For the final day of Pride Month, we're chatting with two wonderful queer humans: Ali Naimo and Maia Fattahi, the co-founders of Hard Quirk, a nonprofit for OCD advocacy and support.

Have you ever made a joke about how you're "so OCD," because you like organizing your bookshelf? Yeah, that's not exactly what it's like to live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And you're not alone - many mental health professionals don't even understand exactly with OCD is and how it shows up. In this episode, Ali and Maia share their own lived experiences with the disorder, from diagnosis to treatment to leading support groups for others through Hard Quirk.

Media mentioned in this episode:

Don’t Think of a Pink Elephant short film: https://vimeo.com/429895816

Biohaven OCD commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ijVJ8c4_u8

Birdie is the personal safety alarm designed by women, for women. Use promo code CASSIDY for 10% off your Birdie!

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Happy LGBTQIA+ pride month! The month where we celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and living openly and authentically.

It’s also a month to honor and celebrate the progress we’ve made in LGBTQIA+ rights… and to stand up against the anti-LGBTQIA+ hate and laws that have been popping up all over the country. The Human Rights Campaign just officially declared a NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY for LGBTQ+ Americans. That’s the first time they’ve ever made a declaration like that, because now THIS is the worst year on record for anti-LGBTQ+ bill. There have been more than 75 anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law.

I don't want to make this episode all doom and gloom - but it's important to talk about. AND in this episode, we get to celebrate some wonderful humans in the LGBTQIA+ community. People who have graciously come on the pod to share their stories and experiences with mental health. And since identity is very much tied to mental health, they’ve shared stories about coming out, about becoming a drag queen, about queer representation in media, and online harassment…

Clearly, the experience of everyone in the LGBTQ+ community is different, which you’ll hear in these stories.

Here are the wonderful humans we hear from in this episode:
Poison Waters
Megan Mitchell
Lisa Cazes and Alizeé Falque
Lianne Saffer
X. Ari
Logan Lynn
Alayna Joy

Download the HRC's guidebook: https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/LGBTQ-Guidebook-for-Action.pdf

Learn the actual facts about trans people, and combat misinformation: https://www.hrc.org/resources/myths-and-facts-battling-disinformation-about-transgender-rights

Get your .gay domain here: www.godaddy.gay

Birdie is the personal safety alarm designed by women, for women. Use promo code CASSIDY for 10% off your Birdie!

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Ivan Maisel is an award-winning reporter and writer, who has covered college football for nearly four decades, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and now on3.com, where he’s a Senior Writer AND Vice President of Editorial.

8 years ago, Ivan's 21-year-old son Max died by suicide. And what I haven't yet shared on this podcast is the fact that I can really relate - I lost my mom to suicide almost two years ago.

Ivan writes about Max's life, death, the stigma around suicide and men’s mental health, and his discovery that grief is love in his book, I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye: A memoir of loss, grief and love. It’s a beautiful book that made me cry and smile.

I am honored that he took the time to talk with me about all of it - his love for Max, his grief that he continues to honor, and the healing he’s been through and continues to go through. And really, this conversation was healing for me too.

Read Ivan's book: https://bit.ly/ivanmaiselbook
Follow Ivan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ivan_Maisel

Birdie is the personal safety alarm designed by women, for women. Use promo code CASSIDY for 10% off your Birdie!

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

HI. IT'S BEEN A WHILE. In this episode, I open up about my own mental health journey this past year, and what I've been doing when I'm not putting out new episodes. From starting a new job to training as a mindfulness teacher to grieving the loss of my mom... Basically, I have been prioritizing my own mental health and learning to enjoy life without overwhelming myself. So here's your reminder that it's okay to take a step back and take care of yourself, and your mental health should always come first.

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Hiiiiii! Oh gosh, it's been a while. I want to get back to regularly posting episodes in the new year, but in the meantime, I wanted to talk about this - how to keep it mentally together during the holidays. Am I an expert? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But here are the strategies - or REMINDERS - I'm trying to follow, myself, this year, to keep my brain and body feeling better than total crap. Isn't that what we're all trying to do out here??

Wishing you a gentle holiday season, whether you're feeling festive or not. I LOVE YOU AND YOU MATTER AND THE WORLD NEEDS YOU, OK??!?!??

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

On July 16th, there's officially a new number to call (or TEXT!!) when you or a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis. 988 - it’s like 911, but for anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts or substance abuse or any other type of mental health crisis. When you call 988, you’ll reach a real human, who is trained to provide support and connect you with the help you need.

Dr. Margie Balfour is a psychiatrist and the Chief of Quality and Clinical Innovation at Connections Health Solutions in Phoenix, Arizona. She has been working hard to advocate for this number and fight for implementation of 988.

I loved talking to her about what this new number means for us and how we can use it, the warning signs we can look for in ourselves and our loved ones who are struggling, and what she sees as the future of mental health care.

988 is a huge step, but there’s still so much more to be done. The 988 Implementation Act was introduced in Congress in March of 2022, but has not been passed yet. The goal is that when someone is in crisis, they have someone to call, someone to come, and somewhere to go if it’s needed. Of course, there is money needed to make people available to call, to show up, and to fund the places they might go. So the bill would provide federal funding and guidance for states to actually implement their 988 and crisis systems, including requiring all health insurance plants to cover crisis services, implementing a national suicide prevention awareness campaign, and providing funding for community-based crisis response centers.

Read about the 988 Implementation Act: https://bit.ly/988implementation

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Happy LGBTQIA+ pride month! The month where we celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and living openly and authentically.

It’s also a month to honor and celebrate the progress we’ve made in LGBTQIA+ rights… which ummm… sometimes it doesn’t feel like as much progress as it should??! If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, there have been more attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community - different states have been passing bills taking away LGBTQ+ rights, people have been attacking drag shows and trans people and other pride events… It’s all really upsetting. And that’s putting it lightly because I’m not putting this episode out to make you MORE upset about the state of the world… We’re all already feeling it this week, huh??

Instead, this episode is to celebrate some wonderful humans in the LGBTQIA+ community. People who have graciously come on the pod to share their stories and experiences with mental health. And since identity is very much tied to mental health, they’ve shared stories about coming out, about becoming a drag queen, about queer representation in media, and online harassment…

Clearly, the experience of everyone in the LGBTQ+ community is different, which you’ll hear in these stories. Some will talk about their amazingly positive experience coming out… while others had a much more negative experience. And some of these wonderful humans enjoy picking a label, and some that don’t identify with any particular one.

Here are the wonderful humans we hear from in this episode:
Poison Waters
Megan Mitchell
Lisa Cazes and Alizeé Falque
Lianne Saffer
X. Ari
Logan Lynn
Alayna Joy

Get your .gay domain here: www.godaddy.gay

Try Pride Counseling: bit.ly/mentallytogetherpride

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

If you want to skip the intro and get straight to the meditation, skip to 2:55 in this episode.

If you’ve never meditated before, don’t worry, this isn’t about getting rid of all your thoughts or feeling at total peace with everything, and you don’t even have to sit still.

The meditation I’m going to lead you through today can actually be done walking around outside if you want. Because meditating in nature can be really wonderful!

In this meditation, we're going to focus in on each of our 5 senses - touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. If I’m really getting curious about what I’m seeing or smelling or hearing in any present moment, it’s a little easier for my brain to not get stuck going down a whole rabbit hole of anxious thoughts.

You can go outside for this one, sit or lay down in your backyard, walk down the street, walk around a park nearby, or you can do it inside, sitting on the floor or a cushion or a chair, laying down. Whatever feels good and accessible to you today - there really is no right or wrong way to do this.

So sit or lay down, or walk outside - and let's meditate together!

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Mentally Together is a creation from Cassidy Quinn in collaboration with Coba.fm.

Support the Show.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together