When people visit a therapist’s office for help with their depression, they often don’t find the relief they’re seeking. That’s because much of the counsel that is traditionally given doesn’t offer the context people need to make sense of and preserve their mental well-being.

Here to share these missing pieces of perspective and strategy is Dr. Scott Eilers, a clinical psychologist and the author of The Light Between the Leaves: 6 Truths Your Therapist Won’t Tell You About Healing Depression and Trauma. Today on the show, Scott shares why the world of psychology doesn’t always offer the most useful explanations for why people can sometimes feel alienated from their own lives. We then talk about insights Scott has gleaned from science, nature, and lived experience as to the mindset shifts and habits that can help you stay sharp, steady, and engaged in life — whether you’re struggling with chronic depression, or just adrift in a low-grade funk.

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Transcript

Brett McKay:

Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the AoM podcast. When people visit a therapist’s office for help with their depression, they often don’t find the relief they’re seeking. That’s because much of the counsel that is traditionally given doesn’t offer the context people need to make sense of and preserve their mental wellbeing. Here to share these missing pieces of perspective and strategies is Dr. Scott Eilers, the clinical psychologist and the author of the book The Light Between the Leaves: Six Truths Your Therapist Won’t Tell You About Healing Depression and Trauma. Today on the show, Scott shares why the world of psychology doesn’t always offer the most useful explanations for why people can sometimes feel alienated from their own lives. We then talk about insights Scott has gleaned from science, nature, and lived experience as to the mindset shifts and habits that can help you stay sharp, steady, and engaged in life. Whether you’re struggling with chronic depression or just adrift in a low grade funk. After the show’s over, check at our show notes at aom.is/leaves. All right, Scott Eilers, welcome to the show.

Dr. Scott Eilers:

Thanks so much for having me, Brett. I am very excited to be here. I’ve been getting value out of listening to your podcast for a long time, and I’m excited to be able to hopefully give back a little bit.

Brett McKay:

Well, thanks for listening. I appreciate it. So you are a clinical psychologist who specializes in helping people with conditions like bipolar disorder and severe depression, severe anxiety. You got a new book out called The Light Between the Leaves. Basically, you share insights from your career, but also from your own life. You talk about in the book, you began your career as a psychologist because you were trying to seek treatment for your own depression. Can you walk us through your history with depression?

Dr. Scott Eilers:

Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly right. The first time I distinctly remember feeling a deep sense of depression was in seventh grade. I think that probably wasn’t actually the first time I experienced it, but you know how childhood memories are. They can be a little bit foggy. I know I was never exactly what you would call a happy child, but there was one distinct moment. I will never forget it, and it just came out of absolutely nowhere. This was in swimming class. So I’m in a swimming pool with my buddies in school, and all of a sudden I noticed I just didn’t feel any happiness. And it wasn’t even like I was bored or disinterested. It was, it was gone. My ability to connect with anything resembling a positive emotion was just shut down and it came out of nowhere and it didn’t seem to be about anything.

I felt like someone I loved had just died, but nothing had happened. And I was baffled and scared, and I remember I kind of crawled out of the pool and just sat on the edge with my head in my hands and I could hardly even talk. And my friends were like, did something happen? What’s wrong? And I didn’t even know how to answer them. And I remember I just went home and just laid in bed all day and I had no idea what was happening at the time. Only with the benefit of hindsight am I able to say, oh, that was a depressive episode, and it didn’t go away th...