Welcome to episode 198 with my guest Samantha C. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace,

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website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off, visit squarespace.com

and enter the offer code mental at checkout. Squarespace, a better web, starts with your

website. I'm Paul Gilmarten. This is the Metal Illness Happy Hour. Honesty about all the

battles in our heads from medically diagnosed conditions, past traumas, sexual dysfunction

to everyday compulsive negative thinking. The show's not meant to be a substitute for professional

metal counseling. It's not a doctor's office. I'm not a therapist. It's more like a waiting

room that doesn't suck. The website for this show is mentalpod.com. Go there, check it

out. You can post in the forum. You can read blogs. You can take surveys that describe

your inner life and your life and stuff that's happened to you. You can also read other

people's responses to the surveys. You can scroll through their thousands and thousands

of responses there that are fascinating in those of you that listen to the show regularly.

Know how fascinating they are because I read them on the show. Bless you, Ivy. Is the microphone

too loud? I can't tell if the microphone... I'm still... Let me turn it down just a little

bit. I'm kind of transitioning between my old equipment and my new equipment and very,

very concerned that the sound quality is not going to be up to snuff. This is from the

struggle in the sentence survey. This is filled out by Ashley. She writes about her anxiety.

The outside world is too big, but my house is too small about her bulimia. I'm always

hopeful that this time I will feel better afterwards, but I never do. About her anorexia, the

only kind of empty that makes me feel full. That one is profound. About her trick to

telemania. If I pull out the right hair, I will be calmer and happier. About being a sex

...