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Welcome to the second part of a two-part series on neuro-diversity and mental health. If you happened to miss the first one, you can check out our dialogue with M.E. Thomas on psychopathy (FYD 277). On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about how to improve your mental health. And who better to have that conversation but with Sarah Fay, PhD.

Sarah Fay is a bestselling author, and her new book is called Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses. Apple books said Sarah’s new book is “a powerful memoir by a deeply compelling person and a fantastic writer.”

Whether you are curious about neuro-diversity, or looking for ways to improve your mental health, you can’t go wrong with listening to this episode.

The world that Sarah Fay lives in

The conversation starts off on the topic of how Sarah is processing the world we live in today.

As someone who was in the vacuum of the academe for a while, one might not even notice the world outside. Sarah admits that she pretty much missed the Obama administration while she was working on her PhD.

There is a certain appeal of the academe of being away from the world and being surrounded by actual books, and being in pursuit of knowledge. That is, until the world comes calling.

How things have changed

Sarah shares that she has been writing about how different things have changed for her and how she saw herself. One of the things she has noticed is the change in her mental health, and how it has changed for the better.

“I was writing about how different things have changed for me and how I see myself. Now as someone who had a mental illness, I believe I’ve been cured. There’s no evidence to suggest that we cannot fully heal from mental illness, even serious mental illness like what I had.” – Sarah Fay

Sarah finds the notion that mental illness only lies dormant at times very pessimistic, as it sets the precedent that it could never be fully healed.

The Metaphor of Mental Illness

Sarah shares the metaphor of mental illness that she absolutely loves, which is much like breaking a bone.

“When you break a bone after it heals (which I didn’t know, this is in physical medicine), the point of the break becomes the strongest part. And so if we think of mental illness, or some sort of psychosis as a break, then we heal stronger.” – Sarah Fay

And if you look how resilient and strong people are who have recovered from mental illness, it makes a whole lot of sense for Sarah.

To hear more from Sarah Fay and how to improve your mental health, download and listen to this episode.

 Bio

Sarah Fay (Ph.D., MFA) is an award-winning author and mental health advocate working to improve how we think and talk about our mental health.

Her experience of being diagnosed with six different mental health disorders and finding no relief led her to write her journalistic memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses, an Apple Best Books pick that was hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto of a memoir.”

Sarah has shared her story on NPR’s 1A, Oprah Daily, Salon, NPR’s KERA/Think, The Rumpus, in The Los Angeles Times, and more.

Pathological has been featured in Forbes, mindbodygreen, Thrive Global, Lit Hub, Psychology Today, and others.

Links

Connect with Sarah Fay!

Website | Instagram

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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This episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different is a love letter to America.

I recently posted something on LinkedIn and on social media about the court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and I wanted to share that with you and reflect on it with you for a moment.

So, let’s talk about America.

Roe v. Wade

People are saying this ruling put abortion back in the hands of the states.

Sort of, but not really.

It puts it back where it belongs in our hands. You and me get to decide what the future will be by voting.

A poll with 235,613 responses says that 58% support women’s rights to choose. Now, if the Democrats pick up seats in November, it will in large part demonstrate what Americans think about some combination of the abortion issue. And broadly, the Democratic agenda and how the Democrats have been performing in the White House and in Washington.

With Biden at 38% approval, it seems very likely that the Dems will pick up seats in November. If the predicted red wave hits Washington, it will for sure tell us that some combination of dislike for Biden, the GOP’s ideas resonating. and pro-life momentum are things that Americans are focused on.

Continue to have Meaningful Dialogue

Whether you’re currently celebrating or reverberating over the road decision. It’s important to underscore this is how it’s supposed to work.

We argue, we debate and hopefully we even listen radical idea, right? to each other. We come to our own conclusions, and we vote for candidates who most reflect our beliefs. Hating someone because they disagree with you might be the biggest stupid of all.

Now, to be clear, I am pro-choice. And I could tell you why if you cared, and I respect that pro-life people truly believe they are doing what’s best what’s right. And I know and love people who I know to be legendary, very good people who are pro-life. I just disagree with them. That’s okay. Steel sharpens steel. This is how it’s supposed to work. Please participate in thoughtful dialogue. And let’s all do some thinking, then let’s vote.

So that was the post and it seems to have blown up and hopefully caused some thought for a conversation. Some people have commented No, this is not how it’s supposed to work. And they have an opinion about why that’s the case. They might be right. But at a very high level.

The difference between democracy and insanity is we dialogue. We vote. We create leaders and create laws and then we live by them. What we don’t do is hate each other. And we don’t fight with each other physically. That’s called anarchy. And so I think what this tells all of us is, democracy is a participation sport.

To hear more of Christopher Lochhead’s love letter to the United States of America, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Christopher Lochhead 

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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On this remarkable episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk with M.E. Thomas about psychopathy, and how you can be in a relationship that works with a psychopath.

M.E. Thomas is a pseudonym of the bestselling author of Confessions of a Sociopath. She’s a lawyer, musician, and now a teacher. She is among the first psychopaths or sociopaths to come out of the closet, and share her life and experience.

This episode will have you thinking deeply about your identity, relationships, and the masks that we all wear. So stay tuned.

M.E. Thomas on Knowing she was “Different”

The conversation started with the question of identity. Specifically, about when M.E. Thomas found out she was “Different”.

“I always knew that I was different. But I had so many things that they’d be different, I just assumed it was one those – like, I was raised in a big Mormon family, so I grew up with five siblings. We just had weird idiosyncrasies. My dad was kind of a crazy guy. Even now, they call him Einstein because he wears his hair, kind of like white and crazy, and his eyebrows were long and curly. He says, he thinks that makes him look distinguished.” – M.E. Thomas

Aside from this, there were a lot of things that people would think weird about her. But it came off most of the times as precocious and charming as a child, and cool and collected growing up.

M.E. Thomas on Not Experiencing the Same Things

Another way M.E. Thomas knew she was different from others was when she and the other kids her age hit puberty. Simply put, she wasn’t experiencing the same things that others were being self-conscious or worried about.

“During puberty, everybody was kind of losing their collective minds. And I was just like, “I don’t get it”. I didn’t get the self-consciousness, and I didn’t get the awkwardness. And I didn’t get the kind of like, “we’re going through some sort of new identity”. I kind of didn’t get that, although I got it in a way because I would kind of choose a new identity every day for whatever situation I was in.” – M.E. Thomas

Looking back, M.E. Thomas was kind of relieved that she didn’t go through all that, citing a Reddit page that showed teenagers and all the stupid things they did and wear growing up.

How to Work the Social System

M.E. Thomas muses that she was glad that she didn’t go through the same experience, as she’s heard stories of how people were both very happy and unhappy during those times in their life. She particularly calls out peer pressure, which is probably the number one reason teenagers do stupid things for stupid reasons.

She herself wasn’t subjected to peer pressure, because she admits that she already knew how to work the social system even then. Given the cool demeanor she portrays, she was easily part of every social circle and friends with different groups. Though she does say that being that much of a social butterfly should’ve been an indicator of a personality disorder.  

To learn more about M.E. Thomas and her experiences growing up, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

M. E. Thomas (a pseudonym) is the author of Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight. (Penguin Random House)

She is a former law professor who has written extensively on music copyright issues, a current California attorney, and the founder of a non-profit. She is also, most recently, a professional musician.

Links

Connect with M.E. Thomas!

Website | Twitter | More about the Author

More about M.E. Thomas

NYTimes: Confessions of a Sociopath

Slate: American Psychopath’s Patrick Bateman Reviews M.E. Thomas’ Confession of a Sociopath

YouTube: Ask a Psychopath – What is your background?

YouTube: Ask a Psychopath – What are some things you’ve done?

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about those voices in your head with our award-winning guest, Dr. Ethan Kross. Who knows, you might learn something useful from listening to it.

Dr. Ethan Kross is an award-winning psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business. He has a new book out called Chatter: the voice in your head, why it matters and how to harness it. Bestselling author Adam Grant says, “this book is going to fundamentally change some of the most important conversations in your life, the ones you have with yourself.”

So if you want to know how you can work with those voices in your head to make your life better, stay tuned to this episode.

Ethan Kross on the Voices in your head

The conversation starts off with the topic of Ethan Kross’ new book, Chatter. Ethan explains that we all have an inner voice, which is the ability to silently use language to reflect on our lives.

“it’s a tool of the mind. It’s a tool that that distinguishes us from every single other animal species. You use language silently in your head to do all sorts of things like, simulate and plan for the future. You use this inner voice to do something I find to be magical, which is tell stories about our experiences in this world. Stories that help us understand who we are.” – Ethan Kross

Chatter

According to Ethan, there are times when this inner voice we possess doesn’t work so well.

“Sometimes when you experience adversity, you reflexively tried to use this tool to think through a problem, but you don’t come up with a clear solution. You end up for lack of a better term spinning, worry, ruminating catastrophizing. And that’s what I call chatter.” – Ethan Kross

Chatter sometimes takes the form of an inner critic. Sometimes, it’s a self-disparaging voice. Sometimes it’s an inner monologue filled with anger and aggression. But the idea here is that you’re just getting stuck in this negative thought loop, and you can’t break free.

Ethan Kross on Metacognition

We bring up the topic of “thinking about thinking”, and Ethan shares his thoughts on the matter. For Ethan, most people actually do a lot of thinking about thinking, or metacognition.

“Basically, Metacognition refers to exactly what you’re talking about: thinking about thinking. And I think we spend a lot of time doing this in ways that create misery. And, like, when we’re worried about stuff we keep on, you know, we start worrying, like, think about what worry is, there’s something in the future that you’re concerned about. At some point, you start worrying about the fact that you’re worrying.” – Ethan Kross

He then used sleep as an example. At first, it’s simple: you sleep when you are tired. But as we think about other things like “are we getting enough sleep,” and the effects of not staying up late, etc. We start to worry about too many hypothetical things in our head, and we, ironically, lose sleep over it.

To hear more from Ethan Kross and how to channel your inner voice to be more productive in life, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Ethan Kross, PhD, is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business, he is the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory.

He has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR’s Morning Edition. His pioneering research has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Science.

He completed his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at Columbia University.

Links

Connect with Ethan Kross!

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | More about Ethan | Chatter

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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If you’ve ever watched the Olympics, gone to a Major League game, or even turned on your Xbox, chances are you’ve seen our guest’s great work. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a dialogue with Audrey Arbeeny, the Category Queen of Sonic Branding.

Audrey Arbeeny presented the discipline of Sonic Branding, way back in 1993 at the Design Management Institute in Amsterdam. Now that Sonic Branding has exploded, particularly as digital products have, it has been become a giant category across all kinds of areas marketing, branding, product design, and experience design in the arts world and the film to entertainment world.

So if you are interested about Sonic Branding, and how it blitzed through the competition, stay tuned to this episode.

Audrey Arbeeny on Sonic Branding

The conversation starts off with defining what Sonic Branding is. Audrey has this to say on the matter:

“I believe what you’re doing is the same thing as when we did the original Major League Soccer, Anthem, and we do our Sonic Branding. The deputy commissioner in the interview said, he heard from player after player that when they heard that song, it put them in the right frame of mind it put them in a place that they wanted to be in, and it prepared them to get ready for the game.

I have certain songs I play also, when I need to get in a certain frame of mind. And that’s what Sonic Branding is. You want to get to that emotional center of the brain that triggers play.” – Audrey Arbeeny

Biomusicology

If you’re wondering if there is a word for that, yes there is. It’s called Biomusicology, and it covers how sounds and music can affect our brain and biology. Sometimes, music can even evoke physical reactions from us, as seen in the revelry in anthems, or that welling feeling you might get while listening to an orchestra.

“We’re a vibratory system. And that’s what it is. And from as early as time as you could remember, that’s what sound did. It connected people. It communicated and it made people feel, feel physically emotionally connected.” – Audrey Arbeeny

Audio Brain Advocates for Health and Well-being

Audrey shares a personal experience where music and hearing familiar sounds in someone’s vicinity had helped people ease their pain and their well-being.

So while Sonic Branding is being used on all these global brands, Audrey also hopes to advocate the use of music and different sounds to promote health and well-being to everyone.

“Yes, we do all these global brands? We’ve been music supervisors for 10 Olympics for NBC Olympics. That’s 25 years. Yes, we’ve done great things like that. But we’ve also done a lot in health care. And I’ve done a lot of research in health and well-being. And I’ve worked with kids that were deaf and blind, and done music therapy with them.

Because when you’re in that situation, nobody really takes the time to make sure you’re enjoying that meal and spends a lot of time they have a lot of kids to take care of. So that’s my North Star. That’s my passion point. And audio brain has done a lot of a lot of pro bono work in that area.” – Audrey Arbeeny

To hear more from Audrey Arbeeny, Sonic Branding, and how music can help your well-being, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Audrey Arbeeny

As Owner and Emmy™ Award-Winning Executive Producer/ Creative Director for Audiobrain, a globally recognized sonic branding boutique dedicated to the intentional development of music and sound, Audrey Arbeeny has realized her dream of combining her lifelong love of music and science with proven business skills. Audrey oversees Audiobrain’s projects from start to finish, coordinating logistics, strategy, experience design, resources, and talent. In addition, Audrey oversees Audiobrain’s ongoing research in areas of psychoacoustics and biomusicology. With over 20 years of experience, she is recognized throughout the world as a pioneer in sonic branding, presenting on this discipline as early as the 1993 Design Management Institute in Amsterdam. Audiobrain has consistently stayed leaders in this field through innovation, research, education, advanced technological skills, and forward- thinking initiatives for some of the world’s largest brands.

Music has long been an important part of Audrey’s life. She began formal piano training at the age of four. She is also an accomplished flutist and studied voice at Carnegie Hall, under the late Silas Engum, for many years. In addition to her musical talents, she has extensive recording, editing, licensing, interactive, and sonic branding experience.

Audrey is highly skilled in many areas of sonic branding development and implementation. Her environmental branding leadership includes her role as Music Supervisor the past 7 Olympic Broadcasts for NBC, garnering her 2 Emmy™ awards for her work on the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games. She has also done extensive experience design for IBM’s Marketing Exposition and Sense Layering Team, The Retail Federation’s Design for the Senses Pavilion, Holland America Cruise Lines Onboard Experience Design, and United Healthcare Retail Environments to name a few.

She has been Creative Director / Head of Production for the strategic development of brands’ sounds including Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Virgin Mobile USA, Glaxo Smith Kline, Google, Logitech, Major League Soccer, KIA Motors Corp. The New York Giants, McDonald’s, Merck, and HBO to name a few. In 2015, Audrey was elected to the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences New York Chapter. She also teaches sonic branding at New York’s Pratt Institute, the first and only course of its kind.

Audrey is currently in the process of undertaking a research study focusing the effects of sound on patients, staff, and families in intensive care units with a world-renowned medical facility,  “Music and sound are far more important than most people realize, and we’ll be developing studies to substantiate our theories about its effect on wellness and healing”. This constant search for knowledge, exploration and new ways of thinking about sound are why Audrey is one of the most respected influencers in her industry. She is a sought-after guest speaker and has educated on sonic branding all over the world.

Links

Follow Audrey Arbeeny today!

Web | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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Welcome to a very special episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, where we talk about how to make money in a recession.

In times that are challenging, one of the greatest things we all can do is contribute what we can contribute. Given that it looks like we’re about to be in a recession, what Eddie Yoon Nicolas Cole, and I aka the Category Pirates decided to do was to write a new mini book newsletter. It’s called How To Make Money In A Recession: Five steps to create demand for your product, service or platform.

We elected to make the written version of this free. There’ll be a link to it at the end of this show notes. So consider this episode, a mini book audio read.

We are in a Recession

Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

We are in a recession.

(Not officially, but it is not looking good.)

Stocks are down. Startup valuations have plummeted. Bitcoin and Ethereum have lost more than 50% of their total value since their respective highs back in November, 2021. And sentiment around Silicon Valley is that the next 12-18 months are going to be challenging for companies looking to raise money.

But where there is chaos, there is opportunity.

Approximately 10% of companies get stronger in downturns. And you can’t be in the 10% unless you do some serious thinking.

Through the category lens, downturns are simple to understand—and have a clear path to navigate. When times get tough, businesses, governments, households, and individuals all do the same thing: they create two lists.

• “Must Haves”
• “Nice To Haves”

Then they start cutting the “Nice To Haves” to lower costs—as a direct response to their revenue / income / buying power shrinking.

The Question Every Business Should Ask

Which means the seminal question is: what makes people put some categories/brands/products on the “Must Have” list versus the “Nice To Have” list? 

Perceived value.

(Everything we value, we’ve been taught to value.) 

The difference between a dumb idea and a great one, or the difference between useful products and useless ones is the perception we have based on what we have been taught. (Don’t forget: pet rocks used to be in demand.)

The trick is to get your product/service/platform on the “Must Have” list, and to be as high up on the list as possible. Because the higher the category is on the hierarchy of perceived value in the consumer’s mind, the greater the likelihood they will keep buying from you.

Which is why savvy leaders market the category in downturns.

Because people make their lists by category first, and brand second.

The Net-Positive Effects of Recession

Elon Musk was a guest on the All In podcast and summarized the net-positive effects of recessions well:

“Recessions are not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve been through a few of them. What tends to happen, if you have a boom that goes on for too long, you get misallocation of capital. It starts raining money on fools, basically. Any dumb thing gets money. At some point, it gets out of control… and the bullshit companies go bankrupt and the ones that are building useful products are prosperous.” 

When most people hear the word “recession,” they imagine the housing crisis of 2008 or the dot-com bubble in the late 90s—and all of the businesses that went under as a result.

But what doesn’t get talked about enough are the incredible companies that emerged out of these challenging times as well. Google and Amazon both came out of the dot-com bubble in the 90s (as did hundreds of other world-changing companies). And Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, Square, and dozens of other next-gen technology companies were founded between 2006 and 2009, right in the middle of the greatest financial crisis to ever threaten America.

Recessions are pressure-cookers that rid the system of businesses failing to live up to the value they are promising society.

To hear more on how you can make money even during a recession, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Christopher Lochhead 

Links

How To Make Money In A Recession

Category Pirates

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!