Podcasts about Bdd

Today we peel back the layers of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) — a condition far beyond simple vanity. Host Gabe Howard and clinician Scott M. Granet tear apart the facade of BDD — a mental battle where the mirror becomes your worst enemy.  This episode exposes a disorder that distorts reality, making you question every reflection. Forget cosmetic fixes — plastic surgery rarely provides salvation. Scott bares his soul, recounting his harrowing struggle from a college crisis over a few stray hairs to a lifelong fight against the obsessive compulsion to fix what isn't really broken. With raw honesty and expert insights, this conversation dives into the complexities of living with BDD, highlighting the vital role of support systems and cognitive behavioral therapy. Whether you or someone you know battles inner demons or simply seeks a deeper understanding of mental health, this episode promises a captivating exploration of perception versus reality. Special thanks to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America for sponsoring this episode. “If you're somebody with BDD who has a problem with your physical appearance, your first thought is not going to be, I should go see a psychotherapist. Your first thought is probably going to be, I want to get this fixed. And even if they suspect they have a psychiatric problem, a major issue with BDD is that it's often considered a shame based disorder. There can be so much shame associated with this, to the point where people don't want to go for therapy and, you know, they're too embarrassed to tell somebody about this problem.” ~Scott M. Granet, LCSW Today's guest, Scott Granet, LCSW, specializes in the treatment of OCD and BDD. He has presented at numerous conferences worldwide and has taught continuing education classes at universities and other institutions throughout the U.S., including the Rutgers University School of Social Work, the UC Berkeley Extension, the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and the NYU Silver School of Social Work. Mr. Granet is the author of “The Complete OCD Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Free Yourself from Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsive Behaviors” and “Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Mine and Yours: A Personal and Clinical Perspective.” Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author. Gabe is also the host of the "Inside Bipolar" podcast with Dr. Nicole Washington. Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can't imagine life without. To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billie McPhilbin is a trainee counselling psychologist at the University of Manchester and a lead facilitator on the BDD Foundation's Overcoming BDD Programme. In this episode, she shares her experiences of struggling with BDD in her late teens, the steps she took towards recovery and the lessons she learned along the way.

Este conteúdo é um trecho do nosso episódio: “#220 TDD e BDD: código rápido ou solução com menos bugs?”. Nele, Amanda Oliveira, Analista de Desenvolvimento de Software, e Jhonatan Pereira, QA Lead, ambos da dti digital, mostram como criar uma cultura de planejamento antes da implementação influencia diretamente nos melhores resultados e evita bugs desnecessários. Eles também refletem sobre a importância do desenvolvedor entender as regras de negócio para seguir a mesma lógica da escrita de um código na elaboração de bons testes. Ficou curioso? Então, dê o play! Procurando uma oportunidade na área de tecnologia? Se você é uma mente criativa, a dti digital é o melhor lugar para você construir uma carreira. Confira as vagas Quer enviar uma dúvida ou ideia para o Entre Chaves? Mande uma mensagem para o nosso Linkedin ou pelo email entrechaves@dtidigital.com.br. Sua resposta pode aparecer em um dos nossos episódios! O Entre Chaves é uma iniciativa da dti digital, uma empresa WPP

Será que o seu tempo gasto com bugs poderiam ter sido evitados? Neste episódio, Amanda Oliveira, Analista de Desenvolvimento de Software, e Jhonatan Pereira, QA Lead, ambos da dti digital, explicam como o TDD e BDD podem transformar seu fluxo de desenvolvimento, reduzindo a falsa sensação de que testes demoram mais e são desnecessários. Eles trazem exemplos práticos, diferenciam as duas abordagens e como elas impactam na construção de produtos eficientes. Dê o play e ouça agora!   Dicas citadas no episódio: Livro: Manifesto Ágil Autor: Eric Evans Procurando uma oportunidade na área de tecnologia? Se você é uma mente criativa, a dti digital é o melhor lugar para você construir uma carreira. Confira as vagas Quer enviar uma dúvida ou ideia para o Entre Chaves? Mande uma mensagem para o nosso Linkedin ou pelo email entrechaves@dtidigital.com.br. Sua resposta pode aparecer em um dos nossos episódios! O Entre Chaves é uma iniciativa da dti digital, uma empresa WPP

In this eye-opening episode, Lindsey Nichol tackles Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) and its significant overlap with eating disorders. Learn how to recognize BDD patterns, understand its impact on your daily life, and discover practical strategies to break free from appearance obsessions and reclaim your joy. In this episode, you'll discover: What Body Dysmorphic Disorder really is and how it differs from normal insecurity The surprising statistics: 25-39% of those with eating disorders also experience BDD Ella's inspiring journey from daily mirror checking to finding freedom and presence in the things that matter most to her 6 powerful, actionable strategies to begin healing from BDD today Why your body was never meant to be your life's work, but to champion you in doing your life's work Transformative quotes: "Your body was never meant to be your life's work. It was meant to champion you in doing your life's work." - Lindsey Nichol "Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself." - Coco Chanel "You can't hate yourself happy. You can't criticize yourself thin. You can't shame yourself worthy. Real change begins with self-love and self-care." - Jessica Ortner The 6 Practical Strategies Covered: Practice Mindful Awareness Challenge Distorted Thinking Reduce Social Media Comparison Redirect Your Focus Practice Body Neutrality Seek Professional Support Resources Mentioned: www.herbestself.co - Work with Lindsey one-on-one herbestselfsociety.com - Join our supportive community If you're tired of obsessing over perceived flaws that others don't notice, constantly checking your appearance, or avoiding social situations because of body image concerns, this episode provides the compassionate guidance and practical tools you need to begin healing. Subscribe now and take the first step toward freedom from appearance obsessions!

Today on Mea Culpa, I welcome back Brooklyn Dad Defiant, an outspoken political commentator known for his sharp wit, relentless criticism of Trump, and humorous takes on today's political chaos. BDD is the author of “The Bigliest Loser” and publishes the popular Substack “DEFIANT Dispatches.” Today, we break down the constitutional crisis unfolding as the government defies a Supreme Court order to return a wrongfully deported immigrant, threatening the very foundation of due process. From the fallout of Trump's reckless tariff war to the silencing of student dissent and the billionaire takeover of our legal institutions, BDD exposes how democracy is being dismantled piece by piece, and why the fight to save it has never been more urgent. Thanks to our sponsors: Graza: Take your food to the next level with Graza Olive Oil. Visit https://graza.co/COHEN and use promo code COHEN  today for 10% off of TRIO! L-Nutra: Just visit https://ProlonLife.com/MEACULPA to claim your 15% discount and your bonus gift. Subscribe to Michael's NEW Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMichaelCohenShow Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PoliticalBeatdown Add the Mea Culpa podcast feed: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen Add the Political Beatdown podcast feed: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this deeply honest episode, we sit down with Bayanne Elkhatib, LPC Associate at The Texas Therapist, to explore the often silent struggle of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) among Muslim women. We talk about the unique ways BDD shows up in our communities—how cultural expectations and family dynamics can complicate our relationship with our bodies.From navigating beauty standards across different cultures to dealing with the quiet shame that often surrounds appearance-related anxiety, this conversation offers insight, validation, and a path toward healing.If you've ever felt like what you see in the mirror isn't what others see—or if you love someone who struggles with this—this episode is for you.Tune in, reflect, and remember: you are more than a reflection.Text to get in touch!Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and share! To help us continue this important work, become a sustainer at www.empowherhealth.org

In episode 481 I chat with Zoey who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.  We discuss fears of choking and swallowing, obsessing over her partners porn use, therapy, exposure and response prevention therapy therapy (ERP), aligning therapy with her values, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), seeing her therapist through NOCD, and much more. Hope it helps.  Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/zoey-481 The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://learn.nocd.com/theocdstories  Join many other listeners getting our weekly emails. Never miss a podcast episode or update: https://theocdstories.com/newsletter   Thanks to all our patrons for supporting our work. To sign up to our Patreon and to check out the benefits you'll receive as a Patron, visit: https://www.patreon.com/theocdstoriespodcast 

In this deeply honest episode, we sit down with Bayanne Elkhatib, LPC Associate at The Texas Therapist, to explore the often silent struggle of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) among Muslim women. We talk about the unique ways BDD shows up in our communities—how cultural expectations and family dynamics can complicate our relationship with our bodies.From navigating beauty standards across different cultures to dealing with the quiet shame that often surrounds appearance-related anxiety, this conversation offers insight, validation, and a path toward healing.If you've ever felt like what you see in the mirror isn't what others see—or if you love someone who struggles with this—this episode is for you.Tune in, reflect, and remember: you are more than a reflection.Text to get in touch!Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and share! To help us continue this important work, become a sustainer at www.empowherhealth.org

Key Topics[02:30] Definition of BDD as an additional layer of discipline on top of TDD[03:15] Common pitfalls of TDD, including testing to implementation and brittle tests[08:30] The structure of BDD tests using Given-When-Then format[12:00] Applying BDD at different levels, from unit tests to system tests[15:45] Using test doubles and spies for hardware interactions in embedded systems[22:30] Testing state machines with BDD[27:00] Off-target testing and hardware abstraction layers[33:00] Why BDD isn't more widely used in embedded systems[36:30] Using code coverage as a signal rather than a goal metric[39:00] Overcoming the learning curve and maintaining discipline in BDDNotable Quotes"BDD is an additional layer of discipline on top of TDD. Dan North's goal was to get straight to the good stuff of TDD without getting into the pitfalls." — Steve"The key thing that BDD does by saying we're going to focus on behavior is you look at the API that you've written and you say, what can I do through the public API to affect this, to check the results and so forth?" — Steve"By having abstraction layers, you create your thin layer that's substitutable with either the real code on target, or with a test double off target." — Steve"Code coverage as a goal metric is not a good thing. Rather than using code coverage as just this almost dimensionless metric, use it as a signal to guide you." — Steve"By adhering very strictly to the simple rules of how to do BDD, by forcing yourself to the discipline of that strict adherence, it keeps you on track." — SteveResources MentionedJames Grenning's bookSteve's blog postEmbedded Online TalkIan Cooper's video You can find Jeff at https://jeffgable.com.You can find Luca at https://luca.engineer.Want to join the agile Embedded Slack? Click here

 In this episode, we talk to Bryan Finster about Test Driven Development.  We discuss what TDD is and why it's essential for high speed, high quality software engineering. Bryan criticizes independent QA teams and we explore how integrated cross-functional teams provide the rapid feedback you need to develop high quality code.  And we discuss how to use value stream mapping to show your leaders the need to make a change.  Tune in to learn all about TDD and BDD from an expert. Listen to the podcast on your favourite podcast app: | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio | PlayerFM | Amazon Music | Listen Notes | TuneIn | Audible | Podchaser |  Deezer | Podcast Addict | Contact Murray on LinkedIn or via email 

Tristan Snell and Brooklyn Dad Defiant break down how Trump's administration has quickly derailed what they call "the best American economy since the 1960s." They examine the market volatility, tariff chaos, and rising unemployment, highlighting February's worst job cuts since 2009. The conversation takes a serious turn discussing veterans' issues, including cuts to burn pit exposure benefits and plans to fire 80,000 VA employees - what Snell calls "the most anti-veteran presidency in American history." BDD shares his frustration over watching predicted disasters unfold, comparing the situation to comic book villains becoming reality. The duo closes with sharp commentary on corruption, discussing how removing government services pushes Americans toward private alternatives that benefit Trump's wealthy allies.

What happens when the pressure to perform collides with the pressure to look a certain way? This week, we're tackling body image in sports and fitness—breaking down the differences between body dysmorphia, body dissatisfaction, and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and why athletes are especially vulnerable.From social media-fueled comparison traps (looking at you, Facetune) to toxic fitness culture and outdated coaching methods, we explore why so many athletes struggle with body image—and what actually helps. Plus, a deep dive into why traditional body positivity isn't the answer and why frameworks like body neutrality, fat liberation, and radical body acceptance are changing the conversation.

In this episode of the Recover to Flourish podcast, I'm talking about something that often goes hand-in-hand with eating disorders but can be misunderstood – Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). If you've ever found yourself obsessing over perceived flaws in your appearance, even when others can't see them, this episode is for you. I'll break down what BDD is, how it can affect your recovery journey, and what steps you can take to start addressing it. From social media to plastic surgery, we will cover it all.We'll talk about self-compassion, seeking the right support, and how to manage those distorted thoughts. Recovery is a process, and understanding BDD is a huge step in the right direction. You're not alone in this, and we're in it together!SOCIALS:Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_podTikTok: @flourishwithciandraWebsite: https://flourishwithciandra.com/Contact: info@flourishwithciandra.com

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is often a hidden condition—one that many children and teenagers struggle with in silence. While they may appear outwardly fine, internally, they experience intense distress over perceived flaws in their appearance. What may seem like common self-consciousness can, in reality, be a deeply debilitating mental health disorder. Unfortunately, BDD often goes unrecognised for years, leaving young people feeling isolated and unsupported.In this episode of the Family Health Podcast by Mini First Aid, host Kate Ball is joined by body image coach Olivia Bowden and counsellor and psychotherapist Jennie Penkel to explore the complexities of BDD. This discussion covers:✅ The signs and symptoms of BDD in young people✅ How parents can differentiate between typical self-consciousness and disordered thinking✅ The impact of social media, perfectionism, and external pressures on body image✅ Practical steps for supporting a child with BDD✅ The pathways to recovery and the importance of professional helpIf you are concerned that your child may be excessively preoccupied with their appearance, experiencing distress related to their body image, or withdrawing from social situations, this episode provides valuable guidance on recognising and addressing the issue. There is help available, and recovery is possible.Olivia Bowden is Founder of Body Image Coach, supporting children with eating disorders and Body Dysmorphic Disorder in schools, click here to find out more about the therapeutic services Body Image Coach offer.Find Body Image Coach news and resources relating to Body Dysmorphic Disorder hereOlivia's A-Z online free self help platform Dear Heart Column can be accessed here if you need support with general life difficulties.Find Olivia's self-help books here at Front Door Publishing Jennie Penkul is a psychotherapist and cofounder of The Thorndon Centre, a clinic specialising in the prevention and treatment of body image disorders including BDD.Connect with Jennie on LinkedInCheck out the free resources and signposting on Jennie's website hereRead the NHS guide to BDD Mini First Aid Family First Aid Kit - Platinum Award winning first aid kit, voted a Best Buy in the Loved By Parents Awards 2021, is a comprehensive first aid kit for all the family. Containing 115 essential items, it is ideal for keeping in your car or at home for any first aid emergencies.Find out more about our multi award winning two hour Baby & Child first aid classes here, delivered in a relaxed and comfortable style to give you the confidence to know what actions to take if faced with a medical emergency.For press enquiries and to contact Mini First Aid, email info@minifirstaid.co.ukSeries 4 of the Family Health Podcast by Mini First Aid is sponsored by Things Happen, a trusted broker which offers the best financial advice to help parents and their families make informed decisions, ensuring a secure and tax-efficient future

How can teams unlock elite productivity while navigating the complexities of DevOps? Expert consultant Xing Zhou reveals how DORA metrics—from deployment frequency to change failure rate, drive performance and bridge gaps between leadership and the team members. Xing's impressive career spans companies like Amazon, Pivotal Labs, and Integral. He currently serves as  Xing has led high-performing teams, implemented cutting-edge DevOps strategies, and helped organizations make meaningful progress toward elite DORA benchmarks. Xing and Ashok discuss actionable steps for C-Suite leaders and product teams, focusing on SLAs, CI/CD, behavior-driven development, and event storming workshops to drive alignment and enhance productivity. Packed with real-world examples, this conversation is essential listening for anyone aiming to turn metrics into a reflection of team health and organizational success. Inside the episode... A clear explanation of Dora metrics: what they are and why they matter. How SLAs and SLOs empower teams while aligning with organizational goals. Continuous delivery (CD): balancing technical capability with business priorities. The difference between pull request (PR) and trunk-based development for CI. Behavior-driven development (BDD) and its role in improving test automation. Event storming: how this simple tool drives clarity in business processes. Practical strategies for introducing new practices like BDD or event storming to your team. Mentioned in this episode: Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) Gherkin language for test automation Event storming Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence

In episode 464 I chat with Carey who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.  We discuss her OCD story, magical thinking, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), fears around medication, feelings of shame, existential OCD, feeling suicidal, going into a psychiatric unit, doing exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), words of hope, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/carey-464  The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories Join many other listeners getting our weekly emails. Never miss a podcast episode or update: https://theocdstories.com/newsletter   Thanks to all our patrons for supporting our work. To sign up to our Patreon and to check out the benefits you'll receive as a Patron, visit: https://www.patreon.com/theocdstoriespodcast 

Today on Mea Culpa, I'm joined by Brooklyn Dad Defiant, a left-wing political commentator with over 1 million Twitter followers, known for his outspoken defiance and humorous take on today's political climate. Author of The Bigliest Loser, BDD and I dive into Trump's controversial cabinet picks, including figures like Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, and the alarming implications of his plans to dismantle key federal agencies like the EPA and Department of Education. We also critique Trump's divisive rhetoric and discuss the Democratic Party's ongoing struggle to counter the GOP's powerful messaging machine. Thanks to our sponsor: Hims: Start your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/COHEN for your personalized ED treatment options. Subscribe to Michael's NEW Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMichaelCohenShow Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PoliticalBeatdown Add the Mea Culpa podcast feed: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen Add the Political Beatdown podcast feed: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Screw It Just Do It Sessions, Alex Chisnall talks with Danny Gray, founder of War Paint for Men, the UK's leading men's makeup brand. Danny shares his journey from being diagnosed with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) to creating a brand that aims to break the stigma around men wearing makeup. They discuss War Paint's viral social media moment, its impact on global sales, and how Danny handles both the praise and criticism his brand receives. Hear the inspiring story of how War Paint changed a young man's life, the lessons Danny learned about trademarking and cash flow, and his vision for a $70 billion global market. Key Topics Covered: Danny's journey from BDD to founding War Paint for Men The Dragons' Den experience and its impact on sales Handling social media backlash and using it to spark conversations Cash flow management and trademarking for startup sBreaking stereotypes and building confidence for men

Join your host, Nicole Morris, LMFT and Mental Health Correspondent, as she welcomes Sandi James of Australia to our OCD Family Community! In Part IV or our 3rd Annual OCRD series, Sandi is sharing more about Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) and how it wrestles with gender diversity. Join us as we explore the unique impact BDD has on gender-diverse individuals, its challenges in diagnosis and treatment, and the importance of tailored therapeutic approaches. Come for the learning, stay for the hope!

In episode 266 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked back in with two of our favourite guests, Danny Bowman and George Mycock. Danny and George both work in the mental health space around eating disorders, specifically Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Danny has come on twice, in JCIP #70 and JCIP #209 respectively. He is currently in the final stages of completing a PHD at the University of Liverpool. He also previously stood as the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Liverpool Garston in the 2024 General Election, is the Head of Communications at The Conservative Mental Health Group and a Fellow at The Royal Society of Arts. George is the Founder of MyoMinds, a platform which aims to bring awareness of a form of BDD called Muscle Dysmorphia (MD), demystify mental health for exercisers and athletes and to create an understanding future for the exercising community. He is also currently studying for a PHD at the University of Worcester, study muscularity oriented psychosocial issues in men. We wanted to get them both back on to have a different type of episode and one which we hope can be a blueprint for how to address an ED, treat it and recover from it. We also sprinkle in some ideas about how we can improve the conversation and the system to support those living with EDs. We will navigate this episode through three stages of an eating disorder: what it is and what it looks like, the treatment path and the recovery stage. There are not enough positive recovery stories out there and Danny and George are shining lights in how one can navigate these stages and help others at the end of it. As always, #itsokaytovent You can find out more about MyoMinds here: myominds.com/ You can follow MyoMinds on social media below: Instagram: www.instagram.com/myo_minds/?hl=en Twitter: twitter.com/MyoMinds You can follow Danny on social media below: Twitter: twitter.com/DannyBowman10 You can listen to Danny and George's previous episodes below: JCIP #228 - George Mycock: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-228-george-mycock JCIP #70 - Danny Bowman: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-70-danny-bowman JCIP #209 - Danny Bowman - Part 2: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-209-danny-bowman-part-2 Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk

Dr. Olivardia is a clinical psychologist, lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Clinical Associate at McLean Hospital. He maintains a private practice in Lexington, MA, where he specializes in the treatment of ADHD, executive functioning issues, and issues that face students with learning differences. He is a recognized expert in the treatment of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He is on the Professional Advisory Boards for Children and Adults with ADHD (CHADD) and The Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA), as well as sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for ADDitude and the Expert Network for Understood. He is co-author of The Adonis Complex, a book which details the various manifestations of body image problems in males. He has appeared in publications such as Time, GQ, and Rolling Stone, and has been featured on Good Morning America, Extra, CBS This Morning, CNN, and VH1. He has spoken on numerous radio and webinar shows and presents at many talks and conferences around the country. He also has lived experience as someone with ADHD and learning differences and a parent of two teenagers with ADHD and Dyslexia. Key Takeaways: 1. ADHD and Eating Disorders: ADHD impacts all life domains, with symptoms like impulsivity, executive dysfunction, and high sensory needs that influence eating behaviors. For many with ADHD, eating is driven by sensory-seeking, and the brain's need for stimulation can lead to unhealthy eating patterns. ADHD is often associated with binge eating and food impulsivity, influenced by genetic and neurological factors, such as dopamine dysregulation and low levels of GABA, the neurotransmitter related to inhibition.   2. Genetics, Food Culture, and Neurobiology: Dr. Olivardia shares how his family's love for food shaped his relationship with eating and sensory stimulation. ADHD brains often experience high stimulation from ultra-processed foods, which can drive cravings and overeating due to dopamine's role in the brain's reward system.   3. Executive Function Challenges in Meal Planning: ADHD can make meal planning, shopping, and cooking overwhelming. Structured lists, simple recipes, and single-pot meals can help manage mealtime more effectively for those with ADHD. Regular, scheduled meals prevent intense late-night eating often seen in ADHD.   4. Medication and Treatment Options: Stimulant medications, like Vyvanse (FDA-approved for binge eating disorder), help some individuals with ADHD manage impulsivity around food by improving focus and reducing cravings. Proper medication can significantly enhance treatment outcomes for ADHD-related eating challenges. For individuals who don't respond to medication, behavioral strategies such as maintaining regular sleep schedules, exercising, and using music for grounding can be effective.   5. Binge Eating and Addiction Risks:  Dr. Olivardia highlights the link between ADHD and addiction, including food addiction. ADHD brains metabolize glucose differently, leading to cravings for high-sugar foods. Education on how ADHD brains work can alleviate feelings of weakness or shame in managing eating behaviors.   6. Self-Acceptance and Neurodiversity: Dr. Olivardia encourages embracing ADHD and neurodiversity, emphasizing that people with ADHD often excel in creative and mission-driven fields. ADHD challenges can become strengths, leading to fulfilling, meaningful work and connections.   Resources: • CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) – A leading organization for ADHD support and resources: https://chadd.org   • Attitude Magazine – A resource for ADHD insights and content: https://www.additudemag.com   The content of our show is educational only. It does not supplement or supersede your healthcare provider's professional relationship and direction. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder, or mental health concern.    

Can you handle these truths about automated testing? In this episode, Nikolay Advolodkin reveals the hard-hitting truths he's discovered throughout his 16-year career in software engineering. From the common misuse of Cucumber to selecting the wrong automation tools, he talks about how these mistakes can lead to wasted effort, unnecessary complexity, and lost resources. He also explains why automating everything can backfire and how flaky tests destroy trust in automation.Tune in so you don't have to learn the same hard lessons.Sauce Labs accelerates higher-quality software delivery. Free Trial

In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we explore the profound concept of "Chesterton's Fence" and how it applies to software development and organizational culture. Chesterton's Fence refers to the idea that before removing or changing a rule, tradition, or practice, one must first understand why it was put in place. We dive into this principle, discuss real-world coding examples, and contrast it with the famous "Five Monkeys Experiment," which explores how behavior and practices can irrationally persist even when the original purpose is forgotten.

Adam creates a hypnosis session to help a client feel more attractive and confident as they age helping dealing with body dysmorphia and insecurities attached to the idea of beauty being a reflection of youth by using a fairytale metaphor to reach a place of self-acceptance beyond the surface level of superficial beauty.  Coming Soon - The Hypnotists's Secret Circle: Adam will soon be launching a new low-cost membership to access his entire hypnosis archive without the intro, outro, and explanation and an exclusive community only for members. In the meantime you can secure a free sleep download here: https://tr.ee/MCuZqKPnEg  Adam Cox is one of the world's most innovative hypnotists and is known for being the hypnotherapist of choice for Celebrities, CEO's and even Royalty. To book a free 30-minute consultation call to consider working with Adam go to: https://go.oncehub.com/AdamCox Adam's rates for hypnotherapy in pounds and US dollars are here: https://www.adamcox.co.uk/hypnotherapist.html  You can contact Adam at adam@adamcox.co.uk Further information on Adam is here: https://linktr.ee/AdamCoxOfficial  Tags: Adam Cox, the hypnotist, NLP, asmr, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, hypnotist, stress, sleep, worry, meditation, guided meditation, hypnotism, anxiety, hypnosis for confidence,  hypnosis for aging, youth hypnosis, beauty hypnosis, dysmorphia, BDD, BDD hypnosis, 

Lisa ordered diet pills through the mail when she was 15 years old, and that order became the cornerstone of a decades long eating disorder. She has completed an inpatient eating disorder treatment program, she attends ongoing outpatient therapy, and still she falls back into disordered eating whenever her stress is unmanageable. Lisa has worked hard, and she is tired of shrinking herself. She comes to the show hoping Renée can help her figure out how to stop battling herself and her body. Renée goes looking for what Lisa's treatment missed, and in the process she and Lisa discuss relationships, parts work, psychedelics, why relapses are helpful, and why traditional eating disorder treatment just doesn't work. By the end, Lisa knows what needs to heal, and Renée shows her how to get there.Support the show

In this episode, Ashish Ghosh, a test automation architect at ING Bank, shares a new open source Playwright automation framework called INGenious Playwright Studio. Ingenious is a low-code test automation framework designed to empower business users in the automation process. Ashish shares insights on overcoming the challenges of traditional coded solutions, emphasizing the importance of business user involvement and the cost-effective advantages of open-source tools over commercial alternatives. He explains how Ingenious seamlessly transitioned from Selenium to Playwright, enhancing reliability and eliminating the need for glue code in BDD approaches. Join us to discover how the INGenious framework supports comprehensive enterprise-grade testing, from web applications to APIs, databases, and mobile testing, while fostering a collaborative culture through community feedback and contributions.

Hey friend!    Wow! Can you believe that summer is nearly over? One minute you're doubling down on spray tans so you're not looking all pasty-white in your shorts and sundresses…And the next minute, you're getting a notification on your Starbucks App that Fall drinks are back!    What in the pumpkin latte is going on here?!?   I'm actually getting ready to go on vacation and I can not wait to not count calories or macros or steps and just eat, drink, and let my food flag fly!    And that's what vacations are for, right? No stress. No pressure. No hard and fast rules.    And that's cool.   Except...if you're like me...and you're dealing with a hormonal imbalance that is directly impacted by what you eat and drink. Yes, all that overindulging on vacation--or even just during your summer–can really take a toll on your health…and your hormones.   That's why in today's final episode of my “Hot Flash Summer” series, I'm sharing 5 simple nutrition rules to help you rebalance your hormones and ease back into a healthy eating routine without feeling completely deprived!    Join me as we discuss:   The first thing you should do before ordering food at a restaurant or drive-thru   Why cleaning your plate might be the worst health advice your parents ever gave you   The two most important nutrients to pay attention to if you want to avoid overeating   My best tip for enjoying the foods you love while eliminating any reactivity   Plus, BDD–the 3 food categories you can enjoy “one” of; but not all! Whether you just back home from a vacation where you completely fell off the healthy eating wagon, OR you're feeling the effects of a little “too much” summer fun…and you're not quite done yet...this episode is for you!   — Next Steps:   Take my FREE Hormone Quiz: https://bit.ly/HormoneSelfAssessment   Book a FREE Hormone Clarity Call: https://bit.ly/HCprecall EP 33 | 5 Essential Travel Tips Every Perimenopausal Woman Needs To Know To Prevent Hormonal Imbalance [SUMMER SERIES]: https://pod.fo/e/260184   EP 32 | Six Tricks to Curb Cravings, Avoid Overeating, And Maintain Hormone Balance In Perimenopause [SUMMER SERIES]: https://pod.fo/e/25dafd EP 30 | 8 Healthy Drinking Hacks To Reduce The Effects of Alcohol On Your Perimenopause or Menopause Symptoms (Pt. 2) [SUMMER SERIES]: https://pod.fo/e/25b045   EP 29 | Is Summer Drinking Sabotaging Your Hormones? 8 Signs Alcohol Is Impacting Your Perimenopause or Menopause Symptoms SUMMER SERIES: https://pod.fo/e/25891c   EP 27 | SAD In Summer? 3 Ways To Stop Perimenopausal Mood Swings, Anxiety, or Depression From Ruining Your Vacation [SUMMER SERIES]: https://pod.fo/e/255c11   EP 26 | Sleepless in Summer: Why You Can't Sleep & 4 Natural Sleep Aids for Better ZZZ's in Menopause [SUMMER SERIES]: https://pod.fo/e/2530cf EP 24 | Can't Poop? 5 Tips To Relieve Constipation (And Balance Hormones) While Traveling [SUMMER SERIES]: https://pod.fo/e/25141d EP 23 | Help! I'm Melting!: Six Tips to Beat the Summer Heat and Cool Menopausal Hot Flashes: https://pod.fo/e/24e160   *Disclaimer: Information provided in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. The information is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. I share the strategies that have worked for me and you are advised to do your own research and speak to your medical provider for care.  

You asked us: Everyone says to love your body, but how? We invited Rachel Rifkin, LMHC, CEDS, and Associate Director of Support Groups for the National Alliance for Eating Disorders to the podcast to answer your questions and explain what BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder) is and talk openly about eating disorders. Rachel is a licensed mental health counselor, specializing in eating disorders within the LGBTQ+ community with lived eating disorder experience.  In this episode, Rachel talks about what BDD and eating disorders look like, explains how they manifest, and gives us advice on what to do if you or a loved one are struggling. Rachel tells us how to use attainable language surrounding our bodies, like body tolerance, and body disconnect when looking to get to a place of acceptance. She has advice on how to acknowledge and respect our bodies realistically and avoid traps. How do you support a loved one with BDD? Please know that you are not alone. There is help!: The Alliance Free HelpLine 866-662-1235 findEDhelp Database App: findEDhelp: App Store  Google Play referrals@allianceforeatingdisorders.com info@allianceforeatingdisorders.com (00:00:00) Introducing Rachel Rifkin, LMHC, CEDS, Associate Director of Support Groups for The Alliance. (00:04:20) How Rachel Rifkin's eating disorder started her on this career path. (00:13:40) What does an eating disorder look like?  (00:19:16) A basic definition of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) to start the conversation.  (00:25:45) Signs that might indicate a struggle with BDD on ANY level and muscle dysmorphia. (00:31:10) BDD is not an eating disorder but it can be connected to one. (00:33:48) How life events that bring body changes or emotional responses can cause BDD to manifest.  (00:40:40) TTSL Community question: Everyone says to love your body, but how? (00:46:40) Small steps to take towards neutrality when hating your body.  (00:56:10) TTSL Community question: how can we support our loved ones who have body dysmorphia without invalidating their feelings?  (01:08:04) Value not connected to appearance and how meaningful compliments can disrupt and change thought patterns. (01:16:32) Where to find and connect with Rachel Rifkin and/or look for resources. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The CVG Nation app, for ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠iPhone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The CVG Nation app, for Android⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Fitness FB Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thick Thighs Save Lives Workout Programs⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Constantly Varied Gear's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Workout Leggings⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

How did NASA test their critical systems for their successful Apollo missions?  Have you seen the new free course on how to get started with Playwright and Typescript  What really caused the CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage last week? Find out in this episode of the Test Guild New Shows for the week of July 28th. So, grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea, and let's do this.   Time News Title Rocket Link 0:22 Register for Newsshow https://testguild.me/newsub 0:31 Appium-device-farm https://testguild.me/73ycdk 1:24 AI Testing for Salesforce https://testguild.me/aisales 2:04 QA Wolf Raises $36M https://testguild.me/e3jwi2 2:33 Cypress Framework with BDD https://testguild.me/syq139 3:39 Apollo success testing https://testguild.me/3b1qst 5:05 Gerald Weinberg https://testguild.me/d8871q 5:31 CrowdStrike blames bug https://testguild.me/qgpi2b 6:02 New Course: Playwright + Typescript https://testguild.me/typescript 7:08 Load tester's guide (part 1) https://testguild.me/ysjn1l 7:57 New Telemetry Tool https://testguild.me/76p3em 8:31 Lakera AI raises $20M https://testguild.me/vms1wd

In episode 444 I chat with Chris Trondsen. Chris is psychotherapist at the Gateway institute, an OCD and anxiety treatment center. He currently serves as the Vice President of the IOCDF Southern California Affiliate, and is on the Board of Directors of the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF)  We discuss an update on Chris, what is body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), muscle dysmorphia, levels of insight in BDD, a view of how the brain works in BDD, therapy for BDD, and much more. Hope it helps.  Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/chris-444  The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside the US. To find out more about NOCD, their therapy plans and if they currently take your insurance head over to https://go.treatmyocd.com/theocdstories Thanks to all our patrons for supporting our work. To sign up to our Patreon and to check out the benefits you'll receive as a Patron, visit: https://www.patreon.com/theocdstoriespodcast 

In this episode, host Joe Colantonio sits down with Mark Creamer, President and CEO at Conformiq, to delve into the fascinating world of AI in test automation.  See how Conformiq can transform your testing process by requesting a free demo now at https://testguild.me/aidemo They explore how Gen AI and Symbolic AI are revolutionizing the generation and optimization of test cases, making testing processes more efficient and collaborative. Mark shares his two-decade journey in utilizing AI technologies such as natural language processing and vision recognition systems, highlighting the distinctions between older and newer AI methods. The conversation underscores how Gen AI's accessibility and user-friendliness are transforming testing. At the same time, Symbolic AI continues to provide deterministic and predictable test case generation, which is particularly valuable in regulated environments. Tune in to hear Mark's insightful perspectives on enhancing test automation through AI, leveraging system-level models for end-to-end testing, and optimizing BDD approaches for agile development. Whether you're a seasoned tester or just getting started, this episode is packed with practical advice and thought-provoking discussions that you won't want to miss.

As you'll discover in this episode, body image or body dysmorphia, as it is often commonly referred to, is not the same as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Robyn Stern a LCSW and therapist, joins me to define the key variables and signs that can make a significant difference in identifying, seeking and getting the right kind of effective support. She'll also share her own lived experience with BDD, how to discuss when you have concerns about BDD, and common misconceptions that can cause harm. Parents, this episode is a must-listen as it provides guidance on how to approach conversations about body image and BDD with your teens, ensuring they feel supported and understood. Robin highlights the importance of creating a safe space for open dialogue and seeking professional help when needed.   Robyn Stern is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and therapist providing services since 2012 in Florida, New York, New Jersey, and California. She has double Masters, one in Social Work and the other in Counseling Education. Robyn is also professionally trained in CBT/ERP, ACT, DBT, Habit Reversal Training and Trauma Informed Therapy practice. Quick Links - for more about Robyn and her services, plus additional information on BDD: Website: https://www.rlsterntherapy.com International OCD Foundation(IOCF) on BDD: https://bdd.iocdf.org BDD Foundation, UK: https://bddfoundation.org The TLC Foundation for Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors: https://www.bfrb.org   Parents: Grab a copy of my FREE Parent Guide on spotting unhealthy teen eating behaviors  and how you can help, click here! Website: leslierosecoaching.com for more teen health and wellness info and coaching programs. Instagram: @Leslierosecoaching - DM with comments, questions or guest requests. Before you go: Rate & review my podcast. It helps me reach more parents and teens, seeking relevant youth-specific health and wellness information.  

Body dysmorphic disorder is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder that focuses on the body. It is characterized by cognitive symptoms (that is, symptoms that involve the mind) such as perceived flaws in physical appearance. In this video, we'll discuss the symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder. Disclaimer: This video is created for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute a professional diagnosis. If you suspect you may have body dysmorphic disorder or any mental health condition, we highly advise you to seek help from a qualified mental health professional. With that said, here are a few signs of body dysmorphia. Want to learn more about Body Dysmorphic Disorder? Click here:    • Body dysmorphic disorder.. What is it?   If you struggle with body image, watch this:    • If You Struggle With Body Image Issue...   Writer: Monica Taing Script Editor: Isadora Ho Script Manager: Kelly Soong VO: Amanda Silvera (   / amandasilvera  ) Animator: Zuzia YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong Resources Building Body Acceptance (Body Dysmorphia) Self-Help Resources. (n.d.). Building Body Acceptance (Body Dysmorphia) Self-Help Resources. Retrieved September 23, 2022, from Building Body Acceptance (Body Dysmorphia) Self-Help Resources Useful contacts - body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Mind. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2022, from Useful contacts - body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) American Psychiatric Association. (2022, September 23). Dsm-5-Text Revision 5th Ed. ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ) 5th Edition By American Psychiatric Association May 18, 2022. Generic.

Body dysmorphic disorder BDD is defined by the Mayo Clinic as: “Body dysmorphic disorder is a mental health condition in which you can't stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance — a flaw that appears minor or can't be seen by others. But you may feel so embarrassed, ashamed and anxious that you may avoid many social situations.” This affects people of all ages and still exists in those who are older as well. Unfortunately, most of the attention is focused on younger people which leaves a large population of older adults uninformed about the effects of this condition. In This Episode You Will Learn: 1). What exactly is body dysmorphia and what are the effects of suffering from this condition. 2). How common it is to have feelings about your body that are unfavorable and that can easily lead to a condition of BDD. 3). The similarities and relation of body dysmorphia to other conditions like anorexia etc. 4). Why BDD is hard to self diagnose for someone who is suffering from it. 5). Meredith's tips on how you can get help for yourself or someone you know who is showing signs of BDD. /// We hope the facts and tips in this episode are helpful to you or someone you know who may be showing signs of body dysmorphic disorder. Living with this condition can be challenging, especially when there is not a lot of information on how to get help. Making sure you are well informed on how to help yourself or people with BDD is key to body acceptance and appreciation which will lead to a longer, healthier life. Team MeredithSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Psychotherapist Arie Winograd (LMFT) has spent the vast majority of his 25-year psychotherapy career treating clients with body dysmorphic disorder. He founded and was the director of the Los Angeles BDD & Body Image Clinic. He is the author of Face to Face with Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Psychotherapy and Clinical Insights. He currently works with BDD clients in his private practice. Interviewed by Dr. Alex Curmi, consultant psychiatrist. If you would like to enquire about an online psychotherapy appointment with Dr. Alex, you can email - alexcurmitherapy@gmail.com.Give feedback here - thinkingmindpodcast@gmail.com -  Follow us here: Twitter @thinkingmindpod Instagram @thinkingmindpodcastJoin Our Mailing List! - https://thinkingmindpod.aidaform.com/mailinglistsignupSUPPORT: buymeacoffee.com/thinkingmind

In this episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we dive into software development and team dynamics with Mark Shead. Discover how to revolutionize your team's productivity and create a more enjoyable work environment. ### **Leveling Up the Entire Team** - **Maximizing Software Investment & Fun:** Learn how mob programming boosts software investment value and enjoyment. - **Team Size Strategies:** Debate whether to tackle problems with large teams or start with just 5 people. - **Real-Life Transformation:** Hear the story of five individuals transitioning from solo work to pair/mob programming and the positive outcomes including reduced cycle times, enhanced delivery rates, knowledge sharing, and collective code ownership.  - **Overcoming Silos:** Address the challenge of tying self-worth to personal knowledge silos and the sunk cost fallacy. - **Bottleneck Resolution:** Compare R&D bottleneck resolution in solo, isolated pair/mob, and dynamic pair/mob setups. - **Team Health:** Learn why the speed of asking questions and seeking help is crucial for team health. - **Risk and Virtue:** Discuss taking risks from a firm foundation and acting virtuously in a team, regardless of consequences. - **Sponsoring Risk Takers:** Discover the importance of sponsoring and encouraging team members who take risks and ask questions. - **Learning Vulnerability:** Hear Austin's baseball coach story on vulnerability and its relevance to software teams. ### **Effective Remote Teams** - **Solo Work vs. Collaboration:** Examine the norm of solo work and scheduled meetings leading to eight-hour days filled with meetings. - **Booking Meetings:** Understand the inefficiency of booking meetings weeks in advance just to get necessary information. - **Remote Team Room:** Learn about the remote team room approach that reduces cycle time for information sharing and fosters real-time collaboration. - **Video Call Dynamics:** Address the fear of being on video and the impact of informal versus formal video styles on zoom fatigue. ### **BDD & TDD: The State of Software Development** - **Roman Bridges Legend:** Reflect on the "hopefulness" in the software industry and the parallels with the legend of Roman bridges. - **Known vs. Unknown:** Delve into what is known versus unknown in software development. - **BDD/TDD Practices:** Discuss how much BDD/TDD should be integrated with the UI and the fear of creating test code that might need changes later. - **Evolving Product Code:** Become comfortable with evolving both product and test code. - **Coupling Tests to Design:** Debate whether to couple tests to design or not, comparing London versus Detroit approaches. - **Unmatched Confidence:** Discover the confidence boost that comes with well-executed BDD/TDD. - **Safe R&D Spaces:** Balance the need for a safe time-boxed R&D experimental code with the certainty of test-driven development. - **Humoring the Coach:** Hear anecdotes about teams humoring their coaches with TDD, only to embrace it enthusiastically the next day. Don't miss this insightful episode filled with practical tips, real-life stories, and advice on enhancing your team's performance and software development practices. Tune in now to level up your team with Mark Shead! Video and Show Notes: https://youtu.be/8yJmuXWgVbU  

This episode is a deep dive into body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). I discuss what it is, when it develops and possible causes. I talk about common body preoccupations and behaviours associated with BDD. I explore plastic surgery and how this can become addictive. I also talk about possible treatment and the relationship between BDD and eating disorders.   This week's sponsors: - Conquering Bulimia https://www.conqueringbulimia.com/   Dr. Marianne-Land: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-marianne-land-an-eating-disorder-recovery-podcast/id1699867862?i=1000651158162 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Km8nFEjQOoV7zXzifJcAQ?si=2828ae031c0449d0   When I "visited" Dr. Marianne-Land! :) Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-marianne-land-an-eating-disorder-recovery-podcast/id1699867862?i=1000641810714 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4PAFcm6A7olJuODdJQKD6x?si=b8586794d4534af8   Harriet Frew's current offers: - Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html Online Breaking Free from Bulimia – 20% off with code FREEDOM at checkout https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html  Eating Disorders Training for Professionals https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html Body Image Training for Professionals https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html  

Today, we're diving into the future of user story optimization and the art of turning those stories into actionable tests. Today, we have the privilege of being joined by Scott Aziz, the visionary founder of AgileAI Labs and a renowned BDD expert. We are also accompanied by John Smart, the creator of the Serenity framework, whose expertise in BDD is unparalleled. Together, we will delve into the powerful capabilities of the new AI tool Spec2test. Imagine a tool so refined that it not only assesses your user stories for ambiguities using an intricate 7-point framework but also offers AI-generated suggestions to enhance them. That's not all; Scott Aziz and BDD expert John Smart join us to discuss how Spec2test fosters essential iterative collaboration, paving the way for crisp, clear requirements and generating corresponding test cases right from the get-go. This is not just about meeting the standards of behavior-driven development; it's about exceeding them. With the tool's dual-edged sword of user story analysis and sophisticated testing capabilities—spanning functional test cases to security testing advice—you're getting a comprehensive suite that breathes life into automation. Surprised by AI's prowess in reshaping agile teams' productivity, our guests reveal how Spec2test is a co-pilot in requirements discovery. For enthusiasts who want a taste of its power, a visual demonstration or free trial could be your gateway to appreciating its full potential. So, gear up for an illuminating session on bringing precision and collaboration to the forefront of your testing strategies -- listen up!

Today on Elixir Wizards Office Hours, SmartLogic Engineer Joel Meador joins Dan Ivovich to discuss all things background jobs. The behind-the-scenes heroes of app performance and scalability, background jobs take center stage as we dissect their role in optimizing user experience and managing heavy-lifting tasks away from the main application flow. From syncing with external systems to processing large datasets, background jobs are pivotal to successful application management. Dan and Joel share their perspectives on monitoring, debugging, and securing background jobs, emphasizing the need for a strategic approach to these hidden workflows. Key topics discussed in this episode: The vital role of background jobs in app performance Optimizing user experience through background processing Common pitfalls: resource starvation and latency issues Strategies for effective monitoring and debugging of task runners and job schedulers Data integrity and system security in open source software Background job tools like Oban, Sidekiq, Resque, Cron jobs, Redis pub sub CPU utilization and processing speed Best practices for implementing background jobs Keeping jobs small, focused, and well-monitored Navigating job uniqueness, locking, and deployment orchestration Leveraging asynctask for asynchronous operations The art of continuous improvement in background job management Links mentioned in this episode: https://redis.io/ Oban job processing library https://hexdocs.pm/oban/Oban.html Resque Ruby library for background jobs https://github.com/resque Sidekiq background processing for Ruby https://github.com/sidekiq Delayed Job priority queue system https://github.com/collectiveidea/delayed_job RabbitMQ messaging and streaming broker https://www.rabbitmq.com/ Mnesia distributed telecommunications DBMS https://www.erlang.org/doc/man/mnesia.html Task for Elixir https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/1.12/Task.html ETS in-memory store for Elixir and Erlang objects https://hexdocs.pm/ets/ETS.html Cron - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron Donate to Miami Indians of Indiana https://www.miamiindians.org/take-action Joel Meador on Tumblr https://joelmeador.tumblr.com/ Special Guest: Joel Meador.

Now fix this one error in thinking if you want to be less anxious or depressed, either one. Today, we are going to talk about why it is so important to be able to identify and challenge this one error in your thinking. It might be the difference between you suffering hard or actually being able to navigate some sticky thoughts with a little more ease. Let's do it together. Welcome back, everybody. My name is Kimberley Quinlan. I'm an anxiety and OCD specialist, and I am so excited to talk with you about this very important cognitive error or error in thinking that you might be engaging in and that might be making your life a lot harder. This is something I catch in myself quite regularly, so I don't want you to feel like you're wrong or bad for doing this behavior, but I also catch it a lot in my patients and my students. So, let's talk about it.  The one error you make is black-and-white thinking. This is a specific error in thinking, or we call it a cognitive distortion, where you think in absolutes. And I know, before you think, “Okay, I got the meat of the episode,” stay with me because it is so important that you identify the areas in your life in which you do this. You mightn't even know you're doing it.  Again, often we've been thinking this way for so long, we start to believe our thoughts. Now, one thing to know, and let's do a quick 101: we have thoughts all day. Everybody has them. We might have all types of thoughts, some helpful, some unhelpful. But if you have a thought that's unhelpful or untrue and you think it over and over and over and over again, you will start to believe it. It will become a belief. Just like if you have a lovely, helpful thought and you think that thought over and over and over again, you will start to believe that too.  And what I want you to know is often, for those with mental health struggles, whether that be generalized anxiety, panic disorder, depression, eating disorders, OCD, PTSD, social anxiety, the list goes on and on, one thing a lot of these disorders have in common is they all have a pretty significant level of errors in thinking that fuel the disorder, make the disorder worse, prevent them from recovering. My hope today is to help you identify where you are thinking in black and white so we can get to it and apply some tools, and hopefully get you out of that behavior as soon as possible.  Here are some examples of black-and-white thinking that you're probably engaging in in some area of your life.  The first one is, things are all good or they're all bad. An example might be, “My body is bad.” That there are good bodies and bad bodies. There are good people and bad people. There are good thoughts and bad thoughts. That's very true for those folks with OCD. There are good body sizes and bad body sizes, very common in BDD and eating disorders. There are people who are good at social interaction and bad at social interaction. That often shows up with people with social anxiety. That certain sensations might be good, and certain sensations might be bad. So if you have panic disorder and you have a tight chest or a racing heart rate, you might label them as all bad. And this labeling, while it might seem harmless, is training your brain to be on high alert, is training your brain to think of things as absolutes, which does again create either anxiety or a sense of hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness specifically related to depression. So we've got to keep an eye out for the all good and the all bad.  The next one we want to keep an eye out for is always and never. “I always make this mistake. I never do things right. I will always suffer. I will never get better.” These absolutes keep us stuck in this hole of dread. “It'll always be this way. You're always this way.” And the thing to know here is very, very rarely is something always or never true. We can go on to talk about this here in a little bit, but I want you just to sit with that for a second. It's almost never true that almost never is the truth. How does that sound for a little bit of a tongue twister?  Next thing is perfect versus failure. If you're someone who is aiming for that is either perfect or “I'm a failure,” we are probably going to have a lot of anxiety and negative feelings about yourself. This idea that something is a failure. I have done episodes on failure before, and I'll talk about that here in a second. But the truth is, there is no such thing as failure; it's just a thought. And all of these are just thoughts. They're just thoughts that we have. And if we think that our thoughts are facts, we can often again get into a situation where we have really high anxiety or things feel really icky.  Another absolute black-and-white thinking that we do is that this is either easy or it's impossible. There's only those two choices. It should be either really easy or it's not possible at all. Again, it's going to get us into some trouble when we go to face our fears because facing fears is hard. We've talked about, it's a beautiful day to do hard things. And the reason I say that is to really challenge this idea that things should be easy. And just because they're hard doesn't mean they're impossible. Often people will say, “I can't.” Again, just because they're hard doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just might take some practice.  So, these are common ways that black-and-white thinking shows up. And by now, if you're listening, you're probably thinking, “Oh yeah, I've been called out.” And that's okay. We all do this type of thinking. But let's talk about now tools and what you can do to target this.  Let me tell you a story. Recently, I found myself managing what I would consider a crisis, a family crisis. It took several months for us to navigate this very, very difficult time. And I often leave voice recordings to my best friend. We communicate that way quite regularly. And every now and then, I listen back to what I've said to her just to hear myself and what I'm saying and where my head is. And I was shocked to hear me saying, “It's always going to be this way. It'll never get better. This is so bad. I failed. This is impossible. I can't do this anymore.” I was doing all of the things. And for me, that awareness is what clicked me into like, “Oh, no wonder I'm panicking. No wonder I feel dread the minute I wake up in the morning because my story about this is exacerbating and making this harder on me. It's creating more suffering.” So the first thing I did is what I would tell my patients as well—to start with just a simple awareness training. Just being aware of when you do it. We don't have to change anything. We're not going to judge ourselves, but we're just going to write down on a sticky note or an app on your phone every time you get caught in a black-and-white thinking, and we're going to jot it down. “I always will feel this way. I will never get better. This will forever be a failure.” We want to just jot it down. And that is, in and of itself, a huge part of the work—just being aware when you catch it. We're not here to come down hard on you for doing it. Sometimes it's just a matter of going, “Oh, okay, Kimberley, I see that I'm doing black-and-white thinking.” And that might be all that we do.  Often, with my patients, I will have them log this for homework because, in CBT, we do a lot of homework. And so I will say, “I want you to write it down and come back to me next week because next week, we're going to work on the next tool.”  Now this may be a little different depending on the condition, and I want to make sure I'm really thorough here. If you have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) or panic, we do a lot of cognitive restructuring. We do a lot of cognitive restructuring about how you cope with your discomfort. And in some cases, we might even restructure the content of your thought.  However, if you have OCD, it's a little tiny bit different. We would still correct your thoughts about your ability to tolerate discomfort or your thoughts about yourself. But we want to be careful because sometimes when we start looking too close at the thought and trying to make sense of it and trying to correct it too much, we can actually start to be doing a little nuanced, subtle compulsion where we're getting reassurance, we're confessing, we are reinforcing the whole importance of this by going over it and correcting it, correcting it and correcting it. So just keep an eye out for that. If you're in therapy, bring it up with your therapist just to make sure that you're not using this skill today in a way that could become compulsive. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, depends on the person.   For eating disorders, I know as my recovery from eating disorder, I did a lot of this, really examining, is my body all good or all bad? Is there such a thing as a perfect body or a failed body? This food or this body size, how do we determine its goodness or its badness? And looking at how extreme it can be.  Now, another really important piece here is with depression. In depression, we use a lot of black-and-white thinking. “I'm all that. They're all good. I'm a failure. I'll never get better. It'll never get better. Things will never look up. It'll always be this way.” Depression loves to use black-and-white thinking.  And so when we talk about cognitive restructuring, what we're not talking about is just making it all positive. So here are a couple of examples. If you have depression, and for those of you, if you have depression and you don't have access to a therapist, we have a whole online course called Overcoming Depression, where we go through this in depth of the common errors, not just black and white thinking, but the common errors in depression. And we work at coming up with helpful ways to respond. But one of the tools and skills that we use is, we don't want to just come up with positive thoughts. It's going to feel crappy to you. It's going to feel fake. It's not going to land. But what we want to do is find corrections or rebuttals to that thought that are more evidence-based, more rational, more logical, more helpful—things that might feel truer to you, even if it's still somewhat distorted. It's better than thinking in these absolutes because, like I said before, if you're thinking in absolutes, you can guarantee you're going to feel crummy.  Another example is with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) or with panic disorder. A lot of it is catching our appraisal of sensations and feelings in our body. Now, again, we actually have a whole course on this as well called Overcoming Anxiety and Panic. Again, we go through a whole module of cognitive restructuring where we identify the specific thoughts that people with generalized anxiety and panic have. And it will be looking for where you make these black-and-white, all-or-nothing statements that “It would be bad if that happened. I will always again feel this way. I'll never amount to anything. This panic attack will never end. I'm not handling it well. I'm handling it all bad,” or that “This sensation is impossible, and I can't tolerate it.” So we go through it and really look at what are the things that you're worrying about, and how are you really bringing in black and white thinking?  There are other distortions. In fact, there are 10 other distortions which we're not covering today. Those are all in those courses as well. But again, for today, I wanted to really double down on this one. This one is particularly pesky and problematic.  The other thing to remember as we're looking at black-and-white thinking is to remember that usually, 99.999 % of the time, things happen in the middle, in the gray. I often will hear me say to clients, “Can you be a little more gray about that?” Not to say a little more dark and depressive. I'm saying gray in that, “Is there somewhere in the middle that is more true and factual? Is it all good or all bad or is it a little of both? Or is it none of either? Where in the middle does it land? Oh, you're having the thought that you're either successful or a failure? Where is everybody else in this continuum?” Most likely, they're in the gray. Can you learn to be more comfortable accepting the gray of the world and not going to these absolute black-and-whites?  The beauty is in the gray. We know this. The beauty is being kind to yourself in the gray, which brings me to the last point here, which is to practice self-compassion. We are in the gray. This podcast episode in and of itself is neither all bad nor all good. It's going to be a variation, and a lot of that's going to be dependent on people's opinion, where they are, what they're thinking, their mood, that things are really black and white. And can we be gentle with ourselves and humble enough to allow ourselves to see that this is neither good, bad, success, failure, always, never? These skills and the awareness of when we're thinking this way can reduce a significant amount of our suffering, especially when you catch them, label them, and redirect in a kind, compassionate way.  One thing I don't want you to do is identify how you're thinking in this black-and-white way and respond to that with black-and-white thinking by saying, “You'll always think this way. You'll never ever stop doing this.” Ironic, but we do it all the time. Almost always, when people criticize themselves, they're using one of the two areas in thinking black and white thinking and labeling, which is like name calling. And again, we want to identify these areas in thinking.  Again, if you want to go back and take a look at those courses, we go through this immensely in depth because there's such an important part of Overcoming Anxiety and Panic and Overcoming Depression. And again, that's the names of the courses. You can head over and look into that in the show notes, or go to CBTSchool.com. We have all of our courses listed there.  All right, folks, that's it. Please fix this error in thinking if you want to be less anxious. Black-and-white thinking will create so much suffering in your life. And my hope is that these episodes and the work we do here at Your Anxiety Toolkit make you suffer a little bit less each week.  Have a great day, everyone, and I'll see you next week.

The Elixir Wizards Podcast is back with Season 12 Office Hours, where we talk with the internal SmartLogic team about the stages of the software development lifecycle. For the season premiere, "Testing 1, 2, 3," Joel Meador and Charles Suggs join us to discuss the nuances of software testing. In this episode, we discuss everything from testing philosophies to test driven development (TDD), integration, and end-user testing. Our guests share real-world experiences that highlight the benefits of thorough testing, challenges like test maintenance, and problem-solving for complex production environments. Key topics discussed in this episode: How to find a balance that's cost-effective and practical while testing Balancing test coverage and development speed The importance of clear test plans and goals So many tests: Unit testing, integration testing, acceptance testing, penetration testing, automated vs. manual testing Agile vs. Waterfall methodologies Writing readable and maintainable tests Testing edge cases and unexpected scenarios Testing as a form of documentation and communication Advice for developers looking to improve testing practices Continuous integration and deployment Links mentioned: https://smartlogic.io/ Watch this episode on YouTube! youtu.be/unx5AIvSdc Bob Martin “Clean Code” videos - “Uncle Bob”: http://cleancoder.com/ JUnit 5 Testing for Java and the JVM https://junit.org/junit5/ ExUnit Testing for Elixir https://hexdocs.pm/exunit/ExUnit.html Code-Level Testing of Smalltalk Applications https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~murphy/stworkshop/28-7.html Agile Manifesto https://agilemanifesto.org/ Old Man Yells at Cloud https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/019/304/old.jpg TDD: Test Driven Development https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/tdd/ Perl Programming Language https://www.perl.org/ Protractor Test Framework for Angular and AngularJS protractortest.org/#/ Waterfall Project Management https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/waterfall CodeSync Leveling up at Bleacher Report A cautionary tale - PETER HASTIE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4SzZCwB8B4 Mix ecto.dump https://hexdocs.pm/ectosql/Mix.Tasks.Ecto.Dump.html Apache JMeter Load Testing in Java https://jmeter.apache.org/ Pentest Tools Collection - Penetration Testing https://github.com/arch3rPro/PentestTools The Road to 2 Million Websocket Connections in Phoenix https://www.phoenixframework.org/blog/the-road-to-2-million-websocket-connections Donate to Miami Indians of Indiana https://www.miamiindians.org/take-action Joel Meador on Tumblr https://joelmeador.tumblr.com/ Special Guests: Charles Suggs and Joel Meador.

It's normal to think about your appearance from time to time, but what happens when the desire to look good starts to consume every thought and action, to the point where it affects your daily life and happiness? You might be surprised to know that there's a psychological condition known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder, or BDD. BDD is often linked with other mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Tune in to this week's podcast episode with licensed therapist, Tatiana Matthews, where we delve into Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), its causes, and effective treatment options for this condition. In this episode: What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder? (3:40) Causes of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (7:35) Comparing Ourselves to Others on Social Media (9:51) The Illusion of Perfection (13:00) Treatment for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (17:35) Modeling Positive Behavior for Children (23:25) Tatiana Matthews, MS, LPC, CRC has over 25 years of experience providing individual, couples (neurodivergent,) family, and group therapy to adults, adolescents and children. She has extensive experience in the areas of mood, addictions, co-dependency, trauma, emotional regulation, executive functioning, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and learning disabilities.  She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in both Georgia and North Carolina and has her national designation as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor. Find Tatiana here: Website: https://www.atlantaspecializedcare.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaSpecializedCare IG: https://www.instagram.com/atlantaspecializedcare/?hl=en Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atlantaspecializedcare/pod Follow Dr. Mina here:-  https://instagram.com/drminaskin For more great skin care tips, subscribe to The Skin Real Podcast or visit www.theskinreal.com  Baucom & Mina Derm Surgery, LLC  Email - scheduling@atlantadermsurgery.com Contact - (404) 844-0496  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/baucomminamd/ Thanks for listening!

On this episode of the Lesson Learned for Vets podcast, we welcome Todd Nelson. Although not a veteran himself, he has dedicated his career to helping service members navigate their finances as a financial advisor for Edward Jones. There are often unique financial challenges that accompany transitioning service members into their next career. Todd is the host of Transition 30, a network that uses quarterly Zoom calls to connect service members to resources and organizations that support the military transition process.Todd lays out 3 considerations every service member must make as they exit the military. 1) How much money do I need to replace? 2) How much money do I want and how much money do I need? 3) How am I going to get from what I need to what I want? Having mentors and talking to subject matter experts in taxation can become a valuable piece of establishing your financial foundation. The first consideration when thinking about SGLI to VGLI is knowing what your needs are when it comes to insurance. Speak to your spouse, significant other and family members before you start the VA disability process. During the VA process, everything is documented. If you start your insurance research after you have already started the VA process, there may be some exclusions to your policy because of the VA documentation. The second consideration is realizing that VGLI is there for a reason. Sometimes private life insurance companies won't cover you because of your service-related injuries. When it comes to the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), it's important to realize that it's a personal decision that should be based off several factors. Research the SBP at militarypay.defense.gov prior to out-processing. During out-processing, you will be asked if you want to opt out of SBP because by default, you are opted into the plan. An alternative to SBP is life insurance. Another priority when transitioning from the military is knowing how your tax bracket will be influenced. Your pension and new job will affect your tax bracket. Start setting money aside for this reality. VA disability payments are tax free. It is a benefit that you have earned and can be viewed as a lifetime annuity. You are guaranteed that income with a cost-of-living adjustment each year. With just a 10% disability rating, you are eligible for a VA home loan. Service members who are separating and plan to file for disability compensation can file their claim before separation through the Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program. The BDD program allows service members to apply for VA disability compensation benefits between 180 to 90 days prior to separation. If your disability rating is 30% or higher, you will have preference when it comes to jobs in the federal government. There are many considerations when it comes to accepting a job offer. Look at the total compensation package, not just the salary. Benefits might include a 401K or a 403b and stock options. You will want to consider starting a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA. Do your research and seek assistance and advice to help you navigate your financial situation.Subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://tinyurl.com/llforvets22Connect with Todd at https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-nelson-edward-jones/Transition 30 LinkedIn Group: AAFMA, the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association is the longest-standing nonprofit association offering life insurance, wealth management, mortgages, survivor assistance and more. AAFMA is dedicated to helping servicemembers be ready for life after the military. AAFMAA would like to offer you their free Transition Timeline, a guide to help you create a solid military transition plan. Let AAFMAA help you get ready for your next step by visiting www.aafmaa.com/ll4v.

Robyn Stern is a licensed clinical worker who works mainly with patients suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). As someone who also suffers from the disorder, she uses her experiences together with her professional clinical training to create a safe space for people who want to understand their condition more thoroughly and intimately. With over a decade in her practice, she has adapted to using a research-based treatment in approaching each individual client. She uses a variety of modalities, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure Response prevention (ERP), Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) in treating BDD, OCD, BFRBs, and anxiety disorders. In this episode we talk about:  ◾️ Robyn's personal background with BDD, depression, and anxiety ◾️ Understanding BDD, its effects, and symptoms ◾️ What to do when you feel that you might have BDD Find Robyn here: rlsterntherapy.com Find Zach here : zachwesterbeck.com @zach_westerbeck This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. NOCD therapists are trained in Exposure Response Prevention, or ERP, therapy, the gold standard treatment for OCD. With NOCD, you can do virtual, live face-to-face video sessions with one of their licensed, specialty-trained therapists, and they accept most major insurance plans. If your insurance isn't covered, mention discount code ZACH100 for a special $100 rate for the next two months. To find out more about NOCD, visit zachwesterbeck.com/virtual-ocd-therapy/ to book a free 15-minute call. Zach Westerbeck (https://zachwesterbeck.com/virtual-ocd-therapy/) Virtual OCD Therapy - Zach Westerbeck I've partnered with NOCD to bring you effective, affordable and convenient OCD therapy.

If you want to know the 5 Most Common Recovery Roadblocks with Chris Tronsdon (an incredible anxiety and OCD therapist), you are in the right place. Today Chris and I will go over the 5 Most common anxiety, depression, & OCD roadblocks and give you 6 highly effective treatment strategies you can use today.  Kimberley: Welcome everybody. We have the amazing Chris Trondsen here with us today. Thank you for coming, Chris. Chris: Yes, Kim, thanks for having me. I'm super excited about being here today and just about this topic. Kimberley: Yes. So, for those of you who haven't attended one of the IOCDF Southern California conferences, we had them in Southern California. We have presented on this exact topic, and it was so well received that we wanted to make sure that we were spreading it out to all the folks that couldn't come.  You and I spoke about the five most common anxiety & OCD treatment roadblocks, and then we gave six strategic solutions. But today, we're actually broadening it because it applies to so many people. We're talking about the five most common anxiety treatment roadblocks, with still six solutions and six strategies they can use. Thank you for coming on because it was such a powerful presentation. Chris: No, I agree. I mean, we had standing room only, and people really came up to us afterwards and just said how impactful it was. And then we actually redid it at the International OCD Foundation, and it was one of the best-attended talks at the event. And then we got a lot of good feedback, and people kept messaging me like, “I want to hear it. I couldn't go to the conference.” I'd play clips for my group, and they're like, “When is it going to be a podcast?” I was like, “I'll ask Kim.” I'm glad you said yes because I do believe for anybody going through any mental health condition, this list is bound, and I think the solutions will really be something that can be a game changer in their recovery. Kimberley: Absolutely, absolutely. I love it mostly because, and we're going to get straight into these five roadblocks, they're really about mindset and going into recovery. I think it's something we're not talking about a lot. We're talking about a lot of treatment, a lot of skills, and tools, but the strategies and understanding those roadblocks can be so important. Chris: Yeah. I did a talk for a support group. They had asked me to come and speak, and I just got this idea to talk about mindset. I did this presentation on mindset, and people were like, “Nobody's talking about it.” In the back of my head, I'm like, “Kim and I did.” But we're the only ones. Because I do think so many people get the tools, right? The CBT tools, they get the ERP tools, the mindfulness edition, and people really find the tools that work for them. But when I really think of my own personal recovery with multiple mental health diagnoses, it was always about mindset. And that's what I like about our talk today. It's universal for anyone going through any mental health condition, anxiety base, and it's that mindset that I think leads to recovery. It shouldn't be the other way around. The tools are great, but the mindset needs to be there. Kimberley: Yeah. We are specifically speaking to the folks who are burnt out, feeling overwhelmed, feeling a lack of hope of recovery. They really need a kickstart, because that was actually the big title of the presentation. It was really addressing those who are just exhausted with the process and need a little bit of a strategy and mindset shift. Chris: Yeah. I don't want to compare, but I broke my ankle when I was hiking in Hawaii, and I have two autoimmune diseases. Although those ailments have caused problems, especially the autoimmune, when I think back to my mental health journey, that always wore me out more because it's with you all the time, 24/7. It's your mental health. When my autoimmune diseases act up, I'm exhausted, I'm burnt out, but it's temporary. Or my ankle, when it acts up, I have heating pads, I have things I can do, but your brain is with you 24/7. I do believe that's why a lot of people resonate with this messaging—they are exhausted. They're busting their butt in treatment, but they're tired and hitting roadblocks. And that's why this talk really came about. Kimberley: Yeah, exactly. All right, let's get into it here in a second. I just want to give one metaphor with that. I once had a client many years ago give the metaphor. She said, “I feel like I'm running a marathon and my whole family are standing on the out, like on the sidelines, and they're all clapping, but I'm just like faceplant down in the middle of the road.” She's like, “I'm trying to get up, I'm trying to get up, and everyone's telling me, ‘Come on, you can do it.' It's so hard because you're so exhausted and you've already run a whole bunch of miles.” And so I really think about that kind of metaphor for today. If people are feeling that way, hopefully they can take away some amazing nuggets of information.  Chris: Absolutely. That's a good visual. Faceplant. Kimberley: It was such a great and powerful visual because then I understood this client's experience. Like, “Oh, okay. You're really tired. You're really exhausted.” ROADBLOCK #1: YOU BEAT YOURSELF UP! Okay, let's get into it. So, I'm going to go first because the number one roadblock we talked about, not that these are in any particular order, but the one we came up first was that you beat yourself up. This is a major roadblock to recovery for so many disorders. You beat yourself up for having the disorder. You beat yourself up for not coping with it as well as you could. You beat yourself up if you have OCD for having these intrusive thoughts that you would never want to have. Or you're beating yourself up because you don't have motivation because you have, let's say, some coexisting depression.  The important thing to know there is, while beating yourself up feels productive, it might feel like you're motivating yourself, or you may feel like you deserve it. It actually only makes it harder. It only makes it feel like you've got this additional thing. Again, a lot of my patients—let's use the marathon example—might yell at themselves the whole way through the marathon, but it's not a really great experience if you're doing that, and it takes a lot of energy.  SOLUTION #1: SELF-COMPASSION So what we offered here as a strategic solution is self-compassion—trying to motivate and encourage yourself using kindness. If you're going through a hard day, maybe, just if you've never tried this before, trial what it would be like to encourage yourself with kind words or asking for support, asking for help so that you're not burning all that extra energy, making it so much harder on yourself, increasing your suffering. Because I often say to patients, the more you suffer, the more you actually deserve self-compassion. It's not the other way around. It's not that the more you suffer, the less you deserve it. Do you have any thoughts on that, Chris? Chris: Oh yeah. I would say I see that across the board with my clients, this harshness, and there's this good intention behind it, this idea that if I can just bully myself into recovery. I always try to remind clients that anxiety-based disorders, it's a part of our bodies as well. Our brain is a part of our body, just like our arm, our tibia, our leg, all these other bones, but there's a lack of self-empathy that we have for ourselves, as if it's something that we're choosing to do. Someone with a broken leg doesn't wake up in the morning and get mad at themselves that their leg is still broken. They have understanding, and they're working on their exercises to heal. It's the same with these disorders.  So, the reason I love self-compassion is when we go and step in to help one of our friends, we use a certain tone, we use certain words, we tap into their strengths, we use encouragement because we know that method is going to be what boosts them up and helps them get through that rough patch. But for some reason, when it's ourselves, we completely abandon everything we know that's supportive, and we talk to ourselves in a way that I almost picture like a really negative boot camp instructor, like in the military, just yelling and screaming into submission. The other thing is when we're beating ourselves up like that, we're more likely to tap into our unhelpful habits. We're more likely to shut down and isolate, which we see a lot in BDD, social anxiety, et cetera. But that self-compassion isn't like a fake pop culture support. It's really tapping into meeting yourself where you're at, giving yourself some understanding, and tapping into the strategies that have worked in the past when you're in a low moment.  I know sometimes people are like, “I don't know how to do that,” but you're doing it to everybody else in your life. Now it's time to give yourself that same self-compassion that you've been giving to everybody important to you. Kimberley: Yeah, and we actually have a few episodes on Your Anxiety Toolkit on exactly how to embrace self-compassion, like how that might actually look. So, if people are really needing more information there, I can add in the show notes some links to some resources there as well.  ROADBLOCK #2: THERE WILL BE HARD DAYS  Okay. Now, Chris, can you tell us about the second most common or another common anxiety roadblock around this idea that there will be hard days? Chris: There's always these great images if you Google about what people think recovery will look like versus what recovery looks like. I love those images because there is this idea. We see a lot of perfectionism in anxiety disorders. In OCD, we see perfectionism. So, this idea of, like, I should be here and I should easily scoot to the end. It's not going to be like that; it's bumpy, it's ups and downs. We know so much factors into or impact how our mental health disorder shows up. We can't always control our triggers. Sometimes if we haven't slept well or there's a lot of change in our life, we could have more anxiety. So, it's going to ebb and flow.  So, when we have this fixed mindset of like, it has to be perfect, there has to be absolutely no bumps on the road, no turbulence, we're going to set ourselves up for failure because the day we have a hard day, we want to completely shut down. So I really believe, in this case, the solution is thinking bigger. If you're thinking day to day, sometimes if you're too in it, you're dealing with depression, you're really feeling bad, you skipped school because you have a presentation, social anxiety is acting up. You think bigger picture. Why am I here? Why am I doing this? Why have I sought out treatment? Listen to this podcast. What am I trying to accomplish?  SOLUTION #2: KNOW YOUR WHY I know for me in my own recovery, knowing my why was so important. There were certain things in my life that I found important to achieve, and I kept that as the figurative carrot in front of the mule to get me to go. So, that way, if I had a rough day, I thought bigger picture. What do I need to do today to make sure that I meet my goals? And so, I believe everybody needs to know their why.  Now, it doesn't have to be grandiose. Some people want to build a school and teach kids in underprivileged countries. Amazing why. But other people are sometimes like, “I just want to be able to make my own choices today and not feel like I base them out of anxiety.” There's no right or wrong why, but if you can know what beacon you're going to, it really helps you get through those hard days.  What about for you? When we talk about this, what comes up for you? Kimberley: Well, I think that for me personally, the why is a really important mindset shift because often I can get to this sort of, like you said, perfectionistic why. Like, the goal is to have no anxiety, or the goal is to have no bad days. We see on social media these very relaxed people who just seem to go with the flow, and that's your goal. But I have to often with myself do a little reality check and go, “Okay, are you doing recovery to get there? Because that goal might be setting you up for constant disappointment and failure. That mightn't be your genetic makeup.”  I'm never going to be like the go-with-the-flow Kimberley. That's just not who I am. But if I can instead shift it to the why of like, what do I value? What are the things I want to be able to do despite having anxiety in my life? Or, despite having a hard day, like you said, how do I want that to look? And once I can get to that imagery, then I have a really clear picture. So, when I do have a bad day, it doesn't feel so defeating, like what's the point I give up, because the goal was realistic. Chris: For me, a big part of my why in recovery, once I started getting into a place where I was managing the disorders I was dealing with—OCD, body dysmorphic disorder, I had a lot of generalized anxiety, and major depressive disorder—I was like, “I need to give back. There's not people my age talking about this. There's not enough treatment providers.” There was somewhere, like in the middle of my treatment, that I was like, “I don't know how I'm going to advocate. I don't know what that's going to look like, but I have to give back.” And so, on those hard days when I would normally want to just like, “Well, I don't care that it's noon, I'm shutting it down, I'm going into my bed, I'm just going to sleep the rest of the day,” reminding myself like there's people out there suffering that can't find providers, that can't find treatment, may not even know they have these disorders. I have to be one of the voices in the community that really advocates and gets people education and resources. And so, I didn't let myself get in bed. I looked at the day as quarters. Okay, the morning and the afternoon's a little rough, but I still have evening and night. Let me turn it around. I have to go because I have this big goal, this ambitious dream. I really want to do it. So that bigger why kept me just on track to push through hard days. ROADBLOCK #3: YOU RUN OUT OF STAMINA Kimberley: Amazing. I love that so much. All right. The third roadblock that we see is that people run out of stamina. I actually think this is one that really ties into what we were just talking about. Imagine we're running a marathon. If you're sprinting for the first 20 miles, you probably won't finish the race. Or even if you sprint the first two miles, you probably won't finish the marathon.  One of the things is—and actually, I'll go straight to the strategy and the thing we want you to practice—we have to learn to pace ourselves throughout recovery. As I said, if you sprint the first few miles, you will fall flat on your face. You're already dealing with so much. As you said, having a mental health struggle is the most exhausting thing that I've ever been through. It requires such of your attention. It requires such restraint from not engaging in it and doing the treatment and using the tools. It's a lot of work, and I encourage and congratulate anyone who's trying. The fact that you're trying and you're experimenting with what works and what doesn't, and you're following your homework of your clinician or the workbook that you've used—that's huge. But pacing yourself is so important. So, what might that look like? Often, people, students of mine from CBT School, will say, “I go all out. I do a whole day of exposures and I practice response prevention, and I just go so hard that the next day I am wiped. I can't get out of bed. I don't want to do it anymore. It was way too much. I flooded myself with anxiety.” So, that's one way I think that it shows up. I'll often say, “Okay, let's not beat yourself up for that.” We'll just use that as data that that pace didn't work. We want to find a rhythm and a pace that allow you to recover. It's sort of like this teeter-totter. We call it in Australia a seesaw. You want to do the work, but not to the degree where you faceplant down on the concrete. We want to find that balance.  I know for me, when I was recovering from postural orthostatic tachycardic syndrome, which is a chronic illness that I had, it was so hard because the steps to recovery was exercise, but it was like literally walking to the corner and back first, and then walking half a block, and then walking three-quarters of a block, and then having my husband pick me up, then walking one block. And that's all I was able to do without completely faceplanting the next day, literally and figuratively.  My mind kept saying to me, “You should be able to go faster. Everybody else is going faster. Everyone else can walk a mile or a block. So you should be able to.” And so, I would push myself too hard, and then I'd have to start all over again because I was comparing myself to someone who was not in my position.  SOLUTION #3: PACE YOURSELF So, try to find a pace that works for you, and do not compare your pace with me or Chris or someone in your support group, or someone you see on social media. You have to find and test a pace that works for you. Do you have any thoughts, Chris? Chris: Yeah. I would say in this one, and you alluded to it, that comparison, that is going to get you in this roadblock because you're going to be looking to your left and your right. Why is that person my age working and I'm not? It's not always comparing yourself. Sometimes, like you said, it is people in your support group. It's people that you see advocating for the disorder you may have. But sometimes people even look at celebrities or they'll look at friends from college, and can I do that? The comparison never motivates you, it never boosts you; it just makes you feel less than. That's why one of my favorite quotes is, “Chase the dream, not the competition.” It's really finding a timeline that works best for you.  I get why people have this roadblock. As somebody who's lived through multiple mental health disorder diagnoses, it's like, once we find the treatment, we want to escalate to the finish line, and we'll push ourselves in treatment sometimes too much. And then we have one of those days where we can't even get out of bed because we're just beat up, we're exhausted, and it's counterproductive.  I wanted to add one thing too. The recovery part may not even be what you're doing with your clinician in a session that you are not pacing yourself with. My biggest pacing problem was after recovery, not that the disorders magically went away, they were in remission, I was working on doing great, but it was like, I went to martial arts, tennis, learned Spanish, started volunteering at an animal shelter, went back to school, got a job, started dating. It was so much. Because I felt like I was behind, I needed to push myself.  The problem that started to happen was I was focusing less on the enjoyable process of dating or getting a job, or going back to school. I was so fixated on the finish line. “I need to be there, I need to be there. What's next? What's next?” I got burnt out from that, and I was not enjoying anything I was doing.  So, I would say even after you're managing your disorder, be careful about not pacing yourself, even in that recovery process of getting back into the lifestyle that you want. Kimberley: Yeah, absolutely. I would add too, just as a side point, anyone who is managing a mental health issue or an anxiety disorder, we do also have to fill our cup with the things that fill our hearts. I know that sounds very cliche and silly, but in order to pace ourselves and to have the motivation and to use the skills, we do have to find a balance of not just doing all the hard things, but making sure you schedule time to rest and eat and drink and see friends if that fills your cup, or read if that fills your cup. So, I think it's also finding a rhythm and a balance of the things that fill your cup and identifying that, yes, recovery is hard. It will deplete your stores of energy. So, finding things that fill that cup for you is important.   Chris: Well, you just made a good point too. In my recovery, all those things you mentioned, I thought of those as like weakness, like I just wasted an hour reading. Sometimes even with friends. That one, not as much, because I saw value in friendship. But if I just watched a movie or relaxed, or even just hung out with friends, it felt like a waste. I'm like, “How dare I am behind everybody else? I should be working. I should be this. I should move up.” A lot of should statements, a lot of perfectionist expectations of myself.  So, the goal for me or the treatment for me wasn't to then go to the other extreme and just give up everything; it was really to ask myself, like you said, how can I fill my cup in ways that are important and see value and getting a breakfast burrito with a friend and talking for three hours and not thinking like, “Oh, I should have been this because I got to get my degree.” I'm glad that you brought that up. I always think of like we're overflowing our cup with mental health conditions. We have to be able to have those offsets that drain the cup so we have a healthy balance. So, a great point. ROADBLOCK #4: NOT OWNING YOUR RECOVERY Kimberley: I agree. So important. Would you tell us about owning your recovery? Because you have a really great story with this. Chris: Yeah. People ask me all the time how I got better. A lot of people with body dysmorphic disorder struggle to get better. Obviously, we know that with obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, et cetera. So, a lot of people will ask sometimes, and I always say to them, if I had to come up with one thing, it was because I made my mental health recovery number one. I felt that it was like the platform that I was building my whole life on. I'm so bad with the-- what is it? The house, the-- I'm not a builder.  Kimberley: Like the foundation. Chris: Thank you. Clearly, I'm not going to be making tools tomorrow or making things with tools. But yeah, like a house has to have a nice foundation. You would never build a house on a rocky side of the mountain. And so, I had to give up a lot, like most of us do, as we start to get worse. I became housebound and I dropped out of college, and I gave up a job. I was working in the entertainment industry, and I really enjoyed it. I was going to film school, and I was happy. I had to give all that up because I couldn't even leave my house because of the disorder.  SOLUTION #5: MAKE YOUR RECOVERY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING So, when I was going to treatment and I was really starting to see it work, I was clear to that finish line of what I needed to do. So I made it the most important thing. It wasn't just me; it was my support system. My treatment was about a four-hour round trip from my house, so my mom and I would meet up every day. We drive up to LA. I go to my OCD therapist, and I'd go to my psychiatrist and then my BDD therapist and support group, and then come home. There's times I was exhausted, I wanted to give up, I was over it, but I never ever, ever put it to number two or three. I almost had this top three list in my head, and number one was always my recovery. My mom too, I mean, when she talks, she'll always say it's the most important thing. If my job was going to fire me because I couldn't come in because I had to take my kid on Wednesdays to treatment, I was going to get fired and find a new job. We just had to make this important.   As I was getting better, there were certain opportunities that came back to me from my jobs or from school. My therapist and I and my mom just decided, “Let's hold off on this. Let's really, really put effort into the treatment. You're doing so well.” One of the things that I see all the time, my mom and I run a very successful family and loved ones group. A lot of times, the parents aren't really making it the priority for their kids or the kids, or the people with the disorders aren't really making it a priority. It's totally understandable if there's things like finances and things, barriers. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about when people have access to those things, they're just not owning it. Sometimes they're not owning it because they're not taking it seriously or not making it important. Or other times, people are expecting someone else to get them better.  I loved having a team. I didn't have a big team. I came from nothing. It was a very small team. I probably needed residential or something bigger. I only really had my mom's support, but we all leaned on each other. But I always knew it was me in the driver's seat. At the end of the day, my therapist couldn't save me, my mom couldn't save me, they couldn't come to my house and pull me out of bed or do an exposure for me, or have me go out in public during the daytime because of BDD. I had to be the one to do it. I could lean on them as support systems and therapists are there for, but at the end of the day, it was my choice. I had to do it. When my head hit the pillow, I had to make sure that I did everything I possibly could that day to recover.  When I took ownership, it actually gave me freedom. I wasn't waiting for someone to come along. I wasn't focusing on other things. I made it priority number one. I truly believe that that was the thing that got me better. Once again, didn't have a lot of resources, leaned a lot on self-help books and stuff because I needed a higher level of care, but there was none and we couldn't afford it. I don't want anyone to hear this podcast and think, “Well, I can't find treatment in my area.” That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying, whatever you have access to, own it, make it a priority, and definitely be in that leader's seat because that's going to be what's going to get you better. Kimberley: Yeah, for sure. I think too when I used to work as a personal trainer, I would say to them, “You can come to training once a week, but that once a week isn't going to be what crosses you across that finish line.” You know what I mean? It is the work you do in the other 23 hours of that day and the other seven days of the week. I think that is true. If you're doing and you're dabbling in treatment, but it's not the main priority, that is a big reason that can hold you back. I think it's hard because it's not fair that you have to make it priority number one, but it's so necessary that you do.  I really want to be compassionate and empathize with how unfair it is that you have to make this thing a priority when you see other people, again, making their social life their priority or their hobby their priority. It sucks. But this mindset shift, this recalibration of this has to be at the top. When it gets to being at the top, I do notice, as a clinician, that's when people really soar in their recovery. Chris: Yeah. We had a very honest conversation with my BDD therapist, my OCD therapist, and my psychiatrist, and they're like, “You need a higher level of care. We understand you can't afford it. There's also a lot of waiting lists.” They're like, “You're really going to have to put in the work in between sessions. You're supposed to be in therapy every day.” We just couldn't. All we can afford is once a week. They said, “Look, when you're not in our session, you need to be the one.”  So, for instance, with depression, my psychiatrist is like, “Okay, you're obviously taking the medication, but you need to get up at the same time every day. Open up all your blinds, go upstairs, eat breakfast on the balcony, get ready, leave the house from nine to five.” I didn't have a job. “But you need to be out of the house. You need to be in nature. You need to do all these things.” I never wanted to, but I did it. Or with my OCD and BDD recovery, I didn't want to go out in public. I felt like it looked horrendous. I felt like people were judging me, but I did. Instead of going to the grocery store at 2:00 in the morning, I was going at noon. When everyone's there for OCD, it was like, I didn't want to sit in public places. I didn't want to be around people that I felt I could potentially harm.  My point is like every single day, I was doing work, I was tracking it, I was keeping track, and I had to do that because I needed to do that in order to get better based on the setup that I had.  I do want to also say a caveat. I always have the biggest empathy for people or sympathy for people that are a CEO of a company or like a parent and have a lot of children, or it's like you're busy working all day and you're trying to balance stuff. I mean, the only good thing that came from being housebound is I didn't have a lot of responsibilities. I didn't have a family. I wasn't running a company. I wasn't working. So, I did have the free time to do the treatment. So, I have such sympathy for people that are parents or working at a company, or trying to start their own small business and trying to do treatment too. But I promise you, you don't have to put your recovery first forever. Really dive into it, get to that place where you're really, really stable. It'll still be a priority, but then you will be a better parent, a better employee, a better friend once you've really got your mental health to a level that you can start to support others. You may need to support yourself first, like the analogy with a mask on the plane. ROADBLOCK #5: YOU HAVE A FIXED MINDSET Kimberley: Agreed. That's such an important point. All right, we're moving on to roadblock number five. This is yours again, Chris. Tell us about the importance of specific mindsets, particularly a fixed mindset being the biggest roadblock. Chris: One of the things that makes me the most sad about people having a mental health condition because of how insidious they are is it starts to have people lose their sense of identity. It has them start to almost re-identify who they are, and it becomes a very fixed mindset. So, if you have social anxiety or social phobia, it's like, “Oh, I'm somebody that's not good around people. I say embarrassing things. I never know what kind of conversation to lead with. I should probably just not be around people.” Or, let's say generalized anxiety. “Deadlines really caused me too much strain. I can't really go back to school.” BDD. “I'm an unattractive person. Nobody wants to date me. I'm unlovable.”   We get into these fixed mindsets and we start to identify with them, and inevitably, that person's life becomes smaller and smaller and smaller. So, the more they identify with it, the more that they become isolated from others, and they have this very fixed mindset. I think of like OCD, for instance, isn't really about guidelines; it's all about rules. This is how things are supposed to be. What happens is when I work with a client specifically, somebody that's pretty severe, it's trying to get them to see the value in treatment and to even tap into their own personal values is really difficult. It's like, “Treatment doesn't work. I've tried all the medications. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm just not somebody that can get better.” SOLUTION #5: GROWTH MINDSET What I tell clients instead is, “Let's be open. Let's be curious. Let's move into a growth mindset. Let's focus on learning, obtaining education, being open to new concepts. Look, when you were younger and the OCD didn't really attack you, or when you were younger and you didn't deal with social anxiety, you were having friends, you had birthday parties, you were going to school, and everything. Maybe that's the real you, and it's not that you lost it. You just have this disorder that's blocked you from it.” And so, when clients become open and curious and willing to learn, willing to try new things, and to get out of their comfort zone, that's where the growth really happens.  If you're listening to this podcast or watching it right now and you're determined like, “This isn't working; nothing can help me,” that fixed mindset is never something that's going to get you from where you are to where you want to be. You have to have that growth, that learning, that trying new things, expanding.  I always tell clients, “If you try something with your therapist and it doesn't work, awesome. That's one other thing that doesn't work. Move on to something else.” That openness. What I always love after treatment is people are like, “I am social. I do love to be around people. I am somebody who likes animals. I just was avoiding animals because of harm thoughts.” People start to get back into who they really are as soon as they start to be more open to recovery. Kimberley: Yeah, for sure. The biggest fixed mindset thought that I hear is, “I can't handle it.” That thought alone gets in the way of recovery so many times. We go to do an exposure, “I can't handle this.” Or, “What if I have a panic attack? I cannot handle panic attacks.” It's so fixed. So I often agree with you. I will often say, this work, this mental health work, or this human work that we do is shifting the way we see ourselves and life as an experiment. We always have these black-and-white beliefs like “I can't handle this” or “I can't do this. I can't get in an elevator. I can't speak public speaking,” or whatever it might be. But let's be curious. Like you said, let's use it as an experiment. Let's try, and we'll see. Maybe it doesn't go great. That's okay, like you said, but then we know we have data, and then we have information on what got in the way, and we have some information.  I think that even just being able to identify when you're in a fixed mindset can be all you need just to be like, “Oh, okay, I'm having a very black-and-white fixed mindset.” Learning how to laugh and giggle at the way our brain just gets so determined and black-and-white, like you can't do this, as you said, I think is so important because, like you said, once you get to recovery, then you go on to live your life and actually do the things that you dream, the dream that you're talking about. It might be you want to get a master's degree or you might want to go for a job, or you want to go on a date. You're going to be able to use that strong mindset for any situation in life. It applies to anything that you're going to conquer.  I always say to clients, if you've done treatment for mental health, you are so much more prepared than every student in college because they haven't gone through, they haven't had to learn those skills. Chris: Yeah, no, exactly. I remember like my open mindset was one of the assets I had in recovery. I remember going to therapy and being like, “I'm just going to listen. These people clearly know what they're doing. They've helped people like me. Why would it be any different?” And I was open. I can see the difference with clients that have a more growth mindset. They come in, they're scared. They're worried. They've been doing something for 10, 15, 16 years, and they're like, “Why is this guy going to tell me to try to do different things or to think different or have different thinking patterns?” But they're open. I always see those people hit that finish line first. It's the clients that come and shut down. The family system has been supporting this like learned helplessness. Nobody really wants to rock the boat. Everything shut down and closed. It's like prying it open, as most of the work. And then we finally get to the work, but we could have gotten there quicker. Everybody's at their own pace, but I really hope that people hear this, though, are focused on that openness. You were talking about like people thinking they can't handle it. The other thing I hear sometimes is people just don't think they deserve it. “I just don't even deserve to get better.” You do. You do. That's what I love about my job the most. Everybody that comes into my office, and I'm like, “You deserve a better life than you're living. Whatever it is you want to do. You want to be a vet. How many animals are you going to save just by getting into being a vet? You got to do it.” My heart breaks a little bit when people have been dealing with mental health for long enough that they start to believe they don't even deserve to get better.  SOLUTION #6: IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY TO DO HARD THINGS Kimberley: I love that. So, we had five roadblocks, and we've covered it, but we promised six strategies. I want to be the one to deliver the last one, which everyone who listens already knows what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it for the sake that it's so important for your recovery, which is, it's a beautiful day to do hard things. It is so important that you shift, as we talked about in the roadblock number one, you shift your mindset away from “I can't do hard things” to “It's okay to do hard things.” It doesn't mean you've failed. Life can be hard.  I say to all my patients, life is 50/50 for everybody. It's 50% easy and 50% hard. I think some people have it harder than others. But the ones who seem to do really well and have that grit and that survivor's mindset are the ones who aren't destroyed by the day when it is hard. They're willing to do the hard thing. They're okay to march into uncertainty. They're willing to do the hard thing for the payoff. They're willing to take a short-term discomfort for the long-term relief or the long-term payout. I think that mindset can change the game for people, particularly if you think of it like a marathon. Like, I just have to be able to finish this marathon, I'm going to do the hard thing, and think of it that way. There'll be hills, there'll be valleys, there'll be times where you want to give up, but can I just do one hard thing and then the next hard thing, and then the next hard thing? Do you have any thoughts on that? Chris: I'm glad that this is the message that you put out there. I'd say, obviously, when I think of Kim Quinlan as a friend, I think of other things and all the fun we've had together. But as a colleague, I always think of both. Obviously, self-compassion. But this idea of it's a beautiful day to do hard things, I like it because we've always talked about doing hard things as this negative thing before you came along, and by adding this idea of it's a beautiful day. When I look at all the hard things I did in my own recovery, or I see clients do hard things, there's this feeling of accomplishment, there's this feeling of growth, there's this feeling of greatness that we get. Just like you were saying, beyond the mental health conditions that I dealt with, when I start getting into real life after the mental health conditions now are more in recovery, every time I choose to do hard things, there's always such a good payoff. I was convinced I would never be able to get through school and get a degree and become a licensed therapist because I struggled with school with my perfectionism. It was difficult for me to get back in there and to humble myself and say, “Hey, you may flop and fail.” But now I'm a licensed therapist because of that willingness to do hard things.  I could give a plethora of examples, but I want people to hear that doing hard things is your way of saying, “I believe in myself. I trust myself that I can accomplish things, and I'm going to tap into my support system if I need to, but I am determined, determined, determined to push myself to a level that I may not think I can.” I love when clients do that, and they always come in, they're like, “I'm so proud of myself, I can't wait to tell you what I did this weekend.” I love that. So, always remember hard things come with beautiful, beautiful, beautiful outcomes and accomplishments. Kimberley: Yeah. I think the empowerment piece, when clients do scary, hard things, or they feel their hard feelings, or they do an exposure, they'll often come in and be like, “I felt like I could do anything. I had no idea about the empowerment that comes from doing hard things.” I think we've been trained to think that if we just avoid it, we then will feel confident and strong, but it's actually the opposite. The most empowered you'll ever feel is right after you've done a really, really hard thing, even if it doesn't go perfectly. Chris: Yeah, and so much learning comes out of it. That's why I always tell clients too, going back to one of our first roadblocks, beating yourself up prevents the learning. Let's say you try something and it doesn't go well. I was talking to a colleague of ours who I really, really like. She was telling me how her first treatment center failed. Now she's doing really well for herself down in San Diego. She's like, “I just didn't know things, and I just did things wrong, and I learned from it, and now I'm doing well.”  It's like, whenever we look at something not going the way we'd like as an opportunity to learn and collect data, it just makes us that much better when we try it the other time. A lot of times these anxiety disorders were originally before treatment, hopefully trying to find ways to avoid our way through life—tough words—and trying to figure out, like, how can I always be small and avoid and still get to where I want to be? When people hear this from your podcast—it's a beautiful day to do hard things—I hope that they recognize that you don't have to live an avoidant lifestyle, an isolated lifestyle anymore. Really challenging yourself and doing hard things is actually going to be so rewarding. It's incredible what outcomes come with it. Kimberley: Amazing. Well, Chris, thank you so much for doing this with me again. We finally stamped it into the podcast, which makes me so happy. Tell us where people can hear about you, get in contact with you, and learn more about what you do. Chris: I am really active in the International OCD Foundation. I'm one of their board members. I also am one of their lead advocates, just meeting as somebody with the disorder. I speak on it. Then I lead some of their special interest groups. The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Special Interest Group is one of them, but I lead about four of them. One of their affiliates, OCD Southern California, I am Vice President of OCD SoCal and a board member. We do a lot of events here locally that Kim is part of, but also some virtual events that you could be a part of. And then, as a clinician, I'm a licensed clinician in Costa Mesa, California. I currently work at The Gateway Institute. You can find me either by email at my name, which is never easy to spell. So, ChrisTrondsen@GatewayOCD.com, or the best thing is on social media, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, or X, I guess we're calling it now. Just @christrondsen. You could DM me. I always like to hear from people and get people's support, and anything I can do to support people. I always love it. Kimberley: Oh my gosh, you're such a light in the community, truly. A light of hope and a light of wisdom and knowledge. I want to say, because I don't tell you this enough as your friend and as your colleague, thank you, thank you for the hope that you put out there and the information you put out there. It is so incredibly helpful for people. So, thank you. Chris: I appreciate that. I forgot to say one thing real quick. Every first, third, and fourth Wednesday of the month at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the IOCDF, all of their platforms, including iocdf.org/live, I do a free live stream with Dr. Liz McIngvale from Texas, and we have great guests like Kim Quinlan on, so please listen. But thank you for saying that. I always try to put as much of myself in the community, and you never know if people are receiving it well. I want to throw the same thing to you. I mean, this podcast has been incredible for so many. I always play some of this stuff for my clients. A lot of clients are looking for podcasts. So, thanks for all that you do. I'm really excited about this episode because I think it's something that we touch so many people. So, now to share it on a bigger scale, I'm excited about it. But thank you for your kind words. You're amazing. It's all mutual. Kimberley: Thank you. You're welcome back anytime. Chris: And we're going to get Greek food soon. It's funny [inaudible] I'm telling you. It's life-changing. Thanks, Kim. Listen to other episodes. Kimberley: Thank you.

Overview of BDD and the negative impact of social media. 

Mea Culpa welcomes back progressive activist and Twitter phenom Brooklyn Dad Defiant. Ever since January 6th, BDD has used his platform which reaches 1.2 million followers to push back on the MAGA agenda as well as the poisonous rhetoric they spread across social media. Brooklyn Dad Defiant joins us today to discuss the rapidly approaching Georgia RICO trials for some of the 18 conspirators as Trump finds himself deeper in the proverbial shit. 

Mea Culpa welcomes back our good friend, Brooklyn Dad Defiant, or simply BDD. BDD is a left-wing political commentator on Twitter, YouTube, and various other social media platforms. His outspoken defiance and often humorous take on the Trump administration have earned him over 1.2 million Twitter followers. Since the riots at the Capitol on January 6, BDD has used his platform to bring attention to GOP lawmakers like MTG, Cruz, Jordan, and Biggs, asking that they face consequences for their actions in connection to the insurrection. In addition, he is keeping watch over Kevin McCarthy and the GOP Congress over what he sees as the far-right hijacking of our legislature and courts to push through a damaging, extremist agenda. He calls himself a proud papa who is perpetually pissed. He's a fascinating guy. BBD and Michael dig deep into Rudy, DeSantis and what's in store for Trump.