Coping mechanism? Or crutch??

It’s here people. Finally, a new episode of the Big Feels podcast! 

What???

That’s right. Get our mellifluous tones in your earholes once again. 

This time with special guest Gareth Edwards, who you may remember from his appearances at Big Feels events in Melbourne and Sydney last year, or from when we profiled his book, The Procrastinator’s Guide to Killing Yourself. 

In this ep, Gareth, Honor and moi take questions from Big Feelers, including:

Q1. How do you know the difference between a useful coping mechanism and a crutch?

Q2. Is the fact I get depressed even when my life is so privileged just another sign of how privileged I am?

Juicy stuff!

We shared this one with the Patreon late last year and they told us it was a goodie. 

(Plus, more where that came from in the pipeline. Watch this space.)

Click that big pink button to launch in Apple Podcasts, or search ‘Big Feels Club’ in your podcast player, and hit subscribe.

A big ol' thank you to you

Last issue I bared my soul even more than usual here. 

Before posting that piece about big feels and altered states, I was nervous in a way I hadn’t been about Big Feels stuff in a while. 

It’s one thing to talk about anxiety and doom town feelings. Somehow it felt like another thing again to talk about some of the stranger places our brains can take us, unbidden.

So thank you for your incredible responses.

I expected a handful of you to do the survey. I was not prepared for a) how many of you have similar experiences to mine (or your own ‘out there’ stuff) and b) how generously you’d share that with me. 

I felt incredibly nourished reading through the responses, the gentle suggestions, the statements of tentative solidarity.

Hell yes to shared range, people!

Since that issue, I've been feeling a lot more grounded, and reading through your responses was an important part of that process. A reminder that, even the more exotic things our brains can do are still very much part of the human experience.

What next?

As always, I’m left thinking: if only you all could see what everyone else wrote. Some of you are right at the beginning of the ‘what the hell is this and how do I survive it?’ part of the trip. Others have been dealing with altered states for years, and have all sorts of fascinating ways of making sense of those experiences.

There are some strong recurring themes, including how many of you have felt completely alone in these experiences.

So we’ll be making something to follow this up. Potentially another podcast, with Gareth, my altered states shepherd. And possibly more newsletter content on it too. As always, watch the newsletter to find out.