Anxiety Road Podcast

As I mention in the podcast, it is the eight anniversary of the podcast. The need to connect people to the various mental health services  is still necessary. There have been times that my symptoms were stable and I could crank out an episode, no problem.   But there are times when I'm at high tide, the symptoms are showing themselves to the public and I can or cannot produce an episode.   Thing is, more often or not, I found a way. Making mistakes. Learning new ideas and concepts. Understanding that treatment is an ever expanding concept.   In 2015 I did not say anything about virtual mental health care. It wasn't on the radar or a minor blip accessible to some people, probably using Skype.   So I still do this podcasting dance with my symptoms and my goals.    Which begs the question, Is it always going to be like this? If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  Fro

It is the start of the summer slowdown where I'll post less often as I try to catch up on my sleep and elocution skills. I've been talking a lot lately and I can hear multiple imperfections.  Really a bad idea to do five things at the same time.    Anyway, last week's error has created this episode. As a standing warning. Never upgrade as you are working on a project. I've gotten away with it before but not last week. It destroyed my audio file. Totally my fault. I knew better but didn't do better.   This week is the definition of PTSD and some but not all of the accessible resources you might want to check out if you don't know about the condition. If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  Mending the Line  Blue Sky Entertainment official movie trailer on YouTube.   Field and Stream interview with director Joshua Caldwell about the movie and the challenges in bring it

After missing last week, I was determined to get an episode up.  I recording and edited it. The SOS software decided to garble my speech.  And then it stopped working. So I turned to my phone and made something happen. It ain't pretting but I dood it. This is a quick look at the new movie called Minding the LIne, which is a fictional movie about fly fishing, PTSD and coping as best you can.  I'll get the rest of the episode re-jiggered and try again.  I might have to miss an episode or two, it is getting hectic at Amalgamated Salt and Brimstone and some times you have to yield to the sulfur.  

It has been a while since I’ve mentioned this; the focus on the podcast is for folks that have been medically diagnosed with an anxiety condition or disorder.    However, all are welcome. The over-stressed, the somewhat anxious or those that are up against it and don’t know what to do.   Everybody has anxiety. That is normal and necessary. We need it for our personal safety and awareness that there is a possible problem or danger. Anxiety’s job is to bring awareness. Not a good thing or a bad thing.    For some of us, our anxiety alert system is out of whack. Our brain is on constant high alert. There are symptoms that are hard to control.   That is the topic of this episode. How do you deal with your symptoms?   If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  National Institute of Mental Health definition page on Anxiety Disorders. They also have downloadable booklets on:

There are days when we muck it up. And spend hours berating yourself that you were not perfect or you did not catch one of the dozens of bug a boos that you handle in a day.    On this day I would like to suggest that you stop being mean, nasty or hyper-critical about being fallible. Practice your breathing, drink some water, move your body and actively be kind to yourself. If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:    Katie McLaughlin six minute guided meditation on peace and acceptance VeryWell Mind post on How to Embrace Self-Acceptance   Psychology Today blog post on How to Practice Acceptance Disclaimer:  Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements.  Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder. This blog and podcast is intend

For those of you that don’t understand about the experience of depression, I have two websites that might help folks get a grip on it.     The first is Will O’Neil’s Actual Sunlight.    It is a fictional narrative game about the experience of living and trying to exist in a depressive state.     Another expression of the experience is an old school HTML website called Deprression Quest.   It is an interactive experience about living with depression.   What am I talking about this?    In this episode, a word or two about Heather Armstrong and a few resources that might help you understand depression a little bit more and a resource or two to help some of you stay on this side of the life fence. If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  Washington Post article about Heather Armstrong. The website Live Through This Will O’Neil’s Actual Sunlight   Old school HTML interactiv

Last time, I talked about coaching. How there are different types of coaches and that it is an unlicensed and unregulated practice. There are good and bad coaches, and we need to find ways to figure out who is who.   I tried to chop it down into chunks but this is a big topic. And not a lot of consumer friendly information sources. Many of the resources I found where connected to vendors wanting to either have folks sign up for their telehealth service or to take a class or course on health couching.    The somewhat neutral sources I've listed below.    I know this one is wordy. But honestly, I whacked it down from 22 minutes to about 14 minutes. Probably should have knocked off another seven but you do what you can when you can.   For my overseas folks. I do not know if you have the expression "wham, bam, thank you mam." It applies to the vending machine approach to obtaining sexual services from an in-demand vendor.    Going to a doctor or medical office can be a long wait, then you get into the office, say

I’m working my way through the mental health telemedicine providers and I’m coming across the word “coach.”    I get a little leery about that word because I’ve had some experiences with people using it to wrap themselves in a health wellness cloak of respectability.   I’ve gone to conferences and sat in on sessions that I thought were about how to best provide information to people wanted health information.    A couple of those sessions went into details about how to lead your audience down a sales funnel by appealing to fears, wants and needs.   And how you can position yourself as an expert to sell $47 a bottle worth of healing.   Yeah, I have a lot of preconceived bias about that word. But are my preconceived bias getting in the way of what is happening in the mental health care space?  Maybe.    This is the dipping of the toes into the coach space. Just want to define the term and some of the ways people are using it.    The next episode will be a deeper dive into health coaches and coaching. If you ne

This episode is not for everybody. Some of you will be highly dismissive. That is okay. Different strokes for different folks.     Knitting provides an object of focus for our practice. We can practice focusing our attention and letting go of distractions.   The point is, doing something analog or tactile can help you relax. Or meditate or route you and keep you in the present tense. In this pebble in the Road a quick look at crafting as a gateway to meditation. If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  Meditation 101 and Mindfulness Exercises Guided Meditations & Mindfulness Talks    Color Yourself to Mindfulness Book by Melissa Launay published by CICO Press distributed by Simon and Schuster Publishing.   Marshall at Wristwatch Revival on YouTube   Becky at Knit Om on Knitting as Meditation   Disclaimer:  Links to other sites are provided for information purposes

Long time listeners know that I am a connoisseur of the sequential arts.    It is truly the theater of the mind because I can co-create with the artist to experience an environment or an adventure.   I bring this up because sometimes healing can come from unexpected places. Like a graphic novel or a comic book.    Three of the books talk about the experience of having a perpetual negative voice interfering with the quality of their lives.    Three of the books speak to what they have done to connect with their better selves.    In this episode a look at five graphic novels memoires about anxiety. If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:    Marie and the Worrywart by Jen Woodall. The cover gives a good example of going from being normal to transition into symptom flare up. It is published by Silver Sprocket Press.   MonsterMind: Dealing with Anxiety and Self-Doubt by Alf

The anxiety symptoms can muck up our ability to see what we've done, whether it was fair, good, or excellent. There are a lot of wonderful people that have anxiety conditions that do mighty good things. People write, create or force a revolution into how we should treat each other as human being. In this week's episode, a look at a pioneer that helped to improve mental health care in the U.S. and a look at Mental Health America. If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  George Dunnett Video I am Not Very Well   Clifford W. Beers book A Mind That Found Itself. You can find versions of the book to download at Project Gutenberg. And for those of you that prefer your reading via audio, there is a Librevox version of the book at the Internet Archive. National Library of Medicine American Journal page on Clifford W. Beers From a Patient's Perspective: Clifford Whittingham B

As one section of America tries to move forward there are others that are determine to hold on to what didn't work in the past and certainly won't work in the future.    In this day, do the best you can. That is the lesson to be learned across all of time and space. I had to record this episode seven or eight times.    I kept messing up. Mispronounced words. Forgot to explain something. Then there were the birds and the trash truck.   Together. In harmony.   You can aim for perfection, but in the meantime you do what you can. You might muck it up but do what you can.     In this episode, a window shopping look at AmWell for anxiety treatment and mental health services.   If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  Discovery Magazine article about possible blood testing for anxiety.   Engadget post on Cerebral sharing data with Meta and other companies.     AmWell Mental

There are times when I find myself in unexpected territories. This is one of those times. It is why I'm trying to include more attention to the virtual mental health providers.  If you have ever listed to a podcast or watch YouTube, you probably have heard or seen something about the company known as BetterHealth.    You might have seen an advertorial from a social media influencer or from a podcaster.    Yeah, this is pickle. BetterHealth presented itself as a service that helps users find and connect with behavioral health providers. Not only under the BetterHealth name but also under a number of doing business as names as:   Faith Counseling - Christian focus therapy Pride Counseling - LGBTQ therapy focus Teen Counseling - Teens with parent approval Terappeutia - Spanish speaking users. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a complaint against the company BetterHealth had customers provide personal identifiable information.   BetterHealth made promises and assurances about the level of privacy an

A few years ago in an episode I said: Anxiety is so much more than the typical stress reaction.  For some of us, we gag, we choke, we have heart pains, we have chest pains, we have diarrhea, we have gastric distress, we have excessive sweating. We can't leave our homes. These are not the kind of things you're going to be thinking your way through if your symptoms are that extreme. And there was a point where my symptoms got that extreme.  I decided to take medication.   I am now on team make informed decisions about taking medication. And once you have made that decision there can be other obstacles.    Like getting the prescription filled. There is a proposal from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) about applying changes to how prescriptions can be filled via telemedicine.    This is just a brief overview of how they and other interested parties want to handle this process.   If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-

I freely admit that I mentioned can soda too many times in this episode. But it had a profound effect on my body and parts of my brain.    There are folks that use other substances in excess to deal with their symptoms or whatever else is going on with them. For me, it was sugar drinks and pastries.    Almost never met a donut I didn't like.   I no longer beat myself up on wanting to scarf up a sweet treat.  I do get pissed at myself when I do eat a problem food. There are repercussions.     Messed myself up on a piece of pie.  There are always repercussions when you do something you should not do.    It is important to understand that we as human beings tend to look for relief when we are in discomfort.  It is what we do.   In this episode, a look at a book from New Harbinger Publications on just in time help for anxiety.   If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  The

Some providers of services use the term behavioral health. Some use mental health.  I have spent the  hours trying to get a concise meaning of both terms.    It ain't easy.   The American Psychological Association defines behavioral as:   ...an interdisciplinary subspecialty of behavioral medicine that promotes a philosophy emphasizing individual responsibility in the maintenance of one’s own health and in the prevention of illness and dysfunction by means of self-initiated activities (jogging, exercising, healthy eating, not smoking, etc.). [proposed by U.S. psychologist Joseph D. Matarazzo (1925–  )] Mental Health.gov defines it as:   Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Here is the thing. There are jerk face doctors and corporations that employ

The virtual mental health marketplace is an ever-changing land of what was impossible is now possible. Whether or not it should be is a question for another time.  Now might be a good time to ask those questions because there are a lot of new players that are being created outside of the traditional medical education and practice system.   This week, I'm taking what I call a window shopping view of a company called Ro.co and Ro Mind. They provide medicine, medical education via pre-recorded video and medical management services for people that anxiety, depression and seasonal affected disorder only.   I'm still working out my thoughts on the Ro Mind telehealth service. On the one hand, if you already have a therapist or a mental health provider that can't prescribe medication, this might be a good options.   But there are issues and concerns I have about self diagnosing without a medical checkup. Anyway, this is a quick look based on what I found when I visited the website.   If you need support contact the

In this episode, a look at some of the mental tele-health options that are in or will be introduced to the healthcare marketplace. Next time, and throughout the year I'll show examples of a virtual mental health service, what it does, the pros & cons and other items of interest.  If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  SAMSHA Disaster Distress helpline is 1-800-985-5990 for voice and text communication in English and Spanish. There are also other languages available and ASL video access is accessible via a smartphone. The SAMSHA website has a lot of information about disaster related mental health issues.   Telehealth.gov page Behavioral Health Care for Individual Care, this does a good job of describing the options in the the virtual mental health space at this time.    National Institute of Mental Health has a downloadable PDF that gives a basic description vir

This is the start to a mini-series about telehealth and telemedicine options. Starting out with a definition of what telehealth is, types of provider services including a taste of virtual mental health care and recourses.   The short version is, per the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services,  “Telehealth — sometimes called telemedicine — lets your health care provider care for you without an in-person office visit. Telehealth is done primarily online with internet access on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.” I think I have that song by David Bowie on repeat in my head. So many changes are occurring and I don't know if it is good sense to try to keep up with all of them.   Some changes there isn't a choice about. We have to be aware that entrepreneurs are providing medical  and mental health services via software, apps and treatment options.   Not all of the entrepreneurs are coming from a traditional medical orientation. There is a for profit slicing and dicing about providing access to care i

Trying to finish up on my science literacy class. It is a pip. It is very good and provides a lot information about how scientists evaluate questions and data.    It is thumping my poor brain with all kinds of concepts. Once I finish the class, I should be back on a regular schedule.    Going through my stuff and seeing if I forgot anything. Seems like I did forget a thing or two.    I might have included this in an episode but just in case, I want to make sure that you know about buying CBD oil on Amazon.com.   If you have been following the mini series about hemp seed oil and CBD oil you know:   The sale of hemp products with less than 0.3 THC or any psychoactive properties is permitted in the U.S. on the federal level.   However, depending on where you live in the United States, hemp products can either legal conditionally legal or totally illegal to purchase depending on the state or territory you happen to live in.    Fifty states, the District of Columbia and the territories. All with different laws