YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Yes! I do the same exact thing. I listen almost daily and have heard about 70% of the episodes. I know what you mean about using it to trigger you. I think that is the perfect way to put it. I enjoy the way it makes me think about my issues and triggers repressed memories. It has given me so many ju...

I don't have much in the way of advice, but I can definitely relate, if that makes you feel any better. I'm 37 and have pared down my friends list in the last decade to just a couple. It's amazing what happens when you stop drinking and acting like an idiot... All your drinking, shallow, immature fr...

Yes! I second your ringing endorsement of this book. My inability to name emotions became evident in therapy when, every time my therapist would ask the classic "what are you feeling right now", I was unable to answer her. I literally had no labels and we had to start with a list of emotio...

Wow, I'm so sorry you have had to deal with so many parenting mis-steps! Among other things, I think you could definitely qualify them laughing at you when you were clearly in so much pain as emotional abuse and neglect. They were not acknowledging your pain at all! In fact, they taught you, in that...

~ hiking to a remote area and getting really quiet so the wildlife comes out from hiding, then seeing some critter and knowing I am the only person who will experience that animal in that moment in time in that particular scene, and then capturing it with my camera ~ geeking out on my hobbies and be...

I'm afraid that on an emotional level I'll never even truly understand that my self-defeating actions are shame-based I love this sentence. This helps me recognize the connection between my own self-defeating actions and my own shame. I never made that connection before. I've been reluctant to shar...

Yeah, I think the title is a little harsh too. I would describe my mom as loving but her behavior has always been unloving, if that makes any sense. I don't think you have to have a totally unloving mother to get some insights from this book, so I hope you get what you need from it!

My fear list... - I'm afraid that my dad will get diagnosed with a terminal illness and because he and my step mom are so codependent, they will both commit suicide together - I'm afraid that Donald Trump will have such a profound negative impact on American politics that it will be forever changed ...

Full disclosure, I'm not all the way through this book yet, but so far what I've read has been transformational for me. It is written for women who grew up with unloving mom's. She identifies different types of unloving mothers and the effects that each type has on young girls. The part of the book ...

Trying to Love Me It hurts to look into the truth, The broken road of my youth. I hide the things I don’t want you to see, Because I’m trying to get you to love me. I lived behind my anger and fears, The dark side of my younger years. Mom was so sick, in body and mind. Dad up and moved, and left us ...