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.

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

  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

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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.

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• ⁠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:

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⁠Therapy with me (Iowa residents only)⁠

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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.

If certain sounds enrage you, sounds that most people aren't bothered by or don't even seem to notice, you may have something called Misophonia. Misophonia literally means "hatred of sound" and people with misophonia experience intense anger responses to sounds like chewing, breathing, tapping, and other repetitive noises. This is a newer term, and we don't yet know if it is its own condition or if it's a symptom of something else. It does seem to have a very high overlap with anxiety. We believe that the symptoms are caused by hyper activation of the fight or flight response in the autonomic nervous system. Treatment options are limited at this time to avoiding triggers (unrealistic in my opinion), treating the underlying condition, and general brain health interventions like sleep hygiene and exercise. I've also had some success with exposure and response prevention. Lastly, I discuss the important of understanding this condition and having conversations about it with people you care about to preserve the health of your relationships.

We're constantly asking and answering questions inside of our own minds. While many of these questions and answers are subconcious, meaning we don't realize we're asking and answering them, they can still have a tremendous impact on our lives. Once, my life was guided by a question that led me absolutely nowhere. I just did whatever I felt like doing in the moment, with no regard for what I would think of myself later. When I started asking and answering a better question my trajectory in life changed dramatically. Today I want to teach you how to use that question.

If therapy and medication aren't getting your symptoms of depression and anxiety where you want them, there's another option. It's free, it doesn't require the help of another person, and it has no side effects. It's physical activity. Exercise. Movement. Whatever you want to call it. Meta-analyses of over 1,000 studies demonstrate that physical activity works at least as well as therapy and medication in reducing symptoms. It actually works better in terms of immediacy of effect and long-term outcomes. That being said, regular physical activity is a challenge for anyone, and symptoms of depression and anxiety increase that challenge. But you probably don't have to exercise nearly as much as you think...

I've been there, feeling like an outcast and struggling with severe mental health issues like anxiety and deep depression for much of my life.

This video offers brutally honest advice to my younger self with insights on resilience, identity, and finding peace.

• 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)⁠

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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.

Have you ever wanted to go to sleep and just never wake up? Do you wish something would happen to you today to put you out of your misery? Do you want to die, but don't want to be the one to make it happen? These are all forms of something we call passive suicidal ideation or passive SI. Millions of people experience this, yet almost nobody talks about it and even many mental health professionals don't really understand it. In today's episode, I discuss how passive SI differs from intrusive thoughts about death, how it's not a reliable indicator of the severity of depression, why it should always be taken seriously, how it can be treated, and where it comes from. I also have a very important question for you to answer if you experience passive SI.

We all just want to be "happy," but if you don't even know what happiness is how can you possibly hope to obtain it? This question has been haunting me since I was four years old. The idea of spending most or all of my life chasing after something, only to finally capture it and realize it wasn't what I wanted terrifies me. I sincerely believe that most of the world is focused on things that aren't worth focusing on. There's a foundational, fundamental component of life that must be present for anything else to matter and most people put it on the backburner or ignore it entirely. After this episode, you'll know what it is and how to keep it in the forefront of your pursuit.

I know everybody wants something that works quickly and changes things dramatically. Maybe you’ve tried some of those ideas, and if you have what you’ve probably found is that they work really well for some fairly brief period of time before fizzling out completely. If you're sick of getting your hopes up for strategies or treatments that don’t work in the long run, this episode is for you. The strategy I’m going to teach you today isn’t fast, it isn’t magic, and it isn’t terribly exciting. But if you execute this strategy correctly, it can turn you into a relentless depression-crushing machine. It can give you a tank to ride into the greatest battle of your life, slowly but consistently crushing your mental health symptoms under your tireless treads. It’s called “marginal gains” and it’s a proven process in sports and business. It’s based on the work of cycling coach Dave Brailsford and the Kaizen Six-Sigma philosophy of management. I can tell you from personal experience that it also works in mental health. I hope you enjoy!

Psychosocial boundaries are the invisible yet very real walls that keep us separate from other people and from the world in general. Our boundaries enable us to maintain our truths and our beliefs in the face of other people with different perspectives and stay true to our values in situations that test them.

Anger, more than other emotions for most people, is a feeling we generally try to avoid. Anger is seen as unsafe, destructive, and out-of-control. And is certainly can be these things. But anger is not inherently more damaging or dangerous than any other feeling. It’s simply part of the spectrum of human emotion, and it plays a critical role in our relationships with ourselves and with others. Anger is also something we tend to feel more often when we’re depressed or anxious. Any emotion can destroy your life if you don’t know how to handle it safely, even pleasant feelings like love or pleasure. So many of us are taught incorrect strategies to manage our anger, and that’s what leads to these problematic outcomes. That’s why skillfully managing anger is the topic of this week’s YouTube video and podcast episode.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts (NOT impulsive thoughts, as we discuss in this episode) and compulsive behaviors. OCD is one of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized mental health diagnoses, and the term "OCD" is often used to describe patterns of perfectionism, rigidity, and high achievement that typically have more in common with generalized anxiety disorder. Exposure and response prevention is a treatment for OCD involving intentionally creating situation which trigger your intrusive thoughts but using coping skills rather than compulsive behaviors to reduce the distress caused by the exposure. In this episode I discuss OCD and ERP with Alexandra (Alex) Reynolds, an OCD peer support specialist who has some amazing insights to offer. I know that you will benefit from her wisdom and experience.

Your mind comes equipped with a mostly outdated survival response called a negativity bias. That’s why no matter how good your life is, you also seems to focus primarily on the worst parts. Your brain is trying to prepare you and protect you, but sometimes the process backfires. You can manage your negativity bias by clarifying your core values, supplemental values, and hobbies. This helps put problems into perspective.

One of the most common questions I hear as a clinical psychologist who specializes in depression in anxiety is “how do I deal with the guilt and the same that I constantly feel?” It’s a tough question that doesn’t have a single, easy answer. However, for many of us, much of our guilt and shame comes from distorted, unrealistic thoughts. Our minds only see the mistakes we’ve made, the areas we’ve fallen short, and the regrets from the past that we can’t let go of. If you can learn to challenge these thoughts and see yourself more accurately, much of the guilt and shame melts away as it no longer has a platform to stand on.

In this episode I interview executive functioning and nervous system regulation coach Sasa Harper. I’ve known Sasa for a while, and she’s what would be called a peer support specialist in my world, meaning she is someone who has struggled with executive functioning and nervous regulation, is now in a place where she is doing well in these areas, and teaches other people how she got there. While Sasa tends to focus more on neurodivergence like ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, nervous system dysregulation and problems with executive functioning are also common components of mood and anxiety disorders so our work has a lot of overlap. Today we discuss how procrastination often results from unmet needs or excess stress rather than laziness or lack of motivation, as is commonly believed, and how challenging your inner critic, practicing relaxation techniques, and rewarding yourself appropriately are MUCH more beneficial tools for challenging procrastination and increasing productivity than putting more pressure on yourself.

Symptoms like depersonalization, derealization, dissociation, delusions, and hallucinations can be incredibly disturbing. They are often thought of as being signs of a psychotic disorder or severe trauma, but if these symptoms only occur during depressive episodes, they may actually be part of a mood disorder. We can also experience disconnections from reality because of intense psychological distress, including periods of prolonged or significantly heightened anxiety. Dissociation is somewhat like the mind’s version of going into shock. It’s a temporary anesthetic to protect us from the immense emotional pain that we’re experiencing. The prefrontal cortex, the very front most region of the brain, is responsible for our orientation to person, place, and time. When activity in the frontal lobe decreases, we lose some (or all) of this ability to orient to these anchors. This can be terrifying or disturbing if you don’t know what it is or don’t realize that it’s temporary and something that is, to some degree, supposed to happen. Understanding what all of these processes are and the neurological reasons for them makes them a lot less scary. Hopefully that’s what you get from this episode.

You have much less control over your thoughts and feelings than most people would lead you to believe. Which is extremely unfortunate when you have mental health struggles.

This is why most of the things you try to change your thinking, at best, don't work, and, at worst, have then opposite effect.

I'm sharing 6 common mistakes I see therapy patients making when trying to fix their mental health by controlling their thoughts, and what to do instead.

• 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)⁠

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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.

Christopher Spence Pratt, also known as ValiantFate, has an amazing story to tell. He has overcome severe depression, suicide, alcohol abuse, and intense bullying to build a life he generally enjoys out of one that made him miserable. In this episode we talk about his story and the strategies he used to get her including fitness, gratitude, goal-setting, and asking for help.

Self-diagnosis can only take you so far. If you want to be able to access a full range of treatment services, get your insurance to pay for it, and check out other conditions whose symptoms often overlap with depression at anxiety, you will eventually need to have formal testing. In most cases, this testing will be a fairly simple process. It usually consists of a structure interview focused on understanding the symptoms you experience and how they impact your life and some brief self-report symptom inventories. There are several types of professionals who can provide this testing, each with some clearly defined strengths. I know it can be a little scary, but overall I believe that psychological testing leads to positive outcome for most people.

Major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder have a lot in common. Both are mood disorders, meaning they involve fluctuations in mood that can be totally unrelated to life events. Both involve depressive episodes, which are periods of low mood. In fact, the only real difference between major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder is the presence of manic, or manic episodes, in bipolar disorder. But these very similar conditions need to be handled very differently. Antidepressant medications, the primary treatment for major depressive disorder, are extremely dangerous for someone with bipolar disorder to take as they tend to make manic episodes worse.

Mental illness can cause physical illness. Depression and anxiety in particular can wreak havoc and your body and make you more vulnerable to illness, injury, and even premature death. In this episode we explore all of the ways in which depression and anxiety can negatively impact your physical health.

It’s difficult, but not impossible, to stay productive when you’re struggling with your mental health. Everything feels so much harder and so much less rewarding. You need a way to counter-balance those variables if you want to be able to continue to function when you don’t feel well.

Anhedonia translates to “without pleasure.” In mental health, it refers to a disruption in brain functioning that impairs our ability to feel joy, excitement, accomplishment, love, and other similar feelings. It can happen for many reasons, but depression is the most common. It isn’t as unstoppable as it seems…

We learn “rules” early in life. Rules like “nothing I do will ever be good enough” or “I am unlovable.” We don’t automatically re-evaluate these rules once we have a fully formed adult brain. In this episode I talk about how these limiting belief systems are formed and how we can begin to challenge them.

People with anxiety disorders often experience related struggles that aren’t well documented or understood. These includes things like over eating or binge eating, perfectionism, people pleasing, excessive apologizing, and misophonia or other sensory sensitivities.

Dive deep with me into the symptoms of chronic anxiety. We discuss what it actually feels like to be living with chronic, daily anxiety and break down all 7 of the DSM-V symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder in detail.

In this episode I discuss causes, symptoms, and treatments of various forms of mood disorders, primarily major depressive disorder. 

Most mental-health interventions and strategies are geared toward people with mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety - not the intense negative self-talk many experience. Traditional methods often fall short when confronting our harshest inner critics. I've developed a technique to match the intensity of negative thoughts. In this video, I'll teach you how to fight fire with fire. Learn to challenge your inner critic effectively and regain control of your mental landscape.

• 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.

If you're as sick as I was of feeling powerless and unable to change anything meaningful in life, you're going to want to listen to this episode. I break down my process of behavior change that took me from failing classes to earning a doctorate. It's incredibly easy, and it works for anything.

Therapy isn’t always beneficial. Sometimes it’s a waste of time. Sometimes it makes our problems worse. In this episode I discuss some of the most problematic yet disturbingly common interactions in therapy sessions.

In 2015 I found myself in an unusual situation; my life was better than I ever imagined it could be, yet it still didn’t feel all that great. I finally had a wealth of wonderful things in my life, but no time or energy to enjoy them. I couldn’t find a solution to this problem, so I made my own and now I’m sharing it with you.

“We’ve tried everything” is something many of my therapy clients have heard and something they often tell themselves. It’s impossible. Nobody has tried everything. Nobody has tried even 1% of everything. In this episode, I’ll explain why I don’t believe anyone is hopeless and give you two ideas for action steps you can start today!

Do you have to forgive your abuser? Many people will say yes, but I disagree. Recovery is about your wants, needs, and feelings and nobody else’s. Forgiveness won’t change the very real symptoms you experience.

I review some of the strategies I’ve used to stop avoiding, delaying, and ruminating and start taking action!

The beliefs and the values of the people closest to you form your reality. Change what’s around you and you change your reality. Your struggles don’t have to be a liability; they can even be an asset.

Depression has a way of stealing your energy and motivation.

So how can you improve your energy and motivation while recovering from depression or depressive episodes?

First, you have to understand that these are two separate things - and they each require different interventions. I'm going to show you how to tell the difference and some ways to improve each.

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.

How can an introvert enjoy alone time without feeling lonely, isolated, or disconnected?

In my personal, and professional experience, there are 3 reasons you might struggle with this. I'm going to breakdown each reason for you and give you some tips on how to navigate them.

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

⁠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.

You're probably not actually self-sabotaging: and I have a few reasons for saying this.

"Self-sabotage" is one of the most overused phrases in mental health. It's become a blanket phrase for people who are struggling to seeing meaningful change in their lives.

I'm breaking down what self-sabotage actually is, and how you can avoid it - if you happen to be doing it.

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

⁠

⁠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.

Facing emotional pain and grief is incredibly hard. I spent years running from my childhood grief, thinking time would magically fix everything. But avoiding pain only prolongs the suffering and stunts our growth. It's understandable to want to avoid it, ignore it, run from it. The reality is, sometimes facing that pain, trauma, or grief turns out to be as bad as you think it will be. The critical thing here is that you do force yourself to face it, feel it, and work through it. It's going to sting and hurt. Sometimes you have to let it hurt to heal.

Managing 1 or more chronic mental health conditions is a full-time responsibility.

If you push this to the bottom of your priorities it will be extremely difficult for it to ever improve significantly. But since you have a life filled with other responsibilities, your time, attention, energy, and resources are probably already spread thin.

Here are 5 you can do if you have just 5 minutes.

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

⁠

⁠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.

I'm exploring four unconscious behaviors that hurt people with mental illness. These things aren't going to serve you in managing your mental health.

I'll show you how to recognize these patterns in hopes that you can reduce their occurrences - it will lead to significantly better outcomes.

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

⁠

⁠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.

Grief doesn't alway involve loss because of death. It's a natural response to any significant loss in life. In fact, grieving the living can be even more challenging than mourning the dead.

Breakups, estranged family members, and ended friendships can leave us devastated. These losses often lack closure and breed guilt, making the healing process complex and drawn out.

In this episode, I share my personal experience with grief and offer practical steps to cope. You'll learn how to process your emotions and reclaim your life after losing someone who's still alive.

• 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.

• 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.