Depresh Mode with John Moe

Covid was already rough for the very funny and personable Annabelle Gurwitch, as it was for everyone, and that was before her car broke down on an LA freeway just as she was getting a call with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Stage four. Annabelle has dealt with anxiety and depression for a long time and the cancer news certainly didn’t help, especially as Annabelle found strong connections between mental and physical health, culminating, perhaps, in Annabelle crab-walking down the sidewalk. It’s all detailed in her new memoir, The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker, in which she tells of going on medications that have worked for years, but which she knows will eventually stop working. And eventually, as with us all, she will die. For now, she’s alive and here to talk, enlighten, and share more than a few laughs. At age 24, Eric Zimmer was in rough shape. He was addicted to heroin, weighed maybe a hundred pounds, and was facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence. So he gave rehab another try and he had some success and started getting his life back together, diving into just about any book or teaching he could find that could help him get healthy and stay healthy. This led to conversations, the podcast The One You Feed, a career as a personal coach, and his new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot. Eric explains his philosophy of taking small actions toward better mental and physical health, concentrating on what can be achieved and repeated, and choosing actions that gradually move you toward where and who you want to be. He offers advice on how to determine those actions and how to stick with them. It’s not a long jump, it’s a series of small, manageable, and repeatable steps. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

At age 24, Eric Zimmer was in rough shape. He was addicted to heroin, weighed maybe a hundred pounds, and was facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence. So he gave rehab another try and he had some success and started getting his life back together, diving into just about any book or teaching he could find that could help him get healthy and stay healthy. This led to conversations, the podcast The One You Feed, a career as a personal coach, and his new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot. Eric explains his philosophy of taking small actions toward better mental and physical health, concentrating on what can be achieved and repeated, and choosing actions that gradually move you toward where and who you want to be. He offers advice on how to determine those actions and how to stick with them. It’s not a long jump, it’s a series of small, manageable, and repeatable steps. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

We are proud to present a very special episode of In This Family as a bonus for Depresh Mode with John Moe listeners. In This Family is produced by John Moe in conjunction with Nexus Family Healing and it’s about the connection between family and mental health. It’s a fascinating and moving look at the Hmong culture, their relocation to the United States, and the generational trauma that has been activated by recent events involving ICE. It’s a story you haven’t heard told by a member of community you might not have heard much about. Newspaper columnist and community business leader Ka Vang was born on a CIA base in Thailand 50 years ago. She remembers eating from the garbage when there was no food to be had, witnessing rape and murder, and fleeing with her family to the United States after the Vietnam War and the Secret War. Ka is Hmong-American, part of a large community of people who aided the American effort and were relocated, largely to Minnesota. The trauma of the war and displacement had severe mental health effects on Ka’s family, including depression, anxiety, and hyper-vigilance. Today, the Twin Cities region is seeing tremendous upheaval due to the ICE surge, which has seen thousands of people arrested, sent to detention facilities, and deported, even people who have a legal right to be in the United States. Ka says Hmong people who lived through the war in Asia are terrified and having flashbacks. Their children, having had trauma handed down, are rehearsing best practices for staying safe. And as for Ka, she doesn’t feel like an American amid the ICE presence and feels more a matter of when rather than if she’ll get taken.

When Emily’s twin, Amelia, ended up in the hospital twice, she knew that stress wasn’t something to be dismissed as “all in your head”. First of all, the head is connected to the body (by the neck), so stress is a physical issue that you can feel and be hurt by in all sorts of ways. Too much stress, at work, at home, in life, and you can run up against a real burnout situation. And it can wreak havoc on you mental health and physical health. The Nagoski twins are the authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle and Emily joins us to talk about how our stress response instincts aren’t that different than a zebra’s when faced with a lion. The difference? A zebra knows how to complete a stress cycle and return to normal, whereas we’re likely to hold on to work worries, relationship concerns, or other stresses around the clock, pursued by the lion constantly. Emily has advice on how to complete those cycles, get to a better place, and fight burnout. A big part of that is what she calls “bubbles of love”. Not a sex thing. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

The patients in the therapy sessions in the new film GROUP: The Schopenhauer Effect are actors, but it’s not a scripted film. The actors were given characters and circumstances and then they improvised dialogue with each other and with the group leader, who is also acting. Kind of. Dr. Elliott Zeisel is one of the most important figures in group therapy in America since the 1970s. With all that knowledge and experience powering him along, he also improvised his dialogue, based on what he was being said. The result is a remarkably honest and moving portrayal of group therapy. We talk with Dr. Zeisel about the film and about how group therapy works, what to expect, who’s a good candidate for it, and which myths need to be dispelled. Trailer: GROUP: The Schopenhauer Effect Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Although he has a huge following on social media now, Jonathan Edward Durham’s life as a writer used to be a lot more low tech. It involved locking himself in a room in Los Angeles, pounding away on screenplays that almost no one ever read, sucking back smokes and liquor, barely sleeping, and finding himself to actually be pretty miserable. He did manage to write and self-publish a novel, Winterset Hollow, that found an audience, which led to getting online to promote it. He started to write more online, finding an audience, effectively keeping a journal to understand himself and the challenges he was facing in his life and in his mental health. Jonathan left Los Angeles, met a guy and got married, and came to a much better understanding of problems he had been dealing with his whole life. The second edition of Winterset Hollow comes out this fall and Jonathan is at work on a new book now. We also hear from John Moe about getting mad, starting MADD, and how to interview the anger that you’re feeling to see what injustice it’s alerting you to. Of note, we kept seeing Jonathan’s short writing come up in our Preshies group on Facebook so much that we eventually had to book the guy. Thanks, Preshies, you are all now associate producers. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

You might remember Alexandra Paul as one of the stars of Baywatch or the Tom Hanks-Dan Aykroyd Dragnet film. You may not have realized that as a child and on to her long trip through the worlds of modeling and Hollywood, she was bingeing and purging and dealing with severe eating disorders. She tells us about her relationship with sugar and what food meant emotionally. Then we’re joined by Dr. Cynthia Bulik, one of the top experts on eating disorders in the world today, to talk about remarkable progress in understanding the genetic components of eating disorders. Rather than blame family (especially mothers), peer pressure, or fashion culture, Dr. Bulik says some people are much more prone to developing eating disorders due to the genes they happened to get. You can be part of her research by visiting EDGI2.org. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Dating apps and websites are booming right now as people look for ways to leverage to find love or even just companionship. Liesel Sharabi of Arizona State University compiled a meta-analysis of a huge number of studies about the connection between online dating and mental health and the results? Kind of bad news. People who use the apps compulsively, swiping all day long, are much more likely to be depressed and anxious. But were they depressed because they used the apps or did the use the apps because they were depressed? We’ll get into that, plus the terrifying imminent AI dating revolution. Then we talk to Dr. Sarah Jerstad, the Clinical Director of Psychological Services at Children’s Minnesota about what kids are going through amid the ICE presence, what the short and long term effects of this activity have been and will be, and how parents and other adults can best help them. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Niko Stratis knew a couple of things growing up in the Yukon in Canada: that she was, in truth, a woman, despite being regarded by the world as male, and that being trans or different in any way was absolutely not okay. It wasn’t just a matter of identity, it was a matter of safety too, as she worked with guys who vowed that if their child was gay or trans, they would kill that child. Niko discovered some other things, too: the trade of industrial glassworking, the numbing effects of the alcohol she became addicted to, and the redemptive power of music. Niko Stratis’s book, The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman, is a memoir and a playlist, tracing the inspiration of songs loosely tagged as dad rock as Niko battles setbacks and depression and suicidality, lives all over Canada, and finally makes the big, nothing-to-lose move of coming out as a trans. She tells her story and what was behind choosing a name that feels wonderful to say loud and openly. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

The ICE surge in Minnesota has meant a huge number of arrests, protests, confrontations, deportations, children and adults sent to detention facilities, and deaths. It’s also meant massive anxiety, fear, and trauma around the state. Marcus Schmit of NAMI Minnesota says this is being felt acutely among people already struggling with severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and severe anxiety and depression. His organization has received overwhelming demand for help that they are doing their best to meet and trying to help those in need avoid worst case scenarios such as suicide and loss of contact with caregivers. Marcus says it’s time for ICE to get out of the state. He and our Minnesota-based host, John Moe, talk about the urgency of the situation, how the community is becoming stronger in response, and how the trauma of what’s being done to Minnesota will remain long after the last black SUV drives away. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines Show Less

In 2007, Amanda Knox, an American studying abroad in Italy, was arrested, tried, and convicted of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. After years in an Italian jail, she was ultimately freed, reconvicted, and finally exonerated in 2015. Since then, she has married, become a mother, and she has returned to Italy, even meeting with the prosector who concocted outrageous stories that led to her imprisonment. Their meeting is featured in Mouth of the Wolf: Amanda Knox Returns to Italy, a new documentary on Hulu. Amanda joins us to talk about her long series of traumas and who she has become as a result of them. She is joined by her husband and collaborator on the documentary, Christopher Robinson. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Suicide is a problem. It’s perpetually a top cause of death around the world but society shames it, stigmatizes it, and is reluctant to discuss it even when talking about it would save lives. Well guess what, we’re talking about it. We’re offering insight, sympathy, and practical ideas to help yourself and others. Clancy Martin first thought about suicide when he was two years old and he has attempted suicide many times over the years. “I’m extremely bad at it,” he says. Clancy is a philosophy professor, award-winning fiction writer, and author of the memoir How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind. Suicide prevention has become his cause, leading Clancy to work one-on-one with a variety of friends and fans who reach out to him, often in crisis. He’s here with hard information and real things you can do to stay with us and help others do the same. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

It was several years into her talk therapy sessions that Stephanie Foo was offered a diagnosis: complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or C-PTSD. Regular PTSD stems from a single traumatic event like a car crash or a mugging. C-PTSD comes from a long series of traumas from which there seems like no escape. Like child abuse. The problems Stephanie was having with her relationships and rage and all sorts of other issues stemmed, said the therapist, from the severe abuse she encountered during her childhood in San Jose. Stephanie tells us about the beatings, the neglect, and the threats she encountered, mostly at the hands of her mother and some from her dad. She also shares the long journey to understand that abuse and to recovery. It’s not something you get over, mind you. As Stephanie Foo says, your childhood is with you forever, but she’s found a better place and a better future. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

A.J. Daulerio exists as a caricature to a lot of people because he was the guy who published a clip from a Hulk Hogan sex tape on Gawker, got sued by Hogan, and he and Gawker lost to the tune of a $140 million payout. The enmity and shame of that was a lot to carry around, as was a lifelong battle with depression and bipolar disorder type II, as was a pretty profound problem with drug and alcohol abuse. But A.J. sobered up, got treatment, got therapy, and began to devote his energy to stories of hope and healing in his Small Bow podcast and newsletter. So now he’s fine and it’s a happy ending, right? Well, no, mental health is more complicated than that. A.J. shares with us a pretty terrifying story he hasn’t shared anywhere before about a brush with self-harm that occurred very recently. It’s a story that shows how a human being, especially one that deals with mental illness, may be on an overall mission to get healthier but it’s pretty complicated and, unlike the movies, it doesn’t follow a clean narrative arc. All you can do is try to be better and A.J.’s efforts, and this interview, may help with that. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

We live in complicated times and, for a whole lot of us, we do so with complicated minds. A billion people worldwide are living with some form of mental illness and 20% of the U.S. population has experienced a mental health crisis in the past year. Circumstances in our shared world are surely contributing to the problem: climate change and natural disasters, affordability and employment problems domestically, and people living in fear of sudden arrest and deportation. Meanwhile, tremendous strides are being made in mental health treatment as science finds incredibly effective methods and moves toward making them available. It’s easy to conclude that the world is terrible and we’re doomed. And it’s treacherous to believe that everything is going to be all sunshine and roses soon. We ask you to hold two things in hand as you navigate the new year: the world is very challenging, likely contributing to mental health problems, AND there is more reason than ever to have hope of a better tomorrow. It’s not binary. It’s not either/or. It’s both. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

It was two years into a vicious cycle of depression and Mike Doughty was falling apart. He was taking more Ambien than he had been prescribed, importing huge boxes of the stuff from India, waking up to find packs of cigarettes, candy wrappers, and pizza boxes with no memory of leaving his Memphis home to make such purchases. He was convinced something was deeply wrong with his heart even though every doctor said there wasn’t. Finally, he checked into an in-patient facility that turned out to be wonderful and productive. Then he checked out. Then Mike, a recovering addict, started drinking heavily and smoking weed. Then he checked back in again. Mike Doughty is showing improvement now and talks about his treatment, his recovery, and touring again with his band Soul Coughing again 24 years after a bitter breakup. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

The intriguing memoir Tom Johnson recently released is called Driven: A Life in Public Service from LBJ to CNN and it’s full of amazing anecdotes. Tom joined the White House in his early twenties, was the one to inform LBJ of Martin Luther King’s shooting, was a giant in newspapers and cable news, and loaned Gorbachev a pen that was used to sign the paperwork dissolving the USSR. Tom’s personal story is a little more vulnerable and fragile. He tells of experiencing a suicidal depression in a time when such things were never discussed, being of the opinion that depression was a sign of weakness, and getting it treated anyway at the behest of his wife. Tom also shares his regrets, now at age 84, about being so driven by his career and accomplishments that he gave his family far less of his time and attention than he should have. It’s a moving interview about someone who had a front row seat for history and is now examining what it all meant. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Anger can be a scary topic for a lot of people. It usually doesn’t feel good when you’re experiencing it and it can be associated with behaviors that are very frightening indeed. But Dr. Ryan Martin, who is one of the few academics specializing in anger and who has written two books about it, says anger is a normal and even beneficial emotion to experience. It’s your body’s way of indicating that some injustice has been done, either to you or someone else. And that’s good information to have. He says that if we can listen to anger for what it’s telling us about ourselves and our surroundings, without throwing punches, it can lead to a more balanced and thoughtful life and, in the end, a more peaceful life. He also shares why so-called rage rooms are not really good for your anger at all (it’s kind of like drinking in a bar to address your alcoholism) and how he’s taught his own kids to own their anger and process it. john moeThank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

It’s very easy to associate your job with your own sense of self. So it makes that it can be traumatic to be one of the scores of people being laid off in today’s turbulent economy. We are joined by the New York Times’ mental health reporter, Christina Caron, who has been looking at the effect of unemployment - especially long-term unemployment - on mental health. It can lead to more severe depression, anxiety, marital problems, and substance use. She also has some great tips on what you can do for your mental health if you’re in that situation. Then we go to Burbank to talk with Terri Riviera who runs the Horror Community Foundation there. She organizes mental health support groups, led by a licensed therapist, that use horror movies to help people deal with depression, anxiety, and other mental problems. It sounds wild but the groups are very popular, well-attended, and backed up by science. Could it help you to watch The Shining in the company of friendly people and a therapist? Turns out, yes! Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Maureen Johnson loves mysteries. Loves reading classic detective fiction and loves writing mystery stories, which young readers have been gobbling up for years. Some of Maureen’s stories feature teenage sleuth Stevie Bell, who, besides having a knack for solving cold cases, deals with an anxiety disorder. It’s not all there is to Stevie, of course, but it’s definitely there and she has to manage it on an ongoing basis. Maureen tells us about Stevie and about her own recent anxiety mystery when she was suddenly whomped by a massive wave of anxiety that would not go away and severely affected her life for quite a while. Faced with that mystery, Maureen got to work gathering clues to figure it out, ultimately finding many effective techniques, including to fighting the anxiety monster (which she visualizes as Gossamer, the big red furry monster from Bugs Bunny cartoons) but welcoming it, getting to know it, and finding out what made it tick. She also got some lab work done, which pointed to a pronounced iron problem that was fixable. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines