Shrinkopedia
In-depth, psychiatrist-reviewed explanations of symptoms, conditions, treatments, and how mental health actually works.
"Help me understand this completely."
Visit shrinkopedia.comThe Shrink Network
Understand your mind. Find the right help.
A family of independent mental health resources, tools, and psychiatric care, created or medically reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, a board-certified psychiatrist.
Start with what you need right now.
Start with what you need
Learn
Shrinktionary
Plain-language definitions of mental health terms, explained the way a psychiatrist would explain them to you.
"What does this word actually mean?"
Coming soonAnxietyResource
Practical, plain-language education about anxiety, panic, and the daily experience of living with it.
"What is 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.orgPractice
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.appCare
shrinkMD
Independent multistate telepsychiatry: evaluations, diagnosis, medication management, and continuity of care with the same clinician.
"I need psychiatric care."
Visit shrinkmd.comRead & about
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.comShariqRefai.com
The background, writing, and perspective of the psychiatrist behind the network.
"Who is Dr. Refai?"
Visit shariqrefai.comWhy there are several sites, not one
Mental health care, mental health education, and mental health products are not the same thing. Treating them as the same is how people end up confused, or quietly sold something they did not come for. The Shrink Network keeps them separate on purpose.
Clinical care lives in one place: shrinkMD. It is a licensed psychiatric practice, with the legal and ethical boundaries that real medical care requires.
Education lives in the resource sites and in Shrinkopedia. These pages explain and inform. They do not diagnose you and they do not treat you.
Tools and programs, shrinQ and Unstuck, are there to help you practice and reflect. They are not therapy, and they are not a substitute for care from a clinician.
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.
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 do not run ads and do not 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 →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 does not 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 →