Latest / The Dr. Joe Show / 169 - Getting to Good Riddance with Jodie Eckleberry-Hunt
Transcript
- 0:02How can we make the
- 0:03world better by making ourselves better?
- 0:06The Dr.
- 0:07Joe Show explores
- 0:08how you can make positive personal change by using his groundbreaking and.
- 0:12Highly effective I am.
- 0:14Approach to understand who we are and why we do what we do.
- 0:18Your small changes. Can have big. Effects.
- 0:21Join us now for the Dr.
- 0:22Joe Show with Mark, Styles of Styles, Lore and your host, Dr.
- 0:27Joe Strand.
- 0:30Welcome to the doctor, Joe.
- 0:34Joe, yeah.
- 0:40Welcome, welcome.
- 0:42Welcome, everybody,
- 0:45to welcome to the Dr.
- 0:47Joe Show, because now that you're here, we can really get going.
- 0:51We've got so much to talk about tonight.
- 0:53It's going to relate, I think, to everybody,
- 0:57because it's happened at some point, at some point in our life,
- 1:00we may fall in love with someone.
- 1:03And then tragedy kind of hit.
- 1:07We can be devastated.
- 1:09And Tom, I wonder with that, if you could introduce
- 1:12our guest for tonight.
- 1:15To my best doctor.
- 1:16Joe, it's it's hard sometimes
- 1:19to not talk to Joe.
- 1:20We're welcoming back an old favorite.
- 1:22You may remember her as the author of Move On
- 1:26Friends, My Friends,
- 1:29Jodi Echols, Barry Hunts.
- 1:30For those who don't remember, Jody Huckleberry Once is a board certified
- 1:33health psychologist who swears her way to sanity using cognitive behavioral
- 1:38therapy mindfulness humor, positive psychology and profanity.
- 1:43Jody has more than 25 years of professional experience, helping others
- 1:46find meaning in a crazy world.
- 1:48Welcome back to the Dr. Joe Show.
- 1:51Yes, welcome.
- 1:52Welcome back, Jody.
- 1:54Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
- 1:56It is our pleasure.
- 1:58Yeah.
- 1:58I mean, as Tom was alluding to last time we had you on, you just published
- 2:02Move On that we can't say it, you know, found a meaningful mofo
- 2:07but this book takes on a very different kind of tone.
- 2:13It sounds really important getting to good riddance.
- 2:18Let's hear about Jody. What's the book?
- 2:21So I do I don't
- 2:24I do all sorts of therapy, individual couples, family.
- 2:28It just so happens that during the pandemic, I had a lot during
- 2:31the height of the pandemic, I had a lot of time on my hands.
- 2:34And I was seeing more and more couples come in saying Oh,
- 2:37we're just getting on each other's nerves, like all this togetherness
- 2:40working from home, no socialization.
- 2:44And most of those problems, we could work through.
- 2:47But I was also seeing a fair number of individuals coming in saying
- 2:51this is just the time I'm calling it I'm done.
- 2:55Or being on the receiving end.
- 2:57And so having seen that and having thought for many years,
- 3:01I just want to write a how to how to get through the initial heartbreak
- 3:06because I guess my big issue was that people would come in to see me.
- 3:10We would talk about what had happened and they would get to a good place.
- 3:14Then they would leave and start analyzing
- 3:16and re analyzing and second guessing and doubting.
- 3:20And then they would go back and start calling and texting
- 3:24the other person enhancing their own heartache and come back.
- 3:27And we would just keep starting over and starting over.
- 3:30So when you write a guide that people could reference in between their visits
- 3:34and just helping them understand what went wrong, how to feel better,
- 3:38but then getting to a place about to look at what went wrong,
- 3:43how do I know myself better so that I can change
- 3:46some of the patterns that keep me coming back to the same place?
- 3:50Yeah,
- 3:53and it's I think, again, it's
- 3:55something that we've all experienced it or not
- 4:00at different ages of our lives and different meaningful moments.
- 4:05And there was in the beginning of the book,
- 4:10there's this quote
- 4:12I think the reason breakups hurt
- 4:14even more than the death of a loved one
- 4:17is the knowledge that the other person
- 4:20does not want to be with you,
- 4:23does not want to be with you anymore.
- 4:29I like to hear more about that.
- 4:33Well, I think
- 4:35that is probably the deepest core pain in looking at.
- 4:40When somebody breaks up with an individual, that individual
- 4:45starts to look at what is wrong with me instead of looking at
- 4:48maybe it wasn't a good fit. Right.
- 4:50So that's all the self-created pain, the pain of I'm
- 4:54not good enough, or what was it particularly about me?
- 4:58And I guess I look at that as sort of a diversion
- 5:02or a distraction, but it's incredibly painful.
- 5:06Incredibly painful. Place
- 5:11you know what I'm talking about?
- 5:13I do. I do. And remember, you know,
- 5:16Dr. Joshua revolves around the I am approach.
- 5:18And this is the I see domain you know, how do I see myself?
- 5:21How do I think other people see me?
- 5:24And when somebody says, you know,
- 5:27we're done and you have to then
- 5:31come to terms with that.
- 5:34I mean, Tom Mark,
- 5:36does anything like this ever happen to you as you were growing up?
- 5:39I mean, everyone right? Never.
- 5:42I don't know.
- 5:45You're talking about you
- 5:48shove it down, right?
- 5:49Make it a barrier.
- 5:51Yeah.
- 5:51Denial is not just a river in Egypt, as we say.
- 5:54Yeah.
- 5:55It's it's hard, you know, but having someone abandon
- 5:59you, break up with you, say you're not good enough.
- 6:02It really does get to the core of who we are as human beings.
- 6:07Are we valuable or not?
- 6:09Can we just go through maybe the book?
- 6:11So you lay out some of the cognitive behavioral stuff right at the beginning.
- 6:16You want to just talk a little bit about layout of the book?
- 6:19Yeah. So
- 6:21I have it here.
- 6:23I and I think it's important for me to say
- 6:27that most of the time when I meet with people
- 6:29who are going through a breakup and as we talked during the break,
- 6:33it can be very challenging, even if you're the person doing the breaking up.
- 6:37So either way, if you're receiving
- 6:39or giving, this book comes in audio
- 6:42because a lot of people are just having a hard time concentrating
- 6:47and that's a big issue.
- 6:48Like they want to read,
- 6:49they want to understand, but they can't take it in.
- 6:52So as I talk with cognitive behavioral therapy, we all have our own baggage
- 6:56we all have our filters, the way we see ourselves, the world, other people.
- 7:00But you have to understand that.
- 7:03You have to understand the bias that you have
- 7:05And so I do a little bit of what I call psychology, one
- 7:09to one identifying your self-talk and understanding mindfulness.
- 7:13And I introduce a fair amount of humor.
- 7:15But I immediately get into how to cope with the breakup.
- 7:19A lot of times people tell me I can't even get out of bed
- 7:22like I'm having a hard time getting my work done.
- 7:25And so really, it becomes survival strategies.
- 7:28That's where I start.
- 7:29And again, if you're past that, there's still value in the book.
- 7:33Beyond that,
- 7:37Then I talk about grief because what you were mentioning earlier,
- 7:40having somebody break up with you, this rejection, you go, people
- 7:44typically go through stages of grief, like, whoa, this isn't happening.
- 7:50And the bargaining stage is that really tricky one where
- 7:53I will do anything please.
- 7:55I will change, I'll do better, I'll do better.
- 7:57And that's really,
- 7:59to me, a pivotal stage because
- 8:03you while I think we all
- 8:08should have we all have to work at relationships, undoubtedly.
- 8:12I think that's a big fallacy, this idea that if you're in love, it's just easy.
- 8:16It's not.
- 8:17However, You can't change
- 8:20who you are fundamentally as a person to please somebody else.
- 8:24That will never work if you're tend to be introverted,
- 8:27and your partner's extroverted and wants an extrovert.
- 8:31You can try to move to the extrovert side, but you'll never be an extrovert.
- 8:37So I guess what I'm saying is recognizing the bargaining can
- 8:41then set you up for another heartache because you're not being true to yourself.
- 8:45So some of the stages about acceptance hopefully, and moving on anger.
- 8:49Anger is my favorite stage because it gives people energy
- 8:53after that and move into love.
- 8:56And there are theories of love.
- 8:59I like to laugh and say I take the fun, all the fun out of romance
- 9:04and help people understand that we all have
- 9:07these myths or love stories, the things that we're looking for.
- 9:11And unfortunately, and this gets to, I think, probably
- 9:14a lot relevant to your theories
- 9:17about the social environmental context.
- 9:19People look at social media
- 9:21and I think they have a very skewed idea of what love is
- 9:24because people aren't being honest.
- 9:26And there are these curated ideas
- 9:28of what your relationships should be, and they're not realistic.
- 9:32And so people feel like they don't measure up.
- 9:34So really identifying love and by the way, what is healthy love?
- 9:38Just because somebody says they love you, that doesn't mean it's a healthy love.
- 9:42Like if I love you so much that I stalk you is that love?
- 9:47So it's understanding what is love, what is abuse?
- 9:49Because you may not have experienced a healthy love before.
- 9:54So I talk a bit about that. And
- 9:58deciding
- 9:59what your appropriate expectation should be.
- 10:02And then and by the way, again,
- 10:05recognizing that this can apply to a lot of different sorts of relationships,
- 10:09understanding infidelity and recognizing that just because somebody is unfaithful
- 10:13to you doesn't mean that it's a cure, a characterological defect.
- 10:17Infidelity can be related to just staleness in a relationship.
- 10:23I move into the bad actors, the folks with narcissistic tendencies,
- 10:27this people who are abusive,
- 10:31people who are overly dependent and understanding
- 10:33how to manage those folks in a breakup,
- 10:36boundaries and codependence,
- 10:39forgiveness, finding peace, and then finding the happiness you want.
- 10:42And I'm going to end on the review on that note and say
- 10:47one really important thing in terms of moving on from a breakup
- 10:51is being very clear with yourself about the things you want
- 10:57in a relationship and the things you don't want in a relationship
- 11:00and using that as a guide.
- 11:01And don't compromise what you want.
- 11:03You'll never be successful in happiness in a relationship
- 11:07if you're not true to the things that you say that you want.
- 11:11It sounds like a great roadmap to
- 11:15to manage
- 11:18what what really is.
- 11:20I think one of the most difficult experiences I've ever had
- 11:24when somebody said, you know,
- 11:27this romance is over, devastating.
- 11:30And then, you know, I think years later, I was able to to look back
- 11:36using the AM and say, wait, it may not just have been me.
- 11:41Something may have been going on with the other person.
- 11:44So I think you address that as well in this book.
- 11:48I think you can step back and look again at
- 11:52what happened in the relationships.
- 11:55Well, and, you know, the idea that you're going to be a perfect fit for
- 11:59everybody out there is just not is just not realistic.
- 12:04And why would you want to force it on somebody else?
- 12:09I think, again, a core expectation should be
- 12:13you want somebody who can't wait to be with you and
- 12:18it's just not realistic to think that that's going to be everybody.
- 12:21But just because somebody doesn't want to be with you doesn't mean it's
- 12:24reflected of you.
- 12:26It could.
- 12:27They have you know, it could be a variety of things.
- 12:30People who maybe even like, for example, somebody who is dating
- 12:36somebody else who hasn't quite figured out their sexual identity.
- 12:39And I could take it personally, but it has nothing to do with me.
- 12:42It just that the other person is still trying to figure out
- 12:46that piece of themselves.
- 12:47So I think that's a good example.
- 12:50We don't know what everybody has going on.
- 12:52We assume we do, but we don't.
- 12:55And I mean, one of the things that strikes me about
- 12:59this is the most difficult feeling, I think, for a human being to tolerate
- 13:03is being powerless
- 13:05because millions of years
- 13:06ago we were powerless and we were like something that was about to eat us.
- 13:09So I think that that may be part of what is in play here as well.
- 13:13When somebody is breaking up with you,
- 13:16you begin to say, well,
- 13:19what should I be doing different
- 13:23You want to comment on that?
- 13:26Well, and that is
- 13:30that is a difficult question because there are some times
- 13:33we are behaving badly.
- 13:35And so seeing you, I'm not saying that you blow off feedback,
- 13:40but you have to be intentional and reflective.
- 13:44So if somebody is saying, I don't want to be with you because you're
- 13:47jealous or because you're controlling, you need to think about that.
- 13:51But if somebody is saying, you know what, I just don't I don't want to
- 13:57take it
- 13:57further or I don't I don't think we're a good fit.
- 14:01That's a different story.
- 14:02So there's not a blanket necessary answer.
- 14:05It's just being reflective. And of course, I'm biased.
- 14:08I think having a therapist to sort it out with can be can be very helpful.
- 14:14It can be.
- 14:15Is there a particular
- 14:20target audience for this book?
- 14:22Because you know, I know it seems sort of like a silly question, but
- 14:26can you apply this to other things as well?
- 14:29Not just romance like being fired, but being fired.
- 14:34Did you say being fired?
- 14:35Yeah.
- 14:37I do.
- 14:38I also think the answer to that is it depends on the person.
- 14:42If the person reading it is is reflective.
- 14:45I had somebody who read the book
- 14:48an advance copy and she said she broke up with Cigarets
- 14:52and she found this book to be so helpful
- 14:55in breaking up with her toxic relationship with Cigarets.
- 14:58Somebody else told me
- 15:01I had somebody else saying
- 15:02what the book and said they bought it because they had a toxic friendship.
- 15:06And so there was a they wanted to use it to break up with a friend.
- 15:11And that was a very emotional and difficult breakup with their work
- 15:15because they had good times. Right.
- 15:17And that's what we tend to do.
- 15:19By the way, when we're hurting, we go back to the good times
- 15:21because that that feels good.
- 15:23But unfortunately, when we do that,
- 15:26we focus on the good times and we override the bad stuff.
- 15:31And then we think, Why am I doing this right?
- 15:34So indeed, it can apply to a lot of different situations,
- 15:37but it takes the person to kind of be able to apply that to themselves.
- 15:44And I saw you
- 15:45nodding your head enthusiastically with this.
- 15:48Well, I was thinking about groups that I had been a part of where
- 15:52there were a lot of fun times.
- 15:54But it made me a worse person.
- 15:57A worse person. Yes.
- 15:59Because I was indulging meaner, spirited parts of myself.
- 16:03And you broke up with that, that sense.
- 16:05It's complicated.
- 16:07So I mean, a lot of people left over time and we were like men
- 16:11or how did we get into that?
- 16:13And it's a it's a it's a long and complicated story.
- 16:17We have an episode with YouTuber Izzy No Bray,
- 16:20where we discuss that chapter of our lives yeah.
- 16:23So people can certainly refer back to that.
- 16:25But it but again, it
- 16:28it's such
- 16:30an applicable book that it's not just to romance.
- 16:34It's what, what is it when you and your I see domain
- 16:39are are feeling less valued
- 16:43and how that triggers so many different things
- 16:46in your biological domain and then you wonder,
- 16:49well what's happened to my home to me my social demand
- 16:52and how vulnerable would be if in our home domain growing up
- 16:57you were not valued as much.
- 16:59Would you address some of that
- 17:02here and there in the book?
- 17:04Yeah.
- 17:04In fact, one of the things that I am super excited about
- 17:10in this book because of what I was trained in a lot of developmental psychology.
- 17:14So I just love the developmental theorists.
- 17:16And Eric Erickson is one of my favorite.
- 17:19And I specifically go back to Eric Erickson
- 17:22stages of psychosocial development.
- 17:24So around what age were you learning certain tasks
- 17:27about mastering who you are and your environment?
- 17:32Being autonomous,
- 17:34being industrious, all of that.
- 17:36But if you didn't have the healthiest of conditions,
- 17:41in terms of boundaries and what I say, and specifically boundaries,
- 17:45being able to say no, being able to protect yourself,
- 17:49if you didn't learn that or it wasn't respected.
- 17:52So the example I give is if you had somebody who touched you inappropriately,
- 17:57that such a boundary violation, you grow up
- 18:00and at the time you didn't really fully understand it, but
- 18:03you grew up maybe not fully understanding what an appropriate
- 18:08boundary is or that you have the power to say no
- 18:12or when that is,
- 18:13or if somebody walked in on you when you were an adolescent dressing
- 18:17and you said, get out, and the person didn't get out
- 18:20and you can lose your sense of voice, I guess.
- 18:22And so when you're talking about some of those things,
- 18:26I'm thinking specifically about boundaries, which are so important.
- 18:30Where do I end and somebody else where did they begin?
- 18:35And the responsibility for behaviors and outcomes
- 18:38and that's that's a huge challenge for most human beings.
- 18:43It absolutely is, yeah.
- 18:44How did you come up with the title? Well,
- 18:48this is this is honest.
- 18:50Whenever I would listen to people
- 18:53talk about their breakup story, they would come in just such anguish
- 18:59and in my mind, I was always
- 19:01thinking, well, good riddance to that person.
- 19:04They don't they don't make you feel good
- 19:08or no one can make you, but they don't contribute to your well-being.
- 19:11So good riddance.
- 19:12And I was always thinking, how can I get you
- 19:15from here to good riddance?
- 19:18And I didn't say that to people, but it was always playing in my head.
- 19:21So I thought, what a what a good title.
- 19:24Great title it is.
- 19:26It is and it's it's so
- 19:29cathartic to be able to say, you know,
- 19:32I'm done with you this, you know?
- 19:36Yeah.
- 19:36And in fact, I don't want to get people stuck in anger or resentment.
- 19:40Good riddance is it's gone.
- 19:43It's in the past. I've moved on.
- 19:45Write closure. Yeah.
- 19:48Yeah.
- 19:49And, you know, one of the things I say is, you know,
- 19:51you don't get over these things, but you come to terms with them.
- 19:54I mean, you know, this was part of your life
- 19:56but if you can step back, when you can step back and look at this,
- 20:01be mindful, do the reflection, wonder about it.
- 20:05There's amazing things you learn.
- 20:07But in order to do that,
- 20:10you have to believe that when all is said and done,
- 20:16you will find value in yourself.
- 20:20Because if you're afraid you're going to find a broken person,
- 20:22no one's going to look.
- 20:23Why would you want to look?
- 20:24Why would you want to explore and again, that's part of what the
- 20:28I am is saying is, you know, you're not no one's broken,
- 20:31but if you don't like what you're doing, you can change it.
- 20:34Here it is.
- 20:35So if in the book, you explain the techniques
- 20:40and how they work, so you want to just give us
- 20:45a technique
- 20:47well.
- 20:48Well, OK.
- 20:49A couple a couple of things come to mind as I do tell people
- 20:54you are overloaded with emotion
- 20:57early in the breakup.
- 20:58So I just need for you to follow a plan which mean
- 21:03which essentially means we flesh it out in the office,
- 21:07get your posse together, and whenever you feel like calling this person,
- 21:12have a friend that you can call first who's going to talk you out of it.
- 21:15Block all contact.
- 21:18Don't be watching sad movies or playing sad songs.
- 21:22Don't look at old photos like block all of the input.
- 21:26I do tell people, like if you're going throughout your day
- 21:29and all of a sudden you get a text or a phone call from this other person
- 21:34that you're breaking up with, it can.
- 21:36It's very intrusive.
- 21:38Like you can be having a good moment and then you can't unsee it.
- 21:41So it's just better to get rid of it.
- 21:43So those are some of the early techniques.
- 21:45But once you are starting to move on to the big one,
- 21:50I think is making that list of I have three columns.
- 21:54These are the things that I must have in a relationship.
- 21:57These are the things that I must not have.
- 21:59Meaning if you want somebody who doesn't gamble or doesn't drink
- 22:03or doesn't use alcohol or whatever, and that the middle column
- 22:06is these things don't really matter to me and don't deviate from that.
- 22:11So those are
- 22:12some of the things that and again, you could apply that to friendships.
- 22:16These are the things that I want
- 22:17in friends or don't want or in a work environment.
- 22:20So yeah, you can apply those to a lot of different situations.
- 22:25But one of the things you said I want to comment on
- 22:28and given your background is working with adolescents,
- 22:32I think that this will resonate
- 22:34adolescents.
- 22:35I don't work with them often,
- 22:37but I have worked with some and I know I probably drive them crazy a bit.
- 22:42I tell them that your job is to date like crazy
- 22:47because every single experience will help you understand yourself better.
- 22:52So the expectation in that you're going to meet somebody and stay with them
- 22:57is, in my opinion, flawed and not helpful because you've got to really date
- 23:02like again, date like crazy, all of those experiences.
- 23:06So even in adulthood, help you understand yourself better
- 23:11and somebody posed this question to me recently,
- 23:15which was What is, in your opinion, the greatest psychological strength?
- 23:20And my response after reading
- 23:23the question was the ability to tolerate pain.
- 23:26Because if you can sit in the pain
- 23:30and allow it to happen, you can learn from it.
- 23:32But if you try to escape it, you'll just repeat the pain later.
- 23:36You're just postponing it.
- 23:41Yeah,
- 23:43yeah.
- 23:43Being able to tolerate pain.
- 23:45And I, I like the advice,
- 23:49you know, eat as much as you can, but
- 23:54some people are, it's so interesting.
- 23:55They, they think that they, there's a person
- 24:00and this is who I'm with and this is the only person.
- 24:04But we treat it like marriage here.
- 24:06Yeah, but, but, but my ultimate advice as well
- 24:10is never lie to your partner.
- 24:13Always be honest, never lie.
- 24:15If you're going to be interested in somebody else
- 24:20don't go behind the first person's back, because all that does is create
- 24:26the subterfuge and the dishonesty and it's difficult.
- 24:31But having that sort of honesty in relationship,
- 24:35that's what you that's what you want
- 24:38in every relationship.
- 24:43I mean, it's about trust.
- 24:44And respect leads to value balance of trust.
- 24:46You have to be able to do that.
- 24:49And friendship.
- 24:50And friendship. That's right.
- 24:52And and and everything.
- 24:53You know, that's and that's why the book, again, is applicable to so many things.
- 24:58It's not just about romance.
- 25:00It's about all the relationships we have in the world.
- 25:03What happens when a relationship doesn't work out the way you want
- 25:07it, the way you were expecting it.
- 25:10It doesn't mean you're broken.
- 25:12It doesn't mean there's something wrong with you.
- 25:16You know,
- 25:18I talk about this in theater
- 25:21and one of my one of my dear friends, Brad Mack, wrote about this in his book,
- 25:26The Business of Acting.
- 25:28He said, if if
- 25:30if a director, a producer doesn't pick you for the show,
- 25:33it doesn't mean you're not a good actor
- 25:36just because you're not right for that show.
- 25:39So I think it's the same thing in many ways.
- 25:42I'm curious about the chapter that you have
- 25:46about being addicted to love when you keep going back for more.
- 25:50Can you talk a little bit about about the addiction to love?
- 25:55Well, I, I, as I say, people ask me,
- 25:58can you be addicted and I've heard that question enough times.
- 26:02Like originally my first response was, no, no,
- 26:08but I have seen enough times.
- 26:11And what I mean by that is folks who feel
- 26:17somehow compelled,
- 26:21almost obsessing about a toxic relationship
- 26:24and unable to stop themselves from going back, even if they can
- 26:29look me in the eye and say, I know this is my undoing,
- 26:33I know this relationship will kill me, I know it's awful.
- 26:35And I have seen folks
- 26:38just be
- 26:39so destructive to one another and then can
- 26:42and continue to get back together
- 26:45and so I say, OK, whatever.
- 26:48If you want to call it addiction, fine.
- 26:50But then we manage it like an addiction.
- 26:52Like, for example,
- 26:53you may go back to alcohol over and over, even though it is destroying your life.
- 26:57And so it becomes a matter of let's get in your head
- 27:00and set yourself up
- 27:03to make sure that you have multiple speed bumps or barriers to going back.
- 27:08So, for example, if you're trying to quit using alcohol, I tell people,
- 27:12don't have alcohol in the house, don't go to the bar.
- 27:15Make sure that you're hanging around people who are going to be offering you
- 27:17a drink and drinking in front of you until you're able to manage it.
- 27:22Same thing I would say with the unhealthy relationship is just being
- 27:27it comes down to a behavioral plan, in my opinion,
- 27:31but those triggers are going to be there in future relation.
- 27:35Ships.
- 27:36And the as I said to you
- 27:39earlier, I think givers attract takers.
- 27:42So recognizing we all have an energy that we put out into the world
- 27:45and recognizing that we might be attracted
- 27:48to certain people because of unresolved stuff from our past.
- 27:52And if we had an abusive parent
- 27:56maybe we're
- 27:56attracted to those characteristics in somebody else.
- 27:59It's not that we want to be abused.
- 28:01It is that those characteristics are familiar
- 28:04so it's just recognizing in a cognitive way
- 28:08and staying away from those things before we fall down that rabbit hole.
- 28:12I've seen a lot of analogies
- 28:13I'm picking up on a lot of analogies with substance abuse addiction,
- 28:17though, that you make those comparisons here, obviously.
- 28:21But also earlier you were talking about
- 28:24you know, you have to have that group of friends.
- 28:25You have to have that network that's going to stop you
- 28:28from picking up the phone and grabbing that pipe or whatever,
- 28:31you know, a substance, a bottle or needle or what have you.
- 28:35I mean, there must be a lot of similarities in that
- 28:40brain, right?
- 28:43Can be and I think I say in here,
- 28:47I don't know the evidence behind this, but I have no doubt
- 28:51that if you're maybe thinking about this, the high of this relationship
- 28:55and they put you in a scanner,
- 28:57your brain is going to light up as if you were doing a drug.
- 29:00I have no doubt about that.
- 29:03Right.
- 29:05But if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
- 29:07Right.
- 29:07If it's toxic, how do you tell somebody
- 29:12you know, why are you going back to that person?
- 29:15Well, typically,
- 29:18I tell people
- 29:21your world is going to look a whole lot different.
- 29:23If we can detox you from this other person, can you trust me?
- 29:29And usually I say, you're paying me, so can you trust me?
- 29:32Let's give this a try. And
- 29:36it doesn't work with everybody,
- 29:37but with the people who stick it out, usually they say, who?
- 29:41You're right.
- 29:42It looks a whole lot different on the other side.
- 29:45Yeah.
- 29:46And to go back to that word, familiarity, there is a difference
- 29:49between something that is familiar and something that is comfortable.
- 29:52So there's two things.
- 29:54We're not always the same familiarity.
- 29:58We may be less anxious because we can sort of recognize it
- 30:02that doesn't make it comfortable.
- 30:03It can still be just as dangerous.
- 30:06We need to be cautious with it.
- 30:07What's happening in February.
- 30:10So I I like all my books, of course,
- 30:14but this book, I don't know if I can say the title or not.
- 30:18I guess you can bleep me out bad ass stories
- 30:22hope and healing and they show
- 30:25I want I want
- 30:26to write that one a long, long time ago.
- 30:29But fear
- 30:32and as Bernie Brown, fear of getting into the arena, Bernie Brown
- 30:35talks about fear of getting into the arena and got into the way
- 30:39I kept judging myself as not good enough.
- 30:42And so these other books came out first.
- 30:45And now I feel empowered enough to write this other book.
- 30:48But it is a book of short stories about grit, growth, hope and healing
- 30:52and recognizing we're all in the world together.
- 30:57No one is alone. And sadly,
- 31:00there's inspirational books I think are fabulous,
- 31:02and I think people feel inspired by them.
- 31:06But yet at the same time, a disconnect because not everybody's life
- 31:11is like that and wrapping up in a bow like everything is neatly done at the end.
- 31:16My stories aren't like that. They're ongoing.
- 31:18Everybody is a work in progress and a journey.
- 31:22But I want to highlight the things that make us that we have in common.
- 31:26I guess so, yes.
- 31:27That book comes out in February, and I am pumped.
- 31:32It's exciting.
- 31:33It sounds very exciting.
- 31:34It sounds great.
- 31:37And I'm just wondering whether it's
- 31:42building on all the other experiences that you've had.
- 31:46I mean, you say this is a book you wanted to write a long time ago.
- 31:51Because I have learned so much from people.
- 31:53And I think that that is the big
- 31:58the big deal is sometimes people come in and they tell me their stories.
- 32:03They had to work up a lot of courage
- 32:05to tell me their story, but they felt so ashamed and isolated.
- 32:09And when they tell me and I,
- 32:12I am accepting of that, that is so healing.
- 32:15And I I think sharing some of those themes with other people,
- 32:19that's my goal is to help people understand they're not alone
- 32:25and there's such healing and
- 32:27hearing that other people have some of the same struggles.
- 32:31You know, this is this is a very important thing that you are not alone
- 32:36a colleague of mine can Duckworth's through NAMI
- 32:40is going to be coming out with the book shortly with that title you are not alone.
- 32:44And what what what's really happening here is this shift
- 32:48finally moving away from the stigma
- 32:52of mental illness and substance use
- 32:56as if somehow you're a bad person
- 33:00and you don't belong in my group,
- 33:03which means people are alone and that's why they're so ashamed
- 33:07to say anything.
- 33:08But Jody, I mean, we're I think we're moving
- 33:12into a really wonderful wonderful world
- 33:16where I mean, granted, there's there's all this scary stuff is happening,
- 33:20there's all the violence, there's all this.
- 33:22But we can step back and understand why
- 33:25people have felt disrespected.
- 33:28They have felt alone.
- 33:30What are you meant to do now?
- 33:33So I think a great but
- 33:35when when you talk about
- 33:38putting it all together,
- 33:41can you talk a little bit about that,
- 33:43the final chapter in this particular book.
- 33:47The Finding Your Happiness?
- 33:49Yeah, I think
- 33:53that I wrote that chapter hoping to get at one big myth
- 33:57that we have about happiness
- 34:00is that it should just happen to us.
- 34:03I am a believer that happiness takes a lot of work.
- 34:06It's not fun to think about that.
- 34:08But as with relationships, I think we have to put some time and energy into
- 34:13discovering our happiness, finding it and cultivating it and continuing it.
- 34:18That's that sort of the sad truth and it really starts
- 34:22with deeply understanding yourself, being honest about who you are
- 34:27and figuring out what you want and not settling. So,
- 34:34yeah, real easy, right?
- 34:36Yeah.
- 34:37Well, that's, that's I mean, that, that is exactly what the aim is about
- 34:43who you are and why you do what you do.
- 34:45And if you don't like it, you can change it here.
- 34:48The four things that influence you, your home, social domain,
- 34:53the biological domain and the I see how I see myself.
- 34:57I think other people see me.
- 34:58That's part of what getting to Good Riddance is all about,
- 35:03is all these domains have now influenced you.
- 35:07You're in a relationship that's done
- 35:12and now what do you do?
- 35:14That's why, folks, you really please go get a copy of this book.
- 35:19It will give you an insight into what may have happened before.
- 35:23It will help you to help other people who may be going through it.
- 35:27And hopefully you don't go through it again yourself.
- 35:31Because
- 35:33we are social animals
- 35:36and we want to be with other people.
- 35:38So when we are rejected
- 35:42all sorts of things can happen.
- 35:44And you know what I will add to that?
- 35:48I think that
- 35:50we have to learn to be kinder to ourselves
- 35:53because that we can learn to love ourselves.
- 35:58And I think that
- 36:01that doesn't mean that we have to celebrate every single quality we have.
- 36:05There are always going to be things that we don't like, but I think that
- 36:10in a breakup, it's a very painful time.
- 36:12The judgment and all of that self-criticism is optional.
- 36:16And that's you wouldn't say those things to a friend.
- 36:19You wouldn't say them to a colleague, you wouldn't say them to your children.
- 36:23Why are you saying them to yourself?
- 36:25And if you continue to do that, you are not going to be able
- 36:29to move past in a healthy way.
- 36:33That's a great question.
- 36:34Why do we do that to ourselves?
- 36:37I think that there is.
- 36:39Yeah, OK, so
- 36:41this in my own opinion, I think that 11 reason is
- 36:45that we're not looking into our own eyes when we say those things.
- 36:49And we wouldn't say it to other people because we're looking into their face.
- 36:52Right.
- 36:53And we're not like
- 36:54standing in front of a mirror when we're saying these judgmental things.
- 36:57But there's an idea
- 36:58if we beat ourselves up enough, if we criticize ourselves enough,
- 37:02we'll somehow stop ourselves from making the same mistake again, when
- 37:05in fact, I think we're increasing the risk of making those same mistakes again.
- 37:11It's so interesting, isn't it, how difficult it is
- 37:15for us to see ourselves as doing the best we can but even that said, I am
- 37:21leaving that tonight.
- 37:22So with the four demands, the I am approach,
- 37:27the idea is we're always doing the best
- 37:28we can, responding to the four domains of our home
- 37:32domain, the social domain,
- 37:35the biological domain of your brain and body and the eye see how I see myself,
- 37:39how I think other people see me because the domains interact.
- 37:42Small change can have a big effect.
- 37:44You don't need to change everything.
- 37:46It's what small change can you recommend to our listeners
- 37:50in the context of break ups?
- 37:55The simplest answer is stay off social media.
- 37:59I think that social media has a profoundly negative influence
- 38:04on our concept of relationships and love and what is real.
- 38:10So that's a very simple answer, but I think more complicated it probably is.
- 38:15Also goes along with your I Am approach is focus on what you can control,
- 38:19and that is taking care of yourself.
- 38:23That's all you
- 38:24can control, and you can't force somebody to be with you.
- 38:27And why would you want to anyway?
- 38:29Yeah, I call it anti social media.
- 38:32I really do, because it's it just can be so,
- 38:36so toxic.
- 38:39And you move towards the second truth of the I am
- 38:43because everybody has an idea.
- 38:46Everyone's interested in what you think or feel about them through their eyes.
- 38:50You domain, which has an affect on their biological domain
- 38:53because you know it feels different when you feel respected or disrespected.
- 38:57It feels different when somebody says, I want to be with you or I don't
- 39:02because you're part of someone's home and social domain.
- 39:05You control no one.
- 39:07You influence everyone.
- 39:09You get to choose the kind of influence you want to be
- 39:13Jody.
- 39:13It's very hot.
- 39:15Author of multiple books, including Any Good Riddance.
- 39:19What kind of influence do you want to be
- 39:23well.
- 39:23I think it goes back to what we were talking about before,
- 39:26helping people recognize that they're not alone
- 39:29and that they are worthy of finding
- 39:32the happiness they want and don't settle.
- 39:35I think that is my my influence.
- 39:39I want people to realize that they're not alone.
- 39:42They're OK.
- 39:44They're OK.
- 39:45Not alone and valuable. Yeah.
- 39:48And that they will be OK.
- 39:50You're going to get over this
- 39:52it will be OK.
- 39:55Interesting, isn't it?
- 39:56Because at the moment it just feels like this is all that happens
- 40:00and there's brain science behind that
- 40:03because your limbic system is activated.
- 40:06Very difficult to think about the future, what will happen next
- 40:13so Mark and Tom,
- 40:15we actually have a minute or two left.
- 40:17And how does this resonate with you?
- 40:20Is Mark, you've got some sense
- 40:23they may at some point be going through this time.
- 40:26You're still compared to me quite young.
- 40:30So some things maybe the the data, as many people as possible
- 40:34seem resonates and will be you know, has been somewhat the advice
- 40:41I've given them, but not within a, you know, real strength because I didn't
- 40:46really have a reason to truly understand why but it makes so much sense
- 40:52because the more people you meet in that you become vulnerable and intimate and
- 40:57close with, you learn more about yourself right?
- 41:01So keep moving and keep meeting.
- 41:04Yeah.
- 41:06And always be honest. Right.
- 41:08Agreed. Yeah.
- 41:09The never subtle thing resonates with me because I figure is it just me
- 41:15that it's weird that we have a societal expectation to, like,
- 41:18just find someone eventually to spend the rest of your life with.
- 41:22Just share the same bed with every night.
- 41:24Like, you better make sure it's the right one
- 41:28for sure.
- 41:29Well, that's something I hope for everybody who's listening
- 41:33and to recognize that
- 41:36you are valuable.
- 41:38So make sure that the person that you are with treats you
- 41:43with value
- 41:45Jodi, thanks so much for coming on the show.
- 41:47We can't wait to see you next February.
- 41:49Talk about the new book for sure.
- 41:51You for having me.
- 41:53Good night, everybody.
- 41:54We'll see you next week.
- 41:56Starts the primary budget madness.
- 41:58This isn't just to show them.
- 42:01Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
- 42:04Go, go, go.
- 42:06Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.