The Hardcore Self-Help Podcast with Duff the Psych

This episode is a wide-ranging conversation with Abhishek Chandra, a co-founder and CTO of Spring Health, which is a comprehensive mental health benefit for employers that goes beyond the traditional employee assistance program. We talk about the role of tech in mental health including machine learning, genetic testing, and online therapy. It's really interesting stuff! Next week should be a norma...

This week's episode is a question and answer session. I cover three awesome questions that cover a variety of important topics. As always I'm impressed by the bravery in posing these difficult questions and I hope that I do a good job of being sensitive AND realistic in my responses. Here are the questions: How can I manage my anxiety after I had my first panic attack? How can I deal with my abuse...

Hello! In this episode, I interview a friend of mine, Dan Fields, from the Save it for the Show podcast. I thought this would be an interesting episode because it's essentially just me talking to a friend of mine about life on the internet, creating, modern mental health, families, working from home, and all sorts of other topics. I hope you enjoy! Next week will be a question and answer episode,...

Welcome, everybody! Today's episode is going to focus on a single topic. I have gotten a lot of questions recently about nighttime anxiety and nocturnal panic, so today we are going to focus on things that you can do to help you get a little bit better sleep and some relief from that nasty anxiety that can pop up during the night. Thank you to our sponsors for this episode, Open Fit and Daily Harv...

Hello, everyone! Super excited because this week I have my beautiful wife, Joelle Duff on the podcast again. You always have such great feedback when she's on the show and it's honestly just nice to have a good excuse to sit and talk with my favorite person. We talk about her getting back into her career after taking a mental health, baby, life-clarity break. We talk about communication in our rel...

Hello, friends! This week, I have an interview with the wonderful Bipolar Barbie. She is a mental health advocate from Australia. In this interview, she describes her experiences with bipolar and talks about why she is passionate about being a mental health advocate. We cover topics from her first manic episode during law school to the importance of medication in her journey. I think you'll really...

This week, I have a nice Q&A session for you. Three really great questions that cover a variety of topics. Some of the content in here is sexually related and there is also plenty of talk about trauma. Be advised. I forgot to announce it during the episode, but this week's free book winner is @inkblot_ace on twitter. Congrats! If you want to win a free print copy of one of my books, simply share y...

On this episode, I have an interview with Larry Gifford from the When Life Gives You Parkinson's podcast. He was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease at age 45. This was a serious curve ball for someone with a spouse, a child, and a blossoming career in radio. We talk about his show, coping with a Parkinson's diagnosis, honest conversations with family, and misconceptions about Parkinson...

Hello, friends! I have a Q&A episode for you today. This is an extra special episode for a couple reasons. First off, I'm starting a new weekly tradition. If you share your favorite quote from the episode on social media and tag me, you might be selected to win a free copy of one of my books! Second, my nearly one-year-old kiddo, Leo was very present in this episode. I had to squeeze in the record...

Hello, all!  This was an episode that was supposed to air a while back. I postponed it due to a shooting at my alma mater's college night at the Borderline night club in Thousand Oaks. I felt that the topic just wouldn't be appropriate for that day.  However, now that we are in a new year, it's the perfect time to think about your values, your goals, your aspirations, and how to live better in the...

This is a short and sweet episode that I recorded before leaving for an end-of-year vacation with my family. We talk about making goals for the new year.  At the end of the year, many people start thinking about goals and resolutions. I see absolutely no problem with that. However, it's important to try to do them in a way that sets you up for success rather than failure. Here are a few quick tips...

The last episode of 2018! Wowwwww. It's been an awesome year and I thank you so much for all of the support, attention, and of course questions. I thought that I would end things strong with a nice Q&A episode. Here are the topics covered: What is Neuroptimal (neurofeedback)? How can I help myself when depression steals my motivation? How do I know if therapy is working? I am so excited to get bac...

This is part 2/2 for my series of interviews about Ketamine treatments. In this episode, I interview Jamie AKA "The Gloomy Optimist" about her personal experiences with the treatments that she says saved her life. We go deep into her life-long struggles with anxiety and depression. Jamie is someone who has put in the work. She has tried numerous medications and therapy, but nothing seemed to stick...

Friends. If there is one interview of mine that you listen to, let it be this one. In this interview, I talk to Dr. Steven Mandel, the founder of the Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles. Ketamine is one of the most effective mental health treatments that very few people seem to talk about. To me this is a shame. It's amazingly effective treatment for depression, suicidality, PTSD, and bipolar.  In the...

Hello, everyone! Great to be back recording a normal Q&A episode this week. Between the unexpected non-episode a couple weeks back and the re-run episode last week, I haven't actually sat down and addressed your questions in a while. Here are the awesome questions that I cover on today's episode: How can I break the cycle of self-sabotage and self-doubt in my relationship? How can I overcome my fe...

Hey, everyone! This is a re-release of an episode that I did last year. I am busy this week with holiday stuff, so I didn't want to record something new, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to repost episode 85, which originally aired on 11/21/17. It's all about tips that you can use to survive the holidays. The holidays are crazy for everyone, but it's stepped up a notch when you also st...

Super excited to have the awesome Kati Morton on the show with me today. I'm sure you already know who she is, but if you need a refresher, she is most well known for her Youtube channel where she answers questions and gives mental health advice. Kati is a licensed therapist and brings a down-to-earth approach to the content that she puts out. In this interview, I learn a little more about Kati th...

The regularly scheduled podcast interview is postponed this week. There was a tragic shooting at my alma mater's college night at the Borderline bar in Thousand Oaks, CA. In this short message, I talk about what happened, how I'm feeling, and a few tips for coping.

I did an episode last year around Halloween time about spooky social psychology experiments and what they say about humanity. I figured I'd keep the trend going and do an episode all about creepy treatments from the origin of psychological health care. Before listening any further, just know that some of these are cruel and gross. We've come a long way since the different treatments that I will ta...

Fantastic episode for you today. We go deep into the different types of medication for anxiety, how to know when it's time to stop taking them, and ways to cope with anxiety that you can use with or without medication.   This is the third episode taking a slightly different approach with just one question per episode, with the intention of diving deeper into topics. Now it's time to give me some f...

In this episode, I take a question from someone about how they can help their romantic partner who is great most of the time but gets suicidal or violent every so often. How can she get him to go to therapy or recognize the that there are actual issues going on? I give my perspective on this question and also spend some time defining bipolar disorder. Enjoy! For full episode notes, check out http:...

In this episode, I'm trying something slightly different. Rather than taking three questions, I'm taking one and using it as a jumping off point to go in-dept into topics related to the question. Sort of combining the deep-dive and Q&A formats. I'm going to try this for a few weeks and then ask for your opinions. Today's episode is all about C-PTSD or complex post-traumatic stress disorder. See fu...

In this episode, I do a deep dive talking about a requested topic: dementia. It can be hard to find good information and advice about dementia online, so I hope that this episode can serve that function. I go in-depth and cover the following: Dementia terminology What kinds of dementia there are How to get a diagnosis Managing difficult behaviors Support available for caregivers If you have a sugg...

Back to the Q&A this week. Before I answer the questions, I talk about a recent psychiatric hospitalization that I had to do with the hope of helping you understand that it's not a purely black and white situation. Here are the questions I cover: How can I make friends when my depression gets in the way? Should I be avoiding stress rather than exposing myself? What advice do you have for a future...

Hello! I thought it would be nice to have my wife, Joelle, back on the podcast today. She's usually a listener favorite guest and I always love talking with her, so I hope you enjoy our conversation! We talk about all kinds of stuff including: Our life and recent move Changing psychiatric meds Parenting with anxiety How I keep work at work As always, you can send me questions for a future episode...