Before You Kill Yourself: a suicide prevention podcast.

What if connection doesn't always require disclosure? In this episode of Before You Kill Yourself Podcast, Leo Flowers explores what Halloween, masks, and shared experiences might teach us about loneliness and suicide prevention. From concerts and comedy shows to walking groups and low-pressure dinners, we consider how people can belong without having to explain what they're going through.

In this episode:

• Why you might want company without wanting to talk about your problems
• How masks and shared rituals can create a sense of belonging
• The difference between participating in life and pretending you're okay
• How to create low-pressure opportunities for connection throughout the year
• Why belonging shouldn't require you to perform happiness
• What social connection can contribute to suicide prevention — and what the research doesn't yet establish

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

We spend so much time trying to get ourselves "in tune" through therapy, meditation, sobriety, exercise, and self-improvement. But what if feeling better isn't just about tuning ourselves? Inspired by a scene from a movie about piano tuning, this episode explores the difference between being in tune and being in harmony. Sometimes the problem isn't that we're broken or out of tune—it's that we're disconnected from the people, places, communities, and purposes that help us feel like we belong.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why being healthy and feeling connected are not always the same thing

• The difference between self-improvement and meaningful connection

• How loneliness can persist even when you're doing all the "right" things

• The ancient idea of harmony and what it can teach us about mental health

• Why purpose, relationships, and community are essential to suicide prevention

• Questions to help you discover what—or who—you want to be in harmony with

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

Nightmares can leave us feeling anxious, exhausted, and alone—but they may also be our mind's attempt to process fear, grief, uncertainty, and unresolved emotions. In this episode, we explore how nightmares affect our mental health, why they matter for suicide prevention, and practical tools for reducing their power.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why nightmares are linked to emotional distress and suicide risk
• How sleep deprivation impacts mood, hope, and resilience
• The surprising history of dream-sharing across cultures
• How keeping a dream journal can help process difficult emotions
• Why talking about nightmares with others can reduce their intensity
• How Imagery Rehearsal Therapy can help rewrite recurring nightmares
• Simple bedtime practices to influence healthier dream experiences

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

A simple sentence may be one of the most powerful ways to make someone feel seen: "If it weren't for you..." Drawing from Jennifer Wallace's The Science of Mattering, this episode explores our deep need to know that we matter, why gratitude isn't always enough, and how sharing the impact someone has had on your life can transform both of you.

Topics include:

• The difference between gratitude and mattering
• Why humans need significance more than happiness
• The "Five People" exercise
• Why we avoid telling people they changed our lives
• How moments of mattering suspend time
• The people who may never know the impact they've had on us

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

In this episode, we explore one of the most haunting lines from Kurt Cobain’s suicide note: “Why don’t you just enjoy it?” and the devastating response: “I don’t know.” We unpack why human beings struggle to feel joy through the lenses of neuroscience, psychology, evolution, trauma, addiction, overstimulation, and modern culture. From dopamine and cortisol to loneliness, achievement addiction, and the pressure to perform happiness, this episode examines why so many people feel disconnected from their own lives — and what history, philosophy, pop culture, and human connection reveal about truly feeling alive.

Topics include:

• Why the brain adapts to pleasure and novelty
• The difference between stimulation and fulfillment
• Trauma, stress, and the nervous system’s impact on joy
• Evolutionary reasons humans struggle with contentment
• Why modern life can make us spectators instead of participants
• The role of relationships, meaning, awe, and shared struggle
• Pop culture references from Nirvana to Black Mirror to Ted Lasso
• How to reconnect with ordinary moments and meaningful experiences
• What we might say to someone who can’t “just enjoy it”

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

In this episode, we explore the idea that meaning often comes after action. Inspired by a lyric from Robyn’s new album Sexistential, we unpack the difference between therapy, philosophy, poetry, and relationships — and why artists, rappers, writers, and improvisers often don’t fully understand what they’re creating until after it’s made.

We discuss why overthinking can block transformation, how freestyle rap reveals unconscious truth, and why some of life’s deepest insights can only be discovered through participation rather than analysis.

Topics include:

• Therapy vs existential suffering
• Why philosophy answers different questions than psychology
• Freestyling, flow states, and unconscious creativity
• Carl Jung, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and existentialism
• Why meaning is often retrospective
• The danger of waiting for certainty before taking action
• Relationships as the ultimate test of self-awareness
• “You live your way into new thoughts”

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

In this episode, we explore why mystery isn’t something to eliminate from life — it may be the very thing that keeps us moving, connecting, hoping, and growing. Beginning with a two-year mystery involving peanut shells appearing outside a house, the conversation expands into relationships, neuroscience, detective stories, fear, curiosity, and the courage to enter the unknown.

Topics include:

• Why humans are drawn to mysteries, whodunits, crosswords, and haunted houses
• The psychology of curiosity and how uncertainty activates the brain
• Why new relationships feel electric and emotionally alive
• The difference between healthy mystery and painful uncertainty
• How “let’s find out” can become a philosophy for living
• Why certainty can sometimes lead to boredom, paralysis, or emotional deadness
• Reflections on rejection, risk-taking, creativity, science, and wonder
• The idea that hope only exists when the future remains unwritten

Mysteries

(Listen) Mistletoe Murders: https://shorturl.at/qftcN

(Read) Fresh Water For Flowers: https://shorturl.at/mcjtL

(Watch) Chestnut Man: https://shorturl.at/R5qxK

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

How do we cope with the mental, emotional and physical pain? Survivors of lightning strikes and electrical shocks have lessons for us.

Key coping mechanisms:

• salt packets
• sauna
• massage
• group therapy
• mindset shift

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

What if feeling trapped isn’t about having a bad life—but about having a life that leaves no room for you? Using Odysseus and The Odyssey, I explore the idea that sometimes we can have love, security, success, and comfort while still feeling profoundly disconnected from ourselves.

• Why Odysseus rejects Calypso’s version of paradise
• How your greatest strengths can become sources of suffering
• The difference between wanting your life to end and wanting your current life to change
• Why boredom, burnout, and entrapment can be signs of lost agency
• How asking “Where do I get to be myself?” can become a first step toward finding a way forward

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.

Gambling Addiction: 1-800-GAMBLER

When a boss’s email, meeting request, or tone of feedback feels disproportionately intense, it may not be about the present moment alone. For many people, workplace dynamics can quietly reactivate older emotional patterns tied to childhood experiences of criticism, invisibility, powerlessness, or conditional approval. This episode explores how that happens—and how to recognize when the nervous system is responding to the past, not just the job.

In this episode:

• Why authority figures at work can unconsciously resemble early caregivers
• How simple workplace feedback can trigger shame, fear, or collapse
• The role of childhood experiences in shaping adult stress responses
• Why “professionalism” can sometimes override emotional self-protection
• How to tell the difference between present-day feedback and old emotional memory
• What it means to stay grounded when the body reacts before the mind can interpret

Thrive With Leo Coaching: 

If you want to reduce your psychological pain, regain your purpose and forge your own path, go to www.thrivewithleo.com to begin your journey.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:

In the US: 

Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or 988

The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.