The Psychology of Depression and Anxiety - Dr. Scott Eilers – Details, episodes & analysis

Pressure and stress motivate humans to get stuff done, but only to a certain point. After that point they become a liability - they can actually make you less likely to achieve your goals. Hard work, by itself, is not enough. You need strategy, which comes from understanding how your brain actually works.

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  Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠⁠.

• Reduce the anxiety associated with falling asleep in just 15 minutes a night.

• ⁠Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety⁠ (I have partnered with this brand):

• ⁠⁠My book: For When Everything is Burning⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠Connect with me on TikTok:⁠

• ⁠Connect on Instagram⁠

⁠⁠Therapy with me (Iowa residents only)⁠⁠

⁠⁠Work with me (Non-Iowa residents)⁠

Disclaimer: This content is not intended to be a replacement for receiving treatment. It is purely educational in nature. My relationship with you is that of presenter and audience, not therapist and client.

But I do care.

How you sleep matters. The way you feel and function during the day is a direct reflection of both the quantity and quality of your sleep.

Somnee can help you get better sleep with just 15 minutes a night. Check out the Somnee Sleep headband I use. (Partner I believe in)

It's not just about how to get to sleep fast, but how to sleep better at night naturally.

And if you have 1 or more chronic mental health conditions (major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD), the stakes are higher for you to hit all the needed stages of sleep - getting the benefit of the full sleep cycle.

• ⁠Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠⁠.

  The only app that helps you get all the benefits of meditation without all the hassle⁠.

• ⁠Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety⁠ (I have partnered with this brand):

• ⁠⁠My book: For When Everything is Burning⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠Connect with me on TikTok:⁠

• ⁠Connect on Instagram⁠

⁠⁠Therapy with me (Iowa residents only)⁠⁠

⁠⁠Work with me (Non-Iowa residents)⁠

Disclaimer: This content is not intended to be a replacement for receiving treatment. It is purely educational in nature. My relationship with you is that of presenter and audience, not therapist and client.

But I do care.

Passive SI is one of the most misunderstood mental health symptoms.

I'm going to debunk some common misconceptions about passive suicidal ideation. As a clinical psychologist with professional and personal experience, I'm going to set the record straight.

• Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly⁠.

• ⁠Sleep better, without pills (partner I believe in)⁠

• ⁠My book: For When Everything is Burning⁠

Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety(I have partnered with this brand):

• ⁠iOS ⁠
• ⁠Android⁠

⁠Connect with me on TikTok:

Connect on Instagram

⁠Therapy with me (Iowa residents only)⁠

⁠Work with me (Non-Iowa residents)

Disclaimer: This content is not intended to be a replacement for receiving treatment. It is purely educational in nature. My relationship with you is that of presenter and audience, not therapist and client.

But I do care.

Getting specific, recurring thoughts stuck in your head doesn't make you crazy, it's what our brains do. Our brains often fall into repetitive thought patterns, especially for those with mood or anxiety issues. Redirecting your mind is key to breaking these patterns. Try these two strategies to help end your recurring negative thoughts. Get my book: For When Everything is Burning Connect with me on TikTok Watch on YouTube: Here's what you'll find in this video: 00:00 Understanding the Nature of Thoughts 03:57 Mindfulness and Its Impact on Depression and Anxiety 07:57 Redirecting Attention to the Present Moment 15:20 Fantasizing About the Past and Future 18:55 Zooming Out to Stay Present 22:31 Mindfulness Questions for Memory and Well-Being

Are you letting an outdated self-image ruin your life? If you feel like a fraud or constantly worried that you'll be exposed for not being qualified, you might be suffering from some imposter syndrome. I'm diving headfirst into the world of imposter syndrome and showing you exactly how to overcome it. Imposter syndrome preys on our outdated self-image, making us feel like we're living a lie. But here's the reality check you've been waiting for: You're constantly evolving and transforming - even if you're self-image isn't keeping up! This podcast has 2 powerful tools you can use to overcome your imposter syndrome now! Get my book: For When Everything is Burning Connect with me on TikTok See the Podcast on YouTube

Have you ever felt indifferent or ambivalent towards your own life? If so, you're not alone. Millions experience Passive Suicidal Ideation, but it exists on a spectrum, ranging from apathy about your future to even secretly hoping for an end to your own life. I'm sharing my personal experiences and tools I've used (and still use) to work through Passive S.I. Get my book: For When Everything is Burning https://bit.ly/forwheneverythingisburning Connect with me on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.scott.eilers See the Podcast on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dr.scotteilerspsydlp529 Here's what you'll find in this video: 02:08 Do you have the right to die? Explore the question of a person's right to die and the complex reasons behind the desire to opt out of life. 06:22 Mood Congruent Memory: Your brain can deceive you into thinking this dark phase is all you've ever known. I'll show you how to challenge this perception. 12:23 Harness the Power of Spite: A unique motivation tool - don't let those who doubted, hurt, or underestimated you win. 15:53 You Are Dynamic: Your life will not always be the same. Understand that you have the power to reshape your world, surround yourself with those who truly understand you, and build an internal environment that works for you. 23:19 The Mystery Box: Consider the unknowns of what comes after death. Are you willing to trade the life you have, no matter how challenging, for an uncertain future? 24:44 Is Passive S.I. Weak? Is it weak to fight bear with a plastic knife? (you'll get it once you watch it).

Your morning (lack of) routine could be setting you for a day of stress right out of the gate. If you have any kind of mental illness, how you start the day has a heavy influence on how well you feel during the day. I'm sharing my anti-anhedonia morning routine in this episode - I hope it will be a framework to help you create this tool for managing your own mental health. You don’t need to be an “optimized morning” kind of person, but having an intentional routine will help you manage your mental health in significant ways.

Connect with me on socials for more Self-Hope Psychology made for navigating the messiness of mental health.

If you don't feel excited about the future, it's hard to want to do much of anything. When depression and anxiety are severe, our lives often fall into a black hole where we do little, feel little, and remember little. I barely remember anything about my late teens, and it's mostly because I barely did anything worth remembering. Now that I'm in a better place mentally, I can look back on that period with a different perspective. These feelings, or lack of feelings, don't have to ruin your life. There's a loophole that can still make life feel worth living even in your darkest times, and I'm going to teach it to you today.

It's easy to lose hope. It's easy to feel like you've tried everything. And maybe, to some degree, you have. Perhaps you hold all of the pieces needed for recovery, but haven't ever put them together correctly. I think we've done an unfortunate job of over-complicating mental health. We've developed a complex set of mutually exclusive theoretical orientations to explain why people become mentally ill and how we can best treat these conditions. None of these theories can be objectively examined in any real detail, and all are completely unique to the world of mental health. Getting your brain to work right and reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety is really fairly simple. First, you need to understand some basic principles of brain health. These are certain things that all people need regardless of who you are. We all need a certain amount of high-quality sleep, regular intake of good food, daily physical exertion, and careful management of substance intake. Second, you need to understand your individual needs. Certain aspects of life are more essential to some people than to other people. You have to know your mind and what it needs. Once you understand these universal and individual needs, you need to meet these needs consistently, skillfully, and frequently. Do this and your mental health WILL improve dramatically. Note: I mis-speak a couple of times in this episode and say "duration and time." These are the same thing. It should be "duration and frequency."

Depressive episodes often start with nothing more than a bad day or two. We don't feel like ourselves so we don't engage in our normal activities. After a few days of just "getting by," our perception of ourselves starts to change. We find it harder to keep the negative thoughts and feelings at bay as the evidence against the shame and the worthlessness feels further and further in our rear view. We begin to align with the beliefs imposed upon us by our depressive thoughts, and every day feels a little bit darker and a little bit heavier. This is a depression spiral. The way we spend our time when we feel depressed is often an attempt at damage control or harm reduction. We feel unable to do the things that normally provide us with feelings like joy, connection, or accomplishment. We lose our ability to move forward and we cling desperately to whatever progress we've made since our last depressive episode, trying with all our might to avoid sliding back into that pit. But when we're depressed, neutral days are losses because of the pessimistic, nihilistic mindset forced upon us by our unrealistically negative mindset. We need to achieve positive moment to get out of the rut. In order to kickstart your recovery from a depressive episode, you need to start making time investments. When we're depressed, we often make the mistake of trying to do whatever feels best in the moment because we're desperately searching from some degree of positive emotion. While completely understandable, these behaviors are ultimately ineffective because they often do little for us in the moment anyway as we are unable to enjoy them due to our anhedonia, but they also give us no momentum or challenges to the depression the next day or the day after. They do nothing to interrupt the spiral. In order to get out of the backslide you need to engage in behaviors that will pay off today, tomorrow, and into the indefinite future and you need to stack as many of these as possible until your depression finally relents under the weight of your opposition.