An Arizona realtor, who had to be duct-taped to his first-class seat after allegedly going on a hate-filled tirade, apparently flipped out mid-flight after talking about religion with a controversial doomsday author sitting next to him, it has been claimed.

In wild video footage, Layne Arthur Lundeen, 67, was seen duct-taped to his seat by fellow passengers after he allegedly launched a homophobic and racist rant during an American Airlines flight from Dallas, Texas, to Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday night.

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at the Baltimore airport, where Lundeen was removed and arrested by Maryland Transportation Authority Police, before other passengers resumed their flight to Newark.

But what sparked the Tucson-based realtor’s alleged outburst has taken a bizarre turn.

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, a controversial author known for linking biblical prophecy to current events, has claimed Lundeen grabbed him by the throat, hit him and broke his laptop after becoming incensed by their discussion of religion and his new book.

Cahn, the leader of the Beth Israel Worship Center, a Messianic Jewish congregation in Wayne, New Jersey, told the Daily Mail that he and Lundeen had been having a ‘friendly’ chat about their religious views for about two hours before things took a ‘demonic’ turn. 

In a ‘split second,’ Cahn claims, Lundeen, who he believes had just a couple of drinks, became enraged and started cursing at him and God.

‘He told me he was a realtor and onto his third marriage,’ Cahn said. 

‘He said he was at one point a Christian, but he rejected Jesus after he got divorced and he felt judged by Christians over the divorce.

‘I was trying to help him, I was trying to encourage him and say Jesus had trouble with religious hypocrites.’

But it was when married Cahn, 66, started talking about his own experiences of God that Lundeen allegedly saw red and ‘turned.’

‘His face changed, his voice changed, and he said… almost in a whisper, he was like, “I have something to tell you,” and he said, “Bulls***,”‘ Cahn alleged. 

‘He’s getting louder, and he starts cursing God, cursing Jesus, cursing me.

‘And then he said, “Go f*** yourself.”

‘This was from nothing. It wasn’t like there was any real argument.’

‘It was a split second. The change was like unbelievable. It was two hours of friendly, and then in one second it just changed to the most different voice, different faith, different guy,’ Chan added. 

‘It was as if something had taken him over.’ 

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, a controversial doomsday author who claims he was sitting next to Lundeen, alleges the real estate agent erupted after the pair started talking about religion

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Lundeen, a realtor in Tucson, Arizona, was fired after the mid-air ordeal went viral. He has been charged with disorderly conduct and second-degree assault

Cahn claimed he tried to withdraw from Lundeen by doing some work on his laptop, but his seatmate allegedly then began knocking his screen and attempting to get him to talk again.

He said a flight attendant allegedly then came over to tell him to quiet down.

As the saga escalated, Lundeen allegedly called a black flight attendant the N-word and made homophobic comments, according to TMZ. 

Cahn, for his part, told the Daily Mail he didn’t ‘specifically’ hear what Lundeen said – including whether or not he uttered the racial slur or made homophobic comments.

But he claims he did hear him say something ‘vulgar’ about the genitals of a male flight attendant.

Cahn said Lundeen tried to be ‘friendly’ to him again before allegedly putting ‘both hands around my neck’ and ‘pushing going back and forth.’

‘He’s doing like he’s playing, but it was threatening and it was a just bizarre thing,’ Cahn said. 

He claims a flight attendant came over a second time and asked Lundeen to stop bothering passengers.

In a bid to defuse the situation, Cahn said he showed Lundeen the cover of his new book, the Altar of Pergamon, on his laptop.

‘When he saw the book cover, that’s when he started getting violent,’ Cahn alleged. 

‘I could only describe it what happened as demonic. It was like he was influenced by the dark side.’

He claims Lundeen hit his chest and abdomen ‘like he’s trying to start a fight,’ before allegedly threatening: ‘I’m gonna punch your f***** Jewish face in.’

‘I knew I was in danger. I knew it was it was going towards violence. I was trying to keep calm.

‘There were glasses there. I was thinking, in a second, you can just smash it and take it and cut me with it. I was trying to get the glasses out.’

He claims he had a ‘feeling’ Lundeen wanted to destroy his laptop so he got up from his seat taking his computer and cellphone with him.

But he said when he stood up, Lundeen allegedly lunged for his laptop and tried to wrestle it off him – leaving the whole plane in ‘shock.’

He alleged that during the struggle, Lundeen broke Cahn’s laptop and hurt Cahn’s already injured arm.

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Baltimore airport, where Lundeen was removed and arrested by Maryland Transportation Authority Police, before other passengers resumed their flight to Newark 

Cahn recalls two male passengers seated two rows in front of him then got up to help.

‘Everybody in the area was disturbed by it,’ he claimed. 

‘The air stewards were trying, but they really didn’t know what to do until those guys intervened when it became totally violent.’

Juan Mejia, a retired police officer who was on the flight, and Richard Olenick, a store manager, reportedly restrained Lundeen with duct tape around his wrists, head and body to tie him to the seat.

Olenick appeared to back Cahn’s account, telling Fox10 Phoenix that Lundeen had allegedly ‘ended up striking the passenger that was next to him’ and then ‘put his hand on the passenger’s throat.’  

At one point, Lundeen allegedly tried to get out of his restraints but the male passengers held him down.

Cahn said he switched seats before the plane made its emergency landing at Baltimore. When FBI agents boarded the plane, he said he gave them his contact details but has yet to hear from them. 

Lundeen was charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, and was released on recognizance bond, according to online court records viewed by the Daily Mail.

After footage of the wild incident went viral, Lundeen was promptly fired from Long Realty in Tucson, where he was reportedly vice president.

The real estate company confirmed to the Daily Mail that Lundeen is no longer employed with them.

‘Long Realty is aware of reports concerning criminal charges filed against a former affiliated real estate agent arising from an incident that allegedly occurred during a commercial flight,’ CEO Kevin Kaplan said.

‘Upon learning of the incident, Long Realty promptly ended its affiliation with the individual. The individual is no longer associated with or authorized to represent Long Realty in any capacity.

‘The conduct described in the reports is wholly inconsistent with the professionalism, integrity, compassion, and respect for others that Long Realty expects from those affiliated with the company.’

Cahn, who is no stranger to being in the headlines for his often controversial views, said he does not plan to take legal action against Lundeen but is ‘hoping the guy gets better.’

‘I don’t think he knew what he was doing. He was just out of control,’ Cahn, who once featured on a podcast of the late conservative activist, Charlie Kirk, said. 

‘I just heard he got fired because of this, so I am hoping the best for him.’ 

Cahn, for his part, has likened the 9/11 attacks to biblical warnings that God would punish a disobedient Israel, according to a 2019 New York Times report.

The outlet also reported that Cahn said abortion, gay rights and the apparent public perception of religion indicated America had lost its way.

Meanwhile, Maryland Transportation Authority Police would not respond to questions about Cahn’s account of what happened on board the flight. 

Police did confirm, however, that an incident involving a ‘disorderly and unruly passenger’ had taken place.  

‘The responding MDTA officers observed a male passenger being restrained to his seat by duct tape and his hands secured by zip ties,’ Sergeant Clinton Kelly told the Daily Mail. 

‘The passenger 67-year-old Arthur Lundeen of Arizona was arrested by police and charged with disorderly conduct and second-degree assault for incidents that occurred aboard the aircraft at BWI Airport.

‘The incident that took place in the air is being investigated by the FBI Baltimore Field Office.

‘Lundeen was cleared by paramedics for an open wound on his arm that was noticed by officers while being taken into custody.’

American Airlines confirmed, too, that the flight was diverted due to a ‘disruptive customer.’

‘The ​safety and ​security of our customers ​and ​team members is our ​top ​priority, ​and ​we do ​not tolerate violence,’ a spokesperson said.

‘We ​thank ​our team members ​for ​their ​professionalism and ​our customers for ​their ​understanding.’

The Daily Mail has contacted Lundeen and his wife for comment.

NEW YORK (AP) — After missing more than three months, Aaron Judge is ready to return to the New York Yankees.

The three-time MVP was reinstated from the 60-day injured list Monday night, an off day for the Yankees. They open a three-game series at home Tuesday night against the Colorado Rockies.

Judge hasn’t played since May 31 because of a broken right rib, but the slugger traveled with the Yankees on their recent trip to the West Coast. He took batting practice on the field multiple times last weekend in San Diego and ran the bases as he worked toward his return.

The outfielder will rejoin New York’s active roster without going on a minor league rehab assignment first. Throughout his absence, Judge said he wouldn’t need a stint in the minors to get ready.

“If I tell them I’m ready to go play, I think we’re ready to go play,” Judge said on Aug. 27. “I’m not a pitcher. I’m a position player. I can get my reps down here in the cage. I’m in every game. I’m sitting there in the dugout watching every game, feeling the environment, feeling the energy, so I don’t think there’s going to be much of a difference.”

With 19 games remaining in the regular season, the Yankees (81-62) trail first-place Tampa Bay by four games in the AL East. They are two games ahead of rival Boston (80-65) for the top American League wild card and hold a potential tiebreaker between the teams after winning the season series.

The higher seed plays at home throughout every best-of-three Wild Card Series.

New York was 36-23 after Judge last played on May 31 and went 45-39 in the 84 games he missed since.

The offense, however, was obviously affected. The Yankees batted .243 with 86 homers in 59 games through May 31 but hit only .227 with 107 homers in 84 games while Judge was out.

Their batting average during that stretch ranked 29th among the 30 major league teams, ahead of only Seattle (.225).

New York had a .770 OPS through May 31, but it was .681 in his absence.

Judge is hitting .248 with 17 homers and 38 RBIs. He was initially injured attempting to avoid second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a diving catch in Houston on April 26 and batted .263 with seven homers and 20 RBIs in 31 games before being sidelined.

The 35-year-old captain’s only homer in the final 18 games before he went on the injured list was a game-ending, two-run shot to beat Tampa Bay 2-0 on May 24 that snapped an 11-game drought without an RBI, the longest of his career.

Judge won a batting title last season when he hit a career-high .331 with 53 homers and 114 RBIs in 152 games. He missed 10 games from July 26 to Aug. 4 with a flexor strain in his right elbow that he sustained on a throw to home plate July 22 in Toronto. He underwent a plasma-rich platelet injection and did not require offseason surgery.

Judge skipped a rehab assignment in 2023 when he missed 42 games with a fractured right big toe after crashing into the right-field fence at Dodger Stadium. In 2019, he appeared in five minor league games for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when he missed two months with a strained left oblique.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Judge, right-hander Chase Hampton was designated for assignment Monday night.

New York optioned right-hander Elmer Rodríguez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after Sunday’s loss in San Diego.

___

AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

James Judge was 55 years old when he died last month following dog bite – Lee Ellis has now been charged with manslaughter in connection to the incident

A man bitten by a dog on a footpath died from complications of a wound on his leg, an inquest opening has heard.

James Judge, 55, died after an incident on the old train line footpath off Blacker Lane near the Crigglestone Viaduct, a grade-II listed railway viaduct some 80 metres tall and nearly 400m long, in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on August 15.

Lee Ellis, 55, of Calder Grove, Wakefield, has been charged with manslaughter and being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury resulting in death. On Monday, an inquest into Mr Judge’s death was opened and adjourned.

Acting senior coroner Oliver Longstaff said Mr Judge died in Leeds General Infirmary, where he was taken after the incident, and was identified by his mother.

A post-mortem examination gave a provisional cause of death as complications of a right leg wound caused by a dog bite. The inquest heard Mr Judge was unmarried and was born in Horbury, Wakefield, where he was also living at the time of his death.

Mr Longstaff said the inquest would be adjourned, pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

“Whether an inquest is required to be resumed cannot be answered until the conclusion of that process,” he added.

Ellis is due to appear at Leeds Crown Court on September 16. During his first appearance at Bradford Magistrates Court, his solicitor said the incident started over an argument about “right of way”.

Officers are appealing for information about the “violent incident” in Clifford Street at about 10am on Saturday, June 27.

North Yorkshire Police on Monday (September 7) issued photographs of two men officers want to speak to in connection with the incident.

Police want to speak to this man about the ‘violent incident’ in Clifford Street, York (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Officers want to locate the man in the footage along with the taller man who potentially witnessed the incident, police said.

A police spokesperson added: “We are also urging people to come forward who have witnessed the incident or have mobile phone video footage.”

Those with information are asked to email helen.barrett@northyorkshire.police.uk or phone 101.

Information can be passed anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 via its website.

Quote reference 12260123802 when providing information to police or to Crimestoppers.

The UK will call on 95,000 retirees in a drill to help prepare for war next year as the army has fallen to its smallest size in over 200 years

Around 95,000 retirees are set to get the call up to help the UK prepare for war, according to the Armed Forces minister.

Louise Sandher-Jones revealed that a major drill to mobilise an army of veterans is being planned to take place next year.

She said a “strategic reserve” of 95,000 retired troops will be called into action “on a scale we haven’t seen for a long time”.

The plan comes as fears regarding conflict with Russia increase as Moscow have already threatened British factories over building drones for Ukraine.

The scheme emerges as the government’s cost-cutting on the military is facing scrutiny after it was reported that John Healey, the Chancellor, would fail to commit to spending 3 per cent of gross domestic product on defence by 2030.

The Telegraph reports that the details of the drill are still being finalised but it will test the ability of veterans to be called on and equipped in an emergency.

Ms Sandher-Jones said on Monday: “The strategic reserve is a real commitment for those that are in it and they will be exercised as part of our exercise programme next year where we will go through measures to call out, use, equip and all the rest of the procedures we’d have to go through to use the strategic reserve properly.”

She added that the network of former troops would have a crucial role in defending the country, despite it being “a lot less used in my lifetime”.

She continued: “When I left the Army and found out I was in the strategic reserve, I just filed it away and never thought about it again. We are definitely no longer in that space.”

The Government revealed that it had forgotten much of the network of retired soldiers and officers from the Army, RAF and Navy, so the drill will serve as a test.

Under current law all former regular and reserve officers retain recall liability for life.

The Ministry of Defence are also legally obliged to maintain contact with former military staff in the first six years after they leave full-time service.

This group of former military staff differs from the reserve forces, which is made up from people who volunteer part-time to serve in the military.

There are currently around 32,000 active reservists.

In January it was announced that the age military veterans could be mobilised would rise from 55 to 65.

The current rules also state that retired soldiers can be called upon in the event of “national danger, great emergency or attack in the UK”.

However, a new bill will change this to mean retired soldiers can also be called on for “war-like preparations”.

The changes come as the Army has decreased to its smallest size in over 200 years, with around 71,000 full-time, fully-trained troops ready to deploy to the front line.

Government officials have also stated that Britain does not have an “effective system of tracking and engaging” those that recently left the military and also don’t “know where most” of the reservists are.

Last week the MoD announced that more people had joined the full-time forces than had left it for an entire year for the first time since 2021, however these gains are still small with the Army having only increased by 170 personnel.

Escrick Park Estate is progressing plans for Heronby on land west of Escrick, with proposals also expected to include schools, a health centre, country park and other community facilities.

An early masterplan for the development was prepared as part of the former Selby Local Plan process in 2021.

Heronby Illustrative Plan September 2026 For Media

However, that process stalled and was subsequently halted after North Yorkshire Council took over responsibility for planning in the area following local government reorganisation in 2023.

Escrick Park Estate has now confirmed it is working towards submitting an outline planning application for the development.

As part of that process, an Environmental Impact Assessment scoping request has been submitted to North Yorkshire Council.

The request is not itself a planning application. Instead, it asks council officers to determine what environmental issues will need to be examined in an Environmental Statement accompanying a future application.

The developers say the proposals are being revived in response to North Yorkshire’s shortage of planned new housing.

Beilby Forbes Adam, of Escrick Park Estate, said the estate had remained committed to the project despite the previous local plan process ending.

“Two years later we are moving closer to being ready to submit an outline application,” he said.

“But before we do we want to hear what the potential future residents of Heronby would like to see there.”

Mr Forbes Adam said the consultation was open to all ages but the team particularly wanted younger people to get involved, referring to those struggling to find homes of their own as “Generation Limbo”.

“The housing crisis means too many young people can’t find a home of their own and are struggling to get on and lead their own lives,” he added.

“We want to hear from ‘Generation Limbo’.”

Selby councillor, Steve Shaw-Wright, said there was a lot of support for the proposal among councillors in the former Selby district when the plans were first discussed.

“It would, if you like, mop up all the developments that were planned for the Selby area at the time.

“Instead of having bits and bobs of development in each village causing uproar, you would have this large development that would be like a new village with a school, a medical centre and everything else you need.

“It just seemed to be a sensible solution to the long-term housing issues that we’ve got in Selby.”

But Councillor John Cattanach, who represents the Cawood and Escrick division, including the site of the proposed development, is opposed to the plans, which have been criticised as potentially marking the ‘death of villages’ in North Yorkshire.

He said: “Since the inception, I’ve spoken out against it completely and utterly — it’s complete madness.

“It’s the size of the development and where it is, and the fact that all these people would go on to the A19.”

A public exhibition is planned in Escrick later this year, while initial proposals and a feedback form are available on the Heronby website.

The 27-year-old accused faces charges of arson with intent to endanger life, burglary as well as four drug offences, including possessing magic mushrooms

A man told police he had sawn his way into his neighbour’s flat and set fire to it “in retaliation for a complaint of harassment,” a court has heard.

Appearing in the dock of Newtownards Magistrates Court on Monday, 27-year-old Jack McClure was charged with six offences alleged to have been committed on Sunday September 6.

McClure, with an address at Balloo Walk in Bangor, was charged with arson with intent to endanger life, burglary with intent to steal as well as four drug offences, including possessing magic mushrooms, herbal cannabis, pregabalin and diazepam.

The court heard that emergency services, including the police and the Fire and Rescue Service, were called to a fire at the flat around 5.30am.

Giving evidence, a police officer told the court the fire had caused extensive damage to each of the rooms and that after the fire was extinguished, it was estimated the flat had been on fire for about an hour before emergency crews were called.

Police were still at the scene when McClure asked to go into his flat to retrieve property but he was arrested when officers noted that his hands were covered in soot.

A search of his property uncovered the drugs as well as a saw, and the court heard that when he was interviewed, McClure admitted using the saw to cut the front door to gain access.

Once inside the flat he “trashed it,” and having pulled the mattress from a bed, McClure set it on fire.

The officer told the court McClure admitted the incident was “in retaliation for a complaint of harassment.”

Objecting to bail, the constable emphasised a risk to the public in that McClure had admitted setting fire to a flat within a multi-occupancy building, and one which has adjoining properties.

There were fears of further offences being committed, she told the court, adding that McClure “has no suitable bail address.”

Defence counsel Conan Rea submitted that McClure could be granted bail, subject to an address approved by the police, and further that additional bail conditions could be imposed to address police concerns.

District Judge Amanda Brady refused bail, however, given what she said were the risks to the public and the risk of further offending.

McClure was remanded in custody, and the case adjourned to the end of the month.

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But the Our Yorkshire Farm youngster is now 19 and has turned the rural life viewers watched on television into a full-time career.

Miles is working as a farmer, splitting his time between the family’s 2,000-acre Ravenseat Farm in Upper Swaledale and the groundworks business run by his older brother Reuben.

And while some of Amanda and Clive’s nine children have begun forging lives away from Ravenseat, Miles has ambitious plans to remain firmly rooted in agriculture.

The 19-year-old hopes that one day he could take charge of the family farm, or even establish a farming operation of his own.

Miles Owen in a tractor near Anty John’s (Image: CHANNEL 4)

His transformation from one of the quieter youngsters on Our Yorkshire Farm into a working farmer has also increasingly played out on television.

Miles continues to appear alongside Amanda, Clive and his siblings in Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids, while also becoming a regular alongside Reuben in Channel 5’s Life in the Dales.

So what is Miles Owen doing now – and what are his plans for life after Our Yorkshire Farm?

Miles Owen’s farming career

Farming remains at the heart of Miles’ life.

He is now described as a full-time farmer, dividing his working days between Ravenseat and helping Reuben with his groundworks and digger business.

Miles has developed a particular passion for working with sheep and cattle, continuing many of the jobs viewers first saw him learning while growing up on the family farm.

Working alongside brother Reuben

Miles’ working relationship with older brother Reuben has become another increasingly important part of his life.

Reuben turned his childhood fascination with machinery into his own groundworks and heavy plant business after leaving school.

Miles now works alongside him while continuing his farming duties.

He has developed his own experience operating diggers and other plant machinery, skills which have also proved useful closer to home.

The Owen family have been carrying out the ambitious restoration of Anty John’s, a derelict farmhouse close to Ravenseat which dates back around 200 years.

Miles’ experience with machinery means he is able to play a practical role in the project alongside his parents and siblings.

Miles Owen on television now

Although farming is his full-time occupation, Miles has also become an increasingly familiar face on television.

He grew up appearing alongside Amanda, Clive and his eight siblings on Our Yorkshire Farm, which first arrived on Channel 5 in 2018.

The programme turned the Owen family into some of Britain’s best-known farmers as viewers followed their unconventional life at isolated Ravenseat.

Miles has since continued appearing with the family in Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids.

The Owen family from Our Yorkshire Farm and Our Farm Next Door (Image: CHANNEL4)

The More4 and Channel 4 programme follows the Owens as they attempt to restore Anty John’s and gives viewers another glimpse into how the children have grown since the early days of Our Yorkshire Farm.

Miles has also increasingly appeared alongside Reuben.

He co-stars in Reuben Owen: Life in the Dales, following his older brother as he tackles agricultural, machinery and groundworks jobs around the Yorkshire Dales.

Younger brother Sidney, known as Sid, has also become involved, meaning three of Amanda and Clive’s sons are regularly seen working together.

Miles is also due to appear in Channel 5 programme This Great Yorkshire Life.

His life before Our Yorkshire Farm

Miles’ television appearances actually stretch beyond the programme which made the family famous.

He has appeared alongside his parents and siblings on programmes including ITV’s Countrywise and The Dales as well as Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild.

Later came Our Yorkshire Farm, Reuben’s spin-off programmes and Our Farm Next Door.

Away from programmes themselves, Miles has also appeared in advertising and promotional campaigns for brands including Boden, Morrisons, Quaker, The Week Junior and Crave Dog Foods.

Could Miles eventually run Ravenseat?

Amanda and Clive’s children were raised to take an active role in life on the farm from an early age, but as they have grown older, they have begun taking noticeably different paths.

Eldest daughter Raven pursued science, while Reuben has developed his own machinery and groundworks business.

Miles, however, has remained particularly closely connected to traditional farming.

Hazel sits in my office for our first appointment. The 16-year-old adjusts her red glasses, her brown eyes looking intently at me.

Then she starts to talk: about her ‘anxiety and depression’, her ‘emotional dysregulation’, the ‘trauma’ from growing up with parents who are ‘codependent’, the stress she feels having to ‘mask’ just to get through the day.

Sometimes she feels so frustrated with her family she feels she’s going to have a ‘full-on panic attack’ at the dinner table, she tells me.

Then there’s Violet, a 17-year-old with a messy blonde ponytail. ‘I guess I should tell you about my OCD,’ she sighs, just after walking through my door. ‘And my PMDD [premenstrual dysphoric disorder, causing debilitating emotional and physical symptoms before a period], and my ADHD,’ before adding wearily: ‘And my depression.’

I am a psychiatrist who specialises in helping teenage girls, young women and their parents at my own private practice in New York.

Since I began my medical training just over two decades ago, I’ve noticed a big change in the patients I see, something that’s also being reflected in the UK.

Once, people used to dread being told that there was something ‘wrong’ with them. But today, young women announce their diagnoses almost before telling me their names.

Cascades of medical problems and psychiatric buzzwords tumble out of my young patients’ mouths – but no matter how much they talk, with each acronym I often feel like I know less and less about them.

All these girls tell me about psychiatric symptoms and conditions I know how to treat. I can use medication; I can teach ‘coping’ strategies. But all of this will only help up to a point.

Because part of the problem is in the very language – ‘therapy speak’ – these girls are using to describe themselves and the world around them.

Indeed, this generation of teenage girls is soaked in therapy speak, and use it constantly.

As well as being entirely au fait with psychiatric diagnoses, they talk about ‘trauma’ and their ‘issues’. They know if they have ‘attachment difficulties’ or their ‘inner critic’ is too loud.

Of course, being mindful of one’s mental health and that of others can be a positive thing. But what my colleagues and I are seeing is something rather different. The rise of ‘therapy speak’ has landed us in a very strange place – where many girls define themselves not by their favourite music or by their hobbies, but by their psychiatric profiles.

Not only this, but they are also pathologising normal feelings associated with growing up – low self-esteem, sadness, worry, distractibility – into full-blown mental health conditions, such as depression, OCD and ADHD. Young women I meet are truly convinced that they must have something ‘wrong’ with them, that they are ‘a bit broken’.

This can have profoundly negative consequences.

The main psychological task of adolescence is forming your identity – who you are.

And although identifying with a mental illness can encourage someone to seek help, and the use of therapy speak can increase understanding, it has also been shown to have an ‘engulfing’ effect, obliterating other aspects of identity and making someone worse.

For example, a 2025 study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology found that those who hold anxiety disorders as central to their sense of self believe they are less capable than others with the same symptoms who don’t label themselves with a disorder.

Meanwhile, research from 2014 in the publication Behaviour Research and Therapy found people with depression have been shown to feel more hopeless and pessimistic if they think of their symptoms as a medical condition, especially if they believe it’s caused by a ‘chemical imbalance’, rather than, say, an understandable life event, such as your parents splitting up or having problems at school. The language teenagers use feeds into this. If a single night’s missed sleep is described as causing ‘dysregulation’, for example, or not being allowed to go out late is ‘traumatising’, it can lead to a disconnect.

How would one cope with actual trauma – a death, for example, or serious illness – when you use the word on such a regular basis that it loses its real meaning?

What’s more, ‘therapy speak’ is exhibiting itself at a critical developmental period, in adolescence when one’s identity is taking hold in the brain.

The words a girl uses during this time – whether ‘crazy’, ‘toxic’ or ‘ADHD’ – play a big role in shaping what she will view as the enduring truth of who she is.

At this time, the teenage brain is laying down myelin, a sheath around frequently used neurons (nerve cells in the brain) to make the pathways through which they communicate thousands of times more efficient. Neurons receiving less traffic are pruned away.

It means if you keep thinking something at this age, such as you are ‘crazy’, it’s likely to stick for a while.

Another contributory factor is that the adolescent frontal lobe – the part of the brain which controls planning and problem solving, among other things – isn’t yet fully formed, meaning teenagers lack self-regulation. Compared to adults, teenagers also have more neurons and fewer myelin pathways.

This means teenage brains are highly active but not integrated – and so the rational, ‘thinking’ parts of the brain cannot yet ‘talk’ to the deeper regions that are busy freaking out.

But why are girls in particular so prone to therapy speak?

Girls develop brain cells earlier than boys in the areas where language and social experiences are integrated: they tend more often to acknowledge what others are saying and to build on it, generating intimacy through consensus.

Styles of speech can travel quickly between young women – even resulting in teenage girls prioritising social intimacy with others: taught to overpathologise human feelings – thanks to therapy speak – they are losing the ability to name and tolerate their own real emotions.

Gen Z prioritise their ‘mental health’, and believe it is something they should ‘achieve’. But somehow normalcy seems more elusive than ever: the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health now estimates around 20 per cent of eight to 16-year-olds have a formal mental health diagnosis. We, in psychiatry, are partly to blame, thanks to becoming over-reliant on diagnosing through an official ticklist of external symptoms, rather than seeing people on a continuum reflecting the broad spectrum of human feeling.

Dr Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell is a US psychiatrist who specialises in helping teenage girls, young women and their parents at her own private practice in New York

And yes, mental health awareness initiatives which started in the 1990s helped de-stigmatise mental illness – but they also injected psychiatric language into the mainstream without much context. All this contributed to today’s therapy culture.

Teenage girls – under more pressure than ever before; to be empowered, to succeed, and to simultaneously post an enviable bikini selfie on social media – are the all-too-willing consumers of this therapy culture.

In a society which often shames or commodifies them, teenage girls have found that any emotional pain or hurt is only considered valid if it’s presented as a disease.

Basically, ‘you can’t ignore me if I have a medical diagnosis’.

But while a diagnosis can bring power and attention to a young woman’s pain, it also allows her to avoid the reality of her true feelings.

I saw this in my patient, Violet, with her alphabet soup of diagnoses. Like so many young women I treat these days, who either receive multiple labels from doctors elsewhere or identify them independently off the internet and apply them to themselves, by the time Violet got to me, her labels had grown quite sticky.

But psychiatric conditions are not as clear-cut as medical illnesses. We have no brain scans or blood tests to diagnose them, and most professionals would agree they are complex – products of the interaction between biology, psychology and culture.

If I had immediately confirmed Violet’s diagnoses and followed evidence-based practice for treating them, she would have needed a cocktail of medications. This would have included a high-dose antidepressant for her OCD and a medicine for ADHD, likely a stimulant, which could make her anxiety symptoms worse and might affect her sleep, which would, in turn, worsen her psychiatric issues across the board.

I don’t like to medicate teenagers for sleep, but if she’s helped by the stimulant, one could argue, why not just treat the sleep, too?

Contraceptives would also probably help with the PMDD. And that’s just the meds.

In addition, her diagnoses would also need a range of therapies. But where could Violet find the time for this?

It became apparent to me that Violet’s diagnoses had become something therapists call ‘transitional objects’. When a young child transitions from the safety of home into the outside world, they often rely on a concrete symbol of their loved ones – a teddy bear on the first day of preschool, for example – before their brains can keep this comfort inside.

In adolescence, a psychiatric diagnosis can function like a transitional object. When a teenager clings to a diagnosis, she’s sometimes moving from a childhood where she knew who she was to an adult world where she is not sure who she can be. The diagnosis is a signal to this new world: Take care of me.

After months of sessions, and one confrontation where I told her I didn’t think she was depressed, which ended in her tearfully walking out, Violet confessed her real feelings: her insecurities about her parents’ at-times upsetting attitudes towards her, and her problems with feeling socially awkward around friends. Common teenage feelings, in other words. Not medical diagnoses.

When we as medical professionals or caregivers allow girls to believe they are ‘sick’ and ‘crazy’ when they may not be, we impede their progress.

Adapted from Girlhood, Translated by Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell (Simon & Schuster, £22), to be published on Thursday. © Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell 2026. To order a copy for £19.80 (offer valid until September 20; UK P&P free on orders over £25), go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.

The latest episode of the long-running documentary series airs at 8pm on Tuesday evening and will include footage of Redcar’s volunteer lifeboat crew responding after two walkers became cut off by the tide.

The incident saw lifeboat volunteers called into action as the pair found themselves stranded on a rapidly diminishing strip of beach, highlighting the dangers posed by the area’s fast-moving tides and the lifesaving work carried out by RNLI crews across the North East.

(Image: ANDY WATSON)

Ahead of the broadcast, Redcar RNLI encouraged local supporters to tune in and watch the rescue unfold.

In a social media post, the station said: “Look out for RNLI Redcar on this week’s ‘Saving Lives at Sea’ – they will be appearing on BBC Two at 8pm on Tuesday evening.

“It’s a chance to see your local lifeboat crew in action saving lives and keeping people safe.”

The appearance offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the dedication and professionalism of Redcar’s volunteer crew, whose members regularly respond to emergencies along the Teesside coastline.

One of the RNLI Redcar crew members appearing in Saving Lives at Sea. (Image: ANDY_WATSON)

The programme follows lifeboat stations and rescue teams from around the UK as they deal with real-life emergencies at sea and along the coast, using footage captured during incidents.

Elsewhere in Tuesday’s episode, Devon crews respond after a surfer is paralysed by a wave.

Plus, South Wales volunteers search for two paddleboarders swept more than a mile offshore.

Viewers will also see a Hayling Island crew race to free a fisherman trapped in mud, while a Porthcawl dog owner raises the alarm after the tide carries away her pet.

For North East viewers, the spotlight will be on Redcar’s RNLI volunteers as they bring two stranded walkers to safety.

One viewer took to the comments to write: “Big shout out to them!”

Another wrote that they would “try to catch that episode”. “I’ll be watching,” insisted another.

‘Saving Lives at Sea’ airs on BBC Two at 8pm on Tuesday, September 8.