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The Hardcore Self Help Podcast with Duff the Psych

This is a podcast dedicated to answering your questions about mental health, anxiety, depression, relationships, sex, and life WITHOUT psychobabble BS. I am Dr. Robert Duff, a psychologist from Southern California, but I'm also a regular dude who legitimately wants to help out. I wrote the best selling books Hardcore Self Help: F**k Depression and Hardcore Self Help: F**K Anxiety. Those are available at http://hardcoreselfhelp.com
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The Hardcore Self Help Podcast with Duff the Psych
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Now displaying: 2019
Dec 19, 2019

It's been a hell of a year and I think a lot of us could use a breather. In this episode, I take you through a guided meditation to help you get through the holidays, drop your baggage from 2019, and move confidently into 2020. Let's do this.

Dec 12, 2019

You guys seriously have the best questions. In this episode, I answer these three:

  • How can I get my doctors to take me seriously and not blame everything on anxiety?
  • What can I do about my one-sided sexual relationship?
  • How can I catch my strong emotions in the moment.

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!

I have started a Patreon. There are several tiers that you can choose to support my mission to spread mental health content for real people. If you choose not to support, no hard feelings and absolutely nothing will change regarding the free content you get. But if you do choose to help out, there are some amazing bonuses such as...

  • Additional mental health videos
  • Bonus podcast questions
  • An exclusive Duff family podcast
  • ASMR videos
  • Guided relaxations
  • Live streams
  • Birthday shout outs
  • And more...
Dec 5, 2019

This episode is a fantastic interview with master couples therapist, Figs O'Sullivan. We spoke together about many topics related to discord in relationships. Figs believes that many of our issues within relationships come from our deep need for belonging and attachment. Rarely are arguments really about the surface level issue. Once we can admit to being wounded together. We can begin to heal together.

Figs has an app and online course available at empathi.com/go

And if you use the coupon code "hardcore self help" you get 50% off!

 

I also have a couple sales going on. If you use coupon code "anxiousaf" you can get 30% off my ugly holiday sweaters and other designs in the Duff the Psych shop.

You can also get the Kick Anxiety's Ass course for 50% off through the end of the year. Click here or use the coupon code "holidayhalf". 

Nov 21, 2019

Hello, friends! Today we are tackling a single subject. Something that has been requested numerous times by you guys. That subject is impostor syndrome. In this episode, I will talk about what it is, why we tend to have it, and hopefully give you some tips that can make it impact you less. It's been a stressful week, so before we dive in I invite you to take a few breaths with me to help center ourselves.

If want to learn more about me, check out http://duffthepsych.com/starthere

Send me your questions and suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com

 

Today's sponsor is Kencko organic instant smoothies! Check them out at http://kencko.com and use coupon code DUFF for a nice discount!

Nov 14, 2019

We are back again with a new Q&A episode! I'm sure you guys missed these over the past few weeks. A few really great questions in here including:

  • Is my excessive daydreaming bad?
  • What can I do about my boyfriend's mother mistreating him?
  • Why am I so scared to call in sick at work?

As always you can learn more about me by going to duffthepsych.com/starthere and if you have questions or topic suggestions, send them over to duffthepsych@gmail.com.

This week's sponsors are:

Nov 7, 2019

Hello! I am back from vacation and wishing I never left! In all seriousness, I had a great time. But now I'm back with another great episode for you.

This episode is a recording of a live stream that I did on Mxiety's Mixer stream. She interviewed me and we cover a lot of ground. Included in the topics we discuss are:

  • The origin of my professional style
  • Why I think a lot of mental health content is inherently unempathetic
  • Resisting the lies anxiety tells you
  • How I feel about life coaches
  • The "end goal" of CBT treatment
  • Interesting future directions in the field

Mxiety is part of an amazing group of streamers that talk openly about mental health. Please go and support her at the following links:

Her Mixer page.

Her Twitter.

Her website.

Oct 31, 2019

Hello, friends! Happy Halloween! This is a re-release of an episode I did a couple years ago. Humans are amazing creatures, but we also have a dark side. In this episode, I dive into some of the social psychology experiments that help us understand some of the not-so-great sides of humanity. AND I do all of it in a dramatic reading voice with eerie music in the background. Enjoy!

Oct 24, 2019

This is a great interview with rehabilitation neuropsychologist, Meghan Beier, Ph.D. While she focuses mainly on individuals living with multiple sclerosis (M.S.), we cover a lot of topics that are applicable to anyone living with a chronic illness. We discuss the mental health and cognitive impacts of chronic illness as well as navigating issues such as family and finding providers that "get it".

Is there a topic you'd like me to interview someone about or cover on my own? Shoot me an email to duffthepsych@gmail.com

Oct 17, 2019

Hello, friends! There are several episodes of the podcast that I refer back to constantly. Episode 26, where I talk all about sleep is one of those. I talk about it in other podcast episodes, I talk about it with my patients, and I talk about it with people in my daily life. It turns out that at 180 episodes of the podcast so far, episode 26 is kind of hard to find. A lot of podcast players only keep the most recent 100 episodes. So, I'm re-doing it. This is not a re-release of that episode, but a re-recording of it with some new thoughts added in. 

In this episode, I talk about why sleep is important for memory, health, and mental health. From there, I talk about important sleep hygiene tips that will help you get better sleep. If you have any trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, this episode is for you!

If you have questions or topic suggestions, please send them to duffthepsych@gmail.com!

Sponsors for this episode are Creating Better Days CBD products (coupon code SELFHELP) and Warby Parker!

Oct 10, 2019

Hello, friends!

In this episode, I talk to licensed psychotherapist and sex advisor, Alison Leigh. Alison specializes in helping people in relationships overcome barriers to happiness and fulfillment, which often involves looking at the sexual relationship. In this interview, we talk about common barriers to intimacy, the impact of stress on relationships, and some strategies that she uses with her clients to encourage intimate connection. It was a good episode and I hope you enjoy it!

As a reminder, my comprehensive online course to help you take your live back from anxiety is $200 off up until 10/15/19, so act now if you want to take advantage of this offer. Use the coupon code "five" at checkout, or simply follow this link to the course page.

This episode is brought to you by Creating Better Days CBD products. Creating Better Days has a wide range of pure CBD and full-spectrum products to help you with stress, sleep, and pain. They submit each batch of their product to independent lab testing and provide the results to you so you can know exactly what you're getting. For 20% off your first purchase, head to creatingbetterdays.com and use the coupon code SELFHELP.

Oct 3, 2019

Hello, everyone! Happy to bring you another great question and answer episode today. Before that a quick announcement.

October is my birth month and this year marks 5 years since starting the Duff the Psych brand. I'm so excited to continue this journey with you all and feeling immensely grateful. So all this month, I will be doing giveaways, freebies, discounts, and special events. Follow along on my Facebook page to get notified about all the good stuff coming up!

The first exciting announcement for this month is that I will be temporarily providing a $200 discount on my Kick Anxiety's Ass online course until October 15th. That means that you can get the entire 10-module course for just $100, which is honestly an insane value. Use the coupon code "five" or follow this link to check it out!

Anyway, here are the questions I answer in this episode:

  • I feel like my issues are not bad enough for therapy and I should just suck it up. What can I do to start getting over it?
  • How can I help my severe anxiety and nausea that starts in the early morning?
  • My friend's boyfriend has depression and has become distant. What should she do?

This episode is brought to you by MycoMeditations Psilocybin-Assisted Retreats! Check out more about their amazing 7-day retreats in Jamaica, which are fully legal and exceptionally well-reviewed!

As always, you can send me your questions and topic suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com

Sep 26, 2019

This episode features an interview with Jen Lumanlan from Your Parenting Mojo. In her own words, "I don’t have much in the way of parenting instinct but I make up for it with outstanding research skills." Interestingly, by way of analyzing the research on parenting and starting her own podcast, she has been able to develop a true intuition and ease for parenting. Jen has a blog and podcast called Your Parenting Mojo that looks to the research to answer questions like "How do you parent a highly sensitive child" or "How do you use non-violent communication with kids?"

This episode is an interesting one because we actually dive deep into problem solving some issues I was having with my own kids at the time. I actually held off on releasing this for a while because I felt like I may have been a bit defensive or negative. Jen was awesome though. Funny enough, the issues that we talked about are largely non-issues now just a couple months later. Kids amirite?

Some links:

First off, go check out Jen at https://yourparentingmojo.com/

She also talked a bit at self-determination, which you can learn more about at http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/

Finally, she referred to Parentifact, which you can see here: https://www.parentifact.org/

 

Next week should be another Q&A, so if you have questions for me, please send them to duffthepsych@gmail.com or head over the duffthepsych.com and see the contact page.

Sep 19, 2019

Hello, friends! In this episode podcast, I do a little Q&A with some really awesome questions. For one reason or another, I also felt a little silly so have fun with my rambles and random laughter. Here are the questions that I cover:

  • How can I make gaming a healthy part of my life and not let it interfere with more important things?
  • What does it mean to "process" trauma?
  • What can I do about my postpartum social anxiety?

As always, you can check out the full show notes at duffthepsych.com/episode176 and you can learn more about me at duffthepsych.com/starthere. If you have questions, send them over to duffthepsych@gmail.com.

This episode of the Hardcore Self Help Podcast is sponsored by MycoMeditations Psilocybin-Assisted Retreats. MycoMeditations provides a legal means of experiencing the transformative and healing properties of the psilocybin mushroom. They provide 7-day retreats in Jamaica that involve guided psilocybin treatments, group processing, massage, accommodations, and authentic Jamaican cuisine. Learn all about MycoMeditations at their website or on episode 171 of the podcast, where I interview their founder.

Sep 12, 2019

This was a fantastic interview with public health psychologist, Dr. Perry Halkitis. We talk about disparities in health and mental health treatment for LGBTQ individuals and how they have changed over the years. He also shares some information about his own unique personal and career path.

Unfortunately, my side of the audio is a little blown out, but Dr. Halkitis sounds great and I think that his message was too good to not share with you all. I think it's well worth a listen. 

Full episode show notes are available at http://duffthepsych.com/episode175

Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by MycoMeditations Psilocybin-Assisted Retreats. They provide legal 7-day retreats in Jamaica that use the psychedelic psilocybin compound to help you work through significant mental health issues. For more information about MycoMeditations, check out their website or listen to episode 171 of the podcast where I interview their founder. 

Sep 5, 2019

This is a really great question and answer episode. If you hear some crickets chirping in the background, that is because it's hot as balls outside, even at 11pm and there was no way I was about to record with the window closed. Here are the questions that I cover:

  • How can I address my anxiety about driving on the highway?
  • What do I do about my husband's overly affectionate mother?
  • How can I prevent burnout as a mental health professional?

As always you can send me your questions to duffthepsych@gmail.com and full show notes are available at duffthepsych.com/episode174

This episode is brought to you by Better Help and Warby Parker

Aug 29, 2019

This week I have an incredible and inspiring interview with Tiffany Jenkins. Tiffany is a wife, mother, author, content creator and a recovering addict, she’s the face behind Juggling the Jenkins and author of “High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addicts Double Life”.

She described this episode as a free therapy session, which I take as a compliment. I think you will really enjoy this interview.

Full show notes available at duffthepsych.com/episode173

If you'd like to learn more about me, check out duffthepsych.com/starthere

Next week should be a Q&A, so please send your questions and topic suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com

Aug 22, 2019

Hello, friends! This is an awesome Q&A episode where I take three great listener questions and try my best to offer some helpful advice. Here are the topics covered:

  • Do you NEED to recall trauma in order to move past it?
  • Why would my therapist want me to bring my mom into session?
  • How can I move past the ghost of my past affair?

As always, you can send me your questions or suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com and full show notes are available at duffthepsych.com/episode172

This episode was brought to you by MycoMeditations Psilocybin-Assisted Retreats and BetterHelp!

Aug 15, 2019
This is a special episode. I was approached by a company called MycoMeditations that wanted to sponsor the podcast. They actually were very persistent and approached me a few times about it because they were really interested in the opportunity to speak with you all. MycoMeditations is a company that hosts retreats in Jamaica that use the psilocybin mushroom, also known as the magic mushroom. It's an often misunderstood substance that research has shown to be an effective way to reduce the impact of treatment resistant mental illness such as depression and anxiety. 
 
Since this is a topic that is somewhat sensitive (psilocybin is not legal in the US), I wanted to do things a little differently. Rather than just running a short ad, I wanted to have the opportunity to dive deep and fully explore the issue. So this is a sponsored episode. MycoMeditations did pay for this interview spot, but I am approaching it just like all of the other interviews that I do on the show so that you can be appropriately informed and make your own decisions. 
 
My guest for this episode is Eric Osborne, who is the founder and head facilitator of MycoMeditations. He has a very interesting background in that he is a wild mushroom expert and mycologist. This enables him to approach things from a very unique angle, which you will hear in the episode. Rather than administering the mushroom in it's raw form, he uses a process to make measured capsules of it to have better control of the dosage. 
 
I really hope that you enjoy this episode. It was very interesting for me. Please have a look at the full show notes at duffthepsych.com/episode171 and reach out to Eric if you have any questions after listening!
 
Check out MycoMeditations at their website to learn more!
Aug 8, 2019

Hello, friends! In this Q&A episode, I take three awesome questions that listeners sent in and try my best to give some helpful advice. These cover a range of topics including health anxiety, PTSD in literature, and coping with a sexless marriage.

As always you can send me your questions to duffthepsych@gmail.com and full show notes are available at duffthepsych.com/episode170

Aug 4, 2019

This episode is a super interesting interview with psychiatrist Dr. Anna Yusim. She is a practicing psychiatrist from a family of hyper-rational mathematicians. She was never spiritual or religious. However, about 10 years ago, she started to experience things that she could not explain and began to develop an interest in the intersection between spirituality and psychiatry. If you know me, this is not in line with my view of things, so I thought it would be super interesting to have this interview with someone who sees things from a different perspective. 

Full show notes are available at duffthepsych.com/episode169 and please continue sending your questions and topic suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com

Jul 25, 2019

Hey, everyone!

This episode is missing some of the normal bells and whistles that you are used to. No intro music. No disclaimers or fancy editing. I am currently out of town and my remote desktop failed me, so I don't have access to my normal episode template.

In this episode, I take one really good listener question about whether it's strange to feel upset about their counselor dying and what they can do about comparing future counselors to their last one, since it was a good experience for them.

As always, you can send your questions and topic suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com and find the full show notes at http://duffthepsych.com/episode168

 

Jul 18, 2019

This is a fantastic interview with Dr. Laura Copley, a trauma specialist, who focuses on posttraumatic growth and resilience. We go through many important facts and misconceptions about trauma. We talk about the difference between resilience and posttraumatic growth. We even dive into a couple exercises that people currently contenting with trauma reactions can use to start living life on their terms.

If you have questions or topic suggestions, please send them over to me at duffthepsych@gmail.com!

Jul 11, 2019

Hello, friends!

This is a Q&A episode in which I tackle the following:

  • When is it time to move on from my boyfriend that just recently broke up with me so that I can "find myself"?
  • What advice do you have for someone that is pregnant with an eating disorder?
  • How long will it take for therapy to help with my borderline personality disorder?

As always, you can send me questions and topic suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com

Full show notes also available at duffthepsych.com/episode166

 

Jul 4, 2019

This is a really nice interview with psychiatrist Suvrat Bhargave. We talk about lessons that he has learned in his practice including how to let go of shame and why you don't need to hit rock bottom to have important moments of insight. He is very personable and cares about meeting people where they are at rather than speaking in jargon and working hard to seem like the expert. He challenges the stereotype that psychiatrists are unapproachable and only want to focus on medication management.

Full episode notes available at http://duffthepsych.com/episode165

Next week is another Q&A episode, so send your questions or topic suggestions to duffthepsych@gmail.com

Jun 27, 2019

Hey, all! On the last episode, I had my wife on to answer your relationship communications. We got SO many awesome questions that I wanted to tackle some more on the podcast today. This is a solo Q&A episode and I take questions directly from the private Hardcore Self Help Facebook group. Here are the questions I address:

  • What can I do about my family that doesn't understand my anxiety?
  • How can I tell the difference between reinforcing boundaries and being manipulative in my relationship?
  • I'm about to move and I'm freaking out. What can I do?

Full show notes are available at http://duffthepsych.com/episode164 and if you'd like to send in a question, shoot me an email at duffthepsych@gmail.com

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