I’ve been on lithium for 16 years. For the past two years my hands quiver and my body noticeably shakes. My tremor was subtle at first, but now it can be impossible to hide. This episode is about how a drug that is helping my mood stay stable also makes my body feel out of control.

Lithium is now believed to be the best—even the gold standard of medication—for bipolar disorder, and it has been a good drug for me, keeping depression and mania at bay. Tremor is a known side effect, and my hands shake fast like hummingbirds.

Today, public interactions can make my entire body shake, which is unlike my younger self. This episode is about identity and grief, and how a body can quietly announce mental illness to the world. Sometimes the dark side of a medication isn’t headline-worthy. Sometimes it’s private, daily, and challenges who we believe ourselves to be.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

In Part 2, Tracy Otsuka digs into ADHD with candor and science, pulling apart the “disorder” narrative and replacing it with a focus on strengths, interests and purpose.

We also walk the tightrope between ADHD and bipolar disorder where misdiagnoses often happen in college. Racing thoughts, impulsivity, and sleepless nights can mimic hypomania, but context matters: dorm food, lost structure, no movement, and constant stress create a similar picture of poor mental health. Tracy asks why isn’t a full biopsychosocial lens—sleep, exercise, nutrition, social connection, purpose—considered when diagnosing young women struggling with their mental health?

If your mornings start with negative self-talk like “Who doesn’t like me?” or “Who did I upset?” you’re not alone—and you’re not stuck—you may be experiencing rejection sensitive dysphoria. We talk through neuroplasticity, and the questions and old stories we tell ourselves and the power of “slow dopamine.” Tracy shares how mindfulness and a healthy daily routine solves 75% of the ADHD equation and how removing friction turns workouts into medication-grade focus without side effects and, again, neuroplasticity is the key.

The final takeaway is a compass you can use for the new year: follow your internal rudder. Positive emotion signals alignment; negative emotion signals a course correction. You’re the best expert on you. If this conversation resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs a lift, and leave a review so others can find us. Your story might be the evidence someone else needs to hear.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

What if your productivity no longer defines you? That question anchors a candid conversation with Tracy Otsuka—host of the ADHD for Smart Ass Women podcast and author of the best-selling book ADHD for Smart Ass Women: How to Fall in Love with Your Neurodivergent Brain.

We talk about how midlife hormones collide with ADHD traits and force us to reshape identity. As estrogen fluctuates through perimenopause and menopause, dopamine signaling gets shakier, and the classic ADHD pain points—working memory, sequencing, and emotional regulation—can suddenly intensify. Tracy explains why even high-achieving women can feel their confidence slip, how a “brain of interest” thrives only in the right environment, and why she reframes ADHD as an identity issue rather than a productivity flaw.

Tracy also shares the personal story that changed everything: her son’s diagnosis, the schools that missed his brilliance, and the decision to build spaces where curiosity is an asset, not a problem. From bold career pivots to building an approach that maps values, strengths, and passions into a clear purpose “sweet spot,” she shows how alignment restores executive function and self-trust. Along the way, we challenge disorder-first narratives, hold space for the seriousness of suicide risk and depression, and return to hope as a skill—tested through small actions, anchored by purpose, and protected by boundaries.

If you’re navigating midlife, exploring ADHD traits, or simply craving a more truthful way to measure your days, this conversation offers both science and strategy. If it resonates, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and subscribe to support more honest, hopeful stories.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

Do you find yourself stressed and anxious when it comes to giving holiday gifts? Have you lost the joy of the experience?

We sit down with financial wellness expert Crystal Flores to learn ways to stop the anxiety and disconnection of gift giving. Cyrstal explains how she gives gifts based on her values: thrift, creativity, connection, and environmental stewardship. When your values lead, the pressure fades and gifts start to feel like gestures of care rather than tests you can fail.
We start where stress often spikes: the workplace. Crystal shares how leaders can normalize no-gift policies. Crystal also offers a clear script for holiday bonuses or tips when money is tight, separating appreciation from price and protecting your financial health with honest, kind language. When giving obligatory hostess gifts, she offers respectful, low-friction choices like homemade granola and ethical treats, including fair-labor chocolate that tastes amazing (Tony's Chocolonely).
Crystal gets specific and suggests that for single parents and families, acts of service beat stuff: car detailing swaps, dinner drop-offs, laundry runs, and babysitting hours. For kids and tweens, she emphasizes how kids love volume when it comes to gifts.We also tackle the emotional side—anxiety, perfectionism, and rejection-sensitive dysphoria. If someone expects expensive items, Crystal shows you how to set boundaries early with a loving family note.
Leave the pressure, keep the joy, and make gift giving personal again. Discover your own core values and keep this process fun!

Gift of Granola

The original recipe came from Mark Bittman's cookbook "How to Cook Everything," but I've been making this for so long I've made it my own, and I don't remember his original instructions.

You'll need 2 big baking dishes. I use a Pyrex glass baking dishes. If you want to do one smaller batch, then halve everything.

Fill the dishes with:

4 cups rolled oats (not instant...too small)

2 handfuls shredded coconut (optional, but we love it)

2 handfuls of 3 kinds of chopped nuts (whatever you have on hand..so 6 handfuls total)

lots of cinnamon

a little salt

drizzle the whole thing lightly with honey or agave syrup (optional)

Stir everything together

Preheat oven to 350

Bake for 17 minutes (you could 15 or 20...whatever works for your particular oven...17 works just right in mine with two baking trays of this stuff), pull it out, stir it around, and put it back for another 17 minutes. You just want to get everything toasted to get a crunchy texture.

Pull it out, let it cool. Add raisins or other dried fruit if you want.

Works well by itself, as a homemade cereal with milk, as a topping for yogurt or ice cream... whatever

Homemade Dog Cookies (20 minutes)

1 15oz can pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling

2 eggs

3 tablespoons (or more, if you like) natural peanut butter, make sure peanuts and salt are only ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour (you could use regular flour). I just only have whole wheat in my pantry, so that's what I used.

Preheat oven to 350

Mix ingredients. It should have the consistency of cupcake icing. If it needs to be thicker, add more flour. If you need to thin it, add some water.

Form 1-inch rounds on parchment paper and put them into preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.

Allow to cool thoroughly before giving these.

Finished cookie rounds should have the consistency of a thick cake.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

Join me for a behind the scenes look at my private bedtime medication routine, in which I fight through intrusive thoughts and fears before falling asleep. For me it's a battle with Seroquel and the strange paradox where it stirs up my mind before putting me to sleep.

I talk through what insomnia means for mania risk, why psychosis feels closer in the dark, and how intrusive, even spiritual, panic can crash in before sedation takes hold. We get practical about my 9:15 wind-down, how to read early signs that a backup will be needed, and what the morning after costs in focus, mood, and energy. You’ll hear the honest math of “best available” choices: antihistamines that fog the next day, benzodiazepines that demand caution, and Seroquel, an antipsychotic that delivers sleep but can open the door to racing, violent thoughts on the way there.

If you’ve ever faced the 3 AM question of how long you can keep doing this, you’ll find language and tools for that hour, and a reminder that morning usually brings a different view.

If this resonates, share the episode with someone who needs it, subscribe for more real talk on living with bipolar disorder, and leave a review with your own sleep strategies so others can learn from you.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

What if you stopped measuring your worth by output and started honoring your reality? Today I sit down with Dr. Portia Preston, public health scholar and professor on the front lines of inclusive wellness, and the author of Hustle, Flow, or Let It Go—to explore a humane, shame-free approach to mental health and daily life. After a sudden kidney disease diagnosis and late ADHD/autism diagnoses, Portia rebuilt her framework for thriving. She learned to look at her energy as fluctuating capacity, centering a simple truth: you are worthy because you exist.

What are the costs of tying identity to productivity, especially for those navigating invisible illness and disability? How does race and gender shape mental health experiences for Black women? From masking and misread depression to stigma that delays diagnosis.

Portia breaks down her three-part model: Hustle when survival or your season demands it, Flow to restore joy and resilience, and Let It Go to revise plans, change environments, or release expectations that no longer serve--all why confronting shame.

Portia shares practical tools: five to ten-minute mini-retreats that fit real schedules, and a weekly blueprint that checks in on mind, body, and spirit while setting clear yes's and protective no's. If wellness has felt like another chore, this conversation offers a gentler way to build support, create margins, and live with intention.

If this resonates, share the episode, subscribe for more, and leave a review to help others find the show. Tell us: which lever do you need today—Hustle, Flow, or Let It Go?

How to reach Dr. Portia Jackson Preston: portiapreston.com @drportiapreston
Empowered to Exhale: www.empoweredtoexhale.com portia@empoweredtoexhale.com

Purchase Hustle, Flow, or Let it Go : A Guide to Shame-Free Wellness That Honors Your Reality and Gives You Life

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

Today I sit down with Crystal Flores to trace the line from her father's suicide to her early marriage that led to depression and codependency. Crystal broke free from her picture-perfect, yet miserable marriage, to carve out a new life built on values, clarity, and fiercely practical money care. The reset wasn’t flashy. She moved to a quaint country home, complete with a flock of chickens, and chased non-negotiables like connection, thrift, resourcefulness, creativity, and environmental stewardship,

Crystal defines wealth as more than dollars—emotional, physical, and financial systems working together so you can live your best life. She shares why “enough” must be personal before culture sells you “more,” and how a simple three-wheel model—earn, spend, save—reveals where your ride is wobbling. We keep it tangible: tracking spending as an act of self-compassion, quarterly balance sheets to reduce fear, and friction tactics for impulse buying--particularly important for the bipolar brain.

You’ll walk away from this episode with tools that put money back in its place: a resource that serves your life. Subscribe for more real, raw mental health conversations, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find these stories and skills.

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping

For Bianca, the catalyst of her Borderline Personality Disorder was the cultural pressure of living in a Middle Eastern family that provided the basics in life, but no emotional connection or support. With eldest-daughter expectations, and the heavy silence that comes when a family outsources its pain to one child, Bianca became the out-of-control truth bearer in her family system.
After her tumultuous upbringing that included self-harm, suicidal thinking, and an abusive relationship, Bianca finally found mentors in her life that taught her how to break free from her trauma through intensive therapy. As a therapist, Bianca now brings practitioner-level clarity to the therapies that helped her, including dialectical behavior therapy and a move towards dignity, respect, and choice.
Is BPD destiny or environment? How do cultural narratives around “keeping up appearances” entrench shame? Why do personality disorders draw harsher judgment than mood disorders, and what happens when we reframe symptoms as human experiences with the dial turned up? For Bianca, identity instability isn’t a life sentence; it’s a signal that can be understood, soothed, and redesigned.
If this conversation helps you rethink stigma, see yourself with more softness, or pick up one new skill to use when the storm hits, pass it on. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs proof that intensity can become intention. Your story might be the mirror someone else is missing.

For more on Bianca, please visit:

https://evolveventurestech.com/evolve-ventures-coaching/therapy-2/

https://www.instagram.com/evolvewithbianca/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/evolveventuressociety

https://www.youtube.com/@EvolvewithBianca/videos

https://www.tiktok.com/@evolvewithbianca

Music composed and performed by guitarist, JD Cullum

Edited by Brandon Moran

Sponsored by Soar With Tapping