Positively Terrible

Desi grew up in the house with the juke box. Didn't we all have a friend like that? Sometimes they had a juke box, other times it was a pinball machine. The only thing that was certain was that they always had a drink fridge stocked with all the best sodas - both the name brands and the generics (what up Mountain Holler Flavored Citrus Soft Drink ). I didn't ask if Desi had a drink fridge, but Dad...

Patrice is lucky. You might not expect me to to describe any of our guests as “lucky”, especially one who came on to talk about the devastation of losing the two most important people in her world. That part of her story genuinely sucked. The losses left her in a deep depression. It was a pain that disrupted her life in ways that I’ve never experienced and never want to experience. The grief was t...

Eileen Tull grew up a theater (theatre?) kid with feelings of superiority, at least in part due to her religous morals. Sobriety was part of her personality until she was twenty — and then it very much wasn’t. When she decided it was time to have her first drink, she threw a party so she could turn it into an event and get all the attention she craved. Six years later she was sober again, but the...

This week’s Decent Fucking Human is a man I admire. That might not sound like much considering anyone who earns the title of Decent Fucking Human has my admiration, but this guy has the acclaim to go with it. You see, in 2017 he decided therapy was too expensive and (probably) said “fuck it, I’ll go start a podcast,” and start a podcast he did. It’s called The Art of Letting Go , and he’s now 200...

Aly Bird is a Decent Fucking Human and author of a book called Grief Ally . Want to guess why it's called Grief Ally ? It's because people don't know how to best support loved ones when they suffer a traumatic loss, and Aly suffered a traumatic loss. Aly and her husband were a power couple. Maybe not with the fame of Taylor Swift and whoever that football player guy is, but they felt like they cou...

This week’s Decent Fucking Human is Josh Patterson, host of the (Re)thinking Faith Podcast . Josh sent us an email with the subject “My fucked-up experience as a pastor,” and expressed interest in joining us for an interview. He had my attention, but I’ll admit that I was worried about touching religion. He mentioned the word deconstruction somewhere in our exchanges, and that didn’t do anything t...

Katy is a Decent Fucking Human if there ever was one, and after listening to this episode, you're going to admire her for being so. It would have been easy for her life to go off the rails, if there were ever rails for it to go off.  Katy was raised for a time on a commune disguised as a cult. She spent her time in the woods instead of school, and had a mother who had a suspected personality disor...

At the start of 2014, Amy Thurman was your everyday Decent Fucking Human. She was a wife and mom with a career, and she lived life with a brainstem you would not have described as “sheared,” and a neck you would not have described as “broken.” Let’s just say that her circumstances were about to change — and not for the better.  What happened? Amy fell - or maybe it's better characterized as fainte...

Scott was still recovering from Covid, so this week's episode is the second installment of our "Interview a Therapist Who Almost Definitely Loves Producer Dan" format. Decent Fucking Human and LCPC, Rose Metivier, tolerates Scott and Dan long enough to answer our questions about finding a therapist and going to therapy. Comprehensive directories of therapists with detailed profiles, specialties, a...

Today's Decent Fucking Human comes from Producer Dan's Decent Fucking Family. We recorded this episode with Dan's big sister Loren in 2021 before we'd figured out what Positively Terrible was, so this doesn't match the regular format. We learn about Loren's career as a Board Certified Music Therapist and about growing up as Dan's sister. Music Therapy Wiki Music Therapy Videos: Gait training  Auti...

Darlene was never expected to go to University. Hell, she didn't even finish high school. It's hard to judge her for that considering she had an alcoholic parent and untreated ADHD. It's hard to have any real direction when your priority is surviving.  She eventually found her passion though, and through that, a direction. She went to University. She got a degree in something meaningful to her. Sh...

Zaira was 18 years old when she was sexually assaulted by a man she knew. Three months later she was sexually assaulted by a man she didn't. The Complex Like Wine host shared an incredibly honest and vulnerable account of both. She didn't always tell her fucked up story. When she first tried to tell her friend group, one of them told her she was wrong. It was two years before she was willing to ta...

Daniel was a physically fit teenager taking a day trip with his buddy to Door County, Wisconsin. Things were things. He didn't have any particular direction, but he certainly wasn't intending to have his life disrupted when the SUV he was riding in started flipping down the highway that day. That's what happened though. The cool thing is that his friend saved his life. The not-so-cool part of it w...

Imagine finding your friend murdered. First, you're going to be treated as a suspect. After the police determine your weren't involved, you now have to help them. You fear for your safety because the killer is still on the loose before he's finally arrested. After the case is built, you're brought in to testify for the prosecution as the defense does their best to put your credibility into questio...

Oh, hi. Terrible Scott here - you may know me from such trauma and mental health podcasts as Positively Terrible, and, well, I guess just that one. But it's a damn good Podcast, and I've got some guest appearances lined up too. We'll be announcing those later. Today you might want to watch this excerpt from Episode 1 before you listen, because this episode is an update on Scott's journey. Or maybe...

This week’s Decent Fucking Human is Elizabeth. In March 2022 she entered recovery after surviving a life-threatening situation following one too many drunken nights. That sounds scary, but rock-bottom usually is. It was an opportunity to turn her mistakes into a success story, but the following month her father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. If you think she could lean on her husband fo...

Scooter’s enthusiasm for beer quickly went from being his passion, to his medication, after his father passed away from cancer in 2021. It was the easy choice to avoid facing his trauma, and it did make him feel better – until it didn’t. He’s since learned to drink mindfully, so let’s all raise a Miller Lite in memory of Gus for his part in raising this week’s Decent Fucking Human. Terrible Listen...

This week's fucked up story starts when Mike went to college only to return home a week later when changing shampoo didn't make the lumps on his head go away. It turned out he needed treatment for cancer, not a new hair routine. After a successful treatment and returning to a normal life, he discovered a new lump, indicating his cancer had returned. Neil Young - My My Hey Hey “It’s better to burn...

This week, Gracen winds his way through his fucked up story of gender trauma. He explains how culture assigns an identity whether you like it or not, and what it was like to transition publicly at work. Scott and Dan reminisce about the day HR walked into a staff meeting and said "His name is Gracen, his pronouns are he/him, and you will have no problem with this. Any questions?" Producer Dan brav...

This week’s Decent Fucking Human is going by the initial M. Karma decided to kick M. in the ass after she ditched her blind date to go out with the man who would become her husband and stalker. He showed subtle signs of manipulation and control early, but their marriage slowly turned into a hellscape of isolation and abuse. M. finally escaped through the swamps of Louisiana, but quickly learned th...

In this very special bonus episode, Naseem shares the very first episode of her show, Terrible Sex with Naseem .   Creators & Guests Producer Dan - Host Naseem - Guest

This weeks decent fucking human is Naseem.  She’s got a fucked up story about growing up brown in the Rust Belt post 9-11.  Settle in my terrible listeners, today's episode is going to be Positively Terrible.

Join Scott, Dan, and their pal Bill for a wild ride on this week's episode. Bill, once a promising 12-year-old vowing never to touch drugs, nosedived into addiction by 21, landing in jail and rehab. His early floundering attempts at sobriety laid the groundwork for his eventual reach for help. Today, with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) , he's 7 years clean but only counts his sobriety from...

This week, we're joined by the indomitable Neighbor Francis, whose positive outlook and infectious spirit remind us of the power of connection and the importance of cherishing every moment. Despite his terminal cancer diagnosis, Francis refuses to let life's challenges get him down. He shares his unique perspective on the world, urging us all to take the time to appreciate the people and experienc...

This week's Decent Fucking Human is co-host Terrible Scott. His fucked up story is about emotional abuse and discovering his wife's secret lives. Hello Terrible Listener, and welcome to the first episode of Positively Terrible. This story is the one where Scott (that's me), his wife's fiance, and her boyfriend, all walk into a bar. It's the story about how after that night I had to come to terms w...