Jaclyn Brown on The Light Beyond Abuse and Mental Illness

This week, I sit down with Jaclyn Brown of Mental Health and Us, a podcast offering practical self-care and wellness tips to help other mental health sufferers and their loved ones cope.

Her podcast takes inspiration from her 20+ year battle with depression and anxiety, and her survival of an abusive childhood, to shine a positive light on a dark subject matter.

Topics up for discussion this week include:

how her podcast came from her journey with anxiety and depression
why she wanted to encourage more people to talk about their mental health
why she finds writing easier than podcasting if doing it herself
why being a solo podcaster made it really hard for her to get started
why she chooses anxiety as her niche, and how depression plays into that
how mental illness changes as your life changes
how her social anxiety has benefited from the pandemic lockdown
what are some of the challenges she’s found as a mother to a child with anxiety issues during a pandemic
how she came to write Young Adult books
how her abusive childhood helped shape the characters in her early books
what she’s doing different for her kids versus what she experienced as a kid
why she feels it’s so important to acknowledge displays of emotion
why she wants her podcast to be a casual and lighter approach to mental health
why her mother is her hero

Join me for a chat about finding light in the darker tunnels that life can take you down.

Connect with Jaclyn:

Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com

My equipment:

Recommended resources:

Transcript

The following transcript has been created using an automated service, so may not be 100% accurate.

Jaclyn (0s):
I did draw up a little bit from my childhood. And I was thinking about, I was thinking about this. I was kind of prepared to answer this question and I didn’t really know which way I wanted to go with it because there are things that I definitely pulled from my childhood and I put into that book. But for the most part, I, I wrote about the life that I may have wanted at that time when surviving the Abuse. So I was acknowledging that the abuse was there, but, but I, I wish that it may have gotten on a little differently.

Danny (40s):
Hi, and welcome to Podcaster Stories each episode we’ll have a conversation with podcasters from across the globe and share their story. What motivates them by the start to the show are the groove show. And More, we’ll also talk about their personal lives and some of the things that have happened that made them the person they are today. And now here’s your host Danny Brown hi, and welcome to another episode of Podcaster. Stories where we get to meet people behind the voices of the shows. We listened to this week’s a little different and chatting with my wife about her podcast, which is about to go through a sort of a rebrand and relaunch. So it should be able to have a, an interesting conversation. So Jaclyn (Jaclyn Brown), who is the host of mental health and me, which was about to change.

Danny (1m 25s):
How about you introduce yourself and your podcast to the listeners?

Jaclyn (1m 29s):
Sure. Hi, my name is Jaclyn Brown and I host of the show mental health and me, or I used to it, it is about my, my mental health journey really. And it came from my blog, which I think were disbanding that too. So there was a lot of changes that I think we will, will probably talk about today, but, but yeah, so it’s basically just my journey with anxiety and depression and the ups and downs with those to a mental illnesses and how they impact me, how they, how my mental health impacts my family and also how my family’s mental health as well.

Jaclyn (2m 16s):
I’m going to talk about my journey, but I also talk about there’s because a three out of four of us have been diagnosed with a, with our own mental illnesses that are similar and different all in the same. So, so yeah, it’s, it’s quite the rollercoaster of emotions will say,

Danny (2m 33s):
And also we have three dogs, but we don’t know what their mental health is like. So it could be at a higher ratio than a full year before.

Jaclyn (2m 40s):
That is true. Yeah.

Danny (2m 42s):
So how did the idea for the show come about? You mentioned that you have a blog, which is sort of gone into the background so that it disappeared on to the effort of concentrate on a podcast, but how did the idea for the show come about?

Jaclyn (2m 55s):
Well, that’s all thanks to you. Actually, when I, when I first had the idea of doing the blogs, the mental health and me blogs, it was because I wanted to write my journey and I’m really good are, are used to being, and I’m up and down with my writing skills will say, but I used to be really good at writing. And so I wanted to, to write this blog and, and encourage other people to talk about their mental health as well, because there is the stigma and I think it’s less so now, but there was a stigma around mental health and it, you know, should it be, you know, should you go to the doctor for your, your mental wellbeing?

Jaclyn (3m 36s):
Well, yes, you should. And should we be comfortable talking about it? Well, many of us aren’t, we’ve got like a bell let’s talk day, which is one day a year, but we should be comfortable enough to talk about it, you know, whenever. And, and so my blog was like an outlet for that. And, and then one day you had said to me, let’s you, you, you should really turned this into a podcast and, and let me show you how to do that. And I thought, yeah, that’s, that could work. That sounds really good. And I, and I wanted to, and so I started to do the podcast. I think even once we had an episode of you and I discussing our Mental Health and Us together, and then the rest was just me sort of talking to myself and, and that’s, that would be the answer to your question.

Jaclyn (4m 22s):
That’s sort of how the show began. We’ll get, we’ll get to where it’s going in front of you. I don’t want to answer your next question’s before you asked them, but yeah, that’s that, that’s how it came out. I started the blog and then you suggested the, the podcast and, and here we are.

Danny (4m 37s):
And where did you find these, or do you find right in about your user talking about it via a podcast are a little bit of both

Jaclyn (4m 43s):
And there are, this is difficult. There are days when I find writing much easier. When I find that I have something to say, it’s very easy for me to just go and write it down. And so, so blogging about it can be, can be easier when I have something to say, I don’t always have something to say. And so maintaining and updating a blog felt very challenging, especially trying to stay on topic because, you know, there are so many aspects too, my life, not just my mental health. So I found, I found that to be challenging, talking about it is, is easy when you have someone to talk to. And so I found when it was you and I are having a discussion, it was, it was easy.

Jaclyn (5m 27s):
And it was natural recording a podcast that I was doing myself. It felt very unnatural and it felt forced. And, and I, I mean, like, I get nervous anyways, even just talking to you right now, I’m there. I feel my nerves, but by myself, I had a, there was a lot of extra pressure to, to be perfect and to get it right. And what am I saying? And what if I mess up and do I script this or do I not scripted if I scripted than it sounds like a robot, if I don’t script it, like what if I go way off topic? And I forget the whole point of it. So, I mean, there was a lot of pressure when I was podcasting alone. And so I didn’t S I, I didn’t like it.

Jaclyn (6m 8s):
I will say that. I mean, the show I liked what the show was about, and I liked the idea of it, but the actual doing it was very difficult for me. So if it’s between the two, and it’s just me, I’m going to say I much preferred to write and to speak about it, but,

Danny (6m 26s):
And then I think I can speak to that nervousness. I know all it will cost a, a record on, on SquadCast. What is your hope is use from my guests? And it’s got a lot of video green room, and you want me to kind of switch it off while we are chatting with each other, even though we’re basically next door to each other via a think of a wall, because I can definitely Aleut to that nervousness you mentioned.

Jaclyn (6m 44s):
Well, yeah. And, and, and we’re married, so I shouldn’t be nervous with you. And, and, and, you know, for our listeners right now, we are not in the same room. We are sharing a wall, like you said, so we can’t see each other. So it would make sense to have the cameras on. So we can see each other while we were talking on our separate microphone, but I, I’m happy to look at you and have this conversation with you. But when I turned on my camera, that means that I’m going to be looking at me and I would get distracted by me. And I behaved. So like, I just unprofessional will say, So it as like, you know what? This is going to go way better. If I turn off the camera,

Danny (7m 20s):
I know you’ve mentioned, I’ll say it a, your preference, primarily for right-hand, if it wasn’t a, a, co-host a show or a, a conversation on a podcast. So on top of that, what’s been some of the challenges you faced early on with the show, but either from a technical point of view or not just getting a show off the ground, I guess. So

Jaclyn (7m 39s):
I listened to podcasts, obviously, not quite as much as you it’s your business to do so, but, but I do listen to, to some podcasts. And I find that I enjoy the ones that are, you know, co-hosted, or even if it’s just one person’s podcast and they’re interviewing a guest speaker each week, I really enjoy those ones. And I found that when I was listening to podcasts that were just like one person. I mean, like the occasional show was just one person is totally fine, but like an entire series of episodes of just one person talking, you, you start to hear the scripts. And it just, it wasn’t, it wasn’t my thing.

Jaclyn (8m 19s):
It just wasn’t enjoyable. And so I didn’t want to be like that. That’s, that’s one of those things that, that when you, when you want to do something, you emulate the things that you like. It’s the same as when, you know, when writing a book, if you want to write a book, you tend to write in the genre that you like to read about it, because that, that’s your thing. That’s what, you know. So it, it, it makes sense for, you know, in the, in the podcasting world, that’s the exact same thing. And so I just found it really, like, those were my challenges. Like, how do you, how do you get a podcast off the ground when it’s just you? And you don’t really enjoy listening to podcasts with just one person.

Danny (8m 59s):
So it, obviously you mentioned at the time to find your feet tried to find your niche. And if you, like, what is one of the challenges? You mentioned it a bit as well, that there was three of the four of the family, a unit suffered from some form of mental illness, whether it’s depression or anxiety. So what is your podcast? Is it geared towards a family issues or is it geared towards a certain demographic? Who’s your audience be for the show?

Jaclyn (9m 26s):
I get, I guess, anyone, anyone who suffers from mental illness, I would like to gear it towards them, but that’s a very big audience. So I niche down to a depression and more so anxiety than depression, but I do talk and, and sort of dance the line between both of them and how they’re both related to, to me and how one impacts the other, because I have both. And, and so I would gear my, I would like to hear the show towards people in the same, same scenario, because it’s, it’s very, you know, like even anxiety, you know, you suffer from anxiety and I suffered from anxiety and our son suffers from anxiety.

Jaclyn (10m 9s):
And now in between the three of us know, two of us who are the same and are symptoms or not the same and are, are triggers or not the same and our outbursts or not the same like that. So when, when we talk about it, we have very different things to say. And, and so I would like, I would like to put that out there really to, to anyone who does not suffer from anxiety. And right now, I don’t think that anybody, but to S to anyone who doesn’t think that they suffer from any sort of mental illness, give us a Listen, because you’ll get to see what, you know, how, how different things are for people who do suffer.

Jaclyn (10m 52s):
And, and so I would like to, you know, I I’d like to get your gear, the podcast towards those people and maybe provide some information there. But I think if I’m being honest, I think more people who do suffer and who are finding out now that they suffer, especially with, you know, COVID and, and people who didn’t suffer before are definitely suffering. Now, I think that it would be, this would be good for them to see, not like it’s, it’s normal, it’s the new normal. It is. That’s the old normal it’s normal to suffer, and we all suffer differently, but that doesn’t make, you know, one person, one person’s symptoms or, or, you know, one person is anxiety worse, or are, are stronger than somebody else’s, you know, you can’t really compare is what I’m saying.

Jaclyn (11m 38s):
So it just, yeah, just, just hear us out and here, how here, how we differ and maybe you learn something.

Danny (11m 46s):
And I think that, that ties perfectly into a blog post, that your role on your mental health and maybe a blog or a couple of back, you think it was maybe two, three years called a glass box. A, that was a very broad, descriptive tower of what he suffered from depression and anxiety feels like. And that, that I know the response that you got from people either won’t be shared on Facebook, or get in touch with you via email, et cetera, people were sharing how it touched them, because it spoke to different and, you know, different aspects of mental illness. So I think that’s like you say, it’s a key point is that it may be a show about mental health or a show about depression or a show about anxiety, but you’ve, you’ve been like dealing with this four 20 plus years.

Danny (12m 29s):
Now you bring up a wealth of experiences to, anybody can start to tap into, or if you like.

Jaclyn (12m 35s):
Yeah. And it changes to, like, if you asked me 20 years ago, you know, when I was just finding out what, you know, finding out the symptoms and w what it actually meant is very different to what I’m suffering. Now. It doesn’t, it changes it. Ah, but it doesn’t go away and it can get better. Like you can have your better days for sure. And you can have better months even, and go, yeah, I have beat this. I’m doing great. And then all of a sudden something happens and you sync right back into that, that zone. And so it’s, it’s, it’s good to know what your triggers are. And it’s also good to be aware that those triggers will change.

Jaclyn (13m 16s):
They, they will. And, and I, I, I can talk about this forever

Danny (13m 24s):
Know, you mentioned the COVID earlier, and there are a lot more people are now realizing, or are becoming more aware of that, their mental health and why it’s important to stay on top of that. If you like, what what’s been, some of the challenges you have found both as the person that suffers from mental health issues and as a parent of a kid that also suffers from mental health issues during a lockdown, during a pandemic, what’s been some of the challenges that you’ve you’ve had to overcome.

Jaclyn (13m 50s):
So this is interesting because if you were to ask me, you know, what are the challenges that I’ve faced, you know, with the lockdown and, and you know, why, because of COVID, my anxiety has actually gotten much better because a lot of my anxiety has been social related and it’s called social anxiety. And so, and you can certainly read about it in that glass box post, but, but I find that when I’m around more people, I am way more anxious because you know, it, it it’s my trigger, right. It’s the thing that makes me paranoid. I’m overthinking all of the things.

Jaclyn (14m 31s):
And so now that I’m isolated and in lockdown, and we moved so far from everyone, we know, I mean, like I miss people, but I still get to call them in a video chat in zoom, in whatever. So I still get my social without actually having to enter their bubble. And so I’m, I’ve been doing a much better. And for the most part, you know, with lockdown, however, my son is different. And, and so he he’s taken quite the turn I’m over the last little while, especially he’s a very social being, and he’s a very competitive being, but he’s always been like a social kid and I’m, and so he needs his classmates and he needs his soccer team and he needs his extra curriculars and he needs, he just, he needs people.

Jaclyn (15m 23s):
And right now he only has our house and he doesn’t, he, he, you know, he, he doesn’t go to school, he’s in online learning and he doesn’t have a soccer team and he doesn’t have the things that he needs for his sanity. And so Y I can see it taking a toll on his mental health and, and it’s been very difficult, difficult to, to parent I’ll say, like, to, to be strong for him and, and to coach him and to like, I always, always, always remind him that it’s okay to feel the feelings he’s feeling good or bad. You’re allowed, you’re entitled to your emotions and to just have them, but it’s, it’s so hard when many of his emotions are negative.

Jaclyn (16m 12s):
Now, when he’s like a happy kid. And it’s, I’ll just try to answer your question. In a nutshell, it’s very difficult.

Danny (16m 23s):
And it is, it’s interesting. That was written on an article a couple of weeks back that was on a boat, the, the, the, the physical aspects of covert and the long, the long covert, you know, so you may recover quickly from the infection, but at the long-term damage to say, lungs, heart, et cetera, is still to it. It will be determined and what that could look like, but it was an interesting piece that it looked at what this generation’s mental health will look like. And 10 years or 20 years time when we started to look back and we, we will look at generations’ and impacts of mass effects. And the, the, the concern at the moment is to your point, kids that are normally social barflies are real. And he does a social interaction. The ant get not at the moment, what’s the impact is going to be on, on them.

Danny (17m 6s):
And what, what kind of adults are they going to become? And, you know, is that going to place a big set of stress on mental health resources in the next 10, 15, 20 years? Yeah.

Jaclyn (17m 17s):
And, you know, I’d be interested in seeing what happens to our other child for, for that matter. Like, our daughter is also very social. She is a little social butterfly and all always been like the popular kid in the class. And everybody comes to her birthday parties. And, but she just has been coping much, much better with online learning and with social distancing and with all of that, she she’s gets on a messenger kids or whatever, and, and Facebook’s with her friends. So she still feels like she is getting that social element and, and online learning. She turns on her camera and she’s like looking at all her friends. And so I feel like she’s in the same room with them. And so maybe it hasn’t been as hard on her, but who knows, like you said, the long-term maybe, maybe now she is doing great, but who can 10, 15 years from now, she might need therapy, but we don’t.

Jaclyn (18m 7s):
We all right.

Danny (18m 10s):
But it did 10 to 15 minutes from that 10, 15 years now will be, I don’t know of interest and the right word, but it’s not only it’s something that is, that will be, you know, that there was a valid point. The generalist was making it by air. So it will be curious to see what the impact that it has for sure. I think we’ve mentioned that earlier that you had to block that originated, you know, the, the podcasts, so to speak and you have always enjoyed, right. And you were actually in a corner of a publishing house for a few, a good few years, and you are a published author for yourself. We have several young adult books too. Your name, so that we could not say, what made you choose? Why a Over all the genres over, maybe not talking about mental health and your books, for instance.

Jaclyn (18m 51s):
Well, when I wrote my books, I, I started writing actually when I was pregnant with our first child. And, and so I don’t, I don’t know. I don’t really know what, like, I think I just like woke up one day and it was like, I had a dream last night and it was good. And I think it would make a good book. And then I started writing it. I didn’t stop. Like, that’s kind of how I started writing, but, but I say like, and I said this earlier in the show, too, if you want to write a book, you right. What, you know, right. You write what you would want to read you, right. What you want. I would enjoy reading about it. And at that time in my life, I read a lot, a young adult.

Jaclyn (19m 33s):
I read all, like I read the Harry potters. I read the twilights, I read, I loved young adult fiction. And so it made sense for me at that time to write young adult fiction. Now I re I read my, like, my genre of choice is actually thrillers. And so if I were to start writing again, it would make sense for me to write a thriller. However, I don’t think that’s a good idea because you need, in order to right. A thriller, you need to know, like the way the laws of, I don’t know, like police Academy and detective work and murder and all of these things that I enjoy reading about, but have no background and no, I’m not going to get any experience doing any of those things.

Jaclyn (20m 15s):
So, yeah. So it doesn’t make sense for me to continue writing, but, but yeah, to me, that was why I wrote young adult fiction back. Oh gosh. Like 15 years ago when I was reading all, all of the young, it’s been a really long time since I wrote Aidy. I don’t know if that in perspective, but we can’t even remember the last time I wrote fiction. Right.

Danny (20m 37s):
See, now I’m thinking a young adult being a part of the, the, the police Academy, my movies made the comment or a movie side than anything. Plus academies mentioned it. I always thought he jumped back to it. It was a Steve Oh, Steve Guttenberg, I think was one of the main guys. And the, the movie is one of my favorite series is for all of the early ones. Anyway,

Jaclyn (20m 53s):
It’s funny that you think of that though. Like, I, I guess I have a number of friends who’ve been through actual police Academy and it’s not at all like that. It shows. So when I think police Academy, I think the real thing, right.

Danny (21m 6s):
Well, please get out of, it was a real thing was that, that I’d have to go back and watch it when we had more mishaps, but than your average police Academy,

Jaclyn (21m 14s):
It was like the three Stooges their real to, right. I don’t know if you can call. Yeah.

Danny (21m 23s):
And what are your books are here to see? Because you wrote, and you mentioned you are focused on young adults and you actually write a book series a, that was about a young teen who has had an abusive childhood and how that impacts how don’t look at in life. And her personality is up. How much of that was drawn from personal experience is because when I was during the, I saw some parts of thought that it seems kind of like familiar, or if you like,

Jaclyn (21m 48s):
So, so that this series that you’re talking about it, that was the first M that was the first book and said of books that I ever wrote. And so for the record, those were never published. And they were just a, that was just a project I did for myself and the, and I made sure to get them bound and look pretty so that, you know, we can read them in a proper format instead of a word document, but, but it was not published. So it’s not out there in the universe. But for those who, who did read it, I did draw up a little bit from my childhood. And I was thinking about, I was thinking about this. I was kind of prepared to answer this question and I didn’t really know which way I wanted to go with it, because there are things that I definitely pulled from my childhood and I put into that book.

Jaclyn (22m 34s):
But for the most part, I, I wrote about the life that I may have wanted at that time when surviving the Abuse. So I was acknowledging that the abuse was there, but, but I, I wish that it may have gone a little differently. And I guess an example of this is I never had a good relationship with my brother as a child, as an adult. Like we just, we never, we were never friends. We, we never had a good relationship. We never had a strong bond. And, and in the book that you’re talking about, they had a very, the, the brother and sister connection was very strong and, and he helped her get through many of the, you know, ma much of the dark will just say all of the dark periods.

Jaclyn (23m 29s):
He was there for her. And in my childhood, I would like, unfortunately I have to say my childhood was a little bit darker than that because I, I just, I didn’t have, I didn’t have that bond with my brother and I didn’t have someone to, you know, to, to, you know, show me the Lite if you will. So I kind of had to get there on my own, but I mean, I did. So I feel like pros and cons with the, with the, Book like, yes, I put some of the dark in the book, but I showed a different side of you, you know, in, in the book then what actually happened. So it’s more, it’s more fiction than, than real.

Jaclyn (24m 10s):
Just say that.

Danny (24m 13s):
And then the main character. So obviously you talked about bonds had strengths in and that serious. And one of the main characters a with the bond was that between the daughter and a mom as well, and all of us, I know how close are you and your mom are, did your mum Rita. And that she does she’ll look back at some of the things that happened that she wasn’t aware of her. What did your mom not get to read this, these books?

Jaclyn (24m 35s):
My mom read them. And, and she was very proud of me actually for opening up in, in there. And, but she said it was very emotional for her. And it was very difficult for her to read some of that because of how honest it was. Now I will, I will say I kind of wrote the mom out of the books. And that was just easier for me when I was writing them to say, this series is about this girl and her brother and how they are dealing with their high school relationships. And that’s it. And so I ended up writing the mam out of the Book by just saying that she worked all the time. So she, she was like, she, she wasn’t dead.

Jaclyn (25m 15s):
She was totally there, but she wasn’t a part of the kids life because she had to work to support them. She had to work to get, to put a roof over their head. So she was like, those kids basically raised themselves while the mom was financing it. And, and that was just how I wrote the book. But my mom as hard of a worker as she is, I don’t remember a time in my life when she was not there for me. And I think that’s very different from what I portrayed in the book. And I made sure to tell her that afterwards, like I wrote her out because it was easier for me to write the story about the two siblings without a mother interference, because that’s not what the story was about.

Jaclyn (25m 55s):
So it, but like I said, it in my, in my life, my brother and I were not close. So my mom and I were, and we, of course we had our ups and downs, but we weren’t always as close, but I don’t remember her ever not being there. So

Danny (26m 9s):
You mean, so you mentioned that they are in the book, I’ll say it at drew from some experiences, some are fictional and some are how you wanted it to happen with either, you know, the brother, sister dynamic and, and the, as a different dynamic where your mom, because you’re so close to your mom now, I guess you’ve always been the sound of that. Are there any lessons you’ve learned from, you know, at that time that you spoke about it in the book, have you had to like to, to, to now and raised in your own children and now that you’re a mom of two Yourself,

Jaclyn (26m 39s):
Oh, it’s a, it’s funny. How could it have you don’t even know how best to answer this, what I’ve learned from my childhood and how I, how I parent my children. I was going to say, I learn what not to do things that I learned. I shouldn’t say that because my mom was awesome, but, but I know, I know that I show my kids every day, every day, how much I love them and how much they mean to me. And, and I don’t know that that was ever shown to me as a child. Maybe that’s what I needed, but, but its definitely what I do for my kids.

Jaclyn (27m 23s):
And you’ll, you’ll notice and you’re, and I know you do this also, but anyone else who sees us in our home environment will notice that my son, for example, my daughter to do, but my son More will say, I love you to each of us individually 20 to 30 times a day, no exaggeration. And every time he says it, we say, I love you to it. Doesn’t we don’t, I’m tired of hearing that. We respond, we acknowledge that. He said it and we say it back and he’ll come in for a hug and we hug him, but we will stop what you’re doing. And he gets that hug.

Jaclyn (28m 3s):
And, and my daughter, like I said, she does it too, but I think she almost does it just because her brother is doing it, but he, but he does, he go, he does this. And, and I, that I think, I don’t know if it’s something that I learned to do or not to do from my own childhood, but I made sure to, no matter how busy I am, I made sure to reciprocate those hugs and those, I love you because I think there are super important and they are for sure what we eat in this house.

Danny (28m 34s):
And I wonder if, when I’m I know exactly what we mean, obviously I’m in the house too. So I know exactly what you mean, but I’m wondering if you mentioned your daughter, doesn’t say it as often, even though we know she does love us, but I’m wondering under that boils back down to your point earlier that she has the, the, almost the physical daily interaction with our classmates and friends, that our son doesn’t. So maybe the, the physical interaction he needs his get in from the, the love and hugs that he, he initiates each day, but each time

Jaclyn (29m 6s):
It could be, but I know that he was like this even before the lockdown in, even before COVID. And even when he was going to school every day in, in, in soccer, in his rep soccer league and doing that three or four times a week, like he would still, he still needed them to say that he loves us and he still needed to come in for hugs for no reason. And I love it, but I think our daughter has a little different just in that. I think, I think she doesn’t, she doesn’t need to say it. She knows it. So I, and I can see that in her because if she ever felt unloved, we would know it. We would certainly, she would make sure that we knew that she was not feeling has happier as loved as her brother.

Jaclyn (29m 47s):
She would tell us. But, but yes, I think, I don’t know. Maybe it could be me. It could be, it could be me too, because I know I’m the type of person that says, I love you all the time. And I like hearing it back. I love you. I love you too. I think it’s important. And I know with my, my ex my ex partners, I can think of one in particular where I would say it and he wouldn’t say it back and I’d be like, what’s wrong? Like, don’t you love me? And he was like, I don’t feel like I need to say it. Like, you should just know that I do. And it’s true. Like, we sh we should just know this. If we’re showing it, we don’t have to say it. And I think that’s where our daughter is, but our son just like me needs to say it and hear it back.

Jaclyn (30m 29s):
And so we give him that, that I don’t think that it has so much to do with COVID made, it might be enhanced because of the lockdown, but I don’t, I think it was it’s something ingrained in us.

Danny (30m 41s):
It was like, it, it makes me think of the Alf movie when he was always singing. I love, you know, my dad and I love you too. How does that, does it want to reciprocate until near the end of the movie, but really this is like a life lesson. So know. I CA I I hear you. I, I loved the fact that he is like that, for sure. I know you mentioned that earlier that your show started off as a solo podcast and it was a mental health and me, but it’s about to relaunch within the, the next few weeks, I guess, and I believe was going to be called Mental Health and Us where it’s going to be a whole host a show with yourself and you and me, we will have guests on there to talk about different aspects of mental health and mental illness.

Danny (31m 22s):
So what are your goals with the show, with the real launch coming up and what, what do you hope to achieve of the show in moving forward and this new sort of format, if you like,

Jaclyn (31m 31s):
I know I’m going to say I have similar goals as I did when I launched to the first time, except I’m hoping that it will be, I don’t know. I want to say like less dramatic. I’m hoping it’s more casual and, and easy going. I don’t know. I felt like that when I first came out with it, just being me, it felt very like dark and I don’t want it to be dark. I mean, like, I know the things that we’re talking about AR you know, like, you know, a mental illness, not like a mental health, and well-being, we’re talking about mental ill. We were talking about the downs of like a mental health and And I, it is, it is a serious topic, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about it.

Jaclyn (32m 14s):
And so I’m hoping to me, I don’t want to say I’m hoping to make it fun, but I’m hoping it’s more of an enjoyable to the listener. Who’s not just listening to somebody come on in vent all the time, because that is, that can get depressing from a listener perspective. So I’m, I’m my goal is to, to that, by opening the doors to more people that it becomes more enjoyable to listen to and more informational and less, I don’t know, ranty.

Danny (32m 48s):
So it’s like, almost like opera is like, you get a symptom, you got a symptom, you get a symptom, like they can do a crutch now. And I think that, that is to your point. I, I completely agree. It’s I think there was, we all know that mental illness and mental health is a deep, heavy topic, and it can be, like you said, it can be really hard to get to talk about with the stigma that surround it. So I think bring in fun and bring in some sort of a, not so much energy, but just, Hey, we’re having a normal conversation. You wouldn’t feel bad talking about a broken arm or the fact that you stubbed your tour or buying your shin or whatever, which is physical Wheelman. So I don’t think we should be, you know, we shouldn’t be talking to any different way when it comes to mental ailments either.

Danny (33m 29s):
I don’t think yes,

Jaclyn (33m 31s):
I agree. So that, I don’t know if that is

Danny (33m 34s):
Okay. That was, you have to, I was just hard to know a little value out there. You have to edit it up in the blooper reel. So we, we, we’ve been speaking about obviously the, the influences of your childhood and your, your, you know, growing up and some of the people in it. I think I know the answer to this question. I’m going to ask any of it. Who would it be? Your personal hero and why that person

Jaclyn (34m 0s):
Ahhh. You totally know. Umm, and it is, it, it is somebody who is already talked about it. Lots of today. This is my hero is my mother like hands down the easiest choice. If you ask me to like pick a celebrity or somebody dead or whatever, I wouldn’t have any clue where to start. But like for, for my, my hero, I would pick my mother because she is the strongest person. I know she survives anything like anything that comes her way. She, she can survive it and you know, poor girl, she broke her foot, you know, This week. And he has had surgery and plates and rods and whatever else and And and she still, she is surviving.

Jaclyn (34m 47s):
Like she is still going and, and she had, you know, she had two young sons, she had her, she had me and my brother and when she was really, really young and, and so she had to re she had to alter her life course because she had to, she was a kid when she had kids will just say it that way. And, and then, and she did, and then she had to get her education differently because she had kids at home. So she wasn’t able to do things the way kids did. And, or I should say teens like rates, she, she had to get her education differently and she did it and, and then she got a job and then she got a better job. And then you get a better job in like, she just, she is constantly working towards something and constantly progressing.

Jaclyn (35m 28s):
And she’s just, she’s such a good role model for, for me. Like she, she just, she is a winner. I know, I don’t know how can better say that. Like she never, even when times are tough, she manages to get through it and show me the positive outlook, you know, the positive way to look at things so that, you know, so that I’m not always down. And, and, and I can, I really like, if you are listening, mom, I just wanted to say, you’re my hero. And thank you. I love you.

Danny (36m 2s):
And, and, and you’ll get a better by a bigger pot and the next book.

Jaclyn (36m 5s):
Yeah. It will be the thriller tho you know that right. As long as you got to do the victim had a shower, yes. Killed off a chapter or two, but a bigger, bigger exactly.

Danny (36m 19s):
It’s a Jaclyn I have really enjoyed speaking with you today. It’s been interesting. And just being a wall away from you. And I want to say Chuck, because normally if my guess is that obviously a very different veteran remote from me, but I really enjoyed chatting with you for people that want to connect with you. You are listening to the podcast or even, you know, check out a new project you are about to launch as well. Where’s the best place to, they can find you.

Jaclyn (36m 44s):
I w you know what, I want you to answer this question because we’ve done so many changes. I don’t even know what my email address is anymore. So how about you answer this question?

Danny (36m 57s):
Okay. Fair enough. Nice. A nice day. Fluxion that deflection? That deflection that flex time. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, so the podcast is called Mental Health and Us, and you can find it@thementalhealthpodcast.ca Jaclyn a new project as a girl on a Book, which is a, a book review site, and memberships say it would just kind of cool. And you can find that at a Girl know, I you can find it at Girl and a book.com on a book. Maybe check it out at the end of February when it’s actually.

Jaclyn (37m 25s):
Yes, yes. And I I’m sure I will have email addresses for those too, but I actually don’t even know what their, so once we have them, we will definitely post them, but I will say Girl in a Book is correct, because I tried as a girl and a book, and I was disappointed. I’m a girl in a book

Danny (37m 45s):
I have, as I say, Jaclyn thanks again for coming on. I’ll be sure to put the, the links to the various sites in the podcast, in the show notes. So we will listen to this episode on your favorite podcast app, made sure to check out the show notes as usual as you can click straight through to them. So, Jacqueline, thanks again for a panel on the show today.

Jaclyn (38m 0s):
Thank you. It’s been fun.

Danny (38m 2s):
This has been Podcaster Stories. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, be sure to subscribe when your favorite app, you can also hop over to Podcaster Stories dot com and get the free newsletter. So you get an episode as soon as it comes out until the next time take care.

Transcript

About

How to Listen

Products

Transcript

Pin It on Pinterest