The Verywell Mind Podcast

We all act tough sometimes. There are times when acting tough can serve a purpose. There will be times when you need to set your feelings aside and push through something difficult.  It’s OK to acknowledge that you feel uncomfortable, to ask for help, and to be vulnerable with other people. In fact, it often takes more strength to acknowledge your feelings or to admit to your mistakes. It can be h...

Dr. Mark Goulston is a psychiatrist, best-selling author, and executive coach. He spent many years of his career working with patients who were experiencing thoughts of suicide. He learned that one of the best things he could do for people who were in pain was to sit and listen to them.  Some of the things he talks about today are the truth about why people experience suicidal thoughts (it's not a...

We're celebrating our 200th episode by sharing the top mental strength lessons we've learned so far on the podcast. I discuss some of my favorite lessons I've learned from guests like Matthew McConaughey, Nikki Sixx, and Chrissy Metz. I also share the mental strength exercises that our listeners talk about the most from the Friday Fix episodes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...

Ethan Suplee is an actor who is known for his roles on TV shows like Boy Meets World and My Name Is Earl as well as movies like American History X, Blow, The Wolf of Wallstreet, John Q, and Remember the Titans.  In many of his acting roles, Ethan was morbidly obese. But food wasn’t his only addiction. He struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol as well.  After being told that he was going to...

There are many ways to treat depression — medication, individual therapy, group therapy, and transcranial magnetic stimulation to name a few. But there are also lifestyle changes that can sometimes provide effective relief from symptoms. Something as simple as growing a garden can sometimes be an effective way to improve mood and reduce stress. In fact, horticulture therapy has become an entire fi...

Cobie Smulders is an actress who is known for her role as Robin Scherbatsky in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. She’s also starred in many movies, including her role as agent Maria Hill in Marvel movies.  She also knows a thing or two about resilience. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 25. She underwent multiple surgeries while starring in How I Met Your Mother and did not make her dia...

Maybe you’re having dinner with a friend and all you can think about is your to-do list. Or perhaps it takes 30 minutes to send an email because you keep questioning how to word each sentence. There are several reasons why our brains feel cluttered sometimes. Depression can cause us to ruminate on the past. Anxiety can cause you to worry about the future. Traumatic experiences can cause you to alw...

Lauren Swanson is a board-certified physician assistant who prescribes Ketamine through a telehealth company. She says she has seen it make huge differences in the lives of people who are battling anxiety, depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders. Some of the things she talks about today are the science behind how Ketamine works, the benefits Ketamine can offer, and what someone can expect wh...

One person’s hallmark of mental strength might involve taking a little more time off to relax. Another person’s evidence of bigger mental muscles might involve pushing themselves to do more even though they don’t feel like it. Our behavior doesn’t always reveal the battle we’re fighting inside our own minds. So it’s important to remember that your actions are only part of the process. Mental stren...

Ricky Byrd is a rock and roll guitar player, singer, songwriter, and music producer. For more than a decade, he was a member of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, where he contributed background vocals and music to many albums, including two platinum albums and one gold album. His most famous song might be “I Love Rock 'n Roll,” which was released in 1981.  For many years, Ricky lived what might be the...

You may find yourself thinking you need more mental strength so you can go to the gym. But what if the opposite were true? You need to go to the gym to build mental strength. Most people focus on the physical muscle they build from exercise. But physical activity is also a great way to build mental muscle.  Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need a gym membership to bolster your mental strength. T...

Ronald Siegel, PsyD, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School where he’s taught since the early 1980s. He’s a longtime student of mindfulness meditation, and he has taught internationally about the importance of mindfulness and mind-body treatment. He maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Lincoln, MA. Some of the things he talks about in this episode are why...

While you can’t control how other people behave, you can control how you respond to them. If you’ve allowed someone to treat you poorly and you didn’t address their behavior, it’s important to consider why. It may have to do with the other person–like you fear what would happen if you spoke up. Or, it may have more to do with you–like you fear what would happen to you if the other person stopped b...

Boundaries involve setting rules that make it clear how you want to be treated. Sometimes, this means saying something like, “No, I won’t loan you my car.” Other boundaries involve telling someone what you expect like, “I expect you to call before showing up at my house.” It’s important to announce your boundaries to other people. You might say, “Please don’t ask about my health issues in front of...

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and a New York Times Best Selling author. Her books, including Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, have been translated into 20 languages. She’s also a contributor to The Atlantic where she writes a regular column called “Dear Therapist.” She co-hosts a podcast with Guy Winch, called Dear Therapists, where they respond to listeners’ problems and walk them through t...

A lot of people enter my therapy office, not because they’re looking to change themselves, but because they want to change someone else. I commonly get questions like, “Can you talk to my partner about their drinking for me?” or “Can you meet with my daughter to tell her that she needs to stop dating men with so many problems? It’s not good for her kids to see that.”  While you can’t force someone...

Jazmyn Simon is an actress who is best known for her roles in Ballers, Raising Dion, and Locked Down.  She’s also an author. She wrote a children’s book called Most Perfect You, a letter to children struggling to accept themselves. It was inspired by a conversation Jazmyn had with her daughter when she was young. Some of the things she talks about today are why we should talk to kids about their a...

When life has thrown you some serious curveballs or your mental health is declining, it’s tough to see the positive things going on around you.  But noticing the bad, however, is easy. You might find your brain automatically focuses on the worst thing that happened or it might constantly predict negative outcomes.   These kinds of thoughts affect how you feel and how you behave. If you aren’t care...

Nathan Kress is an actor who is best known for playing Freddie Benson on the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly, which aired between 2007 and 2012. In 2021, he reprised his role in the iCarly revival.  He’s also the co-host of a podcast called RadioActive Dads. He and his co-host, fellow actor Brett Davern, talk about their experiences raising kids.  Nathan is also a caregiver. His wife has endometriosis,...

Have you ever been so emotionally exhausted that you felt like you have nothing else to give? If so, you’re not alone.  There are a lot of people feeling emotionally exhausted right now, and there are a lot of reasons why — the pandemic, rising gas prices, economic uncertainty, and ongoing media reports about bad things happening in the world. When you feel emotionally exhausted, the typical self-...

Grace Gaustad is a singer and songwriter who rose to fame at the age of 15 when her performance of “Take Me to Church” went viral.  She released her debut album, BLKBX, in 2021. In it, she addresses her experiences growing up as part of the LGBTQ+ community and the bullying she endured in school.  She released several singles in 2022. Grace was bullied throughout her childhood, and she often felt...

When we’re faced with a crisis, our bodies and our minds gear up to tackle the challenge. Then, when the crisis is resolved, we go back into our normal state of being. Our bodies weren’t meant to stay in a heightened state of alert over a long period of time. So when a crisis doesn’t end fast enough, we grow weary and get what’s known as crisis fatigue. If you’ve developed crisis fatigue, you’re n...

Steve Magness is a world-renowned expert on human performance. He’s been a consultant on mental skills development for professional sports teams, including some of the top NBA teams.  He co-authored Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox with our former guest Brad Stulberg. He also wrote The Science of Running, and now he has a new book called Do Hard Things.  He shares today why our brains work...

If you are stressed at work, you might think the solution is to build more mental strength so you can handle workplace issues better. If you’re struggling with anxiety, you might assume you need to meditate more often. But sometimes, the solution to our problems isn’t about working on our inner strength. Instead, the best way to tackle some problems involves making a few changes to the environment...

Dr. Myron Rolle is a former NFL player turned neurosurgeon. He’s also the author of a new book called The 2% Way. In it, he describes how striving to become two percent better each day helped him achieve his goals on the athletic field, in college, and in life. Some of the things he talks about today are how to stay motivated when you're tackling a tough challenge, how to break a big goal into sma...