Mental Health: Hope and Recovery

Nov 26 2024 48 ep. 55 mins 68
Mental Health: Hope and Recovery Podcast artwork

Helen Sneed and Valerie Milburn have both fought and overcome severe, chronic mental illnesses, and offer an insider’s approach to mental health. They share inspirational true stories and a host of recovery skills. Episodes examine conditions such as depression, anxiety, substance use and eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, and other major illnesses. You’ll learn about treatment options, coping skills, goal setting, relationships, and mindfulness. Helen and Valerie are your peers. They are not a substitute for qualified counseling or other mental health resources. They are not professionals, but they are experts through their own lived experience with multiple mental health conditions. Please join them on their journey.

  Health & Fitness  Education
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The Family Dynamics of Psychiatric Crisis—Part Two: Caregivers Talk Turkey to Caregivers

Nov 26 2024 59 mins  
In Part Two of the series Family Dynamics in a Psychiatric Crisis, Valerie and Helen have a frank, candid conversation with Valerie’s sister and husband, who were the principal caregivers during her severe mental illnesses and behaviors. The result is Caregivers Talk Turkey to Caregivers, where they explain the knowledge, relationships, coping skills, and self-care that allowed

The Family Dynamics of a Psychiatric Crisis--Part One: Personal Perspectives from a Sibling and a Spouse

Oct 29 2024 59 mins  
When a family member faces a mental health challenge, family relationships can become formidable and problematic, while being loving and supportive, as well. The complicated nature of these relationships has launched Helen and Valerie on a five-episode series – The Family Dynamics of a Psychiatric Crisis. Their goal is to define and demystify the impact of mental illness on the

OCD: The Reality, the Research, the Recovery—Part Two

Sep 23 2024 61 mins  
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is so vast and perplexing, Valerie and Helen devoted two episodes to OCD. They discovered a complex and harrowing mental illness often trivialized and misunderstood by those who don’t have it. To legitimize the severity of the disorder, they turned to the experts. In Part Two, their searching questions are answered by a seasoned OCD professional, Dr.

OCD: The Reality, The Research, The Recovery -- Part One

Aug 29 2024 47 mins  
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD, is an illness many people trivialize because they don’t understand it. OCD proved to be a condition so vast and complex that Valerie and Helen divided it into two episodes. In this first episode, they explore the components of OCD: diagnosis, causes, symptoms, treatment, and hope for recovery. To fully enlighten listeners, there is the firsth

Overcoming My Eating Disorder: One Woman's Story

Jul 24 2024 53 mins  
Eating disorders are pernicious and powerful, with dangerous symptoms and sometimes lethal consequences. However, researchers and scientists are developing effective methods to treat them. Valerie and Helen share some of the most recent breakthroughs in eating disorders treatment. Though these disorders are damaging and destructive, a life in recovery with an eating disorder is pos

The Healing Power of Animals and Pets

Jun 29 2024 71 mins  
The Healing Power of Animals and Pets is a revelation and celebration for Helen, Valerie and listeners everywhere. The positive impact of animals on people with mental health challenges is as uplifting as it is irrefutable. Science shows that the closeness and touch of a pet can stimulate mood-enhancing hormones in the brain; help with emotional regulation; ward off depression and

It’s More than a Job: The Role of Work in Mental Health Recovery

May 31 2024 53 mins  
In this important episode, Valerie and Helen explore the subject of work and its critical role in recovery. For people with a mental health condition, work is a weighty challenge that can evoke anxiety and fear, hopes and dreams. Given their extensive backgrounds in the workplace, both successes and the inability to have a job due to acute mental illnesses, Helen and Valerie unders

Thriving in Mental Health Recovery

Apr 30 2024 60 mins  
In this episode, Valerie and Helen pursue the holy grail of recovery—thriving in the aftermath of mental illness. For centuries, the ability to thrive would seem almost inconceivable, as traditional treatments focused on the cessation of symptoms and basic survival. But recent studies prove that thriving is possible, even for those who’ve suffered from severe, long-term illness

Loneliness Part Two: Pathways to Connection

Mar 25 2024 47 mins  
Loneliness has been declared the new American epidemic by the U.S. Surgeon General. Its destructive impact on an individual life and on society as a whole was explored in the previous episode. Nowhere is loneliness more debilitating and dangerous than for those with mental health challenges. In this second part, Valerie and Helen provide multiple methods for overcoming loneliness

Loneliness: The New American Epidemic

Feb 16 2024 48 mins  
In May 2023, the US Surgeon General declared loneliness a national epidemic. Greater than one in two adult Americans report being lonely. Given the damaging and sometimes lethal impact that loneliness can have on mental health, Valerie and Helen take listeners into the deep-rooted causes and destructive consequences of loneliness within the individual and society. Rampant lonelines