Living with Depression with Dr. Scott Eilers

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Forrest is joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Scott Eilers to explore how he both treats and lives with chronic depression. They discuss anhedonia, the catch-22 of treatment resistance, how to build new practices when it’s the last thing you want to do, acceptance, and how a values-based approach can help someone move forward even when they’re feeling stuck. The conversation touches on some of the existential aspects of depression, the therapeutic relationship, and finding some humor along the way. About Our Guest: Dr. Scott Eilers is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, and mental health coach specializing in severe, treatment-resistant mood and anxiety disorders. He is the author of For When Everything Is Burning and hosts the podcast The Psychology of Depression and Anxiety. You can watch this episode on YouTube. Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 1:25: Scott’s personal experience of depression 5:45: Distinguishing sadness from depression, and depression vs. a depressing life 9:25: Choosing action, and emotional budgeting 19:10: Symptoms as obstacles, and when to establish new practices 24:45: Navigating emotional numbness, and creating rewarding experiences 31:30: Loneliness, and the struggle to be witnessed 37:45: Accepting how things are, and aiming for better instead of perfect 48:35: AI therapy 54:30: Finding out who you are and what you care about 59:15: Humor, sarcasm, and snarkiness 1:02:50: Recap Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Head to acornsearly.com/beingwell or download the Acorns Early app to help your kids grow their money skills today. Get Notion Mail for free right now at notion.com/beingwell, and try the inbox that thinks like you For a limited time, get Headspace FREE for 60 days. Go to Headspace.com/BEINGWELL60. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell. Go to ZOE.com and find out what ZOE Membership could do for you. Use code WELL10 to get 10% off membership. Go to Zocdoc.com/BEING to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Being Well, I'm Forrest Hansen.
0:10.0	If you're new to the podcast, thanks for joining us today, and if you've listened before, welcome back.
0:14.0	About one in five people will experience at least one major depressive episode in their lives.
0:20.0	That number comes from the World Health Organization, and personally, I think the real number is probably a lot higher
0:25.1	than that. There are so many people who might not meet all of the formal diagnostic criteria
0:30.1	for a diagnosis like depression, but they still regularly feel sad, lost, disconnected from
0:35.1	others, and generally like they're moving through life with a lead
0:39.0	weight wrapped around their ankle.
0:40.8	Today I'm joined by a clinical psychologist who's described their life as a 40-year case
0:44.6	study for figuring out what helps somebody with depression and anxiety, Dr. Scott Eilers.
0:50.0	Dr. Eilers is a practicing psychologist and coach.
0:52.7	He has a very popular YouTube channel and
0:54.6	podcast and he's the author of the book for When Everything is Burning. So Scott, thanks for
0:59.4	joining me today. How are you doing? I'm good for us. Thank you so much for having me. I realize
1:03.3	there's one thing that's a little bit out of date. It is now a 41 year case study. I've had a birthday. A 41 year. I was like, oh, I know I nailed this intro, but it's a 41.
1:11.7	No, that's my fault. Congratulations on the birthday. Happy birthday, Scott. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's actually,
1:15.8	I'm actually close to 42 now, but who's counting, right? And I try not to. Every time I count, I get
1:22.6	slightly more depressed, so I try to avoid it. But as somebody who has a really direct relationship with this
1:29.6	topic, I just want to start by asking you, what does depression feel like? And how did you know
1:34.3	that you were depressed? Those are both excellent questions. I'm going to give a caveat. I'm going to
1:39.2	describe my own experiences because what I've learned in my clinical work is it doesn't necessarily
1:43.4	feel the same for every person.
	...

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