Covid was already rough for the very funny and personable Annabelle Gurwitch, as it was for everyone, and that was before her car broke down on an LA freeway just as she was getting a call with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Stage four. Annabelle has dealt with anxiety and depression for a long time and the cancer news certainly didn’t help, especially as Annabelle found strong connections between mental and physical health, culminating, perhaps, in Annabelle crab-walking down the sidewalk. It’s all detailed in her new memoir, The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker, in which she tells of going on medications that have worked for years, but which she knows will eventually stop working. And eventually, as with us all, she will die. For now, she’s alive and here to talk, enlighten, and share more than a few laughs. At age 24, Eric Zimmer was in rough shape. He was addicted to heroin, weighed maybe a hundred pounds, and was facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence. So he gave rehab another try and he had some success and started getting his life back together, diving into just about any book or teaching he could find that could help him get healthy and stay healthy. This led to conversations, the podcast The One You Feed, a career as a personal coach, and his new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot. Eric explains his philosophy of taking small actions toward better mental and physical health, concentrating on what can be achieved and repeated, and choosing actions that gradually move you toward where and who you want to be. He offers advice on how to determine those actions and how to stick with them. It’s not a long jump, it’s a series of small, manageable, and repeatable steps. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com! Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected]. Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related