Perspective. Understood.
Shariq Refai, MD, MBA
Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA is the founder, reviewer, and physician voice behind The Shrink Network.
I'm a board-certified psychiatrist with dual board certification in psychiatry and in sports and performance psychiatry. I founded shrinkMD to make psychiatric care easier to access. I created shrinQ as a structured way to work with overthinking when a clinician isn't in front of you. I built the Shrink Network as the connective tissue for everything I've written and built around mental health. This site is where the writing, the books, the media, and the founder perspective live.
The perspective behind The Shrink Network.
I started one site because patients had questions between visits. I built the rest because the work kept revealing more gaps. Now there's a clinical practice, several educational publications, a structured self-guided program, a couple of practical tools, three books, and the founder site you're reading. Each one has its own job. All of them are reviewed by the same psychiatrist (me) and share the same evidence methodology, the same conflict-of-interest disclosures, and the same crisis routing.
The Shrink Network is the connective tissue that makes the whole thing legible to a reader.
The Shrink Network began with a simple problem.
shrinkMD began as an attempt to make psychiatric care easier to access and easier to understand. The broader Shrink Network grew from the same idea: people need different resources at different moments. Sometimes they need an explanation. Sometimes they need a practical tool. Sometimes they need expert care. A single site can't do all of those jobs at once without doing each one worse than it could be done alone.
So I built each job its own site. Then I made sure they talk to each other.
About Dr. Refai
Dr. Refai is a board-certified psychiatrist based in Jacksonville, Florida, with dual board certifications in psychiatry and sports/performance psychiatry. He founded the multistate telepsychiatry company shrinkMD to expand access to mental health care. He created the wellness app Unstuck. He writes books and educational essays for the people who've already tried the apps, read the books, and still can't quiet the noise in their heads. His professional background includes more than fifteen years of experience in psychiatry and mental health care, with work in professional sports settings, including affiliations involving the NFL Substance Abuse Program and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Your Mind Is Full of Sh*t
A psychiatrist's guide to understanding overthinking, anxiety, and the lies in your head.
The book takes the patterns Dr. Refai has examined over more than fifteen years in psychiatry and lays them out in plain language. Control. Productivity. Positivity. Happiness. Four lies most of us absorbed before we knew we were learning them. The book names them, shows the science underneath them, and gives you tools you can use on a real Tuesday. Not affirmations. Not hacks. Real practices that work in the body the way the body actually works.
What Dr. Refai Writes About
The site covers the topics most modern adults are quietly carrying. Anxiety that gets louder when you finally try to rest. Overthinking that won't shut off. The high-performer pattern that builds careers and quietly costs the people running them. The reasons most popular mental health commentary falls short in the moment a person actually needs it. What modern psychiatry gets right and what the public conversation still gets wrong. The future of digital mental health, and why convenience isn't the same as care.
Every essay is written by a board-certified psychiatrist for an adult audience that's tired of wellness fluff. The tone is human. The science is real. The goal is education, not therapy.
Founder Projects
Independent ventures founded by Shariq Refai in mental health and wellness. These are separate organizations from this educational platform.
Shrink Network
The umbrella of independent editorial mental health publications Dr. Refai founded and medically reviews. ShrinkNetwork.com is the front door for the network and routes visitors to the right property. It sells nothing, runs no ads, and earns no commission.
Visit Shrink Network →
shrinkMD
A multistate telepsychiatry organization founded by Dr. Refai. shrinkMD is an independent clinical entity, separate from shariqrefai.com, and is not operated by, affiliated with, or a service of this educational site. Listed here for informational and disclosure purposes only. Dr. Refai is the founder of, and holds a material ownership interest in, shrinkMD.
Learn about shrinkMD →
shrinQ
An eleven-module self-guided digital mental wellness program built around four phases: understanding the mind, breaking the loops, building durable habits, and burnout and recovery. shrinQ is the educational and coaching arm of Dr. Refai's work, separate from his clinical practice. It isn't therapy, diagnosis, or a substitute for care from a licensed clinician.
Visit shrinQ →
Unstuck
A mental wellness app to support reflection, journaling, reminders, and emotional awareness tools. Available on iOS.
Get the Unstuck App →Recognition and Press
Dr. Refai is a member of the Forbes Business Council and a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. His perspective on psychiatry, sports, and digital mental health has been featured in Top Doctor Magazine and the Duval County Medical Society.
- The Epoch Times, "10 Research-Backed, Natural Ways to Counter Depression"
- EatingWell, "Do You Poop When You're Stressed? Experts Explain Why"
- DomesticShelters.org, "Survivors in Isolation: Abusers Separate Victims from Everyone for Power and Control"
- Top Doctor Magazine, "Mental Health Does Not Discriminate: An Interview With Dr. Shariq Refai"
- Duval County Medical Society, "Full Circle Calling: Spotlight on Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA"
- Forbes Business Council Profile
How the Work Is Made
Every essay, book page, and educational piece on shariqrefai.com is authored by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, and editorially reviewed before publication. Each essay carries a published date and a last-reviewed date. Where claims rely on specific research, sources are linked inline or listed in a References section. The site doesn't run ads, take affiliate commissions, or accept sponsored content.
Read the editorial processWhy “shrink”?
"Shrink" is what people actually say when they're talking about seeing a psychiatrist. The clinical word is precise and unwelcoming. The wellness word is friendly and vague. "Shrink" sits in between. It lowers the activation energy on a conversation that's already heavy. I'm not using it to trivialize the work. I'm using it because the work is more accessible when the door is named in a word a friend would use to a friend.
Resources for Specific Conditions
For deeper, condition-specific reading, Dr. Refai serves as medical reviewer for four independent editorial publications. None is a clinical service; all are educational reading sites.
AnxietyResource.org
A clinically reviewed editorial publication on anxiety, with a 50-entry plain-language glossary and a complete state-by-state directory.
DepressionResource.org
A long-form depression library including screening tools, safety plan templates, and crisis resources.
AnxietyResearch.org
An editorial publication translating current anxiety research into plain-language summaries for general readers.
PsychiatryRx.org
Plain-language, psychiatrist-reviewed guides to psychiatric and sleep medications, sourced from FDA labeling and clinical guidelines.
Why does Dr. Refai have a separate personal site?
Mental health isn't one thing.
Clinical care, educational publications, self-guided programs, and the work of a single psychiatrist shouldn't share the same address.
Each property in The Shrink Network has its own job, and the founder's site has its own job too: this is where Dr. Refai's writing, books, media, and speaking live.
A single site that tries to be a clinic, a library, and a person's professional page at once ends up doing none of them well.
shariqrefai.com is the personal site. The rest of The Shrink Network is built around the work.
Continue into the network.
Each property in the network has its own job. Pick the one that matches the question you're carrying right now.
Frequently Asked
- Is shariqrefai.com a clinical service?
- No. This is an educational, author, publishing, media, and founder platform. For clinical care, visit shrinkmd.com, the separate telepsychiatry practice Dr. Refai founded.
- Does Dr. Refai accept new patients through this site?
- No. New patient inquiries should go to shrinkmd.com.
- Can I cite or quote content from this site?
- Yes, up to 200 words with attribution and a link back to the source URL. For full reprints, see the media page.
- How often is content updated?
- Every essay is reviewed at least once per year for clinical accuracy. New essays are added as they're written and edited. Each piece carries a published date and a last-reviewed date.
- How do I book Dr. Refai for media or speaking?
- Use the contact form with "Media & Press" or "Speaking Engagement" selected.