People First Radio – October 30, 2025People First Radio – October 30, 2025
People First Radio
Stephen Lewis discusses self-injury, stigma, and person-centred recovery alongside clips from a documentary on lived experience, while Charlotte Lee outlines research on rapid weight gain after severe mental illness diagnosis and the lack of support for managing it. Together, they highlight the need for compassionate conversations, practical resources, and dignified care for those affected.
0:00•31 Oct 2025
Self-Injury, Recovery, and the Hidden Weight of Severe Mental Illness
Episode Overview
- Non-suicidal self-injury is common among adolescents and emerging adults, distinct from suicide, and often used as a coping strategy for intense emotions.
- A person-centred approach treats people with lived experience as the experts, recognising that every self-injury and recovery journey is unique.
- Compassionate conversations about self-injury involve staying calm, actively listening, using non-judgemental language, and focusing on the person’s overall wellbeing.
- Recovery from self-injury is non-linear, can include setbacks, and often involves finding new coping strategies and addressing underlying issues such as trauma or depression.
- People with severe mental illness face rapid, predictable weight gain after diagnosis, yet often receive little support, highlighting the need for early discussion of side effects and better access to weight management services.
“It can get better. It does get better. Recovery is possible.”
How do people find hope in the darkest times? This edition of People First Radio brings together two powerful conversations that shine a light on self-injury and the physical health challenges linked to severe mental illness. First up, psychology professor Stephen Lewis talks about non-suicidal self-injury and a short film, *Self-Injury: Stories of Recovery and Hope*, created through a participatory video project.
He explains self-injury as “a deliberate act that’s done by oneself to oneself… for non-suicidal reasons,” and stresses how common – and misunderstood – it is among adolescents and emerging adults.
You’ll hear how a person-centred approach treats people with lived experience as the experts, highlights the heavy weight of stigma, and focuses on meeting each person with “a great degree of compassion.” Lewis shares practical tips for talking about self-injury: stay calm, listen actively, use the person’s own language, and remember that the behaviour usually acts as a coping strategy, not a bid for attention.
The documentary clips drive this home, with participants describing self-harm as a way to manage intense emotions or feel some control when life is overwhelming. Crucially, Lewis emphasises that “it can get better. It does get better. Recovery is possible,” though it’s rarely a neat, linear path. The second half of the programme shifts to physical health with psychologist and researcher Charlotte Lee.
She outlines her large UK study on people with severe mental illness (schizophrenia spectrum and bipolar disorder), showing rapid weight gain in the first five years after diagnosis and an alarming gap in support. Lee argues for honest conversations about medication side effects, routine weight monitoring that actually leads to action, and better access to community weight-loss groups, all delivered with dignity and without blame.
If you care about mental health, recovery, and putting people first, this conversation asks you to rethink how you show up for those who are struggling – whose story might you need to hear more gently today?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.
Related Episodes
Similar episodes from other shows in the catalogue.