Matt B. Davis: Mental Health and the Magic of Running -R4R 079
The Running for Real Podcast
Tina Muir
4.7 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 September 2018
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matt B. Davis is widely known in the Obstacle Course racing world and is the founder and face of Obstacle Racing Media and is also the podcast host. Matt is also race director for numerous Obstacle Course races.
Matt has an incredible sense of humor and there is a lot of laughter in this episode. But this episode is about a serious topic that is not talked about often enough, depression, especially bipolar disease. Matt shows incredible bravery in telling his story and this is an important discussion for all of us to participate in so we can learn and be available to help others in our lives when they are ready for taking the step to get help.
Today’s Guest
Matt B. Davis, former stand-up-comic, Journalist, and Obstacle Course racer is the co-founder, face and voice of Obstacle Racing Media. He is also the podcast host of the Atlanta Podcast and of Tough Mudder Facebook Live. He and His wife and 3 kids live in Atlanta.
What you will learn about:
- Why Matt thinks you should try an obstacle race and how you never regret trying something new
- How Matt discovered in December 2016 that he suffered from bipolar disease when he went into a severe depression after a manic episode. He made comments on his podcasts and Facebook about how he was suffering and was amazed at the overwhelming support he got from his listeners.
- Depression gives you the sense that you have been let into a secret, and the secret is life is meaningless.
- Running would allow him to shut off his brain a little bit, but most of the time he was still feeling that it was useless.
- He got help by attending an outpatient program, reluctantly, at the time attending group therapy sessions.
- All you can do is meet the person where they are at, and offer to give them whatever help they are ready to accept. Let them know you are available for them in whatever they need.
- Things to recognize if a friend is headed down the path of depression: lacking in communication/avoiding communication; if they stop taking medications is a big one.
- Yoga and meditation, gratitude lists are all helpful in dealing with depression. Get your friends to participate in a Gratitude List circle as it can give you even more insight. Send your gratitude lists to your friends.
Inspirational Quotes:
All you can do to help someone is to meet them where they are; if they are not ready for help there is little you can do to push them toward change.
Running absolutely helped me and I don’t know that I would be here without it.
We all need that one person in our life we can confide in and share with, and it is probably best if it is not your spouse.
Resources:
Last week's episode with Eric Schranz
Running for Real Superstars Community
Support Tina through her Patreon Page
Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat
The book SuperBetter
Thank you to Aaptiv and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.
Thanks to Aaptiv for supporting the podcast. New members get 30% off annual membership at http://www.aaptiv.com/running4real
Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Joy shared is joy multiplied, pain shared is pain divided. When you sit in a room and talk to other people and get all your stuff out, it tends to make it dissipate. |
| 0:17.0 | This is Running for Real, the podcast for runners who know that for every runner's |
| 0:22.0 | high, there are just as many lows |
| 0:24.4 | all those just missed PRs easy runs that feel hard injury blues and more |
| 0:29.8 | each week we'll talk to running, health, and wellness experts about their highs, lows, |
| 0:35.3 | and best advice to build our confidence. |
| 0:38.3 | Running for real is about being honest, being brave, and most of all all not feeling alone. |
| 0:45.0 | And now here's our host who will not buy no fat ice cream. |
| 0:50.0 | Tina Muir. |
| 0:51.0 | Hello my friends, welcome to episode 79 of the Running for Real Podcast. |
| 0:56.0 | Thank you so much for being here with me today. |
| 0:58.8 | I really appreciate you and I'm excited that you're here with me. Did you join my email newsletter after I talked about it last week with the |
| 1:08.0 | Eric Schranz episode? I send out a weekly email just updating you on the podcast what I wrote about my blog that week |
| 1:15.6 | and then most of the email is actually about a thought for the week what I've been thinking about |
| 1:20.2 | that maybe you have too. Others who have subscribed often ask me how I can read their minds. |
| 1:26.0 | So I get it pretty relevant and I give you a challenge that I expect you to respond to me with, |
| 1:31.0 | yes, really emailing me, and it's going down pretty well I'd love to have |
| 1:35.8 | you be a part of the group and and you can sign up easily by going to TinaMura.com |
| 1:41.5 | forward slash subscriber to hear more. So yes, last week we had |
| 1:45.9 | Eric Schranz on the show. Eric is the host of Ultra Random Podcast and he's |
| 1:50.5 | absolutely one of the go-to sources for media in the mountain, trail and ultra world. |
| 1:56.6 | If you're involved in one of those, you definitely better go back and check it out, |
... |
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