Cat In A Vat

In this episode, we have a conversation with the Open Wounds Podcast about growing up Evangelical, the Institute in Basic Life Principals, and Evangelical sex obsession.

The documentary mentioned in this episode: Until The Truth https://untilthetruth.com/

Perceptions get distorted when your brain is on high alert. My inner voice and intuition interpret the world unhelpfully, and I can't trust them. This is audio from a talk I gave at Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in the summer of 2023 about my inner voice.

To save my life, my brain is trying to kill me.

Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. Minds are supposed to help you survive -- alive.

I’m Jonathan Smith, and Cat in a Vat is a podcast about how I

There is a little history of religion, philosophy, and insanity,

Nelson is my younger brother, and he was adopted into our family as an older child, a child who had already lived a lifetime's worth of trauma. The Smith family was something altogether different from anything he had faced before. This is his story.

This is the story of a conservative Christian homeschooling pastor's family and the moment the family collapsed. It's a story that's difficult for me to tell. It's about the day my brother disappeared. Like other families in the Quiverfull movement, my parents felt it was their godly duty to raise a large family of children in a godly home. This is the story of how this goal destroyed my family.

In this episode my family moves to the Kingdom of Nepal and I as a three-year-old experience five potentially life-threatening events. What do the events of our lives mean, do they have to mean anything? I also explore the Evangelical controversy over empathy and why claiming it as sin is spiritual abuse.

Welcome to the first episode of Cat in a Vat.

In this episode, I talk about the first time I knew something was wrong with my mental health and tips on getting help from my experience.

If you have been considering seeing a therapist, you definitely should. Whether it’s for mental health, relationships, or you’re just stuck, the experience will open up a world of hopeful possibilities for you.

Talk therapy is a modern wonder. I get to have the undivided attention of an empathetic professional for 50 minutes once a week. In that time, I can open up my life and share it unfiltered to an objective, non-judgmental person. I get to air thoughts that have been knocking around in my head and gain perspective. I often have things that shackle me with guilt and shame, which leads to intense anxiety. My therapist can sort through the toxic sludge and point out what is real and what is an illusion, and provides me with tools to navigate my thoughts in healthy ways.

Here are some tips from my experiences to help you on your mental health journey into therapy.

You’ve got this!

A preview of Episode 1 The 13th Floor