Why Ninety One Percent of Suicide Victims Were In Talk Therapy

About this Podcast

Richard Blake made it to the top of his field. PhD-trained psychologist. Published researcher. Breathwork facilitator helping thousands regulate their nervous systems. But he started as a fitness model and CrossFit gym owner before studying psychotherapy at a college in London. He found disappointing gaps in mental health education that made him question everything. He chose to leave with a postgraduate certificate and abandon the path to licensure. That rejection of conventional training became his breakthrough.

On the Legacy and Longevity Podcast with host Zach Dancel, Richard reveals why ninety-one percent of men who died by suicide were already in talk therapy, how the treatment prevalence paradox shows mental illness statistics worsening as more people receive care, and why childhood trauma doesn't predict adult mental illness the way retrospective studies suggested. This conversation bridges psychology research with breathwork science and proves that true mental fitness begins when you finally stop treating the mind separately from the nervous system.

The Treatment That Makes Statistics Worse  

Richard owned a CrossFit gym and loved the community and competition. But he wanted to understand mental health more deeply, so he began studying psychotherapy in London. The training missed critical components. Exercise, nutrition, breathing, light exposure, none of it appeared in the curriculum despite overwhelming research showing these factors profoundly impact mental health. He left with a postgraduate certificate, moved to the United States, and pursued a PhD researching conscious connected breathwork. His randomized control trial, the largest ever conducted on this method, was just published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

The treatment prevalence paradox documents what mental health professionals rarely discuss. As more people receive therapy, mental illness statistics increase instead of decreasing. Cancer treatment reduces cancer prevalence. Heart disease treatment reduces cardiovascular mortality. Mental health treatment increases reported mental illness. Thomas Inbar, director of the National Institute of Mental Health for over a decade, acknowledged this reality openly. The mental health field is the only medical industry where treatment correlates with worsening population outcomes. The system treats mental health as purely psychological when biology drives most symptoms. Dysfunctional breathing alone causes anxiety in eighty percent of people diagnosed with anxiety disorders. No therapist in Richard's three years of training or his wife's four years becoming licensed ever mentioned assessing breathing patterns despite research proving this connection.

Breathwork Creates Brain Changes Like Psilocybin  

Conscious connected breathwork is not box breathing or mindfulness meditation. Studies measuring cerebral hemodynamics show blood flow patterns in the brain change as dramatically during breathwork as during moderate doses of psilocybin mushrooms. EEG measurements confirm brain wave alterations match psilocybin levels. Richard's randomized controlled trial included 108 participants completing six weekly breathwork sessions over Zoom or remaining on a waitlist. The Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale measured anxiety before and after six weeks. Control group anxiety decreased 1.54 points on the 80-point scale. Breathwork group anxiety decreased 10.8 points—nearly ten times more reduction. Participants entered with average scores of 45, indicating moderate clinical anxiety. Six weeks dropped scores to 34, the normal range, effectively eliminating clinical diagnosis for the average participant.

Breathing in excess of metabolic demand changes gas ratios in blood. Carbon dioxide tolerance increases. Brain waves shift. The vagus nerve signals safety. Heart rate variability improves, indicating greater nervous system resilience. The hormetic stress of breathwork trains the nervous system to handle stress through exposure and adaptation, similar to ice baths and sauna. Research from Cambridge found breathwork increases brain entropy back to healthy levels. People with depression and anxiety have low entropy. Their brain connections fire in rigid patterns, creating thought loops and rumination. Breathwork restores healthy entropy where the brain adapts flexibly instead of getting stuck.

The Suicide Statistic Nobody Wants To Discuss  

Ninety-one percent of men who died by suicide were already in talk therapy when they died. That Manchester University study should force fundamental questions about treatment effectiveness. Instead, mental health professionals use the same logic medieval doctors used with leaching. When patients recovered, doctors celebrated leaching. When patients died, doctors said not even leaching could save someone so sick. Leaching was actually harming people.

The cultural narrative blames men for not opening up enough. Ninety-one percent reached out for help. The system failed them anyway. One problem involves ideological bias among therapists. Research found ninety-six percent of social psychologists identify as liberal, and forty percent admitted discriminating against conservative peers. Many men hold conservative views and experience ideological clashes with therapists. When therapy feels hostile to your identity, you conclude you're a lost cause with no hope. That belief ends lives.

Childhood Trauma Doesn't Predict Adult Mental Illness  

The trauma narrative dominates modern mental health. Gabor Maté and Bessel van der Kolk brought trauma awareness into mainstream consciousness. That pendulum swing was necessary after decades of denial. But it swung too far. Now everyone believes trauma explains all suffering. Retrospective studies ask adults with mental illness about adverse childhood events. Higher ACE scores correlate with mental illness. But prospective studies tell a different story. Researchers identified children with documented severe abuse in police reports, hospital records, and child services files, then followed them for decades. The correlation between verified abuse and adult mental illness nearly disappeared.

Twin studies reveal another problem. When one twin develops mental illness and the other doesn't, the affected twin reports childhood abuse; the unaffected twin doesn't remember. Researchers call this efforts after meaning. People suffering want explanations. When therapists suggest childhood events caused problems, clients embrace that narrative even when memories are unreliable or fabricated. Most importantly, PTSD naturally resolves within three years for most people. Trauma causes short-term distress but doesn't typically cause lifelong mental illness decades later. Continuing to suffer suggests factors other than original trauma maintain symptoms, like breathing patterns, sleep deprivation, and nervous system dysregulation.

The Stress Bathtub And Nervous System Capacity  

Imagine a bathtub with the tap running. Stress flows in from work, relationships, EMF exposure, air pollution, processed food, and inadequate sleep. Once the bathtub overflows, panic attacks happen, chronic illness develops, or depression emerges. Three strategies manage this. First, pull the plug to release stress through meditation, massage, and rest. Second, turn off the tap by improving relationships and eliminating toxic exposures. Third, make the bathtub bigger through hormetic stressors like ice baths, sauna, exercise, and breathwork that expand capacity through biological adaptation.

The sign of resilient nervous systems is bouncing back quickly after stress. Richard's dog got attacked at the park and nearly died. Within two minutes, she ran off to play with other dogs. Richard's nervous system took a full day to recover. His dog demonstrated superior resilience through an immediate return to baseline. Heart rate variability measures nervous system resilience. Breathwork, ice baths, and sauna all improve HRV by creating controlled stress that forces adaptation. Talk therapy does not improve HRV because it doesn't train the nervous system through challenge. You cannot talk your way into biological resilience any more than you can talk your way into muscle growth without lifting weights.

Connection Extends Longevity More Than Bio-hacks

Peptides, hyperbaric oxygen, stem cells, and advanced interventions dominate optimization discussions. But nothing extends lifespan more than human connection. Research on social connection and mortality analyzed 148 studies with over 300,000 participants. Lack of social relationships carries mortality risk equivalent to smoking fifteen cigarettes daily. Strong connections improve survival odds by fifty percent regardless of age or health status. Forty percent of therapy clients report hearing undermining statements from therapists about relationships. Some therapists diagnose personality disorders in people they've never met based on client descriptions. That's malpractice destroying family connections that research proves extend mental health and longevity more than any intervention.

Men particularly need peer relationships outside family. Fathers and sons have hierarchical dynamics. Only with peers can men fully relax without performing or managing others. Male friendships provide nervous system recovery through authentic connection without hierarchy. Small interactions matter too. Saying hello to the mail carrier and chatting with neighbors contribute to wellbeing. Community connection at every level predicts better outcomes than isolated individuals experience regardless of other health optimization.

Your Nervous System Your Responsibility  

Zach Dancel's mother nearly died because conventional medicine failed to diagnose her hormone imbalance properly. Watching someone you love suffer preventable illness teaches you that the medical system won't save you. Richard learned from psychotherapy training that the system trains therapists to ignore biology despite overwhelming evidence that exercise, nutrition, breathing, and light exposure impact mental health as much as psychological factors.

If you've been in talk therapy without improvement, recognize anxiety symptoms matching dysfunctional breathing, or want to build nervous system resilience beyond symptom management, the Legacy and Longevity Podcast provides the framework for understanding mental fitness through biological regulation. Breathwork extends into brain entropy, heart rate variability, vagus nerve activation, carbon dioxide tolerance, and stress resilience.

Subscribe wherever you listen and join the movement prioritizing nervous system regulation over rumination, biological intervention over psychological analysis, and building capacity through hormetic stress before breakdown forces you to stop.

Discover how to align your nervous system with natural stress responses and build mental fitness that matches your biological capacity. Stop managing symptoms—start mastering your biology with daily practices that transform your stress resilience. Discover your path to peak mental health; to know more, click on the link below:

https://navacenter.com/  

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