EPISODE 063 | It's Good to Talk About Who You Are: A Journey of Anger, Recovery, and Self Reflection
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On the surface, this episode is about mental health and how childhood abuse can lead to destructive and unhealthy anger, anxiety, depression, and even attempted suicide. While it sounds heavy, and this is your trigger warning just in case visiting these subjects is too difficult for you, I want to emphasize that this episode is uplifting - Robin Land, host of the View from the Carnival podcast, doesn’t shy away from talking about who he once was and how he got to his happy life today.
Below the surface, this episode is all about the journey and embracing the good and bad that got you to where you are today. It’s about dealing with the tough circumstances and emotions to learn and grow and paying attention to those relationships and seeds of encouragement that help along your path. It’s about self awareness, reflection, and finding healthy coping mechanisms. It’s about gratitude, healing, and recovery.
Robin takes us through engaging details about how anger used to manifest in his life versus how it manifests now, a year-long psychiatric hospital stay that hurt more than helped back in the 90s, and the ah-ha moment that was the ground-zero point for recovery.
And even though Robin thinks it’s important to talk about who you are and acknowledge how you got to where you are today, he thinks listening is a gift you can give others while they tell their stories. He gives his best advice for planting the seed that may help someone turn their life around, like the gift that was given to him.
Not only is Robin a great example of harnessing difficult life circumstances to choose a positive path going forward, but his personality shines through - listening to him is a blast. You feel like you’re right there in the memories with him.
Episode Highlights
Getting to know Robin
Robin’s happy marriage and advice for longevity
Exploring anger
anger fueled by fear
a realization of how anger defines Robin
What anger mentally and physically feels like
What peace and acceptance feel like
What is masculinity and how it’s evolved for Robin
Family influence and role models for men
How Robin ended up at a long-term psychiatric hospital in the 90s, including his journey with depression, anxiety, and becoming suicidal
What happened when his insurance ran out - “the miracle cure”
The complexities of being in long-term psychiatric care
Absorbing emotions and issues of others
The spiral: affairs, hallucinations, details of vivid nightmares
Dependence on doctors while contact with your support system is limited
Control and behavior modification measures
Balancing the good and bad when thinking back to this journey
What happened after Robin left the hospital
Robin’s epiphany about his worth and the seed that started recovery growth
The role of childhood abuse in low self worth
Appreciating the journeys of others
Why Robin wouldn’t change his journey
What recovery was like, including dealing with his brother’s suicide and how that made him feel about his own attempts to take his life
Honoring the journeys’ of others
Why Robin start his podcast
The importance of listening
About Robin
Robin Land is a retired newspaper publisher who believes in freedom of speech, the rights of the individual, and civility between people. He runs the View from the Carnival podcast because he’s passionate about bringing awareness to mental health issues with conversations that focus on real people in their own words.
He says he’s not always the most articulate person, but he always speak from the heart and sometimes from the hip.
When he’s not shining a light on mental health issues over the internet airwaves, he’s working at being a loving husband, father, and friend. In his spare time, he and his wife have a blast dressing up their podcast studio mannequin, Tina, in steampunk costumes and sharing her with their fans.
Robin currently resides in Tyler, TX with his wife.
Links
Contact
view from the carnival @ gmail . com (without the spaces)
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CREDITS: INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC BY RYAN SAULS. SOUND EFFECTS FROM ZAPSPLAT.COM. GRAPHICS BY BRANDI FLECK.
