The Psychology of Depression and Anxiety - Dr. Scott Eilers

It’s OK To Never Be OK

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happiness isn't a natural state for everyone, and that's perfectly fine. I've spent decades fighting against my brain's inability to maintain joy. In...

Fix Your Living Space, Fix Your Brain

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Your messy home isn't a character flaw - it's your brain on survival mode. Research shows your brain actually develops differently in cluttered space...

Why Relaxation Techniques Don’t Work For You

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Relaxation techniques aren't failing you - they're just incomplete. Most experts only teach half the solution, leaving you stuck in an endless cycle o...

How To Rejoin The World After Becoming Disconnected

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mental illness can make you feel like you don't belong in this world, and often lead to isolation and alienation. Isolation can lead to a worsening ...

Why Am I Sad When Nothing Is Wrong

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happiness isn't humanity's default state. Some of us are wired differently, we require active effort to maintain emotional well-being. Living with a h...

Why Pushing Yourself Too Hard Makes You Shut Down

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pressure and stress motivate humans to get stuff done, but only to a certain point. After that point they become a liability - they can actually make ...

How To Fall Asleep Instead Of Passing Out (And Why It’s Better For You!)

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How you sleep matters. The way you feel and function during the day is a direct reflection of both the quantity and quality of your sleep. Somnee can ...

How To Grieve For Someone Who Is Still Alive

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Grief doesn't alway involve loss because of death. It's a natural response to any significant loss in life. In fact, grieving the living can be even m...

Alternate Treatments for Severe Depression and Anxiety (TMS, Ketamine, ECT, Microdosing)

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many of the conventional mental health treatments are failing us. Our mainstream options only work for about half of those seeking help, leaving many ...

How To Stop Hating Yourself

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Your relationship with yourself shapes your entire life - but what if that relationship is toxic? Self-hatred isn't inevitable; it's a habit y...

6 Ways You’re Accidentally Making Your Anxiety Worse (& What To Do Instead)

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every day decisions feel like life or death when you have chronic anxiety. Some of us are hardwired to care way too much about every little thing, so ...

A Way Out Of The Downward Spiral Of Worthlessness, Hopelessness, And Depression

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Depression isn't always lying to you. Your feelings of worthlessness might reflect an unmet need for purpose and impact. I've battled severe d...

Why The Changes You Make Never Seem To Last

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There is a very simple reason why the changes you try to make - habits, routines, thought patterns - rarely work. The process involved in actual chang...

7 Foundational Things That Will Improve Your Mental Health

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

No one has tried everything they could try to improve their mental health. No one. There are millions of possibilities and combinations available. How...

8 Reasons Your Sleep Sucks (And How To Fix It)

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Fixing your sleep will have the biggest positive impact on your mental health. When you don't get enough sleep, the brain doesn't work right....

8 Misconceptions about Passive Suicidal Ideation

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Passive SI is one of the most misunderstood mental health symptoms. I'm going to debunk some common misconceptions about passive suicidal ideation...

Brutally Honest Advice To My Severely Mentally Ill Younger Self

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I've been there, feeling like an outcast and struggling with severe mental health issues like anxiety and deep depression for much of my life. Th...

6 Common Mental Mistakes Making You Miserable

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You have much less control over your thoughts and feelings than most people would lead you to believe. Which is extremely unfortunate when you have me...

How to annihilate your negative thoughts

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most mental-health interventions and strategies are geared toward people with mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety - not the intense ne...

How to Deal With Low Energy and Motivation from Depression

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Depression has a way of stealing your energy and motivation. So how can you improve your energy and motivation while recovering from depression or dep...

How To Be Alone Without Being Miserable

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How can an introvert enjoy alone time without feeling lonely, isolated, or disconnected? In my personal, and professional experience, there are 3 reas...

Why You Self-Sabotage And How To Stop

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You're probably not actually self-sabotaging: and I have a few reasons for saying this. "Self-sabotage" is one of the most overused phra...

Sometimes You Have To Let It Hurt

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Facing emotional pain and grief is incredibly hard. I spent years running from my childhood grief, thinking time would magically fix everything. But ...

Five One-Minute Activities to Reduce Symptoms of Depression

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Managing 1 or more chronic mental health conditions is a full-time responsibility. If you push this to the bottom of your priorities it will be extre...

4 things people with mental illness do without thinking

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I'm exploring four unconscious behaviors that hurt people with mental illness. These things aren't going to serve you in managing your mental ...

Disentangling Your Thought Patterns Using FTP

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thought patterns don't define you, and they're not fixed. The thing about depression is it traps you in narrow, repetitive thinking. Your thi...

You’re Doing A Better Job Than You Think

04 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Your life isn't failing; it's just stretched thin. This is not a cliche, empty reassurance, or toxic positivity: you're probably doing be...

What To Do When Your Empathy Becomes A Disability

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our world is built on the ability of individuals to function socially (for better or worse). So what happens when your default social functioning diff...

4 Ways To Stop Waking Up Too Early

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Waking up early and struggling to go back to sleep creates a lot of stress on your body. Some studies have shown this to decrease cognitive function...

8 Oddly Specific Symptoms of Depression

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The traditional clinical symptoms of depression often don't cover the full spectrum of what it feels like to experience depression or depressive e...

You Can’t Be Growing All The Time

20 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Life doesn't always involve constant growth - it has dormant phases too. We sometimes experience events that halt progress unexpectedly, invisibl...

Why You Do Amazing, Then Fall Apart Sometimes

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Would you describe your life as a rollercoaster? This probably looks like sustained periods where you're extremely high-functioning and then prolo...

How To Change The Channel In Your Mind

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trying to replace negative thoughts with positive ones rarely works for your mental wellbeing. Your brain perceives threat and warns you by replaying ...

Please Let There Be A Purpose To All This Pain

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Life doesn't always make sense, not all pain has a purpose - and this reality can hurt. This frustrated me for years. While not all pain leads to...

The Person I Want To Be Doesn’t Exist

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Society expects everyone to fit into predetermined molds, but that's not realistic. There is no "normal" path meant for everyone. Get P...

4 things you should never say to someone who is struggling (and what to say instead)

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's an epidemic of unhelpful responses when someone opens up about their struggles. My take: Most well-meaning people inadvertently make thing...

Why Smarter People Are More Depressed

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

People with depression often feel like they aren't very smart - I hear this all the time in therapy sessions. But the usually the opposite is tru...

6 Things I stopped doing to better manage my stress

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Stress and anxiety can feel almost identical, even though they are two very different things. When it comes to improving your mental health, know whic...

What I Do When I’m Completely Shut Down By Stress (Psychological Minimalism)

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Life is completely overwhelming a large portion of the time. From all the things you have to do, to the things you need to do, and add in the things ...

10 Way To Use Your Smartphone To Improve Your Mental Health

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you deal with any kind of mental health issues - especially depression and anxiety, - excessive phone usage is not helping you, generally speaking....

How To Have Mostly Good Days (The Happiness Equation)

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You might be (accidentally, unknowingly, unintentionally) making your life worse in a number of ways. One way is your (internal and implicit) criteri...

You’re Worth More Than You Think (Don’t Misuse The Transitive Property)

09 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you've Lost Hope in Life, I invite you to join me for a live conversation and Q&A Thursday, May 16th at 4pm est. Here's the link: https...

3 Coping Skills For Insecurity That DON’T Work (And One That Does!)

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Insecurity is a universal human experience, not a personal failing. Most coping methods actually reinforce insecurities rather than resolving them. E...

Letting Go Of Shame And Regret From The Past

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Past mistake, failures, choices, circumstances may be haunting you right now. Things you desperately wish you could forget - but know you probably nev...

The Dangers of Self Diagnosis

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Psychological testing is not a perfect science by any means - it can have many barriers to entry including cost, access, and availability. But self-di...

How To Use The Most Misunderstood Coping Skills (Radical Acceptance & Pain Budgeting)

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most think acceptance means settling for misery. That's not true. Acceptance empowers you to change what matters. It acknowledges some pain is una...

Why We Cannot Simply “Choose Happiness” (And What We CAN Choose!)

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Emotions are not light switches. You cannot simply turn them on or off just because you (or somebody) would like to. Being told (or telling others) t...

Why Doing Nothing Is Dangerous For Rumination (Default Mode Explained)

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Not all negative thoughts are bad. But constantly thinking about negative things can lead to a downward cycle psychology calls rumination. Rumination...

If You Have Failed Time And Time Again, Try This (Hard Reset Your Life)

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you're consistently failing at the same thing over and over again, you might be trying to force something that, ultimately, isn't you.When ...

How To Have A Healthy Relationship With Your Emotions

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Emotions can be absolutely terrifying; causing total shut down and unbelievable pain. Despite all that, your emotions are not the enemy of your life....

Please Don't Ever Give Up

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode my reaction to a recent news event around assisted suicide in a young individual with chronic mental health struggles.

How I Keep My Life Focused On My Mental Health

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Organizing your life around what's most important to you might be inadvertently sabotaging your life. People with mental health struggles need to...

How I Keep Going In The Face Of Total Apathy And Anhedonia (Apathyception)

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's an unspoken Achilles' heal in many peoples' mental health journeys. How do you stick to your plan, strategies, and healing in thos...

3 Reasons Why Getting Better Can Feel Worse

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Improving mental health doesn't always translate to feeling emotionally better. It's a dangerous assumption that can lead to discouragement. ...

Stop Telling Yourself Stories That Hurt You

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The majority of the emotional stress people experience is self-induced. The good news is, this can also be managed fairly easily. There are 2 specifi...

How to tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy social withdrawal

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can introverts with mental health conditions succeed in a world seemingly built for extroversion? Introverts recharge their social battery through w...

3 Things I Do When Existence Feels Like A Burden

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Some days, existence feels like a chore, and admitting that can be tough. I know our brains are inconsistent and illogical, which can make life challe...

What to do if you have no normal to return to

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The majority of mental health interventions are based on the assumption that you have a "normal" state to return to. But this is not the rea...

Loving yourself does NOT make you a narcissist - hating yourself DOES make you depressed

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When real psychological conditions are applied to people without those conditions because of pop-culture-misappropriation, bad things happen. Case in...

6 Ways To Stay (Semi) Functional During Depressive Episodes

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Depression absolutely destroys your ability (and desire) to get done what you need to get done - but you already know this! Exhaustion, insomnia, anh...

2 Essential Truths and 3 Non-Negotiables Of Living With Mental Illness

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you have a chronic mental health condition, your life is in a constant state of decay - unless you proactively do something about it. This is 1 of...

How To Cut Off The Catastrophic Thoughts In Your Mind

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Does your brain goes from "everything is fine," to "I'm going to die alone and everything is going to fall apart," in an insta...

What I Do When I Feel Like I Don’t Belong In This World

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The thing that got me into psychology is the same thing that almost completely derailed my entire life. And to this day, I'm still not sure what t...

How To Stop Worrying Over Every Little Thing

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Which decisions actually impact our lives in a meaningful way? Yes, you make around 35,000 decisions every day, but not all of these are created equal...

Why Narcissism And Severe Insecurity Can Look The Same

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When you've been bullied, judged, abused, belittled, mocked or shamed, for how you look or act, it can cause a hyper awareness in one.That hyper a...

How To Find A Good Therapist (It’s Simpler Than You Think!)

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Improving your mental health is difficult even in the best of situations, but what happens when the people you entrust to help you are actually making...

Self Care is a Scam

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The American concept of "self care" is actually leaving you worse off. The pursuit of self care as a product or experience misses the funda...

Why Every Day Is A Little Bit Harder

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You might be inadvertently making your life more difficult because of one simple behavior. Our social structures are based on punishment, and this is...

Three Steps To Rejoining The World (Bio Psycho Social Treatment Model)

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What do you do when the normal strategies for getting better don't work?What do you do when the things other people are doing don't seem to wo...

6 Ways To Experience Genuine Gratitude

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The secret is out: gratitude is good for your mental health. But what do you do if you don't feel it? You might be in the situation I was in: I l...

Why Do I Always Need To Do Two Things At Once, Why Is Driving So Stressful, Anxiety Or Excitement?

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Friday Q&A #4

The Day I Almost Gave Up

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Almost getting kicked out of my doctoral program taught me 4 important lessons that have helped me get from that low point to where I am now. Everyon...

Living Well With Borderline Personality Disorder with The Truth Doctor (Dr. Courtney Tracy)

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Yes, Borderline Personality Disorder is an incurable mental illness. But that doesn't mean it's unmanageable. Dr. Courtney Tracy, AKA @the.truth.doct...

How To Stop Dissociation, Why You Can't Cry, Parenting With Depression, Polyvagal Theory

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to YouTube ultra supporters for these questions!

Sometimes The Best You Can Do Is To Just Survive

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you feel like you're in a constant cycle of building things in life just to watch them get knocked down again, there could be a very good reaso...

13 + 1 Ways to Fix Your Mental Health in 2024

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There are typically 3 reasons you might struggle to set and achieve goals.1. You don't have enough time or energy to do the thing2. You forget abo...

How to talk to depressed people, getting good results from therapy, and how to recover good memories

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Friday Q&A! Thanks to my ultra supporters for the great questions.

Make Your Negative Thoughts Your Worst Enemy

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Your negative thoughts don't actually belong to you. You've adopted, adapted, and taken ownership of ideas from other people, situations, and...

5 Ways To Heal Your Relationship With Yourself

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Life can be a very lonely and isolating journey. Because of this one fact, your relationship with yourself is the key to how your life turns out. Des...

How to Avoid Traumatizing Your Children, Anxiety vs Excitement, and Why I Started a Podcast

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the first YouTube ultra supporter Q & A! In these episodes I'll be discussing topics chosen by YouTube members.

7 Tips To Survive A Depressive Episode

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Depressive episodes can completely change how you function. From isolation to depriving yourself of things that feel good, from constant sleeping to ...

Prolonged Grief Disorder

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Time does not heal ALL wounds. Period.In fact, with some kinds of emotional wounds, time actually makes things worse.So what does time have to do with...

Why Your Anxiety Never Goes Away

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you struggle with chronic anxiety, your life tends to revolve around three phases. This pattern happens because of what's called the "worr...

8 Truths That Changed My Life

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Therapy does not have all the answers. Some of the biggest turning points in my life have had nothing to do with therapy or even psychology. I 'm...

Fix Your Broken Sleep

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ever wonder why it's hard to sleep well? You're not alone. Sometimes, our sleep gets broken, and we don't know how to fix it. Well, this ...

7 Costs Of Spending Excess Time In Fantasy Worlds

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when spend too much time trying to "escape" from your life? First off, it is completely understandable to want to escape from y...

Managing Catastrophic Thinking

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do you fear everything will end terribly? Like every illness will end in loss; like every mistake will lead to severe consequences; like people are ab...

How to handle the 4 different types of anxiety

17 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anxiety management tools and strategies not working for you? Anxiety isn’t one-size-fits-all. And your specific experience of anxiety needs a speci...

I Can’t Let Good Things In

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When you’re young, you have no ability to meet our own needs - so what happens when those needs don’t get met? When those needs aren’t met, you...

6 Things I stopped Doing To Fix My Anxiety

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The emotional and physical toll of debilitating anxiety can be overwhelming. What I've found in my life - and in the lives of many clients - is th...

How to stop the solar system of pain

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does life sometimes feel like a never-ending cycle of pain and suffering? It's like you keep experiencing the same disappointments and setbacks o...

Do horrible thoughts make you a horrible person?

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ever wondered about the disturbing thoughts that occasionally cross your mind? The thoughts you don't want anyone else to know? Do they mean you&#...

How to stop being so afraid of everything

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anxiety shrinks your world. It takes this massive world we all inhabit and makes it feel oppressively small. Severe anxiety feels like there are bar...

I just don’t care what happens to me

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are you worth investing in? Do you care what happens to you? It's easy to get to a place where you know what you "should" be doing - yo...

The Thing You’re Most Ashamed Of May Have Saved You

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The things you've done in your past that you're not proud of may have, in fact, helped you get through some of your darkest moments. I unders...

How to rebuild after a depressive episode

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Managing your mental health is complex enough on its own without adding in the fact that every day can bring new challenges. What do you do when new...

What is learned helplessness?

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Learned helplessness is a phenomenon where individuals feel that no matter what they do, they can't escape pain or negative outcomes. A lot of ti...

Existence is Traumatic

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Life is filled with inevitable trauma, death, and tragedy, even if you've had a seemingly normal or average life. This is because of a significa...

6 Things I stopped doing to fix my depression

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I battled depression for 40 years, 98% of it was misery. I used drugs, alcohol, and chasing short-term joy as a way to escape. Now, I feel good 90% ...

No one else knows how it feels to be you

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Your perception of other people's lives is just as flawed as their perception of yours. Your perception of their life is just a simulation, and yo...