The Hardcore Self-Help Podcast with Duff the Psych

This is a short and sweet episode that I recorded before leaving for an end-of-year vacation with my family. We talk about making goals for the new year. At the end of the year, many people start thinking about goals and resolutions. I see absolutely no problem with that. However, it's important to try to do them in a way that sets you up for success rather than failure. Here are a few quick tips: Establish goals as part of an overall year-end review. Keep your goals reasonable. You can also include larger overall aspirations, but use those as guiding lights rather than attainable goals. If you have too many goals, or goals that are too far from your starting point, you can set yourself up for success and continue the negative feedback loop. Subdivide your goals into small manageable steps. Even if you're not starting with your full capacity in any given goal, you are still doing more than you did before. Start small and build from there. 2018 was a great year and I'm so pumped to knock 2019 out of the water. Thank you so much for all of your support, and for contributing your questions to the podcast. This would not be possible without you. Please continue sending me your questions, feedback, and ideas to duffthepsych@gmail.com.

The last episode of 2018! Wowwwww. It's been an awesome year and I thank you so much for all of the support, attention, and of course questions. I thought that I would end things strong with a nice Q&A episode. Here are the topics covered: What is Neuroptimal (neurofeedback)? How can I help myself when depression steals my motivation? How do I know if therapy is working? I am so excited to get back into the swing of things in January. Please keep sending me your awesome questions and topic requests to duffthepsych@gmail.com!

This is part 2/2 for my series of interviews about Ketamine treatments. In this episode, I interview Jamie AKA "The Gloomy Optimist" about her personal experiences with the treatments that she says saved her life. We go deep into her life-long struggles with anxiety and depression. Jamie is someone who has put in the work. She has tried numerous medications and therapy, but nothing seemed to stick until Ketamine. She describes going into the first infusion suicidal and coming out with hope for the future. Powerful stuff. Please say hi to Jamie... On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegloomyoptimist/ At her website: http://thegloomyoptimist.com And as always, you can find the full show notes for this episode at http://duffthepsych.com/episode138

Friends. If there is one interview of mine that you listen to, let it be this one. In this interview, I talk to Dr. Steven Mandel, the founder of the Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles. Ketamine is one of the most effective mental health treatments that very few people seem to talk about. To me this is a shame. It's amazingly effective treatment for depression, suicidality, PTSD, and bipolar. In the interview, we talk about why Ketamine works, what an actual session looks like, and how it is a very low-risk procedure. We also address some common misconceptions and even get into the nitty gritty of cost/feasibility. Please share this episode with your friends, families, and networks. This is the first of a two-part series. Next week, I will be sharing an interview with an individual who describes their personal experience and amazing benefit from Ketamine treatments for depression. I should note that I have no personal stake in the Ketamine Clinics. I simply believe that it's a treatment that should gain more exposure.

Hello, everyone! Great to be back recording a normal Q&A episode this week. Between the unexpected non-episode a couple weeks back and the re-run episode last week, I haven't actually sat down and addressed your questions in a while. Here are the awesome questions that I cover on today's episode: How can I break the cycle of self-sabotage and self-doubt in my relationship? How can I overcome my fear of wrists? How can I better decide what activities to engage in at home and stop getting paralyzed? As always, you can send me questions to duffthepsych@gmail.com and check out the full show-notes at http://duffthepsych.com/episode136

Hey, everyone! This is a re-release of an episode that I did last year. I am busy this week with holiday stuff, so I didn't want to record something new, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to repost episode 85, which originally aired on 11/21/17. It's all about tips that you can use to survive the holidays. The holidays are crazy for everyone, but it's stepped up a notch when you also struggle with mental health issues. Have a listen and take great care of yourselves. Much love! http://duffthepsych.com/episode85

Super excited to have the awesome Kati Morton on the show with me today. I'm sure you already know who she is, but if you need a refresher, she is most well known for her Youtube channel where she answers questions and gives mental health advice. Kati is a licensed therapist and brings a down-to-earth approach to the content that she puts out. In this interview, I learn a little more about Kati the person. We also talk about how her work as an influencer has affected her professional life. We discuss her new book, "Are You Okay?", and how you know that it's time to get some professional help. I really hope you enjoy this broad conversation. Be sure to show Kati some love on Youtube and pre-order her book, which will be released in December!

The regularly scheduled podcast interview is postponed this week. There was a tragic shooting at my alma mater's college night at the Borderline bar in Thousand Oaks, CA. In this short message, I talk about what happened, how I'm feeling, and a few tips for coping.

I did an episode last year around Halloween time about spooky social psychology experiments and what they say about humanity. I figured I'd keep the trend going and do an episode all about creepy treatments from the origin of psychological health care. Before listening any further, just know that some of these are cruel and gross. We've come a long way since the different treatments that I will talk about, but they are important in that they are the predecessors to the treatments that we have now. In some cases they were mean and cruel. In others they were well intentioned, but limited by the lack of knowledge that we have today. Either way, if you are sensitive to topics like this, feel free to skip this one. Next week should be a more standard episode, so if you have a question or topic for me, send it to duffthepsych@gmail.com and the full show notes for this episode are available at duffthepsych.com/episode133.

Fantastic episode for you today. We go deep into the different types of medication for anxiety, how to know when it's time to stop taking them, and ways to cope with anxiety that you can use with or without medication. This is the third episode taking a slightly different approach with just one question per episode, with the intention of diving deeper into topics. Now it's time to give me some feedback. If you go to the episode notes at duffthepsych.com/episode132, there will be a short survey. If you could take it, it would help me out so much! As always if you have a question or topic that you'd live covered on the show, email me at duffthepsych@gmail.com