Okay, hi. Now, before we get started, I wanted you to know that today is day one of the

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model. People contribute, and so we can exist. If people don't join, don't contribute,

we would cease to be. We like existing. We prefer it. Please help us out by going to

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gifts you could be receiving. But for now, on with this week's show.

When my kids were very young, they would sometimes get ear infections. So we had to give them antibiotics.

They didn't want to take that medicine. They found it unpleasant, even though it was good for them

and would do good things. So we tried a little trick. Don't worry, I'm going somewhere with

this. This is a metaphor. It's Depresh Mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here.

So what we would do is take the liquid antibiotic and mix it in with a little strawberry ice cream.

So it just tasted like slightly weird ice cream, but it's still ice cream and

everyone loves ice cream. Medicine got delivered, the infection cleared up, everyone's happy,

and ice cream got eaten. That's kind of what we do on this program, on depressed mode. I'll unpack it.

The ear infection is secrecy around mental health issues,

because if there's more secrecy, more stigma, these things that are bad will fester and get a lot

worse. The antibiotic is open, honest conversation. It's sharing information and sharing stories and sharing vulnerability.

Now, that can be intimidating for a lot of people, and so they're afraid. They're unwilling to talk

about depression or anxiety disorders or trauma or OCD, ADHD eating disorders, or substance

disorders.

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