Detangle by Kinjal
Detangle is a podcast created by health psychologist and writer, Dr Kinjal Goyal. Each episode is a conversation with an expert in their field, as they dive deep into their journerys and experiences. The conversations are full of insight and a great way to hear, first hand, how the mind plays a pivotal role in almost everything that we do. The guests range from doctors, to writers, to those in entertainment and of course, those from mental health fields.
Detangle by Kinjal
Detangle with Dr. Sid Warrier
Have you ever wondered how a neurologist balances a career in medicine with a passion for creative content creation? Dr. Sid Warrier, a neurologist from Mumbai, opens up about his unique journey, offering both medical expertise and engaging educational content on social media. Learn how his serendipitous venture into online education during the pandemic transformed into a platform for discussing emotions, the neuroscience of love, and other captivating topics. Dr. Warrier's experience underscores the empathy needed in both his medical practice and content creation, showcasing how these roles enrich his ability to connect with a diverse audience.
Shifting gears, we address evolving ideas around work-life balance and mental health. The conversation challenges outdated concepts of stress, highlighting the thin line between optimal and excessive stress, and how even seemingly innocuous activities like social media browsing can contribute to mental fatigue. As burnout becomes more prevalent, especially among medical professionals, there's a pressing need to tackle mental health issues head-on. We explore the importance of integrating psychological support with traditional medical care, emphasizing a holistic approach to well-being that acknowledges the impact of societal and self-imposed pressures.
Our discussion culminates with an exploration of screen time and its multifaceted impact on mental well-being. We draw analogies between managing screen time and safe driving, stressing the importance of balancing digital exposure with physical activity and mindfulness. The episode highlights the profound effects of unexpected feedback and validation, offering insights into how simple words of encouragement go a long way. Join us for a rich dialogue that offers practical strategies to maintain mental and physical health in a digitally dominated world.
Welcome to Detangle, where we untangle the complexities of life, one conversation at a time. I'm your host, dr Kinjal Goel, a psychologist and a writer. I seem to have found a kindred spirit in this world. As I introduce Dr Sid Warrior, if I had to introduce him in a few words, I would choose neuroscience, mental health, podcasts and poetry. I've known him for a while now, yet it seems like the conversation is just starting. Oh and yes, we have a super rapid fire at the end of this episode, so stay tuned till the end. Welcome to Retangled.
Speaker 2:Dr Sid, so good to have you with me today. Thank you so much, dr, kinjal. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:Well, Dr Sid, to begin with let's orient the audience a little bit with your scope of work, Can you?
Speaker 2:list it out for me briefly, please, sure thing. So I have been practicing as a consultant neurologist in mumbai for the last six years. I have my own clinic, and apart from that I also spend some time creating content on social media, primarily youtube and instagram, where I use those platforms to educate people about neuroscience, about mental health, even about preventive health, and recently I've also started this segment where I update people on the latest health news that is happening around the world. So sort of trying to create a credible space where people can learn about all the new developments in health.
Speaker 1:Super. So tell me, which segment of all this work do you enjoy the most?
Speaker 2:I think I enjoy each part very much Otherwise I wouldn't have continued any of them and in fact, one of the challenges is because I enjoy all of them. So figuring out how to balance all of it has been a challenge, but it has been a good problem to have, because I do enjoy sitting in the clinic. I do enjoy seeing patients, I definitely enjoy creating content, making stories that affect people, that get information to people in a way that they can learn easily. And, yeah, it has always been a pleasure of mine interacting with others.
Speaker 1:Super. So from a psychologist perspective, I know that it takes an impact to see and feel as deeply as you do. But tell me, how do your work and creative exploration, how does all of this merge?
Speaker 2:It's been an interesting journey because as a doctor you do tend to develop some sort of empathy for other people's problems, but at the same time you also learn to keep yourself a bit detached because you do need to function in a hospital.
Speaker 2:So over a period of time you learn to find that balance between empathy to make that other person feel seen and heard, but at the same time not so much that you yourself get overwhelmed and then you are of no use to the other person. So that has also continued in my content creation journey, because I do feel like when someone talks to me I understand what is it that they're looking for? But for me to create content that can actually help them, I need to step back a little bit. So that way my medical journey has helped in my content creation. And on the other way around, I find that, being in a position where I'm creating content for non-medical audience, I have become a better teacher. I've just become better at explaining complex topics more simply, and that has actually helped me in my private medical practice as well, because even when I'm talking to a patient, I find myself using analogies and examples that I previously would not have.
Speaker 1:How nice, how nice that these two have converged in such a beautiful way. You know, I always tell people to start following pages which have relevant information, but very few qualified professionals actually take the time out to create and share this kind of content, and your page is one page that I keep telling people just follow it, your page will be healthier, your feed will be healthier and cleaner because of it. But tell me, how did they start? I mean, what gave you the inspiration to get onto social media?
Speaker 2:it was serendipity, to be honest, because in the pandemic I found myself with some free time and it started off with me putting up a post on Twitter asking if do people want me to teach neurology?
Speaker 2:And it was primarily targeted at medical students, because I knew that a lot of medical students MBBS students were sitting at home because their colleges were shut and they were missing out on valuable clinics and, you know, lectures in the hospital. And I started off with teaching medical students core neurology topics, like how to approach a patient with Alzheimer's, how to approach a patient with stroke, and during those discussions the conversation would sometimes go off on a tangent and we would end up discussing more philosophical or psychological topics, and I found that there was a lot of interest. My students started requesting me to take certain neuroscience topics as well, and I did and I really enjoyed it. I started talking about emotions, I started talking about what is the neuroscience behind uh love, behind depression, and those videos went up on my youtube channel. So that was how it started and then the rest of it. I think is a bit of luck, because a friend of mine connected me with a content creator called tanmay bhatt, who's also a stand-up comic and very well established in this world of content creation.
Speaker 2:Very highly regarded, and he and I did some collaborative videos back in the day in 2021. And after I did that, I got much more comfortable with the idea of putting my work out there and he also encouraged me to keep creating content, and I think that's how it started.
Speaker 1:Wow, I think it's a befitting journey. I mean, you've done so well. I can see your views are increasing, your followers are increasing, and it just makes sense because people actually want good content. It's just so rare to find out that we can't even blame the consumers when the product is only not available. But tell me, have you ever faced trolling online, any sort of backlash, anything negative?
Speaker 2:Of course, I think in today's time, you cannot be a genuine content creator, putting your opinion out on the internet, without facing some sort of backlash sometimes, because not everybody will agree with every opinion of yours, with every opinion of yours, so some of the opinions that I hold have led to comments that are not positive. For example, there were a couple of videos that I've made on ghosts and what is the psychology of ghosts, and of course, I know that a lot of people do have strong beliefs in this matter. It's just that I, as a neuroscientist, do have strong beliefs in this matter. It's just that I, as a neuroscientist, have a different set of beliefs. I believe that these are apparitions or these are projections of the mind that you know. One person going through a psychological traumatic state would perceive something, while somebody else in the same situation may not. So ghosts are very subjective, and now this is one topic that a lot of people get riled up about.
Speaker 2:Similarly, things like past life regression- or astral projection or even the power of crystals, and there are so many beliefs that people have you know astrology so many things that people truly believe in with all their heart, all their mind. And if you give them an alternate explanation to why is it that they're experiencing what they're experiencing, they might feel attacked or threatened.
Speaker 2:And so they will make that displeasure known and I completely understand that as well. When it happened, initially I was kind of taken aback, but now I get that not everybody can have the same set of opinions and that's fine so you've kind of come to terms with it emotionally as well. I have. I don't. I don't really take it to heart anymore, because multiple times it has happened that somebody would be trolling me on the comments but then they might dm me saying that oh, they really like my work and some of my videos have really helped them.
Speaker 2:Wow, I understand that there is a conflict going on with some people at some times and uh, it's. It's not a good use of my energy to take it to heart.
Speaker 1:It's a very interesting way of understanding the digital ecosystem also, isn't it? It's nice to see how people are going through their own emotions. Like you said. You know they're happy in one space, they're unhappy in another space and it's all coming together right out there.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think most of us would have experienced this at some point, where you might be having different, uh kinds of conversations with the same person on different platforms. True, so you might be arguing with somebody on whatsapp while sharing funny memes on instagram with the same person right and, uh, it's.
Speaker 2:It is interesting because it feels like we have created these psychological bubbles where you think that this sort of behavior is acceptable on this app but not on the other app, even though it's the same two people, so somebody might flirt with each other on Tinder, but they will be very respectful on WhatsApp, and it's very interesting to see how we have created these psychological spaces.
Speaker 1:Very intriguing, truly, very, very intriguing to me as a psychologist, because I see this and I haven't been able to label it as clearly as you have. But yes, these psychological bubbles exist, we all exist within them, but we don't label them so clearly. So, dr sid, someone once told me that you should either earn money doing what you love or spend money doing what you love. Tell me, what do you love the most apart from work? What hobbies are the closest to your heart?
Speaker 2:so I really like learning new things and I go through these phases where I am learning one particular thing. It's almost seasonal, so there was a time when scuba diving was top of mind for me, and now scuba diving has gone from learning to comfort. So every few months, every four to five months, I try to go for a trip where I go scuba diving. Uh, currently my curiosity is on learning how to solve a Rubik's cube. I am I will admit that I'm quite obsessed with it because it's an endless. It's an endless journey.
Speaker 2:The first time you try to solve a Rubik's cube, you might try to do it for a week and not get anywhere. And then, when you start learning the process, you learn what does solving a Rubik's cube look like? Then suddenly you're solving it in five minutes and you think you're the world's biggest genius. And then you realize that five minutes is probably the slowest time to solve a rubik's cube and the world record is three seconds. Oh my god. And you realize that, okay, so there's a lot to learn. And then, the more you learn, you have to learn at least for a week to shave off 10 seconds of your cubing time. And I've been trying to learn this for almost a year now, and now I have reached 1 minute 30 seconds and the jump from one minute 30 seconds to under a minute is extremely hard.
Speaker 2:So the learning curve is very interesting in rubik's cube because that the closer you get to the finish line, the harder it gets. So I feel that there's a lot of life lessons that you can learn from learning to solve a rubik's cube, also about how there are algorithms that you could technically memorize from day one, but it would be no use because your fingers and your brain is simply not fast enough to move the cube that quickly. So that's's also an interesting angle to it, because just because knowledge is available to you doesn't mean you can use it, like your body and your mind has to be ready to use that knowledge. So in today's world, where AI can pretty much tell you everything, just because you have knowledge does not mean you will be successful. So that for me has been an important lesson from Rubik's Cubing.
Speaker 1:So interesting. I mean something which all of us have had access to at some point in life, but not many of us gave it that kind of importance and picked it up. Also, I'm sure a lot of people are going back to their Rubik's Cubes after this, I'm glad. Well, there's been a tremendous debate off late about how much time one should spend in the workplace, the importance or the lack of work-life balance, and this is even more pertinent in the medical field. So what's your take on it?
Speaker 2:My take on it is that the body will keep working through the day, because that is the nature of the body. All energy spent is technically work. All energy spent is technically work, but what we consider as quote unquote work is actually stress. So instead of calling it work not work, I prefer to think of it as stress and non-stress.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So whenever your body's under stress, we have to count that as work. But there might be moments where you are technically at work but you're extremely relaxed.
Speaker 2:You might be sitting and talking with a co-worker, maybe you have a client in front of you and you're having a very good time with that client. You're laughing, you're relaxed, you're helping them, you're not stressed, so your body is not taking that load on itself, whereas on another time you may have come home. Technically you're not working, but suppose you're having an argument with your partner. To your body that is stress.
Speaker 2:So the concept of work and not work neurobiologically is outdated. We should talk about it in terms of optimum stress and excessive stress, right. So if the chairman of lnt says that everyone should work seven days a week, it's important to understand what does he mean by work. So if he is able to create a work environment where people are being productive without being stressed and they are finding that what they're doing is beneficial to them, he will find that people are willing to work. So what are the two metrics of making somebody work? One is paying them enough and two, making it easier for them. So you do these things, people will work. The problem is that what he's asking for is that people be stressed for 24 7, and that has serious health consequences right.
Speaker 1:So basic quantitative analysis is what everybody is doing, but qualitative analysis is not happening as much as it should.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a good way of putting it.
Speaker 1:Super. So let's talk about mental health. Dr Sid, in medicine, how prevalent is burnout, anxiety, depression? How often do you see your own colleagues and peers seeking help? Are there enough avenues, or do we really need to generate specially curated spaces for this?
Speaker 2:I would say that mental health is definitely a rising issue because, in continuation with our last discussion um, we are not getting enough rest right even the things that we think are restful are not.
Speaker 2:For example, scrolling on the phone is not really restful. We would end up comparing ourselves with other people. We might end up wishing that we had done some things differently. So these are stressful things to the brain. Emotions are stressful.
Speaker 2:Even going through an emotional rollercoaster of seeing one reel that will make you laugh and then one reel that will make you sad and then another one that will make you angry, that emotional roller coaster is also stress, right, so we are not really getting rest at all and this, I believe, adds up. It adds up to a undercurrent of over sympathetic activity or chronic hyper stimulation, and what this does is it reduces our ability to deal with problems. It reduces our cognitive capacity, and so what could have been a small problem that we could have dealt with easily, because of the lack of stress, because of the body's incapability of dealing with things, small problems, turn into big problems. Now, it's okay. It's okay if this happens once or twice. It's okay if this happens once or twice, but imagine this happening every day, over a period of months to years.
Speaker 2:It does have a cumulative effect and I believe that when we talk of anxiety or when we talk of depression, what we are talking about is an overwhelming of the brain's fundamental reserves. So the brain has a pretty good amount of reserve of how much stress it can take. But every system has a breaking point depending on the amount of pressure that is being put on it. So any system can break. The world's most resilient man or woman can have a mental breakdown if the situation that they're in is stressful enough. So having somebody go through a mental breakdown is not a sign of them being weak. It is a sign of the situation being that stressful for them absolutely and doctors are no exception.
Speaker 2:Doctors, like anyone else, are going through very stressful jobs and in fact, the unique thing about doctors is that in their in their mind, they might identify as people who are problem solvers. So that might actually put them at a disadvantage, because they may not reach out for help, thinking that I am the doctor. How can I reach out to another doctor for help? So there's a lot of ego that can come in the way of a doctor reaching out, as opposed to other professions. And in general, I feel this is a problem with men in that there is this undercurrent thought pattern that I should be the provider, I should be the one taking care of other people, and so if I reach out to somebody saying I am struggling, then what does that make me? What does that tell people about me? So they would rather suffer in silence or ignore the fact that they're suffering at all, rather than asking for help.
Speaker 2:And then becomes worse because, like I said, your brain's reserves are already overwhelmed. And then if you don't take help, if you don't try to fix it, eventually the no psychological state remains psychological. Eventually everything spills over into physiology and that is why a lot of stressful situations can get converted into autonomic dysregulation in the form of increased blood pressure or dysregulated blood sugar. People can get diabetes spikes, sugar spikes, people can have migraines. People can have somatic body pains, chronic low back pain, they can have skin issues. They can have gut issues. All of this is because of autonomic dysregulation coming from chronic stress that is not dealt with so enter my zone of psychosomatics.
Speaker 1:Exactly what we've been trying to tell people, but it's still easier to understand. Some of these are psychosomatic versus the others. For example, a person will easily accept a headache as a psychosomatic issue, but they might find it more difficult to see that. Okay, something which is like blood sugar spikes could be because of stress.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's still struggling, then. But then I think diabetes specialists are learning more and more that there are some situations where psychological counseling would do more benefit to help your diabetes patient than adding three more drugs.
Speaker 1:True. So yes, we're getting there. I think we are all headed in the right direction, but just not fast enough. But eventually I think we'll all get there.
Speaker 2:Hopefully yes.
Speaker 1:You know, Dr Sid, I heard something very beautiful recently that a podcaster is always looking for something, some answers, some, some beautiful questions. What is it that you are looking for through your encounters?
Speaker 2:interesting question. Uh, I have always been driven by curiosity, where I feel like I want to hear stories. I want to hear about what people have gone through, because it gives me an idea of how did they get to where they are. So for the longest time, my podcasts were sort of motivated from that perspective. I was chasing my own curiosity. Recently I have shifted that. I felt that that part of my journey is done and now it is becoming more and more about what would my audience like to hear. What is my audience's curiosity? What are they chasing? And can I be a medium, can I be a platform to give them what they are looking for? Provided I'm in a space to give that answer, and my job being to vet it, my job being to just make sure that it is coming from a credible source. And it's been an interesting journey, and this has started since a few months now and I've realized that more and more my interests and my curiosity is matching my audiences. So that's a happy marriage.
Speaker 1:How nice. It's so interesting to see, isn't it, that even a podcaster with questions actually has a direction, has some, you know, has some personal interests, but you're also aligning with your audience. I mean, this is psychology at play in the most beautiful form.
Speaker 2:You're right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Super. So tell me, has there ever been a moment at work?
Speaker 2:we just put everything into perspective for you, any heartwarming or heartbreaking moment that you can share with us I think every week there will be some, some case or the other that just reminds me of how beautiful this, uh, this space is of helping people.
Speaker 2:Because, um, there are days, which I'm sure everybody goes through, but there are days in my life as well, where I'm not very sure of, uh, why am I doing what I'm doing?
Speaker 2:There are days where I get up and think, think that what's the point of just putting out reels or what's the point of you know, scripting another YouTube video? There are little moments of self-doubt that comes, and what is interesting is that usually in the next one or two days after I feel something like this, there will be somebody either messaging me or some patient coming to my clinic and just saying something extremely nice, something that they had no need to say, something like I'm so glad that you're doing this, this really helped me. Or I don't even know if you know, but two years ago you had put out this one video where you had said this one thing, and at that time I was going through a dark place and somehow that one sentence clicked for me and made me take help, made me speak to somebody, and that really changed my life. And you realize that you can't plan the uh, the outcomes of what you do, and very often you may not even know about the outcomes of what you do.
Speaker 2:But this, even this little bit of feedback, gives me enough, enough energy to go for another few it's a beautiful validation absolutely, and earlier I used to think that you shouldn't seek validation, but uh, I realized I was being too harsh on myself yeah, we all need it, we people raised with gold stars.
Speaker 1:Come on, our stars have changed, but we still need that little thing absolutely. We need that little bit of good job good job, of course, and it's nice to give it to somebody else also. I think it also makes us realize that we need it, but so does somebody else. So it's always nice to say to somebody who has influenced you it's such a beautiful way to give it forward.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. You're 100% right.
Speaker 1:Tell me, dr Sid, I'm sure you've gotten this question a lot, but let's just do this for the sake of my listeners. How badly do you think social media and extra screen time is affecting us neurologically? Simply asking how much screen time do you think is neuro safe?
Speaker 2:I would say that screens are. Well, let's be honest, screens are inevitable now, true. So to say that you shouldn't have screen time is no longer practical or viable. Children born today will probably have their entire education given to them through screens, so that we can just say that and put that out of the way, that it is inevitable.
Speaker 2:That being said, the dangers of screen time are multifold. One is the physical danger of just your eyes getting too strained over time and that leads to refractive errors. That can lead to too much of eye dryness, and people have had serious problems with their eyes because of too much screen time from too early an age. The second is body posture, because nobody's really watching a screen when, while being very active, right, because you can't really watch a screen when you're playing football or when you're running or swimming or, you know, working out at the gym. So most of our screen time is coming from a sedentary place, so that has a toll on the body. There are enough studies now showing that you take a perfectly healthy person and you just keep them in bed and you don't make them move for three days and they fall sick. So sedentary lifestyles are causing a lot more problems than we think. A sedentary lifestyle can directly cause psychological issues, because the reverse is true. Um brisk, walking, dancing both have had pretty robust studies proving them to be as effective as antidepressants in helping somebody come out of depression. So if movement is so important to our brain and our body's well-being, then lack of movement is obviously going to be harmful.
Speaker 2:So, apart from the neurological effects of screen time, these two things has to be remembered and then we come to all the direct brain effects of screen time. So just the constant bombard, bombarding of information, without giving the brain time to process or figure out is this information useful? What do I do with this? How do I remember it? Before any of that, we are already on to the next piece of information. The constant social connection can be very disorienting. We are not really wired to talk to so many people or think about the validation from so many people, so our minds are in a constant state of frenzy of oh, what did this person say? What did that person say? Oh, these many people liked my reel. But then I got three hate comments. And what am I doing wrong? And this loop is endless. Every day you will wake up and go through the same loop. So this is also emotionally exhausting. And finally, screens have a direct impact on sleep.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:That's a big thing. Sleep is where everything gets reset, and so if you can't sleep, you can't really do a lot of other things, so screen time has a negative impact on that as well. So, yeah, that's a lot of things that time can do yeah, I just think awareness will make a lot of difference.
Speaker 1:Knowing it will help people at least put it away at the right time. Like you said, it's not possible to do without screens, but it's like driving without a seat belt versus driving with a seat belt. We We'll have to take care of ourselves now.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, that's a good analogy.
Speaker 1:Well, let me ask you one of my favorite questions on the podcast, dr Sid. We've all heard of a physical first aid box, something in which we keep our painkillers, antiseptics, you know, for the minor cuts and bruises. But what if you were to keep a mental first aid box, something that would make you smile on those very low days? What would you put in it?
Speaker 2:I would such an interesting question, um, if I was going through a mental health issue and if I wanted to have an emergency pick me up right I would a, I would put my I don't know how to physically put it, but I would put conversations with a couple of friends of mine. Okay, I think over the years I have learned that sometimes you cannot fix yourself true and uh, even attempting to try is unreasonable.
Speaker 2:So somehow, for some reason, when it comes to your mental health, we have a lot of ego. For example, if my car were to break down, there is no chance that I'm even trying to open up the hood and try to fix the engine or try to see where the fire is coming or where the smoke is coming from. If, in case, my engine is smoking, I would directly call the garage and I would directly tell them that by something is wrong. Can you come and see?
Speaker 2:right but somehow, when it comes to my own mental health, in case I am struggling, I will. I will try to ride that car for another 100 kilometers before it completely breaks down. So I've been trying to not do that. I've been just trying to get into the habit of talking to a couple of friends of mine, even if it's a small problem, and also encourage them to do the same. So we've we do these weekly or every 10 days. We'd have this catch up call, like okay, tell me what's up, I will tell you what's happening, and that always resets me, grounds me. Very similar thing with my wife also.
Speaker 2:We've started doing this post dinner walks, and what a life hack. I must say, oh yes, to every married couple out there, every, every couple out there, actually. Um, spending some time with your partner going for a walk is absolute game changer I completely agree with this.
Speaker 1:We've been doing it for years ourself and we cannot do without it right.
Speaker 2:So for for all your life problems, I think just walking together not only makes it easy for your uh you're not only are you getting movement in your body, but your brain's neuro chemistry changes as you walk. So suppose, if you have a problem, uh, you will notice that at the start of the walk the problem seems different, and 15 minutes into the walk the problem will seem more manageable.
Speaker 1:That's because the neurochemistry in your brain has changed and it also sweetens the deal just to hold hands, I mean oh yes, oh yes, such a simple thing 100 okay, getting back to your box. Now we have your friends and conversations. What else?
Speaker 2:is there. Then we come to some physical things. I'm a little embarrassed by this, but I find that chocolate cheers me up Of course the world loves chocolate.
Speaker 1:Join the gang.
Speaker 2:Brilliant. So there is a particular chocolate that I really like and I would definitely have that in the box, sort of as an emergency pick me up. There are certain games that I play. One of them, as you would have guessed, is Rubik's Cube, which does cheer me up. As you would have guessed, is Rubik's Cube which does cheer me up. Then there are certain online games that I keep turning to whenever I want to shut off from the world or just reset.
Speaker 2:There's a game I recently played called Gris, which I do recommend to anybody who's gone through any sort of mental health issue, because the game is very interesting in that it depicts a character's journey through a mental health crisis. Through the game, like, it doesn't outright say this is what it's doing, but you can see through the metaphors. Interesting, yes, so that's a game that, whenever I play, I always find myself getting calmer and calmer. Uh, so that's, that's a game that, whenever I play, I always find myself getting calmer and calmer. So that's a useful thing, and I think games are underutilized when it comes to mental health recovery. Agreed, so these are some things. And then, what have I missed? Music? Yes, there are certain songs. I have a playlist. I know it'll cheer me up whenever I put it on, so that would also be a go-to thing for me how nice I love your box.
Speaker 1:It's all of. I mean, it's physical, it's metaphysical, it's happy, it's quick, it's effective. I think if all of us just kept this nonetheless in our house, we would all have happier days yeah, absolutely let me get you into our rapid fire round now. Answer quick, don't think about it. No retakes on this one. Yeah, absolutely, let me get you into our rapid fire round now. Answer quick, don't think about it. No retakes on this one. Tell me your favorite book.
Speaker 2:There's a book called Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Oh beautiful, that has been my favorite book since quite a while. A close second would be, I would say, either an Ennard Blighton book called Mr Galliano's Circus or the Bhagavad Gita.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, I mean, the spectrum is wide, how lovely. Okay, your favorite movie character?
Speaker 2:There is a movie called the Thomas Crown Affair. It's an old one where Pierce Brosnan plays the character of a billionaire who's also an art thief, and I've always been very fond of that character for some reason, because I saw that movie as a child and I remember thinking, oh, I would love to grow up to be that person.
Speaker 1:How interesting is that? So this question usually reveals something about you that you didn't know yourself 100%.
Speaker 2:I think this is like a Rorschach test.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so nice.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, tell me what's your biggest pet peeve?
Speaker 2:Recently, it's people who don't take time out to sit with their own feelings before arguing sit with their own feelings before arguing. So I've realized that and this is a pet peeve, because I'm very annoyed at myself whenever I used to do this and even if I do it now and I catch myself I feel like this is so unfair because I've realized that when we fight, we are feeling a lot of things but we suppress most of it. So we are fighting from a very inauthentic space and I've realized the difference that even 10 minutes of writing will do. So now me and my wife kind of have this thing of if you're arguing, just take out 10 minutes, go write about whatever it is, then come back and have the discussion and it works like magic. It's so different. So I'm kind of annoyed that I spent so many years not doing this, having fights that could have been resolved in half an hour or one hour and it just dragged on for three days for no reason.
Speaker 1:That's very interesting. I'm yet to find somebody so invested in fighting right, but this is super.
Speaker 2:Okay, tell me about one thing that you believed in but no longer do Interesting. So there are certain things that are not really covered in our medical textbooks, medical science, even scientific textbooks. So, for example, how to talk to a patient, what kind of quote, unquote energy are you putting out there? And this is a framework that I've heard about so much but I've always kind of dismissed, because what is the scientific evidence for energy anyway? And what I've realized since then, recently, is that it's not about being scientific, it's about having a framework to describe something which is essentially a subjective experience experience.
Speaker 2:So if a patient walks into my clinic and they are not at ease for some reason, then the rest of the consultation will not go well, and so the medicines that I give will not be as effective.
Speaker 2:This is partly because of placebo effects, partly because of the patient's own stress levels a lot of reasons. Now, I don't really have a good framework to navigate that situation, but since I started thinking about the concept of energy and vibe of a place, knowing that it is absolutely not covered in scientific words but as a framework, I found it very useful. So I have started thinking about all right, what is the energy of my consulting room, and what kind of energy would a patient feel good in when they step into the consulting patient feel good in when they step into the consulting, and just putting it, putting that question in that framework, helps me think of solutions that otherwise I would not have. So that's been an interesting new thing, not something that I'll ever teach anybody or talk about much, but just in my personal journey I found it useful very interesting, so tell me what's your most prized possession wow, that's um, that's a tricky one.
Speaker 2:Um. Well, currently, I would say so I have. I have always been an ipad user okay uh, since almost 10 years now, and over the last seven years I have made extensive notes on my ipad from from everything from my medical residency to my philosophical thoughts, even a book that I read. Whenever I want to make notes, I'll make it on the iPad. Okay, I can say with fair amount of confidence that if I lose my iPad, I would be heartbroken oh okay, so well that works.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, before we come to our closing points, is there any question that you have for me as a psychologist?
Speaker 2:oh yes, absolutely. I have so many questions for you.
Speaker 1:I was. I was so sure this is going to be your answer yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I have to pick, I have to pick maybe one or two really top ones good um number one is what has changed in your psychology practice over the last, say, or 10 years, or do you think that, with with the current wave of mental health awareness and neuroscience advances, has anything changed for you?
Speaker 1:Oh yes, one of the biggest changes, I would say, is quite comical actually. Earlier we were trying to impress the importance of mental health issues on medicos and try to tell them that send your patient for mental health support when needed. Now we're seeing the opposite Anxiety is being oversold. There are so many people out there in medicine senior doctors who would not want to investigate further and say, oh, this is just stress, oh, please go. And this is it's comical, it's irritating and sometimes you have to send the patient back saying look, there is no evidence, and anxiety or depression or any other issue is not supposed to be a dustbin diagnosis. You have to have a positive diagnosis, have the signs which indicate something like this is up. This is what is changing now people are using it as a negative diagnosis. We don't find anything else and so it must be psychosomatic. This is a very major change interesting, very interesting.
Speaker 2:I'm so, um, yeah, because this this connects with my clinical experience as well. So, yeah, I completely agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think it's still okay. It's in the right direction. At least we're not dismissing it now. We'll find a sweet spot Eventually, when this comes a full circle, we'll find a sweet spot where medical investigations and psychosomatic help merge and we can all work together.
Speaker 2:Medical investigations and psychosomatic help merge and we can all work together. Interesting. And the second thing is uh, there is a conflict, or is there a conflict, between psychologists and psychiatrists when it comes to how to manage mental health issues?
Speaker 1:well, not in my personal experience. I've had the honor of working with some very senior psychiatrists through my practice and I think it's just complementary. It works together as long as they both respect each other's boundaries. So as a psychologist, I would encourage others not to go beyond your lane and try to change medication or try to change dosing. Just tell the psychiatrist that it needs to be done and let them take a call. What irritates one from the other is when they cross lanes, when a psychiatrist tries psychotherapy which they're not trained in or when a psychologist tries medication which they are not trained in. This is where conflict happens, but it's easily avoidable. I think if both parties are patient and understanding and respectful, this conflict doesn't occur.
Speaker 2:That's really well put. Thank you so much. I think that that answers my question.
Speaker 1:Well, dr Sid, when I started off thinking of having you on my podcast, I was so excited because I've seen your work. I've seen your work, I followed your work. We've connected so many years ago, but this conversation has been super. I mean, I have gained so much. I've gained so much insight into small things, big things, so much clarity into things which we always think about but then we spiral out of that thought. So I'm so glad we had this conversation. I'm so glad you took the time out to talk to me today. I would love to put you out there in terms of your social media handles, if you could just share them with our audience so they can follow you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It has been a pleasure doing this conversation with you. My social media handles across all platforms is the Sid Warrior, and on YouTube it is Dr Sid Warrior, so I hope that. Super so, guys, please YouTube it is Dr Sid Warrior, so I hope that.
Speaker 1:Super. So, guys, please, please, please, follow him. His content is amazing. It is short, it is crisp, it is so insightful. It's not something I do all the time on my podcast. I don't put people's Instagram handles out there, but this is one handle I insist you follow. Ask your children to follow, young teens, young adults, old people just go ahead and follow it. It's good content, it's clean content and it's something that we should all learn from. So well, it's been super for me. Thank you so much, dr Sid, and I hope to see you soon.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me See you soon.
