Inside Mental Health

“I’m fine” can be one of the most convincing ways to hide that something is wrong. For many women, anxiety and depression can remain invisible behind careers, relationships, family responsibilities, and the expectation to simply keep going. In this episode, host Gabe Howard talks with psychiatrist Dr. Helen Blair Simpson, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Director of the Center for OCD and Related Disorders, and an ADAA member expert, about why women experience anxiety and depression at higher rates than men and why so many continue to suffer in silence.

Dr. Simpson explains why the difference cannot be reduced to hormones or biology alone. Biological changes across the life span, including pregnancy, postpartum periods, and menopause, interact with psychological and social factors in ways researchers are still working to understand. But how do you know when ordinary stress, sadness, or worry crosses the line into a mental health condition? Dr. Simpson explains why persistence, recurrence, distress, and impairment matter — and why effective treatments are available.

Listeners will learn:


how stigma keeps women from seeking help

why mental health treatment isn’t an instant fix

why asking for help is a sign of strength

how self-assessments can identify mental health concerns


Sometimes “I’m fine” means everything is fine. Sometimes it means, “I don’t know how to ask for help.” This conversation explores the difference. Listen now!



Educational funding for this episode has been provided by Lancôme. To learn more about the "I'm Fine" campaign, please visit ImFine.com.



“I would never want someone to take away all my sad feelings. That's what makes you feel love and loss. . .” ~H. Blair Simpson, MD, PhD 



Our guest, Helen Blair Simpson, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical College (CUIMC). A physician-scientist whose research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) since 1999 as well as by foundations and philanthropy, Dr. Simpson uses clinical trials to identify the best treatments for anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), collaborates with neuroscientists to elucidate how the brain produces anxiety, obsessions, and compulsions, and partners with implementation scientists to increase access across New York State to evidence-based care. A past advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the classification of anxiety disorders and OCD, co-author of the American Psychiatric Association’s Practice Guidelines for OCD, and Past President of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), Dr. Simpson currently serves as Associate Editor of JAMA Psychiatry.



Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author. Gabe is also the host of the "Inside Bipolar" podcast with Dr. Nicole Washington.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without. To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.




To learn more about the "I'm Fine" campaign, please visit ImFine.com.

What if the person everyone thinks has it all together is actually struggling with depression, and they don’t even know how to express it? What if that person is you?

Clinical psychologist Dr. Margaret Rutherford joins host Gabe Howard to explore perfectly hidden depression, a pattern in which perfectionism, achievement, responsibility, and constant productivity can conceal serious emotional pain. These aren’t necessarily people pretending to be happy or deliberately creating a perfect life. They may genuinely believe that continually striving, helping others, solving problems, and staying “on” is simply who they are, which can make depression incredibly difficult to recognize.

Listeners will learn:


why success doesn’t necessarily mean someone isn’t depressed

why “fake it till you make it” can miss the real problem

how being “the responsible one” can become a trap

where to begin when perfectionism is causing emotional pain


Most importantly, this conversation isn’t about eliminating ambition, responsibility, or gratitude. It’s about having choices. Dr. Rutherford explains how recognizing destructive patterns can help people decide what they want to keep, what they want to change, and where they need to give themselves permission to be something other than “perfect.”

If you or someone you love always seems fine, successful, responsible, and endlessly capable, this conversation may give you a different way to look beneath the surface.



“Perfectionism can actually become its own prison where you feel trapped in this life of, ‘but everybody looks up to me.’” ~Dr. Margaret Rutherford



Our guest, Dr. Margaret Rutherford, is a clinical psychologist whose TEDx Talk on Perfectly Hidden Depression has reached 2+ million viewers. Her work has been translated into dozens of languages and offers life changing insights for sufferers, families, and friends.

Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author. Gabe is also the host of the "Inside Bipolar" podcast with Dr. Nicole Washington.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without. To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.



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Psychedelics are having a moment in mental health care. Research is showing promising results for conditions including depression, treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and PTSD. But how much do we actually know — and how much is hype?

ADAA member expert and licensed psychologist Jonathan Schettino, PhD, explains how psychedelics went from being viewed primarily as illegal drugs to becoming the subject of serious clinical research. He breaks down what happens during psychedelic-assisted therapy, why standardized dosing matters, and why treatment involves much more than simply taking a psychedelic and “tripping.”

Listeners will learn:


how researchers control psychedelic doses in clinical trials

why psychedelics aren't yet FDA-approved treatments

whether psychotherapy makes psychedelic treatment more effective


The research is promising, but the science isn't settled. This conversation explains what we know, what we don't know, and why the next few years could be critical for understanding the future of psychedelic-assisted mental health treatment. Listen now!

This episode has been sponsored by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).



Our guest, Dr. Jonathan Schettino, is a licensed psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders and OCD as well as research on approaches to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. He received his AB in psychology from Princeton University in 2004 and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA in 2012. He completed his predoctoral psychology internship at St. Elizabeths forensic psychiatric hospital in Washington DC and postdoctoral training in personality assessment research at Otto-Friedrich Universität in Bamberg, Germany. He owns a small private psychology practice in Baltimore and has an appointment as a research psychologist at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University. 

Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author. Gabe is also the host of the "Inside Bipolar" podcast with Dr. Nicole Washington.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without. To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.




This episode has been sponsored by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).

What if some of the anxiety, depression, and mental health issues we experience aren't simply problems inside us? What if they're actually signals telling us something about the world around us?

Psychiatrist and author Dr. Joanna Cheek joins the show to challenge the way we think about mental health, diagnosis, treatment, and self-care. Her argument isn't that mental health disorders aren't real. They're real, they can be debilitating, and they deserve professional treatment. But focusing only on the individual can cause us to miss external factors that could be a contributing factor.

Focusing on the world or external circumstances raises complicated questions. For example, if anxiety can be a normal response to danger, when does it become an anxiety disorder? If low mood can be a signal that something in our environment isn't working, when does it become depression? And if treatment helps us feel better, does that mean the problem is solved?

Listeners Will Learn:

·      Why self-care alone may not be enough to improve mental health

·      What “collective care” means and why it matters

·      How small acts of kindness and connection can benefit well-being

·      Why anxiety and low mood aren't automatically mental health disorders

This episode isn't an argument against mental health treatment. It's about asking a bigger question: What if we're treating the symptoms without paying enough attention to what's causing them? Listen now for a fascinating conversation about what we misunderstand about mental health—and what we might be able to do about it.



“Self-care isn’t enough. We need to care for our collectives because this world will keep making us sick.” ~Dr. Joanna Cheek, Author of “It's Not You It's the World”

Our guest, Joanna Cheek, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist, psychotherapist trained in dozens of modalities, researcher, meditation teacher, journalist, and Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine. She co-created the national-award-winning Mind Space collective, offering publicly-funded mental health workshops to teach effective mental health strategies through connection and care to tens of thousands of community members and physicians who, like us all, experience the mental health symptoms that arise from living in a disordered world.



Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author. Gabe is also the host of the "Inside Bipolar" podcast with Dr. Nicole Washington.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without. To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.

Men die by suicide at dramatically higher rates than women, accounting for nearly 80% of suicide deaths. Yet many men who are struggling never seek mental health support — and the consequences can be deadly.

On this episode, host Gabe Howard talks with psychiatrist Dr. Sanjay Mathew, board president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), and Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men and author of “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It.”The conversation explores why traditional mental health language and services may not resonate with some men, how anger and irritability can be overlooked warning signs, and why men may be reluctant to seek or continue treatment. They examine the importance of friendship, community, purpose, and feeling needed — and why men may sometimes hold themselves to such high standards that they count themselves out before they even begin.Listeners will learn:


how adjusting the language around mental health may increase engagement among men

why connection and belonging can be critical to men's well-being

how friends and family can help prevent male suicide 

why mental health treatment and therapy are a sign of strength, not weakness


Most importantly, the episode challenges the idea that improving men's mental health means taking anything away from women. The goal, the guests argue, is not either/or — it's helping everyone thrive. Listen now to learn more.

This episode has been sponsored by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). 



“I think sending that message to men and perhaps especially to young men, ‘We need you,’ is actually something that as a culture, we're not doing very well now.” ~Richard Reeves, author of “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It”

Our guest, Richard V. Reeves, is the founder and president of the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM). Before founding AIBM in 2023, Reeves was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. While at Brookings, he focused on policies related to economic inequality, racial justice, social mobility, and boys and men.

Reeves is the author of several books, including “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to do About It” and “Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That is a Problem, and What to do About It.”

Inspired by his own experiences as a father and policy expert, Reeves founded AIBM to bring awareness to the challenges facing boys and men today and to develop evidence-based solutions.

Our guest, Dr. Sanjay Mathew, is a professor and department head in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Texas A&M University’s Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine.



Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author. Gabe is also the host of the "Inside Bipolar" podcast with Dr. Nicole Washington.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without. To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.