Baggage Check: Mental Health Talk and Advice

In today's show, we answer a listener question about the struggle that happens when you find out your partner has been keeping something from you about their emotional health. The listener found her husband's antidepressants and wonders, why was he keeping his depression from her? Join us as we tackle the deeper question: how much right do you have to know about your partner's mental health? When...

Our stomachs are doing flip-flops just thinking about it: family drama can take up so much mental and emotional space that it makes you physically ill. But while we can't totally control other people's behavior (we're looking at you, Guy Who Shouted Into His Phone For The Entire Train Ride!), we can use some principles of psychology to manage our own responses, deescalate difficult situations, and...

We all know that sugar isn't exactly the tip-top of nutrition. But when it comes to mental health, how does it truly affect our mood and behavior? Is sugar addiction real? And if we want to make genuine changes in our intake of it, where do we start-- and why is it so hard? Today we're joined by Dr. Nicole Avena, a neuroscientist at Princeton University whose groundbreaking research on sugar's eff...

Today, we're getting real about jealousy. Dr. Andrea takes a question from a listener who feels like she's never really happy for the successes of friends and family, and she can't ever stop comparing herself to others. She hates that she feels this way, and yet she can't really figure out where it came from. While jealousy hits all of us from time to time, for others it's a constant struggle. How...

Yes, we chose 13. Why? Because today Dr. Andrea is talking about embracing discomfort, with specific tips on how to do that-- and many other ways to counteract toxic positivity. If you listened to Baggage Check's premiere (Episode 1), you understand how harmful toxic positivity can be to our mental health. But what can you do about it? In this episode, she discusses 13 realistic daily steps that y...

Today Dr. Andrea dives deep into Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), a set of symptoms that many people struggle immensely with—without realizing there’s even a name for it. For people with RSD, the fear of rejection dominates their life, and often guides their behavior in ways that can sabotage them, and there's a startling connection to ADHD. Discussing in detail what it's like to live with thi...

With so much talk about burnout, why are so many workplaces still sailing ahead with practices that the research definitively tells us make their employees unwell? Today Dr. Andrea lists twenty job characteristics that are empirically shown to heighten stress, decrease morale and productivity, increase the risk of burnout, and lead to deteriorating mental and physical health in employees. If you’r...

Today we enlist psychotherapist and NY Times best-selling author of "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" Lori Gottlieb to help answer a listener question: if you’ve finally found a therapist, but things feel pretty mediocre, should you still hang in there and keep trying? In a surprisingly moving conversation about people-pleasing, the courage to face awkwardness, and truly showing up through your f...

In the Baggage Check series premiere, we dive into the concept of toxic positivity—and how we live in a global culture where happiness is both grossly misunderstood and constantly obsessed over. Getting real about the research on two very different conceptualizations of happiness—eudaimonic versus hedonic—and how one of them is associated with vastly improved mental health and fulfillment, Dr. And...

Welcome to Baggage Check, premiering November 1st with new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. With special guests, listener questions, and surprisingly actionable techniques to improve your mental health, Baggage Check brings psychology to life and makes you part of the conversation. Licensed clinical psychologist, Georgetown professor, and "Detox Your Thoughts" author Dr. Andrea Bonior is here to...