Straight Talking Mental Health

"If somebody gaslights you over and over and over again, it does a number on your brain!"

This week we're straight talking having a Narcissistic Husband with Erin Riley. Erin grew up in Mad Men era Manhattan with a model "narcissistic" mother and actor father, before she ran away to California as a teen. Erin tells us her rock n roll stories from being in the rock scene for 40 years, including one abou...

"I've clients that are being diagnosed and medicated at the age of 4!"

This week we're straight talking Parenting ADHD Children with Avigail Gimpel - an educator and very proud Jewish mom to SIX children with ADHD (and a husband). Avigail tells us about her experience of getting her older children diagnosed and why she stopped getting diagnoses, to diagnose or not, the reliance in Israel on medicating ...

"I didn't want to die but if that was going to be the best alternative, I was ok with it"

This week we're straight talking Losing A Partner with Will Craig. Will tells us about the mental health struggles he had and the suicidal thoughts he experienced even before the death of his girlfriend who was only in her 20's. He also opens up about what it was like to suspect something was wrong on the day she ...

"I was so anxious and very, very suicidal... I'd always struggled with depression and that just amplified it completely "

This week we're straight talking Bullying with "Mollie". Mollie tells us about her experience of being bullied in school, the cyberbullying she endured - from group chats being set up about her, anonymous comments online of how to kill herself and the toll it took on her physical an...

"I didn't fight cancer, I embraced cancer!"

This week we're straight talking Cancer with Angelica Alen. Angelica was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer after an admission to the emergency room. She tells us about the emergency surgery to remove the tumor, how chemotherapy treatment was like being blasted "with an atomic bomb", the impact her cancer had on her husband and children and she stresses the ...

"I had a baby 7 years ago and I hated it, I felt no connection."

This week we're straight talking Postpartum Depression with Suzanne Yatim Aslam. Suzanne is a former Ms. Arab USA with no history of mental health difficulties, after the birth of her first son she hated being a mother, felt no connection to her son and it wasn't for two more years she found out she was suffering with postpartum depressio...

"In my 30s I had my own nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia."

This week we're straight talking Schizophrenia with Bee Baumann. Bee grew up in a strict Christian Baptist home only to find out at 12 she had been fostered and then taken back to live with her birth mother and 7 siblings. Bee tells us about becoming an emancipated child at 15, being hospitalised after a nervous breakdown ...

"Darkness consumed me, I believed there was no way out."

Fresh for 2023, we're straight talking Male Depression with Neil Kelders. Neil shares his experience of depression that has been there since childhood after his father left at age 10, the abandonment fears that affected his relationships in later life, the constant suicidal thoughts that consumed him daily and how finally opening up about his men...

"People say 'you should have done better at school' but I tried my hardest."

This week we're straight talking Dyslexia with Rachel. Rachel is a long time listener to the podcast who works in social care for people with mental health difficulties - she shares what that experience is like, working with people who can at times self harm or be violent. She also discusses living with dyslexia, from being sc...

"I thought I was fucked, I thought I was broken, I thought I was different."

This week we're straight talking Dissociation with Erik DaRosa. Erik, a former Wall Street trader, tells us about his experience of intrusive thoughts about harming other people related to the OCD & anxiety he experienced since a child, the imposter syndrome he felt working on Wall St and the stress that lead to his first expe...

"It was clear I wasn't going to make it through college without a formal diagnosis."

This week we're straight talking ADHD with Eric Allan. Eric tells about his OCD as a child, how a fever as a child may have contributed, how ADHD was a difficulty for him throughout life and why he doesn't know if would have wanted to be diagnosed as child. We also discuss the different manifestations of ADHD (inattent...

"I learned a lot about myself and my sexuality through sex work"

This week we're straight talking Being An Escort/ Sex Worker with "Hannah". Hannah tells us about why she chose to be an escort, being "outed" to her mother, her experience from working in a brothel to being "independent" and paying tax on a profession that is legal where she lives. Hannah also opens up about her previous mental health ex...

"Your desire to hurt your ex is greater than your love for your kids."

This week, at the request of a listener, we're straight talking Parental Alienation & Loving Your Kids. We discuss the 5 factors involved in parental alienation, not just stopping the children seeing their parent but also bad mouthing them in front of the children, the impact it has on children when they become adults and the common...

"One partner has the higher libido, or the other partner doesn't want to have sex as much, there can be frustration, feelings of resentment."

This week we're straight talking Sex with sex therapist Lyndsey Murray CST. Allan & Lyndsey share their clinical experience and discuss desire discrepancy (when one partner has a higher sex drive), religious beliefs and how they change our view of sex, what's the "normal" amount of times to h...

"No matter how much someone tells you you're not fat... if you don't believe it yourself, no amount of anyone else saying it to you is going to convince you."

It's our check in episode! We're straight talking night terrors, as Aisling tells us about her experience of suffering night terrors, a year of screaming in her sleep and jumping out of bed. After Allan's self consciousness filming last week's Yo...

"I thought that my son would be unsafe in my care now that my diagnosis changed from depression to bipolar."

This week we're straight talking Bipolar Disorder with author Kitt O'Malley. Kitt, a former psychotherapist, tells us about growing up in an alcoholic home, high parental expectations she experienced, how her first manic episode started as a result of medication she was prescribed and how she had to move back in with her par...

"It's hard to not be able to say 'I'll be around in a few minutes' if you have a bad day."

It's our check in episode! We're straight talking the difficulties that come with being in a long distance relationship and we're reading out your icks - men you really need to hear what women think about what you're doing! We discuss what the ick is, why it affects women more than men (is there an evolutionary r...

"People think they have the right to take somebody's life, just because they're gay."

This week we're straight talking LGBTQ+ & Parenting. Mary Gibney tells us about her experience of growing up in small town Ireland in the 80's & 90's, not even knowing what a lesbian was, finding the gay scene in Dublin and the homophobic attacks and rapes by men on lesbian women. Mary also tells us her experience of ...

"You can have a male friend that's straight, majority of the time it's going to come out that they want something else'."

We're asking the age old question can men and women be friends. Aisling discusses the friendships she has lost when feelings haven't been reciprocated and the experience of grief after losing people she thought were genuine friends. We also discuss emotional affairs, "work husbands/...