Todd Inspires Beliefcast with Todd Sylvester is for those looking to get more out of life, move beyond limiting beliefs and overcome addictions, depression, and anxiety. This one is trending as one of the top 1% of mental health podcasts worldwide.
We invite you to be in this interview to laugh, cry, and grow together.
Charles had a girlfriend named Susanna. (Name changed to protect privacy.) Between the two of them, their weight would add up to one average human. So yeah they were both thin people. While he did love her I don’t think he was an awesome boyfriend. Those with substance use disorder rarely are because their addiction makes them desperate and selfish. Deep down that was not who Charles was.
She had gotten clean by the time Charles had relapsed after his first recovery so it was a lopsided relationship at that point with Susanna acting as his primary transportation and everything … Read more...
by Tamara Harvey Braswell
When my 19-year-old son Logan died in a car crash more than five years ago, I soon became engulfed in a new relationship called Grief. I capitalize the word because I consider Grief more than a word. Grief is a gut puncher, water-filled lungs, blinding head banging pain that holds a person hostage.
That’s how Grief feels at first. I am talking about traumatic Grief – the kind of Grief that drowns a parent in sorrow and despair when he or she loses a child, whether the death be from a sudden cause, such as an … Read more...
From grieving a loss of a loved one to mental health or addiction challenges, divorce, or dealing with a life-threatening diagnosis, these are the coping strategies the emotionally naked tribe has shared. I hope you find one that works for you. Because our lives are not perfect.
You don’t have to be a Birkenstock-wearing, tree-hugging, sea turtle lover to stay in the present. Which, by the way, is the foundation of mindfulness and working through painful times. Apps like Calm and Headspace help you learn to meditate and there are many free meditations on DoYogaWithMe.com.
Even pausing, … Read more...
This is the second Grief Journey in a Jar. The first one was created for those who’ve lost a child and this one is for anyone who is bereaved. (For the eKit focused on parents who’ve lost a child, go to this page.)
If you want to give someone something more meaningful and more thoughtful than a drugstore card, this is the gift to give. Ninety-six quotes and sayings reflect how we feel when we’ve been devastated by the loss of someone special in our lives. The eKit contains … Read more...
by Cathy Jo Harper
When Jason was 16 years old, he had a car wreck. Six weeks of physical therapy was followed with a new wonder drug for pain, Vicodin…..and a lifetime addiction to opioids.
Through relapses, college, rehab, counseling, the Marines, my life was filled with anxiety over how to help, anger at the situation, and fear; I was losing my son, my firstborn. How would I survive? How would his siblings survive without their big brother, their confidante, and at times their enemy?
Addiction and/or mental illness soon becomes a game the whole family gets … Read more...
There are some self-help strategies in DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) that I used to manage my grief. Now I want to be clear that while I used these skills, I didn’t know at the time that they were actual DBT skills but looking back, I can now identify how I used them in my grief process. I’m going to tell you what those are, and how I used them to help myself through the devastating loss of my son, Charles, to suicide.
DBT was developed by Dr. Marsha M. Linehan, an American psychologist. This methodology can apply to situations beyond … Read more...
Struggling in the Darkness of our Loss with host Laura Diehl and Anne Moss Rogers. This episode has a lot of practical advice for those who are struggling deeply in the darkness of grief after child loss. Being a mom who lost her son to suicide, Anne Moss made a conscious decision to figure out how to work through the guilt, shame, and horrific darkness to be able to live a life of meaning and purpose again, both to honor her son, Charles, and to help those who find themselves contemplating ending their own life.
by Tammy New Hallstein
We didn’t know that you were drowning in emotional distress
We didn’t know that you decided that the way to save yourself was to end your life
We didn’t know that we could cry in our sleep; that we could cry so many tears for so long
We didn’t know that the last time we saw you, heard your voice, or shared a conversation, a phone call, or text with you, that it would be the final time
We didn’t know that it was possible to feel … Read more...
While straightening up my office, I ran across a ratty-looking notebook. It had no real meaning and I almost tossed it. I am quick to get rid of things. A quick glance through it, made me sit down and read. Unusual entries gave greater meaning as I look back over the years since losing Maggie to suicide.
Here is my long-forgotten journal entry…
I have a story to tell but I don’t want to tell it. It is a very sad story full of great pain and suffering. … Read more...
I posted the following on LinkedIn. Below are some of the lovely quotes from that post.
You are still important to us.
We still want to be asked, invited, and included.
We might not go. And then again we may.
We still want to talk about our child who died.
Days, months, and even years later.
Our greatest fear is that our child will be forgotten.
We hope you will listen and be there for us, asking us on holidays how we might be coping.
And understanding that certain times of year … Read more...
MentalPod Website with this episode and show notes.
If you want to support Paul with a Patreon donation, go here. As little as $1-$5 a month helps! Paypal and other ways to donate are on the show notes page.
As a result, you feel dismissed, ignored, unsupported. How could they do this to you when you need them the most?
Let’s say your child is struggling with substance use disorder and every time you bring up the subject it dies like embers in a fire in a thunderstorm. It could be after you’ve lost someone to suicide or lost a child to any cause of death, everyone seems to disappear. It could be you are simply having a very difficult time and no one has noticed or reached out despite your current state of mind which is very uncharacteristic … Read more...
In 2015, my son Charles took his own life at age twenty during an episode of major depression and withdrawal from heroin. By 2017, I had sold my business and invested myself in suicide prevention which included a focus on postvention, the period following a death by suicide.
To better understand this kind of tragedy and its aftermath from an educator’s point of view, I interviewed several educators, including a Colorado public school teacher who had lost a student to suicide. This teacher offered a chilling account of how her students opened … Read more...
I know there are some people who wonder how I can put one step in front of another after my son Charles’s suicide. I’m not sure how I have managed that either.
Others (I’ve heard second hand) think I just need to quit harping on the “depressing” subjects I speak about and my life would greatly improve. They think if I’d just leave all that behind I’d be skipping through a meadow singing show tunes with daisies and muffins in a basket.
Some think sadness is the stinker I need to lose. But I know denying it would only make … Read more...
