Sociopathy should be understood as a spectrum disorder. It’s a disorder that affects roughly 5% of the population – similar to the number of people who have depression or anxiety. Patric Gagne is a sociopath.

In this chat with Fearne, Patric explains the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. Sociopaths have access to inherent emotions like sadness and happiness, but struggle with learned social emotions like remorse, guilt, empathy, and love. There’s also a huge feeling of apathy for Patric, which in the past led her to anti-social behaviours like stealing cars and breaking into houses.

Fearne also points out the benefits of not caring what others think of you; while she people pleases a lot, she can see the freedom in having a lack of a filter. They chat about how to function in a relationship when you have to communicate any kind of mental disorder or illness too.

Patric’s memoir, Sociopath, is this month’s Happy Place Book Club read. Come and be part of the Book Club discussions on Instagram @happyplacebookclub.

Sociopath is out now.

Listen to Book Club Meets: Jo Cheetham

Listen to Book Club Meets: Jennie Godfrey

Thanks to Bluebird (an imprint of Pan Macmillan) for the Sociopath audiobook extract.

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Nobody’s worse off than you; everyone just experiences things differently. This is what 27 year old Ashleigh has come to understand about her own trauma. Previously, she minimised her own experiences, thinking it can’t be that bad, but learnt that until she acknowledged her own pain she couldn’t move forward.

In this chat with Fearne, Ashleigh explains how PTSD led her to develop facial tics and a stammer, isolating her personally and professionally. They talk about how to cope when those around you don’t understand what you’re going through, plus, how the Prince’s Trust have given her game-changing support to start her own business helping others with mental health struggles.

Fearne is a Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health and Wellbeing for The Prince’s Trust. They help support young people aged 11-30, and believe that every single young person should have the chance to succeed, no matter their background, or their personal challenges. They offer support into education, training, and jobs; that’s exactly what they did for Ashleigh.

As well as catching up on Ashleigh’s progress, Fearne has a very special surprise for her at the end of the episode...

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How’s your mental health doing today? Do you ever wish people understood what was actually going on in your mind?

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Fearne looks back at some of the conversations she’s had on Happy Place that shine a light on particular mental health conditions.

There’s OCD with Tuppence Middleton, cyclothymia with Matt Edmondson, and psychosis with David Harewood. Plus, neuroscientist TJ Power chats about how to increase serotonin levels, and sleep physiologist Stephanie Romiszewski talks through how to combat insomnia.

Hopefully you’ll find a moment’s solace from connecting over stories you might recognise if you have any of these mental health conditions yourself, and if you don’t... you may well know someone who does...

CONTENT WARNING: as David recalls racist abuse, this episode contains offensive and distressing language.

Watch Stephanie Romiszewski

Listen to Tuppence Middleton

Listen to Matt Edmondson

Listen to David Harewood

Listen to TJ Power

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