Welcome to episode 164 with my guest, Natasha L. I'm Paul Gilmarten. This is the metal illness

happy hour. Two hours of honesty about all the battles in our heads were medically diagnosed

conditions past traumas and sexual dysfunction to everyday compulsive negative thinking.

This 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

the show is mentholpod.com. Please go there. Join the forum. There's a gazillion issues you can post

on or read about. You can take surveys. You can read how other people have filled out surveys. You

can support the show. You can read blogs. Or you can sit with your thumb in your ass and stare

at the wall. See how that grabs you. Paul, while you're swinging right out of the gate. Why? Because

I'm scared. Because I'm a scared human being. I'm a scared little boy in a man's world.

What's the name of my first album? This before we get to the interview, I want to read a couple

of surveys. I love me some struggle in the sentence. This is from that survey. This first one is

filled out by a young girl who's between 10 and 15. Her name is peanut and about her depression.

She writes, I feel like I'm a child in the safe end of a pool and I keep swimming to the deep end

and going down in the water to see how far I can go without suffocating.

About her anxiety. They hate me. They hate me and they're lying and I hate me and I can't feel

my face and I can't stop shaking. I just want to give her a hug. About her OCD,

touching things repeatedly, doing everything in fours or tens so I don't have to deal with my past

again. Wow, you sound pretty self-aware, peanut, about your issues. That's a good sign. That's

a really good sign. Hopefully you'll see somebody that can help you. This is same survey filled out

by a woman who calls herself Liz Low. She is under 20s. About her anxiety. Feeling like a crazy

person. I feel like everyone must think I'm making a big deal out of nothing but I can't stop

...