OK, it's February so maybe I'm a little late with this one! But here we go super personal as I share the trials and tribulations of 2021, along with my hopes and dreams for 2022!

There are a lot of common thoughts around the negative impact of video games,: they're making us lazy, making us antisocial, making us violent... but are any of these claims actually true?

Rather than just ask the opinions of people on either side (which are always just going to be biased) we turned to science! Specifically Dr Rachel Kowert who had researched the very question of "are video games making us antisocial" for her PhD thesis. Athesis that in order to pass must be put under scrutiny and peer reviewed.

On this episode we get into that question and much more!

Freyja Sky, original from Romania is now a streamer in the north of England. At an early age Freyja started struggling with anxiety, something that in her home country was very stigmatised and was told that "getting help for this could impact your ability to get a job!"

In this interview she opens up about anxiety, depression, PTSD and so much more as well as discussing the many developments she has made on her journey, whilst still acknowledging the challenges that still lie ahead.

Self worth, we all have a certain degree of it and most of us probably want more. But where does it come from? How do we define it? And how can we improve it?

In this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast myself and fellow Twitch Streamer Khryseis explore these questions and more!

Is there a place for positivity in 2022? That's the question I am asking my guest Pappa Paws, a hugh advocate for the benefit of positivity and it's need in our world.

Personally I describe myself as a positive realist, which is something Pappa Paws does too, however I believe our definitions of it differ slightly, with me leaning towards to realism side a little more and him toward the positivity side.

But don't mistake his love for positivty for all sugarcoated, memeable throwaway instagram quotes. Pappa Paws tells it how it is and doesn't pull any punches.

In this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast we get into all aspects of positivity as we try to navigate the place it should hold in each of our lives.

This one is adapted from a couple of YouTube videos I made earlier in the year (by the way if you want to SEE episodes and other things and not just listen then http://youtube.com/mindsetbydave ) and is a bit of a two parter.

The first part is things I discovered personally about LIVING with mental health and is aimed at those who struggle. The second part is things that I wish those on the outside knew about what living with mental illness can be!

Christopher Leech is a PhD student, studying the impact of video games on mental health. As someone who is interested in both video games and mental health he is the ideal candidate for the job.

In this episode of the Mindset By Dave podcast we use this as a jumping off point to look at the greater impact of video games on our lives, trying to spearate the myths from the facts. We also look at video games and violence, interactive movies, the role of playing a game vs watching a streamer play the game and much more.

Ashley Lyn Olson's entire life changed 2 weeks before her 14th birthday when she was involved in a car accident that took the life of her father, disabled her mother, injured her younger sister and paralysed Ashley, meaning she would have to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

One of Ashley's biggest passions in life was travel and all of this would have to change now. But the important word is "change" not "end"; Ashley switched around those "why can't I..." questions for "how could I..." questions and decided to find a new way to "Access the World!"

This is now her motto and as well as being a public speaker and an author Ashley now work campaigning and consulting for improved accessibility as well as travelling herself and documneting her experiences through her blog - http://wheelchairtraveling.com - helping other diabled travellers find the information they need to make it a little bit easier to "ACCESS THE WORLD!"

The A in LGBTQIA2+ stands for Asexual or Aromantic and is one of the least spoken about sexualities right now. Asexuals (or ACEs as they are often called - which I LOVE!) are those who have no sexual attraction to any gender which is a difficult thing to describe to anyone who has never experienced that because we can seem to get our heads around a "different" attraction, but the absence of something is not something people can easily comprehend.

In this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast I speak with proud ACE Dean Conway all about what this discovery was like for him and how he has had to dfend it/live with it in a world that doesn't understand.

We then go on to talk about religion, politics, gender, pronouns and a whole other bunch of dificult (and to some inflamatory) topics in what I hope is an informed, compassionate and honest way.

When it comes to understanding depression there's not a lot of easy to access or easy to digest information out there. One of the most important concepts that I have ever learned about depression is Aaron Beck's Cognitive Triad.

Aaron Beck - who unfortunately recently passed away - is considered by many to be the father of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and within his work in this field he outlines Beck's Cognitive Triad.

The triad is a system of three categories of thoughts or belief that can lead to and keep a person suffering with depression. These are beliefs about themself, about the world and about the future.

Understanding Beck's triad and knowing how to counteract these beliefs is an extremely useful tool in combating depression.