Master The Mind, Master Anything with Dave Cottrell

When I asked Charlie Fioré to join me on the podcast I thought all we would be talking about was epilepsy, then around 3 questions in I discover that Charlie also has cerbral palsy and he was kind enough to delve into both conditions for the rest of the episode. This is an extremely insighftul look into the life of someone living with epilepsy and CP. Charlie is open, vulnerable, frank and oftentimes out right hilarious in his way of discussing these conditions. We discuss the perceptions of each condition versus the reality, and take a deeper dive into the day to day impacts that each condition has on Charlie's life.

I'm a public speaker, who is very afraid of talking to strangers... How does THAT WORK? Well I'm excellent at being on stage or on camera, but put me in a networking meeting or a wedding where I know none of the other guests (or even sometimes social situations with some of my closest friends) and I'm an absolute WRECK. I'm also someone who challenges other people to face up to their fears and take ownership of stuff like this... so this is me PUBLICLY taking ownership of this. I'll be updating this story via Shorts so be sure to follow me on your prefered platform and maybe follow the hashtag #ExtrovertInTraining Let's see if we can turn this socially awkward introvert into the most charming person at the event! (Not gonna lie... I'm scared!) If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

Apart from having possibly one of ther coolest names on the plante, RJ Zimmerman is a pretty awesome individual. Currently 9 years sober RJ turned around a life of alcoholism, initially to start a family, but ultimately found a freedom in it that he never found at the bottom of any bottle. In the past 18 months, RJ has increasingly seen that his expertise and experience are things that can drastically help others. So with this in mind he is now embarking on the path of being an Alcohol Free Life Coach. Check out his story for love, laughs, a journey of self compassion and so much more! And check out the Untapped Keg over at https://www.untappedkeg.com/ If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

"I had to get out of a church that was like a cult" this sentence spoken very matter-of-factly was the start of a very interesting and bizarre conversation when I first met Rachel McDerby face to face. She gave me the cliff notes, invovling cultish behaviour in a church, running rehab centers with questionable ethics, an abusive ex and setting up a safe house and I had to stop her in her tracks. Because this was going to be one of those conversations I'd want to recreate for a podcast and never be able to do it justice compared to that unplanned chat. So that's what we did, we saved the details for in front of an audience and recorded for your good self!

Is mental illness a diability? Well the short answer is YES! But it took me a LONG way to get to that short answer when answering for myself. If anyone else was to ask me if mental illness is a disability I would say "of course". But if they were to say "is YOUR mental illness a disability" then I would most likely have said no. There's many reasons for this. But the two I boil it down to are not wanting to detract from people with "genuine disabilities" and the other being a strong dollop of interalised stigma. It's no good me confronting these things in others if I am not to confront them in myself. So this episode is a declaration of a line in the sand. I am Dave, I have bipolar disorder, I am disabled and I am proud. https://www.nationaldiversityawards.co.uk/awards-2023/nominations/dave-cottrell/ If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

A mental health podcaster talking to another mental health podcaster? What ever will they think of next. Tom Davies is the host of the Proper Mental Podcast, which is one of (if not the) highest ranking independent UK mental health podcast.  Having lived with his own mental health struggles he found that talking about it with other people was part of the path to recovery. So to make these conversations a guaranteed regular occurance he launched the Proper Mental Podcast, initially with a friend, but then after the friend leaving due to life commitments Tom decided he wasn't done with the conversation. His podcast now on it's 125th  episode has brought scientists, journalists, experts by lived experience, authors, charity founders and so much more together to have open and honest mental health conversations.  You can check it out here: https://linktr.ee/propermentalpodcast If you want to chat about this or anything else mindset, mental health or personal development then catch me live on https://twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Accessibility in gaming is something many developers are keen to include (nowadays). This is often done by giving accessibility options within the game itself. Whether this be subtitles, audio description or high contrast visual modes or maybe by simplifying controls or offering a series of difficulty level modifiers. But what about where these adjustments aren't enough? Well this is where Special Effect come in. Not only do they cmapaign for more accessibility in games using some of the methods we have already mentionend, but they creative innovative technologies that offer new and game changing (pun firmly intended) ways for people to interface with games. Things such as alternative easy to use or modifyable controllers, or their ground breaking eye tracking software interface that enables those who have limited mobility in their hands or even those without limbs to play too. In this interview we talk about all of this and more. Remember, when more people are able to play, we all win!

Raynaud's syndrome is more common than you may think, which was a surprise t me because I first heard about it when I met Chelsea Lea MacColl around 5 years ago. Raynaud's is a condition where the person feels the cold in an intense manor. As we talked through it in this interview it became clear that there aren't many ways to explain the difference to a person without the condition of "feeling the cold a bit too much" and it making your life oftentimes a misery. The closest we got was hypothermia! In this interview Chelsea talks about the physical, emotional, mental and social effects of Raynaud's syndrome. A condition that permeates every part of her life, even in warmer temperatures. She also shares some of the things that she has found to help manage the symptoms, which for Raynaud's sufferers is currently the best level of medical intervention.

Will Hawkins is a coach and a therapist. Coming from a background of physical training, he was interested in what's going on behind the scenes more. Undestanding a person's fears, their needs, their identity and their values. In this episode we talk a lot about emotional intelligence. Why it is important and what people can do to cultivate it. We discuss some of the things that hold a person back and how to generate motivation (or momentum) by tapping into the deeper cores of our identity.

Life, just filterless. This is the motto of Lisa Jayne and the name of her business. Having struggled for many year with her own mental health  one of the areas she found comfort was in her dark sense of humour. Then when looking for clothing that reflected this she couldn't find what she was looking for, so she decided to make it! She now runs the fashion brand Life Just Filterless, which raises awareness of mental health, but also gives those of us with a darker sense of humour somthing to wear. This is however only just the begining because the medium to long term goals of the brand is to have it fund free or reduced cost therapy sessions for those in need.

It's a big question, but I want to tackle it... are we programmed to be unhappy? The research in this one spans almost 300 years, staring with Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the hedonic treadmill, then heading to modern research by the likes of Anna Lembke and Andrew Huberman; all via the Tocqueville Paradox. Each of these pices of research presents a stacked deck, where genuine lasting happiness is a fleeting thing. But is the data the truth? And more importantly... are we bound by it? Link to the Huberman Lab article mentioned at the end: https://hubermanlab.com/tools-to-manage-dopamine-and-improve-motivation-and-drive/

Vennie Kocsis spent her life from 3 until 14 living in a compound as a member of a cult. Struggling with segregation from the rest of the world on the outside, but also separation from her family on the inside; she lived a life that was always filtered through fear. You wouldn't think so listening to her today but she didn't learn about normal relationships, normal friendships and normal boundaries until she got out. In fact she didn't have any degree of a normal education either and was thrust into this in her mid teens needing to adapt very quickly. Nowadays she is an author, a speaker, a poet, a mother and a grandmother. She works with people to help them heal their trauma through art, poetry and expression and shares her experiences so that others may be able to escape or avoid in the first place the entrapments of a cult.

Josh Connolly is a powerful man, but not in the way that you may instantly think of that phrase. Yesh he plays rugby, he has also overocome addiction, so we can say that objectively he is strong, both physically and mentally, but there's much more to Josh than that. The power that Josh has - and teaches to others - is to actually embrace our emotions, to be vulnerable with them, to be sensitive to them. Sensitivty and vulnerability are not words you often associate with power, but as Josh shows those who attend his resilience workshops or breathwork sessions, there is so much power that comes from a foundation of vulnerability.

Having been diagnosed with anxiety and depression as a teenager, Kyra Houghton has been no stranger to the world of mental health. Anxiety and depression were the manifestations of her childhood trauma, but as life progressed these labels didn't quite fit. She was later diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and at this point began a journey of healing. This journey started with Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). DBT is one of the more recommended forms of treatment for BPD so this was where Kyra decided to start. Through working with DBT Kyra also discovered Somatic Healing. Somatice Healing is a "bottom up" therapy. Traditional therapies are "top down" where the mind is treated in order to heal the body. But Bottom Up therapy is where the holding of trauma within the body is addressed and as such by treating the body you treat the mind. These therapies have tranformed Kyra's life, so much so that she is now on the path to qualification so that she can help and guide others in their mental health journeys.

Rachael Camp is a powerflifter and a graphic designer, two things that require a lot of fine motor control. She is also a dyspraxic, which is something that hinders the motor control of those who live with it. From humble beginings and a childhood with confusion, shame and regularly being labeled as "clumsy". Rachael only started digging deeper into why some of this may be as an adult. Along the way she receieved a late diagnosis of ADHD, and through the neurodivergent community started to learn about dyspraxia. Through this combination of diagnosis and self-diagnosis Rachael has learned to give herself some much needed compassion and become a powerful adovcate for the neurodivergent community in the process. You can find out more about Rachael at http://instagram.com/rachaelelizabethlifts

Before becoming Mindset By Dave I was a personal trainer, the kind who wanted to learn EVERYTHING! Along the way I noticed many things that working out can teach us about mental health. Lots of the principals involved in training can become powerful analogies for our mental health. This podcast episode is some of my favourites.

Vancouver is currently facing a fentanyl epidemic. The new wave of opiod addiction is a core part of daily life in Vancouver's downtown east side. When seeing this with his own two eyes director Dominic Streeter of Hied and Seek Films knew he had to shed some light on this and ask some very important questions. In his Netflix documentary "Ten Dollar Death Trip" Dom and the team spend time with the people who live in Vancouver's "drug ghetto by design". He speaks with current addicts, former addicts, the people doing the work to keep people safe in this environment that is rife with overdoses and even a very candid interview with one of the dealers. It is a hard hitting documentary but I believe more than anything else it shows the humanity, the care, the compassion and the community of those affected. In fact Dom even goes as far as to say there is a greater sense of community there, than anywhere back home. In this interview we get into his motives for being a director, for choosing this topic and much more.

Above all things I would call Lady Cleo a communicator. Whether she does this with words, with music of with visual performances one thing is for sure, she does it in a meticulous and often mesmerizing way. I knew I wanted to talk with her when I invited her on the podcast and we decided to focus on kink and cabaret and the concept of discovering your identity. But the tangenets on this one lead to some amazing links being formed and the live audience were just on point at adding to this conversation. If I had to really narrow down the them of this episode it would be boundaries, communication and consent. Which are skills that can benefit ALL of us!

Hannah is a fellow mindset coach and podcast coach, who I had the pleasure of meeting via the Mental Health Blog Awards. In this episode we get into Hannah's "why" for getting into this line of work, along with discussing the most common issues she sees and what resolutions are available for these. We also look to the future and get Hannah's ideas on where coaching plays a role and her personal plans for being a part of that movement. You can check Hannah out at beautifulmind.coach on Instagram or on her podcast Plus Size vs Reality.

The phrase victims mindset gets thrown around far too readily these days. Usually by people who are just tired of confronting others who just don't seem to want to change. But what if I told you that there's something behind all of that and that? Something that keeps the person stuck in this cycle that if we were to learn a different approach to then we may all be better off for? That something is learned helplessness, a term first coined in 1967 by Psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven F Maier. Their initial research pointed to the idea that once a person has experienced helplessness (or even perceived helplessness) in enough situations they go on to believe that they are in fact helpless in other, if not all situations. Thus creating a cycle of believing you are helpless, not trying and therefore confirming that you are helpless. Thankfully Seligman and Maier's research did not stop there, Seligman in particular shifting his own mindset from "what is the cause" to "what can be done". In doing so he discovered that optimism is the minds natural defence against learned helplessness. Which to anyone who identifies as a pessimist this is a disheartening discovery, however he further went on to discover that optimism in itself is something that isn't inherent, but can be learned. Which he discusses in his book Learned Optimism. In this episode we look at the different factors that could be keeping you (or your loved ones) in learned helplessness and explore ideas on how you can escape from it.

Today's guest is Asta, an amazingly strong member of our Twitch community. Asta is someone who suffers with the little know condition Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED). IED basically means that whereas for most of us we feel anger growing gradually and have opportunities to diffuse or walk away, those with IED can go from calm to a full rage in an instant, which can be traumatic for both those around and of course the individual who has the condition too. Asta shares their story here of how this condition was first noticed in them, how it was dealt with when they were younger and how now as an adult in their 40s they are finally finding answers on how to live a better life with it, rather tahn simply endure it.

I had the pleasure of meeting Clydie at TwitchCon Amsterdam this year at a meetup for just chatting streamers. And he said something which let me knew I just had to have him on the show: "Autism awareness, or acceptance is not enough, we should be promoting autism celebration" Autism is not something that is "wrong" with a person's brain, it is merely something that is "different" and often these differences are things that the neuro-typical world actually benefit from. However due to years of stigma and being treated as wrong, many autistic people still have low self image because they are simply not accepted in this world. These differences are not there to just be aware of, or to simply be accepted. But instead celebrated for what they bring to the world and this is something that Clydie speaks very passionately about!

Growing up with a mother with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, Face like many neglected young folk had to find his own ways of coping with the world around him. For Face this meant turning to alcohol and drugs and as we all know these things enter us in to cycles that are often (if not always) extremely difficult to remove ourselves from. Our entire worlds often get built around maintaining the habit. Thankfully though Face was able to escape from this cycle, but not before losing a number of friends along the way. To this day he still lives with the repercussions of this period, however he is determined to build a better life for himself and also to let his story be either a cautionary tale to those not involved, or a ray of hope for those who see no way out.

Sam Phillips, known online as Dare To Dip was a person struggling with alcohol addiction and anxiety. He decided to look for the answers in a different kind of liquid, VERY cold water! Sam set himself the challenge to get out in open water in the sea, every day for a year. Initially it was just for himself, but one of the amazing results of this project was the community he built along the way.

Valen Vain is a performer, a sex educator and a "filth wizard" and if that doesn't entice you in then I don't know what will! A lifelong performer, Valen like many creatives did took to the internet dring lockdown, initially to talk about performance. But as the lockdown rolled on and performances dried up he was left with the question "what else could I entertain this audience with" and the answer was sex... education that is! Sex education as many of us will know is still stuck in the dark ages and for anyone who doesn't subscribe to "normal" (think heterosexual, missionary position and anything else just labels you a pervert) sex is left with a drastic lack of representation or even information. Valen and his community aim to change all of that, by embracing all (consentual) forms of sex so long as you are safe, informed and on the same page. His streams are a combination of very up to date sex education and of course entertainment, whilst simultaneously holding space for the mental health of his community too! Or to put it in other words... wholesome chaos!

Christina Taylor grew up with atypical anorexia. After losing her grandmother and not having any guideance on how to navigate grief, Christina turned - as many of us do - to finding her own coping mechanism. This started with food - or rather with controlling food - but later developed into a side by side use of alcohol to help escape the feelings she was trying to run from. This interview is Christina's story from anorexia, to recovery, to advocacy. This interview was taken from Dave's enormous Mental Health Event - The Mental Health ULTRAMarathon. Where he interviewed 36 guests back to back over a 36 hour live stream. Each one discussing a different aspect of mental health.

Today is all about goal setting. Something i need regularly reminding of the power of, because the actually setting part is only such a small part of the goal itself that it's easy to glance right past how important it is. Personally I have recently gone through a period where my goals were NOT defined. They needed an update since 2020 and all the changes that came with that; and instead of making new ones I just sidelined my existing ones and went into a very reactive mode. Repsonding only to what was happening, and losing sight of where I wanted things to go. This is something I have no got back under control and I wanted to share that personal story with you along with hopefully encouraging you to look at your goals too. See how well defined they are and maybe make a few tweaks to better impact your direction!

Professor Paul Fletcher is a Cambridge Professor who specialises in psychosis and schizophrenia. As well as delivering ground breaking education on these topics, he was also recruited by the game company Ninja Theory as their mental health consultant for the smash hit game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Here Paul talks about how he got into the field, what his hopes are for the future of care for those that suffer with these conditions, his role in Hellblade and so much more. This interview was taken from Dave's enormous Mental Health Event - The Mental Health ULTRAMarathon. Where he interviewed 36 guests back to back over a 36 hour live stream. Each one discussing a different aspect of mental health.

I've been gone a while right? Well... I'm back and in today's episode I'm looking at a topic that can get very serious, particularly for young people, but really falling into risk taking behaviour cycles is something we can all do. In this episode I talk all about how people get involved in risk taking behaviour, how it can escelate over time and a couple of ideas about how to get out of it!

Mental Health Awareness, isn't just about being aware that mental health is there, it's about being aware of the causes of it. And there are two (oversimplification) causes, internal and external. Social Justice is about creating a world where people are on a level playing field, meaning that the EXTERNAL componnents of mental health are all about social justice!

Phil Hill is someone who identifies as trans-masc. A term that I was very unfamiliar with before getting to know Phil's work. They are a blogger, a speaker and a creator on all things mental health and gender identity and they do great work on explaining many of these issues in a perfect balance between measured and passionate. In this episode we discuss various trans issues, focussing particularly on the specifc issues that affect the Transmasc community as their issues (at least in the media) are often pushed to one side.

Kevin was diagnosed with autism at the age of 20. Something that for him made a lot of his life make sense and allowed him and his family to make adjustments so that he could lead a happier life. This is his story.

Let's be straight up, I don't think calories on menus is a good idea. I think it hurts too many people that in my eyes completely negates how it benefits those who aren't affected by eating disorders or body image issues. So... here's my thoughts on all that!

Like many hidden illnesses to a lot of people (who exclusively have never suffered from it) Chronic Pain is "all in your head". A tremendously invalidating thing to hear when every day you are experiencing one form of pain or another. This is an expression that our guest Petra Phoenix has heard more times than she cares to count, and a sentiment that she would wish to educate people on. As acceptance and understanding may not cure chronic pain, but they'd certainly make living with it that little bit easier!

The guest here is Mastani, a man who is currently in remission after having survived Leukemia, twice! We talk about the diagnosis, the treatment, the changes in mindset and mental health and the indomitable will to survive! 

It should be said upfront that this episode contains swearing. But it also includes an amazing woman, representing for Tourette's Syndrome in an informative, funny and just downright sweet way. Tourette's is a very misunderstood condition and Moxxi does a fantastic job of teaching us about it!

Today I am joined by RJ, one half of the epic podcast duo The Untapped Keg. RJ Shares with us his story from alcoholism, to recovery, to creating a podcast project to bring others together andhelp them on their journeys!

For my 40th birthday I decided to give myself a gift... I invited myself on the podcast as a guest and got one of my all time favourite mental health advocates, talk show hosts and down right wonderul human MXIETY to come on and interview me. It got weird... like really quickly, but then we both settled in to the reversed roles and I think it went wonderfully! The main thing is I do believe this episode gives you a bigger insight to me than any epsiode that has come before so from that respect alone I can only think of it as a HUGE success!

I first met Emma when I realised that my mental health content wasn't very intersectional. A lot of the issues that effect trans people and their mental health don't even pop up on the radar of cis people and I wanted to do something about this! Our first interview last year was as much for my education and understanding as it was for the audience. What I got out of that conversation however was so much more, and above all I made a dear friend.  In this episode Emma talks about the ongoing journey with her transition and talks in an extremely understanding way about how we can all better support each other.

Returnig guest BPD Bryan talks us through his lived experience of negotiating life with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). We focus on the word "negotiating" here as what might come as a straightforward conversation between two people without BPD takes on whole extra dimensions for the person living with BPD. In this epsiode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast we talk about relationships, boundaries, continuing to learn about ourselves and so much more!

OK, it's February so maybe I'm a little late with this one! But here we go super personal as I share the trials and tribulations of 2021, along with my hopes and dreams for 2022!

There are a lot of common thoughts around the negative impact of video games,: they're making us lazy, making us antisocial, making us violent... but are any of these claims actually true? Rather than just ask the opinions of people on either side (which are always just going to be biased) we turned to science! Specifically Dr Rachel Kowert who had researched the very question of "are video games making us antisocial" for her PhD thesis. Athesis that in order to pass must be put under scrutiny and peer reviewed. On this episode we get into that question and much more!

Freyja Sky, original from Romania is now a streamer in the north of England. At an early age Freyja started struggling with anxiety, something that in her home country was very stigmatised and was told that "getting help for this could impact your ability to get a job!" In this interview she opens up about anxiety, depression, PTSD and so much more as well as discussing the many developments she has made on her journey, whilst still acknowledging the challenges that still lie ahead.

Self worth, we all have a certain degree of it and most of us probably want more. But where does it come from? How do we define it? And how can we improve it? In this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast myself and fellow Twitch Streamer Khryseis explore these questions and more!

Is there a place for positivity in 2022? That's the question I am asking my guest Pappa Paws, a hugh advocate for the benefit of positivity and it's need in our world. Personally I describe myself as a positive realist, which is something Pappa Paws does too, however I believe our definitions of it differ slightly, with me leaning towards to realism side a little more and him toward the positivity side. But don't mistake his love for positivty for all sugarcoated, memeable throwaway instagram quotes. Pappa Paws tells it how it is and doesn't pull any punches. In this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast we get into all aspects of positivity as we try to navigate the place it should hold in each of our lives.

This one is adapted from a couple of YouTube videos I made earlier in the year (by the way if you want to SEE episodes and other things and not just listen then http://youtube.com/mindsetbydave ) and is a bit of a two parter. The first part is things I discovered personally about LIVING with mental health and is aimed at those who struggle. The second part is things that I wish those on the outside knew about what living with mental illness can be!

Christopher Leech is a PhD student, studying the impact of video games on mental health. As someone who is interested in both video games and mental health he is the ideal candidate for the job. In this episode of the Mindset By Dave podcast we use this as a jumping off point to look at the greater impact of video games on our lives, trying to spearate the myths from the facts. We also look at video games and violence, interactive movies, the role of playing a game vs watching a streamer play the game and much more.

Ashley Lyn Olson's entire life changed 2 weeks before her 14th birthday when she was involved in a car accident that took the life of her father, disabled her mother, injured her younger sister and paralysed Ashley, meaning she would have to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. One of Ashley's biggest passions in life was travel and all of this would have to change now. But the important word is "change" not "end"; Ashley switched around those "why can't I..." questions for "how could I..." questions and decided to find a new way to "Access the World!" This is now her motto and as well as being a public speaker and an author Ashley now work campaigning and consulting for improved accessibility as well as travelling herself and documneting her experiences through her blog - http://wheelchairtraveling.com - helping other diabled travellers find the information they need to make it a little bit easier to "ACCESS THE WORLD!"

The A in LGBTQIA2+ stands for Asexual or Aromantic and is one of the least spoken about sexualities right now. Asexuals (or ACEs as they are often called - which I LOVE!) are those who have no sexual attraction to any gender which is a difficult thing to describe to anyone who has never experienced that because we can seem to get our heads around a "different" attraction, but the absence of something is not something people can easily comprehend. In this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast I speak with proud ACE Dean Conway all about what this discovery was like for him and how he has had to dfend it/live with it in a world that doesn't understand. We then go on to talk about religion, politics, gender, pronouns and a whole other bunch of dificult (and to some inflamatory) topics in what I hope is an informed, compassionate and honest way.

When it comes to understanding depression there's not a lot of easy to access or easy to digest information out there. One of the most important concepts that I have ever learned about depression is Aaron Beck's Cognitive Triad. Aaron Beck - who unfortunately recently passed away - is considered by many to be the father of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and within his work in this field he outlines Beck's Cognitive Triad. The triad is a system of three categories of thoughts or belief that can lead to and keep a person suffering with depression. These are beliefs about themself, about the world and about the future. Understanding Beck's triad and knowing how to counteract these beliefs is an extremely useful tool in combating depression.

Squid Game is a absolute breakaway hit currently sitting as the most popular show to ever grace the selection on Netflix. In this epsiode of The Mindset By Dave Podcast I am joine by Nick from Gambling Guard as we examine this phenomenon and ask what can Squid Game teach us about Gambling Addiction? Needless to say HUGE Squid Game spoilers throughout this interview.