Symptoms
The Shrink Network
An independent mental health knowledge ecosystem, one job per site.
Mental health is too important to squeeze into one website. The Shrink Network gives each need its own place with language, concepts, research, medications, tools, professional insight, and care.
Your mind. Understood.
Explore the network ↓The Shrink Network
The Shrink Network is an independent mental health knowledge ecosystem built around one idea: mental health is too important to squeeze into one website. Each site has one job. Together, they help people understand, apply, and access care. No matter where you enter the network, we help you find the next step that makes sense.
Your mind. Understood.
Choose your path
Where would you like to start?
Tell us what brought you here. We'll point you somewhere useful.
Anxiety
Understand anxiety.
Open AnxietyResourceDepression
Understand depression.
Open DepressionResourceMedication
Understand medication.
Open PsychiatryRxTools
Use practical tools.
Open shrinQCare
Get psychiatric care.
Get care at shrinkMDNaming
Why "Shrink"?
"Shrink" is what people actually call a psychiatrist in the lived language of patients. The clinical vocabulary is precise but unwelcoming. The wellness vocabulary is welcoming but often unclear. "Shrink" sits in between. It's accessible without being dismissive of what the work actually is.
Using it as the network's brand makes the whole thing feel less stiff. It also lets every site in the network share a family resemblance (Shrinkopedia, shrinkMD, shrinQ, shrinkiatry) while still standing on its own. The network is named for the connective tissue.
The knowledge graph
The Shrink Knowledge Graph
The Shrink Network connects mental health concepts across symptoms, conditions, treatments, medications, research, tools, and care pathways. Each site does a different job. The value comes from how they connect. A reader arriving at ShrinkDaily or any other property is routed to the others on the same topic, and over time builds an understanding of the territory that's wider and deeper than any single site could give them on its own.
The Shrink Network
Care
- shrinkMD
Understand
- Shrinkopedia
- Shrinktionary
- AnxietyResource
- DepressionResource
- AnxietyResearch
- PsychiatryRx
- shrinkDaily
Apply
- shrinQ
- Unstuck
- QuitScrolling
Profession
- shrinkiatry
- Shariq Refai
- Books by Dr. Refai
See also: the Shrink Atlas.
Follow a pathway
Not sure where to begin? Follow a pathway.
Ten guided walks across the network, each a sequence of sites from the first plain-language question to the point where care makes sense.
Pathway
Panic and anxiety
From a racing heart to understanding panic to deciding about care.
See this pathwayPathway
Depression
From a word that fits to seeing the symptoms to a next step you can take.
See this pathwayPathway
A medication question
From what a drug is to what it treats to talking with a prescriber.
See this pathwayPathway
Overthinking
From naming the loop to a system for working with it.
See this pathwayPathway
Attention and phone use
From the daily concept to friction to the pattern underneath.
See this pathwayPathway
OCD and intrusive thoughts
From naming an intrusive thought to seeing the pattern to deciding about care.
See this pathwayPathway
Sleep
From naming the trouble to reading the evidence to a next step.
See this pathwayPathway
Trauma and PTSD
From what happened to what it does to the body to what helps.
See this pathwayPathway
Personality patterns
From the concept to specific patterns to a next step that makes sense.
See this pathwayPathway
Clinician and trainee
For clinicians and trainees: the Psychiatry Operating Room, the Decoder, the ethics, the resources.
See this pathwayNew from the network
Recently published across the network
Fresh work from the sites in the network. This selection rotates as new research, guides, and services go live.
AnxietyResearch
Maine mental health access report
A state-level look at getting anxiety care in Maine: wait times, insurance coverage, and where the gaps are.
Read the Maine reportAnxietyResearch
Nebraska mental health access report
A state-level look at getting anxiety care in Nebraska: wait times, insurance coverage, and where the gaps are.
Read the Nebraska reportshrinkMD
shrinkMD is now seeing patients
Independent telepsychiatry care is live, starting with Maine and Nebraska.
See shrinkMDThe network
Start with what you need
Understand
Shrinkopedia
In-depth, psychiatrist-reviewed explanations of symptoms, conditions, treatments, and how mental health actually works.
"Help me understand this completely."
Visit shrinkopedia.comShrinktionary
Plain-language definitions of mental health terms, explained the way a psychiatrist would explain them to you.
"What does this word actually mean?"
Visit shrinktionary.comAnxietyResource
Practical, plain-language education about anxiety, panic, and the daily experience of living with it.
"What's happening to me?"
Visit anxietyresource.orgDepressionResource
A long-form library for understanding depression, for yourself or someone you love.
"How do I understand depression?"
Visit depressionresource.orgAnxietyResearch
Research on anxiety, translated into plain language, with the limits of the evidence stated honestly.
"What does the evidence actually say?"
Visit anxietyresearch.orgPsychiatryRx
Clear, sourced guides to psychiatric medications: how they work, what to expect, and how to come off them safely.
"How does this medication work?"
Visit psychiatryrx.orgshrinkDaily
One mental health concept a day, explained the way a psychiatrist would explain it to you.
"Teach me one thing today."
Visit shrinkdaily.comApply
shrinQ
A structured, self-guided program for overthinking, anxiety, rumination, and burnout. Eleven modules, worked at your own pace.
"How do I work through these patterns?"
Visit shrinq.comUnstuck
A private, local-first wellness app for the moments you feel overwhelmed, scattered, or unable to sleep.
"What can help me right now?"
Visit beunstuck.appQuitScrolling
An attention tool built on one idea: spend more time living and less time scrolling.
"How do I get my attention back?"
Visit quitscrolling.appCare
shrinkMD
Independent multistate telepsychiatry: evaluation, prescription, follow-up, and continuity of care with the same clinician. See shrinkMD's state availability.
"I need psychiatric care."
Get care at shrinkMDFind a therapist
Search the Psychology Today therapist directory by location, specialty, insurance, and approach. shrinkMD is the network's psychiatric care destination. Therapy is a separate service. Use this directory to find a therapist near you.
"I want to talk to someone."
Open the directoryCrisis and safety
Free, confidential help, available right now. Call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call 911 if someone is in immediate danger. Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741. International resources below.
"I need help right now."
Open crisis resourcesProfession
shrinkiatry
The profession, culture, and business of psychiatry: careers, training, ethics, telepsychiatry, and the realities of psychiatric practice.
"How does the profession actually work?"
Visit shrinkiatry.comShariq Refai
The perspective, writing, and background of the psychiatrist behind the network.
"Who's Dr. Refai?"
Visit shariqrefai.comMore
Books by Dr. Refai
Three forthcoming books that translate psychiatry into plain language: Your Mind Is Full of Sh*t, its companion Workbook, and The Havoc in Your Head.
"I want to read more."
Visit shariqrefai.com/booksQuestions
Questions people ask about the network
Why are there several Shrink Network sites, not one?
Mental health care, mental health education, and mental health products aren't the same thing. Treating them as the same is how people end up confused, or quietly sold something they didn't come for. The Shrink Network keeps them separate on purpose.
Where does clinical care live in the Shrink Network?
Clinical care lives in one place: shrinkMD, the clinical care layer of the network. It's a licensed psychiatric practice with the legal and ethical boundaries that real medical care requires. Available in multiple states via shrinkMD's state availability page.
Where does mental health education live?
Education lives in the resource sites and in Shrinkopedia. These pages explain and inform. They don't diagnose you and they don't treat you.
What are shrinQ and Unstuck?
Tools and programs, shrinQ and Unstuck, are there to help you practice and reflect. They're not therapy, and they're not a substitute for care from a clinician.
Why keep care, education, and tools separate?
Keeping these apart protects you. It means an education page is never quietly trying to move you into treatment, and a wellness app is never pretending to be a doctor. Each property links to the others openly, so you can move between them when it makes sense, and not before.
Standards
How this network handles information
Every educational page in the network names a medical reviewer and shows the date it was last reviewed. Claims are tied to real sources: the DSM-5-TR, the National Institute of Mental Health, peer-reviewed research, and clinical guidelines from groups such as the American Psychiatric Association and NICE.
The educational sites don't run ads and don't sell your data. Where Dr. Refai has a financial interest, such as his practice, his books, or his app, that interest is disclosed plainly on the page where it appears.
Content is written to be accurate first and reassuring second. When the evidence is mixed or thin, the pages say so. When the evidence changes, the pages are updated.
Read the full editorial standards →Founder
About Dr. Refai
Shariq Refai, MD, MBA is a board-certified psychiatrist based in Jacksonville, Florida. He is the founder of shrinkMD, an independent multistate telepsychiatry practice, and the creator of the Unstuck app and the shrinQ program.
Before medical school, he worked nights as a psychiatric technician while studying at the University of North Florida. He has said that experience taught him early that mental illness doesn't sort people by income, status, or background. He trained at St. George's University School of Medicine, completed residency at the University of Hawaii and John Peter Smith Hospital, and holds an MBA from Duke University.
He writes and teaches with one aim: to make psychiatry understandable without making it less accurate.
More about Dr. Refai →