the most infamous treatments in psychiatric history.

In this episode of Strange Mind, we dive into: William Scoville's infamous brain surgeries on both his wife, and H.M. (Henry Molaison); the devastating memory loss of Clive Wearing; and the different types of memory that make up who we are. We break down anterograde and retrograde amnesia, episodic, semantic, procedural, explicit and implicit memory, and explain how you can lose one kind of memory while another remains completely intact.

AI psychosis sounds like science fiction, but increasingly, clinicians and researchers are examining what happens when intense chatbot interactions become tangled up with delusions, paranoia, and distorted beliefs. In this episode, we explore how AI can reinforce a person’s reality rather than challenge it, and what happens when the chatbot becomes part of the delusion itself.