Behind The Mind

On Episode 6 of Behind the Mind, Hannah Bott joins the show to discuss her lifelong experiences with anxiety and depression. I highly reccommend learning about Hannah and all the adversity she has overcome, including a traumatic experience as a victim of sexual violence. She truly is an inspiration and is extremely brave to share such a detailed story with the world. Hannah currently serves as the Outreach Coordinator at NAMI North Texas. Her goal is to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness, and to educate people on the various signs and symptoms. She has also been competing in beauty pageants since she was 14 years old. Most recently, in May, she entered the Mrs. Texas Beauty Pageant. She won 1st place for the fitness award, and also uses the stage as a platform to spread mental health awareness. We also discuss how sufficient parental support helped both of us thrive in the face of mental illness, the current state of stigma, and the work Hannah does at NAMI. 

For episode 5 of Behind the Mind, Amy Guerrero joins the show for both an insightful and inspirational interview. Amy shares her personal life story with various mental illnesses, childhood trauma, addiction,  and her path to a meaningful life and profession. We both share our experiences with childhood mental illness, discuss the impact of nutrition, exercise and other lifestyle habits on our mental health, and the issues with how most people treat addiction.If you or someone you know has experienced mental illness and/or addiction, or are just interested in an extremely important topic, this is a MUST LISTEN for you. Also, make sure to check out Amy’s website (AmyGuerrero.com) to see the amazing work that she does!This episode is longer than usual, but that’s because there is so much packed into it! As always, send me your feedback and feel free to rate, review and subscribe to Behind the Mind on Apple Podcasts and follow @BTM_Pod on Instagram and on Twitter!

Mike is the author of the book Transforming Stigma and travels the country as a professional mental health speaker. As a 2017 PM360 ELITE Award Winner, he is recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in the healthcare industry. His compelling TEDx talk has even been used in college classrooms and has received amazing reviews.I met Mike at the SEA Conference in Chicago, where he was the keynote speaker for the event. I learned all about his story, and now I'm happy to share it with all of you. As a child, Mike was placed in a psychiatric hospital three times, and at the age of 10, tried to attempt suicide. Now, after a long and difficult journey, Mike is doing whatever he can to help eliminate the stigma our society puts on mental illness, and raise awareness for the topic as a whole.Learn more about Mike's lifelong struggle with mental illness and how he became such an influential advocate on Episode 4 of Behind the Mind! 

Episode 3 of Behind the Mind features Elizabeth Radday, who shares her experiences with panic disorder and agoraphobia.Liz was the Director of the Learning Support program at the Marvelwood School and is now the Research Specialist at Skills21 at EdAdvance. The Marvelwood School is where I spent my four years of high school, and I can attribute much of my self-betterment and my current ability to live a happy and productive life to her. She helped me become a better student in the face of my bipolar disorder, and supported me in my most difficult times away from home.

Katharine Haines is a student at Quinnipiac University, but her road to get there was not pretty. Katharine has experienced mental illness ever since she was a child, suffering from anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. Her intense feelings of depression led her down a path of addiction and alcoholism, and forced her to drop out of college her first time around. After spending time in rehab and finding ways to improve her mental health, she is now in a much better place. She attends AA meetings, lives with other recovering addicts in a sober house, and has worked in treatment centers to help current addicts the same way she was helped. I had an awesome time talking with her, and she is extremely brave to share her full and honest story with the world. Hope you enjoy! 

On the premiere episode of Behind the Mind, former NHL goaltender Clint Malarchuk shares his story. In 1989, Clint survived one of the most gruesome injuries in sports history, but hit the ice again just 10 days later. He didn’t know it at the time, but that decision would have serious repercussions on his mental health moving forward. He ended up living with undiagnosed PTSD for almost 20 years, before attempting suicide in 2008. He survived yet again, and ever since, he has been a mental health advocate, trying to prove that it’s OK to have a mental illness and encouraging those in pain to seek help.Thanks and enjoy!