Your Mental Breakdown

Sarah is feeling overwhelmed with a lot of little things stressing her out and one big thing coming up – her cousin's memorial. Doug helps Sarah stop and breathe, so she can acknowledge and process some of her grief and feelings of guilt. Sarah gains different perspective on the loss of her cousin and her relationship with him. Doug and Meredith break down parts of the grief process that came up during the session.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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Sarah links her current feeling of powerlessness with her past experiences of powerlessness in the cult and in her previous marriage. Doug helps Sarah go to an emotional place and process from there, rather than go to an intellectualized place, or get anxious and shut down. Sarah uses therapy to help carve new neural pathways in her brain and shape new patterns of behavior by consciously shifting what she does and how she does it.

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Meredith Levy

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***Trigger warning*** This episode contains potentially triggering and sensitive topics including suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 988 in the United States. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in English and Spanish in the United States. You can also access resources online at https://988lifeline.org.

In the safe space of a therapy session, Drew is able to verbalize and explore his suicidal thoughts and the feelings of guilt, shame, and embarrassment. They talk about the stress and pressure from the expectations that Drew puts on himself. In the breakdown, Meredith and Doug continue to process what came up in the session and some of what they do professionally and personally when clients have suicidal thoughts.

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Meredith Levy

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An incident with her daughter sparks Sarah's feelings of anger and powerlessness. Doug helps her draw the link to her emotional experience in the cult. Sarah is able to stay with her emotions rather than intellectualize them or try to fix the situation. They begin processing the feelings in session that she's been holding onto most of her life.

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Meredith Levy

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Doug helps Drew use a metaphoric pie chart to understand where his energy goes and where his stress comes from in his life right now.

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Sarah tells the story of her life as a teenager after escaping the cult she grew up in as a child. Doug helps her see where some patterns started with her only focusing right in front of her, staying hyper vigilant, and never dropping the ball or giving up control. Doug and Mer highlight Sarah feeling free and independent as a teenager for this first time in her life – and how maybe she can tap into that way of being now as an adult.

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Meredith Levy

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From the vantage point of his new job and a regular paycheck, Drew looks back objectively with appreciation at some of the things he was doing for work the past 18 months. He gets support from his girlfriend/not-girlfriend as he finds his new speed.

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Drew got a new job and feels like he's taking a couple steps back mentally but he's taking ten steps forward emotionally. Although he's overqualified for this job, he has the perspective of feeling a sense of mastery in what he's doing. We look at concepts of success, balance, and confidence building.

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Drew is allowing himself to slow down and experience all of the emotions coming up right now rather than just "getting through it" or numbing away from it. He acknowledges that his roots at the bottom feel solid while at the top, he can be a reed blowing with the wind and not fighting it. He feels like an Evergreen, baby!

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Drew gets emotional as he copes with a hard week in the midst of a depressive episode. Drew expresses that he needed the safety net of parents this week and didn't get it. He's now feeling alone in the world, questioning his purpose, and not feeling much hope. Doug helps Drew acknowledge that much of this is a function of being more independent and not relying on others to feel better. It's also a function of Drew doubling down not shutting down, and processing these emotions rather than running from them. Doug holds the space for Drew to feel the feelings.

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Meredith Levy

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