The Psychology of Depression and Anxiety - Dr. Scott Eilers

Society expects everyone to fit into predetermined molds, but that's not realistic. There is no "normal" path meant for everyone. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly. Sleep better, without pills (partner I believe in) My book: For When Everything is Burning Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety (I have partnered with this brand)...

There's an epidemic of unhelpful responses when someone opens up about their struggles. My take: Most well-meaning people inadvertently make things worse because they simply don't know what to say. When we see loved ones suffering, it triggers distress in us too. Our instinct is to quickly make their pain go away, for our sake as much as theirs. But rushing them through emotions or invalid...

People with depression often feel like they aren't very smart - I hear this all the time in therapy sessions. But the usually the opposite is true. And there are a few very interesting reasons for that. Get Practical tools for navigating life with depression and anxiety, delivered weekly. https://mailchi.mp/90ccaf44c876/self-hope-psychology My book: For When Everything is Burning https://bit.l...

Stress and anxiety can feel almost identical, even though they are two very different things. When it comes to improving your mental health, know which one you're dealing is pretty important. I'm going to show you how to determine whether what you're feeling is stress or anxiety, and then give you some practical things you can do today to help each. Get Practical tools for navigating l...

Life is completely overwhelming a large portion of the time. From all the things you have to do, to the things you need to do, and add in the things you want to do, and they're just no realistic way to get it all done. Now, instead of allowing that to shut you down and turn to avoidance, I'm going to show you how to turn it into action that helps you ease your stress. Get Practical tools f...

If you deal with any kind of mental health issues - especially depression and anxiety, - excessive phone usage is not helping you, generally speaking. But there are ways to use your phone to actually benefit your mental health. These 10 tools can help you establish more control of your life and improve your wellbeing. Get Mood Bloom games for depression and anxiety (I have partnered with this bran...

You might be (accidentally, unknowingly, unintentionally) making your life worse in a number of ways. One way is your (internal and implicit) criteria for what is considered a "good day." Your requirements for defining a good day might be ruining your life. But you can modify these "checkboxes," and I'm going to help you do that. If you've Lost Hope in Life, I invite yo...

If you've Lost Hope in Life, I invite you to join me for a live conversation and Q&A Thursday, May 16th at 4pm est. Here's the link: https://bit.ly/losthopeinlifelive I spent years chasing acceptance; it ruined my life. People rejected me, so I kept lowering my standards. It was the transitive property fallacy - I'm "less than." This video exposes that toxic thinking, and...

Insecurity is a universal human experience, not a personal failing. Most coping methods actually reinforce insecurities rather than resolving them. Embracing insecurities as identity reinforces negative thoughts. Denying weaknesses leads to reality harshly exposing them. Overcompensating through impression management is exhausting. I'll show you how to overcome insecurity through incremental s...

Past mistake, failures, choices, circumstances may be haunting you right now. Things you desperately wish you could forget - but know you probably never will. You can't change any of this. But the regrets you feel about things you've done or things that have happened to you can hold you back in an entirely different way. I'm going to show you how you (inadvertently) turn your guilt int...

Psychological testing is not a perfect science by any means - it can have many barriers to entry including cost, access, and availability. But self-diagnosis is not the answer! This episode unpacks the very real concerns with self-diagnosis. Even when struggling to access professional care, firmly holding self-assigned labels carries risks. Proper differential diagnosis matters enormously for effe...

Most think acceptance means settling for misery. That's not true. Acceptance empowers you to change what matters. It acknowledges some pain is unavoidable - but suffering is optional. Life has inherent discomforts we cannot control - that's "pain." Trying to force away that pain often backfires, causing more issues. That's "suffering." Radical acceptance separates t...

Emotions are not light switches. You cannot simply turn them on or off just because you (or somebody) would like to. Being told (or telling others) to calm down, cheer up, or get over it is dismissive and unhelpful. There is no direct mechanism for selecting your emotions. The biggest problem is that this type of command is outcome based - become x new emotion now. But without a process for changi...

Not all negative thoughts are bad. But constantly thinking about negative things can lead to a downward cycle psychology calls rumination. Rumination is when we have certain thoughts, memories, or ideas, that get stuck in our brain. And trying to relax, unwind, or think about something else can simply make the thought more ingrained. There's a reason for this, and it's the reason why doing...

If you're consistently failing at the same thing over and over again, you might be trying to force something that, ultimately, isn't you. When you find yourself in this place, it's time for a total life reexamination: where are you taking yourself and why? This probably feels pretty daunting, but I'm going to break it down for you now. Join this channel to get access to perks: http...

Emotions can be absolutely terrifying; causing total shut down and unbelievable pain. Despite all that, your emotions are not the enemy of your life. In fact, they can be valuable insight into your present experience. They will only cause you agony when you don't understand your relationship to them. Approaching them as allies instead of enemies will help you control them and make better choic...

This episode my reaction to a recent news event around assisted suicide in a young individual with chronic mental health struggles.

Organizing your life around what's most important to you might be inadvertently sabotaging your life. People with mental health struggles need to go deeper and determine what is most foundational in their life - not necessarily what is most important to them. The distinction is critical. The thing that is most foundational is the thing that will cause total system failure. For me, that thing i...

There's an unspoken Achilles' heal in many peoples' mental health journeys. How do you stick to your plan, strategies, and healing in those times when you just don't care? Periods of prolonged apathy create massive setbacks in your progress - you know this. There's no amount of willpower or positive thinking that can keep these at bay. I used to think these "black hole&quo...

Improving mental health doesn't always translate to feeling emotionally better. It's a dangerous assumption that can lead to discouragement. Despite working diligently on therapies or medications, feeling stagnant is a common experience. As pathological feelings decrease, non-pathological ones may emerge, revealing newfound vulnerability. I'm breaking down three reasons why this can ha...

The majority of the emotional stress people experience is self-induced. The good news is, this can also be managed fairly easily. There are 2 specific factors to emotional stress, objective and subjective. Basically, there are things that happen to you, and then there are the ways you interpret what happen to you. You cannot remove all emotional pain from your life, but you can significantly decre...

Can introverts with mental health conditions succeed in a world seemingly built for extroversion? Introverts recharge their social battery through withdrawal. However, the introverted need to withdraw can very easily mask a pathological desire to withdraw because of things like anxiety, depression, and more. Understanding the difference between needed solitude and pathological isolation can help y...

Some days, existence feels like a chore, and admitting that can be tough. I know our brains are inconsistent and illogical, which can make life challenging. But acknowledging these feelings doesn't mean giving up. Living with depression or anxiety adds layers of complexity to self-care. I've learned strategies to make existence more tolerable, especially during tough times. I'm sharing...

The majority of mental health interventions are based on the assumption that you have a "normal" state to return to. But this is not the reality for many people. If you fit this description, you've probably been frustrated by a lot of therapy - because it's not actually designed with your reality in mind. I'm still a big believer in therapy, but I want to give you some things...

When real psychological conditions are applied to people without those conditions because of pop-culture-misappropriation, bad things happen. Case in point: the terms "narcissist," and "depressed." These terms are real, valid, and define actual psychological conditions. However, they are being blatantly misapplied at an alarming rate, and causing an increase in ACTUAL psycholog...