The Heavy Mental Podcast

Our guest this week is James Walker — a stand-up comedian and amateur MMA fighter hailing from Newport, South Wales.

In this episode, James talks about his mental health journey after university, and how he “kept the uni party going” for many years, even after it had stopped for many of those around him.

James talks about how he played “a character” during this period; one that he inadvertently and subconsciously created as a sort of coping mechanism. He describes this person as “a hillbilly looking dude that would always drink beers…was always fun…and was always a really good time to be around”.

But, after turning 30, James was at a crossroads in his life and had the sudden realisation, “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore”, so change in the right direction became a necessity.

James began taking steps to rediscover who he was, and for him, this involved being punched in the face by cage fighters and standing up in front of crowds of people trying to make them laugh…he’s a braver man than me!

He goes on to talk about eventually getting diagnosed with clinical depression and being prescribed medication that allowed his mental health to stabilise.

In terms of themes here, there are a load: growing up, alcohol misuse, wearing masks, finding purpose and meaning, rediscovering yourself and editing your life.

There’s a lot to learn from James’ story and we’re thankful that he spent the time to come hang out and chat to us.

Rhys X

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and burnt out?

Do you ever get confused, lost and jaded with your life?

Well, us too.

One thing Leila and I have learned in talking to other people about their respective mental health journeys, is that from time to time, it’s necessary to take stock of your current situation and “edit your life” — shedding the things that are no longer serving you.

With less noise, comes a greater sense of clarity, and editing your life can help.

Join Leila and I as we chat about how we edit our own lives, when it comes to ambitions, hobbies, finances, media consumption or relationships.

In this week’s episode, we sit down with self-professed “hairy dude with holes in his ears” and purveyor of “raw and honest” photography, the talented Mr. Alex Sedgmond.

We chat to Al about the creative process, as well as his experiences with self-doubt and social anxiety. We also go through the importance of finding meaning, connection, and something worth struggling for during out short time here as “a tiny dot on a giant blue dot in the middle of a massive black abyss” — we loved the visuals Al’s words conjured up. We also loved the way that he’d drop in particularly unique character voices here and there — listen out for the 90-year-old woman!

Self-doubt and the creative process often go hand in hand, but as Al says:

“If you’ve got the idea and you’ve got the fire in the belly…keep it there, stoke it, fuel it. You can do it. 100%. Even when everyone’s telling you you can’t. YES you can.”

KEEP THE FIRE ALIVE!

Hope you enjoy this one folks, because we sure did.

Rhys & Leila X

In this episode, Lei and I have a gas about introversion and extroversion, the differences between the two types and how it can affect your mental health if you’re not allowing yourself to just be “you”.

The different “types” were first outlined by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, who believed that there were 16 different personality types. Myers-Briggs built upon Jung’s work to formulate a personality test (the MBTI test) that allowed people to determine their type.

Lei and I took the test:

I’m an ‘I’ (introvert), so I get my energy from being alone and going off into my own little world — Rhysland, if you will. I prefer activities that allow for concentration and focus — writing, editing, doodling, yoga etc — opposed to being in busy environments with lots of people. My full type is INFJ.

Young Lei on the other hand, is an ‘E’ (extrovert); she gets her energy from being in social environments and interacting with other people — although, she does note that she has some more traditionally introverted type characteristics. Lei’s full type is “ENFP”.

Apparently, we’re a perfect personality match for each other, but that wasn’t really a surprise to us!

The power of truly knowing yourself and living in accordance with who you naturally are as a person is often overlooked by many (including me), so hopefully this episode — and the MBTI test — will shed a little more light on one of life’s biggest mysteries: understanding “the self”.

Enjoy folks!

Rhys X

Our guest this week is Sean Ryan — a developer and software engineer from South Wales.

Sean talks us through his experience with PTSD and what happened in his life prior to his diagnosis that led to the disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD) is caused by witnessing or experiencing very stressful, frightening or distressing events. Someone who suffers with this particular anxiety disorder often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt.

From having to deal with grief at a very young age, due to the death of his father, to growing up in a dysfunctional household enduring both physical and mental violence, it took Sean some time to come to the realisation that “things weren’t the way they should be” — his own words.

These experiences in Sean’s formative years all led towards the happening of a traumatic event that immediately began to trigger flashbacks.

As Sean says during the episode:

“You return to a place and the intensity of it is what really…defines it as a post-traumatic stress event…it’s super creepy…it’s sort of like you’re there for a split second.”

In terms of points discussed, there are a lot of different themes in this particular episode from: childhood trauma, grief, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, depression and anxiety, through to identifying and accepting that there’s an issue, connection, finding help, the right medication and the power of talking about your problems with somebody who understands you.

It is our honour to be able to share Sean’s story with you.

Leila + Rhys X

This week we sat down with the lovely Kat Pither of Yogi Bare.

Kat talks us through what it’s like building a mini empire when you’re also prone to struggling with your mental health and everything that comes with it.

We talk about our love/hate relationship with social media, being a girl boss and how her humble beginnings of practising (then teaching) yoga blossomed into creating a brand she lives for.

Her story is testament to taking action and not living in the trap of “my life will start when I’m better". She’s showing up for life, putting one foot in front of the other and getting. Shit. Done. All the while staying true to herself and acknowledging her struggles.

Happy listening, friends. We hope you’re inspired.

Leila & Rhys X

Our guest this week is a good friend of mine, named Rhys Miles — commonly known as ‘Miles’ to his friends and loved ones.

Miles is a drum-thumping, cancer-beating, ale-chugging, black metal-loving dad from South Wales steel town, Port Talbot.

In the later part of last year, Miles’ life was plunged into uncertainty, fear and anxiety after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

In this episode, Rhys eloquently and articulately discusses his story with the ‘Big C’ from beginning to end — all the while with an admirable abundance of candour.

He discusses in detail how the disease affected him not only physically, but mentally and spiritually too. It was an assault on his person on all fronts and as he says, “I’d look in the mirror and I’d see a ghost…a literal ghost of what I was.“

With the care of capable and caring medical professionals, and with the love and support of his family and friends, Miles recently completed his final course of chemotherapy and I’m delighted to say that he’s now in remission.

I’ve been using the word “powerful” to describe a lot of the conversations we’re having on HM, but that really does feel like the most apt word here — we are limited by language and words after all.

This is Rhys’ cancer journey and it is our honour to be able to share it with you all.

Much love.

Rhys X

In this episode, we chat with a lovely Bristol-based musician who goes by the name of “Mouse”.

Mouse sat down with us to spread awareness about "Non Epileptic Attack Disorder" (or NEAD). We discuss her experience with the disorder, including her subsequent journey to “getting her life back on track”.

It is currently believed that the seizures associated with NEAD are triggered by the brain’s response to overwhelming stress, which can be from emotional or physical (e.g. pain) triggers, but there may be other causes. For some people, symptoms may proceed a specific trauma, and for others, an accumulation of stress over time — to find out more, have a listen!

During the episode — as well as NEAD — we discuss the importance of therapy and finding the right therapist, as well as meditation, connection, gratitude, busyness and creativity — this one is jam-packed folks!

We loved chatting to Mouse and learned so much during this episode — we think you're going to get a lot of value out of this.

A quote we loved from Mouse from the episode about the importance of therapy:

“It just shows how powerful talking in the correct way with the right person really can be.”

So, here it is friends. We hope you enjoy our conversation, with Mouse — go give her some love.

In this week's episode, we have a sit down chat (and sip on the strongest coffee ever brewed) with my good pal, Sammy Thomas: a photographer and camera operator with a penchant for retro games, based in our fair city of Cardiff.

We chat about his personal journey and how a traumatic life event caused an adverse shift in his mental health. We also talk creativity, fatherhood and how mindfulness, gratitude and the support of his family, have helped him get to where he is today.

So, here it is. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Sammy T.

Until next week friends!

Rhys X

When using social media, we often skip from pillar to post getting more and more confused, experiencing hundreds of conflicting micro-emotions without even acknowledging them and wonder why there's a growing sense of dissatisfaction and sadness amongst us...could it be because we're all becoming further and further removed from a simplistic life where it's possible to meet all of our needs as human beings?

From hiatus, to account deletion, handy suggestions and the comparison trap, join us for our 10th episode, in which we have a sit down with a brew and discuss how social media can affect our mental health.

Thank you people!

Rhys + Leila X