This week finds Edward with new life in his house. The kittens have come home! Edward shares with us his experience bringing home Bartok and Espur and how surprisingly emotional it was, given that their original foster family was a friend that recently passed away. Edward talks the first couple of nights and the challenge with having his mother around as “emotional support.”

Today’s Deep Dive is all about Forgiveness. Jason starts us off with some reading he came across while doing some work. We discuss the different types of forgiveness, what to do when you struggle with forgiving others in a situation, and even if everyone is forgivable. We look at forgiveness through our own experiences, the eyes of psychology, and of course religion. We look at how demanding apologies and forgiveness can be damaging to ourselves and others. Lastly, we come up with some insight as to some of forgiveness’s rolls in trauma.

In This episode we get a chance to sit down with Michelle and learn about her Ayahuasca experience. Starting out Michelle shares with us the story of her journey to Peru and what was going on in her life at the time, as well as the ups and downs during her experiences. We also get a chance to hear about how it has changed her life and what her plans are for the future. If you would like to reach out to Michelle and say hi, or ask questions that we may not have covered, her email is [email protected].

Jason talks about the wedding he and his wife attended. We find out how the wearing of the jacket went, but also how Jason dealt with a new boundary that neither he, nor his wife, knew existed. Jason speaks about the struggles he had with certain situations and how he and his wife dealt with them. Jason ends his story of the wedding weekend with some insights into his relationship, and his return to a big city.

This week’s Deep Dive continues our journey through Defense Mechanisms and Comping skills. We don’t usually hear about Defense mechanisms being healthy, but these mature Defense Mechanisms come from a place of maturity and growth. Edward and Jason go through each of these Defense Mechanisms, give personal insight, and examples of each.

This week’s Check-in finds Jason getting closer to the wedding and vacation. Jason’s history with vacations has not always been positive, so getting ready for vacation is an emotional and mental chore as well as a physical one. Leading up to his vacation Jason questions a work situation he experienced. The conversation turns over to being human in the mental health field. We discuss it being ok saying I’m burnt out and I can’t handle this today.

In this week’s Deep Dive Edward starts talking about homework that his therapist gave him around coping mechanisms. Coping mechanisms are behaviors that we use as a safety mechanism to protect us when we can’t handle something overwhelming. Coping Mechanisms are generally split up into categories. This week we talk about pathological coping Mechanisms which tend to be a break from reality. Everything from denial, to full on delusions. We also talk about immature coping mechanisms. These are usually emotionally driven and are learned from childhood. When they are carried into adulthood, they can be unhealthy. Lastly, in this episode we talk about neurotic defense mechanisms. These are the mechanisms such as regression.

Jason is getting ready to attend a wedding with his wife in this weeks Check-In. The only challenge is trying to find something to wear. Jason doesn’t often “dress up” so finding clothes appropriately for a wedding is a little difficult. This is compounded by the fact that Jason has a hard time committing to an outfit that might not be as comfortable as he needs it to be. Jason talks about his need for clothes that don’t just look good, but also feel good as well.

The Human Brain can make only so many decisions per day. In this Deep Dive we explore the way that our brains make decisions and what decision fatigue is. During the average day we may be asked to make thousands of decisions, when our brain can handle only hundreds. We discuss how best to use those decisions, and how to combat decision fatigue.

We start off this week with Edward talking about a needed vacation. Edward spent some time with family at an aunt’s lake house and had a special visit with an aunt and uncle from Texas. Edward speaks about the general family dynamic and dealing with an aunt that has dementia. Jason asks about anxiety going into the family event. Edward tells us about how his internalization from his childhood has led to anxiety around being with his family, but also how he has been working through it and has made progress. Edward also officiated a wedding where he found himself in the awkward situation of staying at a reception where he knew the happy couple and one other person.

In this week’s Deep Dive we find ourselves talking about the little ways we sometimes self-harm and what that looks like. Many of our behaviors can be taken to an extreme where they are cause for concern. We go through a list of these behaviors. Some of them we don’t think about as self-harm and some of them are harmful if taken to the extreme.

In this week’s Check-In, we hear Jason talk about how he is growing through a big event in his life. Jason and his wife have had a boundary that needed to change. Jason has been working around it which has led to some very deep trauma work. The event that he spoke about a few weeks ago has now happened and he shares with us how he got through it, as well as the emotional aftermath. We also talk about where he goes from here.

Last week we talked about ADHD from personal stories and some lesser-known symptoms. This week we go through one of the available questionnaires designed to diagnose ADHD in teenagers and adults. We are not professionals and answering these questions should not be used for self-diagnosis. However, if you find that you answer yes to some or most of these questions please reach out to a professional or speak with your doctor about a referral.

We start off our episode this week with Edward updating us on his ADHD medication journey. Recently, he found out that the Adderall he had been taking was causing an extremely high blood pressure. Speaking to his medication provider they decided to switch to Ritalin in the hopes of a more normal blood pressure. Edward also shares with us his experiences around telling people he has known for years about his diagnosis and the lack of surprise that most of them have had.

In our Deep Dive this week we start our exploration of ADHD. Edward and Jason share with us some of the less known symptoms and how they effect the lives of people with ADHD. This part of the conversation comes from discovery through content creators, and from observations made from working with people with ADHD. Next week we will go through one of the questionnaires that are designed to assist in its diagnosis.

In this week’s episode, we start with Edward sharing with us a very triggered moment. Being caught between two separate events he goes back to a feeling from his childhood of being both too much, yet not enough. His feelings are still a little raw and as he processes them along with the underlying childhood experiences, Jason offers some different perspectives. Edward and Jason speak about different ways to work through the triggers, but also approaching these situations with different outlooks.

Our Deep Dive this week is an exploration of a newer outlook on child trauma. Now identified as developmental trauma, it is either an extreme incident or prolonged experience that tends to keep us from maturing in specific areas of our lives. Jason and Edward talk about the root causes of this type of trauma, how to identify it, and of course, some ways to work through it.

This week’s episode finds Edward at the end of a solo 70-hour work week. A positive COVID case at work lead to his Team Leader and half of the staff to be on leave. Being short staffed company wide, there wasn’t much help available. The remaining staff worked together and made it work, but Edward felt very overwhelmed. The last two shifts of the week Edward started his ADHD medication for the first time and talks to us about the major differences which he saw and felt finishing up the week.

We have talked about Narcissism on and off in past episodes. In this episode’s Deep Dive we explore the differences between true Narcissism and Narcissistic Behavior. Narcissism is a personality disorder, therefore has extraordinarily little in the way of treatment. In addition to defining the disorder we also go through a list of warning signs and coping skills that we can use when we find ourselves in the presence of both true Narcissists and people who display some of their behavior.