I’m going to be speaking in this weekend at FtBCon. Since I’m mainly prepping for my panel and talk, I’ll leave the summaries here. Video will be livestreaming on YouTube and available immediately after.

Panel: Supporting Freethinkers With Mental Illness
11 pm Central Time on Friday (tonight)

“Have you tried yoga?” “You just need to pray harder.” “You should try this herbal supplement.” People with mental illnesses get advice like this all the time. Although it’s not particularly helpful to anyone, with skeptics and atheists it’s especially misguided. What should we say to freethinkers dealing with mental illness? How do we support them in an evidence-based way? How can we use skepticism and critical thinking to reduce the stigma of mental illness? How can we improve access to treatment that actually works?

Other Panelists: Olivia James, Brendan Murphy, Miri Mogilevsky,

Talk: Skepticism and the DSM
6-7pm Central Time on Saturday

Multiple personalities? Personality disorders? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) contains a list of all recognized mental illnesses. How valid is it? Kate will look at the best and worst mental health diagnoses and talk about what makes for useful skepticism when it comes to mental health.

This will be a one-hour talk–though I’ll absolutely set time aside for questions. It’s a topic I’m very excited about–if you have aspects you want to hear about, by all means, leave them in the comments.