In This Family

Content Warning: This episode discusses depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and suicide.  Long before she was an acclaimed rapper, singer, and author, Dessa was a scared adolescent, facing big feelings that she didn’t know what to do with and running away from home. She eventually found peace with her parents and returned to them and the younger brother who needed her and loved her very much. Des...

Content Warning: This episode discusses anxiety, addiction and suicide.  Fans of the beloved cult TV hit Mystery Science Theater 3000 have enjoyed many laughs from actor and writer Bill Corbett, who played the acerbic robot Crow on the show. Bill’s off-screen life hasn’t always been quite so hilarious. In this candid interview, he talks about growing up in an era where mental health was never disc...

Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, depression and schizophrenia. Families can be loving, they can be problematic, and, above all, they can be complicated. Author and professor Clancy Martin’s family of origin was very complicated indeed, featuring a dashing, charismatic father who founded his own religion and also dealt with schizophrenia. The family was also faced with suicidality,...

Family gatherings during the holidays are a time of connection and joy. They can also be a cause of anxiety or lead to triggering situations.  In this special holiday episode of In This Family, Dr. Michelle K. Murray provides practical tips on thriving or maybe just surviving family events. She reminds us that we always have a choice on how we show up, if we show up, and when we leave. And how goa...

Content Warning: This episode discusses borderline personality disorder, delusions, psychosis and schizophrenia. Sarah was having an ordinary day in her life as a writer living in Los Angeles when her phone rang. Her grandmother explained that Sarah’s mom had been picked up ranting and raving on the side of the freeway in Houston, where Sarah grew up. It was a shock but not a surprise for Sarah, w...

Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and bipolar disorder.  Maria Bamford’s parents, Joel and Marilyn, were not part of a generation that knew all the terminology and awareness of mental health that we have today. They couldn’t even identify their own difficulties as being indicative of mental health conditions. But they did try...

Content Warning: This episode discusses Depression, Anxiety, Rape, Sexual Assault, and Suicidal Ideation.  Vivien Lee recalls the first inklings of an existential crisis when she was eight years old, a feeling she would eventually connect with depression. As she grew older, Vivien endured severe trauma, threatening her mental health even further. For Vivien, the oldest of several children in a fam...

Content Warning: This episode discusses depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and gender dysphoria. This week, our ongoing conversation about families and mental health turns to the family of our host, Dr. Michelle K. Murray, President and CEO of Nexus Family Healing. She welcomes her brother Aaron and nephew Asher for an enlightening talk about Asher’s journey. Having dealt wi...

Content Warning: This episode discusses substance abuse, addiction and suicide. Long before she became a successful journalist, political pundit, and podcaster, Ana Marie Cox was doing her best to navigate some tough times. The family was constantly moving, which, combined with being an only child, made it hard to make and keep friends and get the peer support kids need. Ana needed even more suppo...

Content Warning: this episode discusses self-harm, anxiety and grief. Author and artist Moon Zappa became famous at age 14, doing a guest vocal on the hit song “Valley Girl” by her dad, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Frank Zappa. It’s a fun song, what isn’t so fun is that the song came about from Moon’s desperate attempt to get some kind of attention and approval from her dad in what she says...

Content Warning: This episode discusses addiction.  As a young resident at Duke University, Joseph Lee saw the profound change that people were capable of when dealing with addiction. He witnessed how people could become healthier than they had ever been with the benefit of skilled treatment, good support, and a lot of determination. Dr. Lee has been with Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation for 17 year...

Content Warning: This episode discusses depression, anxiety, hospitalization, and traumatic experiences. Gary Gulman has been making people laugh for many years as a top touring comedian and frequent guest on late night shows and star of multiple HBO specials. He’s a professional success by any measure. But that didn’t stop him from having a mental breakdown in his forties, where he gave up comedy...

Content Warning: This episode discusses substance use, depression, anxiety, and death by suicide.  Award-winning veteran journalist Meg Kissinger grew up as part of a close-knit family in a noisy and active house. That happens in a home with eight kids. Yet there was nothing but silence when it came to the pervasive bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, depression, and anxiety that heavily imp...

The podcast, In This Family, features honest and candid conversations with public figures and everyday people about mental health within families, highlighting the power of resilience and courage through those relationships. When one member of a family has a mental health issue, the whole family has a mental health issue; everybody is affected – children and adults. What happens in families can be...