The neuroscience of mental health with Dr Dean Burnett

Welcome to episode 209 with Dr Dean Burnett, who is a neuroscientist, lecturer and author.

Dean is currently an honorary research fellow at Cardiff Psychology School and has also worked as a psychiatry tutor and lecturer at the Cardiff University Centre for Medical Education.

He is the author of several acclaimed books about brains, neuroscience, emotions and mental health.

And this episode is a little bit different.

I wanted to do an episode about mental health and mental illness from the perspective of the human brain.

I often focus on society and the things around us that impact our mental health, so for this conversation I wanted get some understanding of what’s actually happening to our brains when our experiences, circumstances or environment are affecting us mentally.

I thought a lot about common themes and threads from this show over the years and I asked Dean things like

What is happening in the brain when we get lonely and why is isolation so harmful to us?

Why do brains like nature so much?

How does sitting with our emotions actually help our brains to process them?

Why do our brains choose to feel anxious even, when we know that there is nothing to be anxious about?

And loads of other stuff too.

Dean was incredible to chat to! It was absolutely fascinating to be able to explore his extensive, brain related knowledge and we had a lot of fun too.

Connect with Dean on social media @garwboy and learn more at www.deanburnett.com

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Thanks for listening!