Jim Sorrell, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at UNMC, is celebrating the second-anniversary of “Sunday Night Shrink Rap,” a radio show he hosts on Omaha radio station, 94.1 FM.
Below Dr. Sorrell, or “Dr. Jim” as he is known on the radio show, answers questions about the show and other topics. These answers also can be heard on soundbites at http://www.unmc.edu/podcast/shrinkrap.htm.
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Jim Sorrell, M.D., talks to his audience during an airing of his radio show, “Sunday Night Shrink Rap,” which has run for the past two years on Omaha radio station, 94.1 FM. During the show, Dr. Sorrell often talks to teens and young adults about their emotional issues. |
The purpose of the show is to give an outlet … a forum for adolescents, young adults to talk about concerns, problems, feelings, to find a place to go with those concerns and share them.
How do you think the show helps those who are listening?
I think it helps primarily by allowing those calling and those listening who might have similar difficulties to get a sense that they’re not alone. It’s a crazy, complex world and having difficulties is just part of it.
How much of a need is there for a forum like this?
I think it’s a great thing and I think the community profits by it. I think it makes a difference. Obviously it’s not the only place that kids ought to have this. Ideally, they’re going to have this at their dining table at home … you need a place to be able to talk about what’s important to you and have that be respected, have it be heard. It’s really important.
Where can an adolescent or young adult go for help?
One of the problems is there aren’t enough resources … we don’t value people’s mental health and emotional well-being enough to really invest a lot in it so lot of young adults fall through the cracks. Lots of young adults are not insured and that’s a big problem. There are a lot of clinics, there are places that take sliding scales — Lutheran Family Services, Catholic Charities. There are other providers who recognize and give time away, but it is a huge problem.
What is the most common concern you hear about on the show?
I think the most common problems I hear about on the show are about relationships. Often the question is, “should I stay or should I go and why can’t I go, that I’m being hurt or I’m not being treated well, but I don’t know what to do.” That’s really probably one of the number one calls we get. And it reflects the fact that … we want to be committed or deeply involved with somebody else, but we’re not always prepared for how hard it is. We also go into relationships not because we found somebody perfect who really respects and loves us and the relationship allows us to grow, but we are afraid to be alone and our neediness and our fears about facing the world without somebody overweigh our sort of judgment about “am I really being loved and being cared for appropriately?”
Can you talk about insight from the callers?
People aren’t clueless. They have ideas, they have insights about what they ought to do, but they don’t have enough support to do them. Again, we don’t support people being independent and taking risks in meaningful ways. But the calls do reflect a nascent or maybe undeveloped potential for people maturing and growing and solving problems by themselves with some support or coaching. There are also people who call who you are not sure what the question is and you don’t know where they’re going with it and you can’t get a clear idea of what’s going on. There are people who struggle in ways just defining their problems. And sometimes you realize those folks need more than just a call into a radio show.
What is your approach to helping people solve problems?
My basic sense is people have to learn and grow their own solutions. You can’t give it to them. You can give advice, you can offer guidance, but people really need to construct their own meaning and their own solutions to life and its problems. Mine is one of hoping to provide them an open forum, whether it’s in the privacy of my consulting room or whether it’s on the talk show on the radio. It’s about giving them a little room, space, to think about new and fresh ways of their situation.
You talked about the role of media images and ideas about perfection. Can you explain what you mean?
We’re sold a bill of goods — that is that if you have enough, if you’re popular, if you’re good looking enough, if you’re thin enough, that life sort of unfolds for you without difficulty. Clearly that’s not our experience. And the media perpetuates that. It ties together ideal images of youth to selling products. That, I think, is part of the problem. It creates a distorted image that there’s this real world that if you just weren’t so screwed up you’d be participating in and enjoying and so it makes you feel more alone.
Has the visibility of the show brought your office more patients?
My practice is pretty separate from the calls I get. These are often people who don’t have the resources to come see me in my office. It helps me at least, to promote my notions about what’s important for our youth and certainly it’s given me a forum to do that on the show. And it’s striking at least enough of an accord that people have invited me to talk and speak about those notions in other settings, which is gratifying because I believe that we’re missing the boat with our youth. We have this dichotomous sort of paradox where they have all kinds of privileges materially, but they don’t really have what they need, which is the autonomy, the support to grow into really healthy, mature adults. In fact, we idolize sort of grown-up youths more than we do mature young adults.