Olga is a Technical Program Manager at Expedia. She is originally from Venezuela and now lives in Toronto.  Olga is also an active YouTuber with her channel Cronopio.  Growing up in a Latino community with an alcoholic father and a stoic mother, Olga learned that you don’t complain and you don’t talk about your feelings.  … Continue reading "#35 It’s Time To Talk About Suicide"

Dillon and Wesley are a rap duet who perform under the names Weslex and MySYN. Wesley and Dillon took different paths through life.  Whereas Dillon was the broody kid a little withdrawn from others, writing poetry and coming from a broken home.  Wesley was the sociable, happy kid making everybody laugh. Despite different paths, their … Continue reading "#34 Making Rap Music As Therapy"

In college, choosing a major was challenging for Anne. Her challenge wasn’t because she was a feckless student unable to pick something and stick to it.  It was because her undiagnosed learning disabilities made learning new subjects difficult. Textbooks were a constant battle for Anne while going through school and college.  After a college therapist … Continue reading "#33 When Learning Disabilities Become A Superpower – Anne’s Story"

Stephen is the Founder and Managing Partner of “What If Ventures”. He is also the host of the Stigma podcast. Stephen has left a trail of destruction in his life due to undiagnosed bipolar 1. Three country clubs threw him out for being disruptive. He paid gambling debts by cashing in pensions and was unfaithful … Continue reading "#32 On Being Bipolar 1 With Stephen Hays"

Carrie started her career as a pastry chef in the United Kingdom.  30 years later, she’s a leader in the Ketogenic diet scene and the author of 5 popular Keto cookbooks including books on crock pot meals, soup and ice cream.  In between pastries and keto, Carrie spent twenty years working the grind of corporate … Continue reading "#31 Why am I bipolar?"

David is a former radio personality from Malta who is managing anxiety and depression. As an infant, David’s mother took him from Malta to Australia to start a new life. Unfortunately alcoholism and abuse followed them. After a difficult childhood David returned to Malta, the place of his birth, at 19 looking to start a … Continue reading "#30 Just Talk About It – Managing Anxiety and Depression"

Ruth is a successful businesswoman who lived, undiagnosed, with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder for 20 years. One day, after a run-of-the-mill setback work, she found herself in her bath, contemplating suicide.  The next day, Ruth wondered who the woman was with dead eyes looking back at her. She had to go one more … Continue reading "#29 Can You Climb The Ladder with Panic Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder?"

It’s a question that many people with chronic illnesses must face. Answering that question pulled Rachel back to living her life after four years of hospitalization. As a young teenager, she struggled to find her own identity and place in the world. It was that struggle that lead to her to her pre-anorexia and later … Continue reading "#28 Who am I beyond my illness? Rachel’s journey with anorexia"

Jonathan Shooshani is the co-founder of HR tech company Joon, that makes it easy for employees to self direct their benefits. For HR and finance teams, Joon eliminates the administrative burden of physical and mental wellness initiatives. Listen To Episode 27 For some people, total wellness is something that comes to them as part of … Continue reading "#27 The Flywheel of Mental Wellness"

Andrew is the CEO of mental health startup Heard who are creating a trusted space for therapists.  Becoming a CEO wasn’t always on the cards for Andrew.  Early in life, he was beset with panic disorder, anxiety and depression and as a teenager he did drugs and ran with the wrong crowd.  At his worst … Continue reading "#26 Doing The Hard Work – Panic Disorder, Anxiety and Depression"

That was Taylor Comeau, a retired professional soccer player, sharing her perspective on managing mental health. At the end of her profession she sought therapy after experiencing situational depression. Situational depression is a short term, stress related type of depression. I’m a huge fan of soccer. I don’t remember the exact moment I became a … Continue reading "Situation Depression With “The Soccer Player”"

From time to time, I get requests through LinkedIn from people I don’t know to go for coffee.  I often decline but sometimes my curiosity kicks in and I say “Yes”. When I got Jim’s message, something piqued my interest, and I said Yes.  We arranged to meet at Miro Tea in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. … Continue reading "Calming the Tornado of ADHD"

Elizabeth has built a successful career in education but grew up in an alcoholic household. In Silent Superheroes, we often hear about people’s personal battle with mental illness.  The truth is that most of us aren’t an island. We have friends, family and colleagues in our life that we interact with everyday.  When you spend … Continue reading "Healing From Inherited Trauma"

What happens to employee mental health when you add a global pandemic like Covid-19 / coronavirus to the usual stresses and strains of work and life?  I sought out experts in workplace mental health field to get their advice. I was fortunate to find Candice Schaefer, the Head of Global Employee Wellness at Twitter and … Continue reading "How to manage employee mental health through Coronavirus"

In this episode of Silent Superheroes, we’re doing something a little bit different to mix things up.  We’ll listen in on a conversation about mental illness at work between 3 people who work in the mental health field. Firstly, we have Catherine Davies who is a licensed psychiatrist. Secondly, we have Joe Guppy, a therapist … Continue reading "A psychiatrist, counselor and advocate walk into a podcast"

By day, Daniel is a sales manager at a credit card processing company and by night he’s a stand up comedian. Bipolar and alcoholism bring a unique perspective to Daniel’s work. As a stand up comedian, his life provides plenty of material, and his bipolar means he’s two comedians in one. As a sales manager, … Continue reading "Finding Perspective, Bipolar and Alcoholism at Work"

Todd and his family identified his ADD fairly early in life. For a while, a regimen of medication helped him be a 4-point student. Then in 7th grade, a friend introduced him to marijuana. Todd decided he’d found a different way to manage ADD, quit his medications and started a rollercoaster that didn’t fully settle … Continue reading "Garbage And Gas To A Mental Health Advocate – ADD"

“I remember doing it, and I remember making the conscious effort. But it really wasn’t me … but it was me. It’s a really hard thing to explain.” That was Shana, describing what she was feeling just after swallowing handfuls of pills during a suicide attempt.  Shana was the Silent Superhero featured in episode 17, … Continue reading "A Monster, Saved By Her Knight In Shining Armor – BDD and Suicide"

Shana is an HR professional living with bipolar, OCD, PTSD and body dysmorphic disorder. On their own, any one of these conditions can be overwhelming. Managing all of them together should be an insurmountable obstacle, but it’s one Shana overcomes. Even so, there are serious consequences, like having 31 jobs in 20 years and attempting … Continue reading "My Boss Wants To Fire Me, PTSD And OCD At Work"

Marnie works at Expedia helping teams tell stories, which she describes as her dream job.  Like me, Marnie lives with undiagnosed bipolar. She went through two marriages and divorces before an offhand comment in an acting class nudged her to explore her mental state. In this episode of Silent Superheroes, Marnie shares the comment made … Continue reading "Marnie’s Mental Health Management Masterclass"

Grand mal epileptic seizures are a serious business, often leaving someone on the floor convulsing. They’re scary for people around them and very dangerous for those who experience them. Kyle’s been living with them for nearly 20 years. Despite that length of time, it’s only recently he’s to come to terms with the fact that … Continue reading "Stress, Drugs and Rigmarole, Epilepsy At Work With Kyle"

Kristina Schiano is a professional drummer who at 23 years old has built a following of more than 750,00 subscribers to her Youtube channel. Her most popular video has been watched more than 10 million times.  These are remarkable achievements and even more remarkable when you consider periods of anxiety as a teenager left her … Continue reading "Drums, Depression and a Dog, with Kristina Schiano"

As Shannon read the driving direction, she fell asleep again. This wasn’t the first time, in fact, she’d done it after every direction. Her inability to stay awake had become a problem, and she decided to finally see a doctor. The doctor informed her she has narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a rare neurological condition that disrupts … Continue reading "When A Good Night’s Sleep Isn’t Enough – Narcolepsy At Work"

Max was 20, in an unfamiliar neighborhood in Paris, thousands of miles from home, desperately unhappy and in tears. Depression can take a grip on anyone, at any time. Imagine being a 20 year old student, doing an internship in a foreign country that involves calling hairdressers all day and asking them how much a … Continue reading "Purgatory in Paris – The Road To A Mental Health ERG"