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Train the Brain -- Daily Practices to Disrupt Negative Thoughts and Build Healthier Pathways: Interview with Johnny Crowder | Episode 88

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When it comes to overcoming mental and emotional challenges, we have a problem. In fact, according to Cope Notes we have several:

  1. PROVIDERS: Our mental health providers are often overwhelmed with demand, that accessing services in a timely way can be challenging. Once we find an available provider, we often can’t afford the level of service we need, and, even if we can, we find that many providers are not culturally or linguistically aligned with the people who need the support the most. Medicalization, jargon and pathologizing can keep us in a mindset of “sickness.”

  2. PEOPLE IN NEED: In many instances the process of finding the right services is overwhelming, confusing, and exhausting. This level of perseverance is difficult for people who are functioning well, let alone for people who are feeling hopeless, unseen and unknown. Once people do find their way to support services, they often worry about privacy, judgment, and losing control.

  3. COMMUNITIES: Generally speaking we seem to be focused more on responding to crises than we are on preventing them in the first place. Our approaches, therefore are reactive instead of proactive and big splashes of effort instead of slow drips over time.

In this conversation I speak with the brilliant and inspiring Johnny Crowder. We talk about how we can gain the upper hand on our complex and mysterious brains by short-circuiting negative thoughts. We explore how faith, creativity and community helps us gain new perspectives and forms of expression. We discuss the questions of how do we replace old thought patterns with healthier ones? How do we build a better brain? Stronger friendships and families? More resilient communities?

About Johnny Crowder

Johnny Crowder is a 28-year-old suicide/abuse survivor, TEDx speaker, touring musician, mental health advocate, and the Founder & CEO of Cope Notes, a text-based mental health platform that provides daily support to users in nearly 100 countries around the world. Armed with 10 years of clinical treatment, a psychology degree from University of Central Florida, and a decade of peer support and public advocacy through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Johnny’s infectious positivity and firsthand experience with mental illness uniquely equips him to provide realistic, yet hopeful insight into the pains of hardship with authenticity, levity, and unconventional wit.

Show Notes

1 [Photo Credit_ Amber James].JPG

About Johnny and His Work

TEDx Talk “How to Grow as a Person (and Why it Sucks)” https://youtu.be/56Zb_TLhPOw

Cope Notes: Daily Mental Health Support https://copenotes.com/

Cope Notes Podcast on Mental Health News Radio Network https://copenotes.com/podcast/

Death Metal Vocalist for Prison: https://www.facebook.com/prisonfl/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnnycrowder

FB: facebook.com/johnnyxcrowder

IG: instagram.com/johnnycrowderlovesyou

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