Dr Satyen Sharma

Dr. Satyen Sharma is a consulting psychiatrist who has been working in Punjab and in and around Delhi for 16 years. He was trained at the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, in Pune, India. Satyen has held leadership positions as Secretary and then President of the Indian Association of Private Psychiatry. His areas of interest are addiction psychiatry and general adult psychiatry. "It would be so common for a family from Punjab to bring in a young, strapping, healthy boy, 20 years of age, who's been using heroin for some time. And they would tell me, 'Doctor, this boy, we want you to remove his heroin habit. And we have given him no work at all.' Now he's free to work out on his addiction, which is so counterintuitive. The first thing I would say is that if he doesn't have any responsibilities or anything to look forward to, what motivation does he have to go off drugs?" To stay up to date, follow me on Instagram and X (Twitter) @smitatharoor. Stream and follow us on your favourite podcast platform.

Om Podcasten

I'm Smita Tharoor and I ask guests from around the world to share their seldom told stories and to reflect on their life experiences. We are defined by our narrative, our personal story, our experiences. These have an impact on how we make judgements and form opinions. A lot of time that’s just fine but every once in a while, we make snap conclusions that have a negative outcome either for the other person or ourselves. Just one particular experience can lead to a lifelong belief. That is our unconscious bias.