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Dr Jay Watts

@shrinkatlarge.bsky.social
11K followers 1.3K following 1.3K posts

Consultant psychotherapist/ disability activist/ bluestocking. Former Lived Experience Worker, future failed poet. Will question ideology for cake ❤️🥄💜🎭🦓🥄🏳️‍🌈 #MadSky #TraumaNotPD #Disability #Neurodivergent #Mad t.co/83d2Ztwpp2

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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
“Writing from bed is a time-honored disabled way of being an activist and a cultural worker. It’s one the mainstream doesn’t often acknowledge but whose lineage stretches from Frida Kahlo painting in bed to Grace Lee Boggs writing in her wheelchair age 98.” - Piepzna-Samarasinha
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
It’ll kick off in London today cos no one knows what to do when it gets above 28 and the daily mail will call it ‘lawless London’ when most of what we need is lollies.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
As someone actually trained in behavioural psychology—unlike most MPs—I can tell you: financial precarity doesn’t “incentivise” sick people to work. It breaks them. Stress worsens health. Fear doesn’t create productivity. It creates collapse. #TakingThePIP
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Biggest threat to trauma therapy in the UK right now? PIP cuts & tighter rules. Tens of thousands with PTSD/CPTSD rely on PIP to fund private therapy — NHS waits are years long. Respond to the Timms Review consultation by 28 May or many will lose access. tinyurl.com/mrk8hy4m
tinyurl.com
Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment: call for evidence
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Trauma not merely as fear or horror, but as chronic assault on reality-testing, credibility, embodiment, autonomy, and social legibility.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
If you can, please say hello to the security guard at your local supermarket. There's a new one at mine who smiles so sweetly and looks genuinely pleased to see everyone. The last one did too -before month on month of being barely acknowledged in the inhumane modern workplace wore him into despair.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Still remember the crushing moment as a young researcher when I realised that proving something through evidence had damn near no impact on social policy unless it was politically useful to believe it.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
🚨Clinicians - The PIP Review closes on Thursday. We must improve PIP and protect existing rights after fifteen years of relentless attacks on disabled people. Fill in the form: tinyurl.com/5f4xfe5w Email: timmsreview.callforevidence@dwp.gov.uk Sign the professional letter: tinyurl.com/37nrsmxx
tinyurl.com
Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment: call for evidence
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Just a reminder: you are NOT unusual, weird, or unlovable if you have: - no one to see on Christmas Day, - no presents, or - no contactable relatives. Very few people live the idealised version on TV. Those of us who live differently—whether by choice or trauma—matter as much.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Going for my Christmas Day swim at the lido — or about to embark on a deep-sea fishing mission in the Arctic? You decide.
A person outdoors on a winter morning, bundled tightly into a bright orange hooded coat pulled up over their mouth and nose, eyes squinting against the cold. Bare trees blur in the background, and the overall impression is of bracing wind and near-Arctic chill
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Sending solidarity and love to everyone in the Mad/traumatised/neurodivergent community in pain or lonely tonight x
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Recovery in the Bin @ritb.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
New from the brilliant @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social substack.com/inbox/post/1...
substack.com
The 'Avoiding Avoidance' Trap
How Britain's Welfare Policy Weaponizes Therapy.
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Joy @joymiriam.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Thank you for this @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social "the real avoidance isn’t on the part of those struggling to survive. It’s governmental: the avoidance of the real, the avoidance of the structural, and—most crucially—the cynical avoidance of justice." substack.com/inbox/post/1...
substack.com
The 'Avoiding Avoidance' Trap
How Britain's Welfare Policy Weaponizes Therapy.
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Joy @joymiriam.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
This needs shouting from the rooftops "the real avoidance isn’t on the part of those struggling to survive. It’s governmental: the avoidance of the real, the avoidance of the structural, and—most crucially—the cynical avoidance of justice."
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James Anderson @1jamesanderson.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Incredible article, dissembling the Governments floored Welfare plans by leading Psychotherapist and Activist @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social substack.com/inbox/post/1...
substack.com
The 'Avoiding Avoidance' Trap
How Britain's Welfare Policy Weaponizes Therapy.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Request #8538 to @bsky.app: I would love to use Bluesky regularly, but I can’t. Why? No locked/private accounts. This isn’t a nice-to-have feature. It’s a safety essential that excludes many in Mad and Disabled communities who face real risks posting publicly. Please sort this Out.
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Pouffy Mono-Bosom @herrem.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
The DWP have absolutely no place in a GP surgery, or anywhere people access healthcare, health-related support, mental health support. Many people who claim disability benefit experience a hyper-vigilance over the DWP 'checking up' on them, and it is not unfounded. People avoid things
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Alt text: A cartoon-style illustration shows a man in a turquoise polo shirt on a city street, wide-eyed and pointing frantically at the sky. Floating all around him are dozens of Mercedes and BMW logos, even though no actual cars are visible. A large speech bubble above his head reads, “Motability cars! Motability cars everywhere!!” The image satirises the false belief that disabled people frequently receive luxury cars through the Motability scheme.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Alt text: A protest-style graphic with a bold red background and large white block letters reading “STOP OXEVISION.” Below, black text on a white background reads: “The continued use of Oxevsion is not safe or ethical. Rights abuses are happening right now. The Lampard Inquiry is not due to publish its final report and recommendations until 2027. This is too late. We call on all mental health trusts using Oxevsion to immediately suspend its use on the basis of safety and legality concerns.” — National Survivor User Network (NSUN), October 2025, following evidence from the Stop Oxevsion Campaign at the Lampard Inquiry.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Work is not a health outcome. It’s a social determinant — and sometimes a damaging one. Putting DWP work coaches in GP surgeries turns healthcare into a branch of welfare policing.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
“Yeah but I saw on the internet that if you fill out a form you get a free BMW!” I’m sure you did, babe. I also saw on the internet that I can make tens of millions from a timeshare pyramid scheme.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Personally, I think “We’re all people with lived experience” is just the ableist cousin of “we all have mental health.” It takes a phrase born to centre marginalised voices and uses it to erase the difference that made it necessary in the first place. But then I'm moody.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Work coaches do not belong in GP surgeries.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Silly psy cartoon for the weekend!
black-and-white cartoon shows a therapy session. A patient lies on a couch while the therapist sits in a chair taking notes. The caption reads: “It’s not strange at all—lately, a lot of people are reporting that their faith in humanity is riding entirely on whether or not Pedro Pascal is as nice as he seems.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Can’t believe this needs saying in 2025 but: Human rights are good for humans.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
The folk shouting about “protecting women and girls” as they form gangs are the very same who, in another century, would have lit the pyres for any woman even vaguely deviant — branding her a witch and burning her alive. Groupthink and violence has always worn the mask of virtue.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
The Centre for Social Justice has just released a report called ‘Wasted Lives’ which is being picked up by the media and recommends withdrawing: “UC Health and PIP from those with milder anxiety, depression or ADHD, equivalent to around 1.1 million people”. Why is this wrong? 🧵
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
If folk are so keen on ‘protecting women and girls’, how about campaigning on the conviction rate for reported rape which is 2%?
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
I can’t tell you how many parents’ MENTAL HEALTH problems are CAUSED and EXACERBATED by the pressure of trying to get any—let alone decent—SEND SUPPORT. If the GOVERNMENT want to reduce DIAGNOSIS, they should make SEND FUNDING easier and more RELIABLE to get, not CUT it.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Dear @teamlabouruk.bsky.social Having to publish three impact assessments — none of which would pass GCSE level scrutiny — because you got thrashed by the disability movement is not “extensive” impact assessment. Nor was dropping the PIP changes. Stop lying to the United Nations. Dr Jay
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Far more troubled by #AngelaRayner’s betrayal of millions of disabled people than where her primary residence is, to be honest.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
London, just now.
Handwritten chalk message on a grey pavement slab reads: “It took a lot of pain to be this soft.” followed by the Instagram handle @losinglxve. At the bottom of the image, a pair of white trainers are visible.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Fearing abandonment when one has a history of being abandoned doesn’t a personality disorder make.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
The folk shouting about “protecting women and girls” as they form gangs are the very same who, in another century, would have lit the pyres for any woman even vaguely deviant — branding her a witch and burning her alive. Groupthink and violence has always worn the mask of virtue.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
The Centre for Social Justice has just released a report called ‘Wasted Lives’ which is being picked up by the media and recommends withdrawing: “UC Health and PIP from those with milder anxiety, depression or ADHD, equivalent to around 1.1 million people”. Why is this wrong? 🧵
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
If folk are so keen on ‘protecting women and girls’, how about campaigning on the conviction rate for reported rape which is 2%?
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Nell @nellh.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Please read our paper out now about the resistance, repurposing and reimagining of oppressive mental health technologies, such as Oxevision (now LIO), used on us against our will. And how we must dream them differently.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Can’t believe this needs saying in 2025 but: Human rights are good for humans.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
I can’t tell you how many parents’ MENTAL HEALTH problems are CAUSED and EXACERBATED by the pressure of trying to get any—let alone decent—SEND SUPPORT. If the GOVERNMENT want to reduce DIAGNOSIS, they should make SEND FUNDING easier and more RELIABLE to get, not CUT it.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Dear @teamlabouruk.bsky.social Having to publish three impact assessments — none of which would pass GCSE level scrutiny — because you got thrashed by the disability movement is not “extensive” impact assessment. Nor was dropping the PIP changes. Stop lying to the United Nations. Dr Jay
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
The CPTSD vs. BPD split isn’t a breakthrough. It’s a business model.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
If the government really want to make people's mental health better, they could start by making things less shit.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Every disability rights fight starts the same way: "Perhaps you've misunderstood" "They wouldn’t really do that, would they?" Then they do. Then we’re told to calm down. Then we bury people. #TakingThePIP
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Sending love to my Trans family today on #TransPride, known and unknown. As a Queer person and VAWG survivor, you have my unwavering solidarity through every season and throughout this hopefully temporary hate-fest. Special love to disabled Trans folks up against it 💙💖🤍💖💙
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Ok, possibly less bad /actually good news perhaps as a result of our lobbying. For the Severe Conditions Criteria, a diagnosis will count IF recorded in the NHS system i.e. recognised by the NHS. So a private autism or ADHD diagnosis will qualify IF your NHS GP has it on record.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
The Universal Credit Bill has passed. The Motion of Regret did not. I am heartbroken. We got powerful truths spoken in the Lords which may help later in legal and public fights. But.... What is this thing called Labour. Not something I morally recognise Love to all x
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
🚨 THE BIG LORDS REVIEW OF THE UNIVERSAL CREDIT BILL IS TODAY 🚨 Quite a few Peers have told us they’ve been inundated with our emails—in the best way. 🧡 Incredible work, everyone. Now we hope for long, powerful speeches—and that the motion of regret passes. 🤞 #TakingThePiP
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Silly psy cartoon for the weekend!
The image is a black-and-white cartoon showing a bull sitting on a couch in a therapist’s office, speaking to a woman therapist who is taking notes. The bull appears frustrated, gesturing with one hand. The therapist is seated across from him with a notepad in her lap. A lamp sits between them. The caption underneath reads:

“I mean, I know it’s coming and I think to myself ‘hold it together, man…’ But then he waves that red cape and I just lose it!”
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
I’ve worked in mental health for 25 years—known it personally even longer. When I say the ‘substantial risk’ safeguard saves lives, I mean it. I don’t just mean hundreds. I don’t even just mean thousands. Nothing has ever triggered more collective fear and relapse than the DWP.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
As someone actually trained in behavioural psychology—unlike most MPs—I can tell you: financial precarity doesn’t “incentivise” sick people to work. It breaks them. Stress worsens health. Fear doesn’t create productivity. It creates collapse. #TakingThePIP
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