In 1953, Mental Health America cast a three-hundred-pound bell from the chains and shackles used to physically restrain patients in psychiatric asylums. Seventy-three years later, what Mental Health Awareness Month has become is a candle on the end-cap at the mall.
In this episode, I take apart what happened between the bell and the candle — and what an actual awareness month would do if it weren’t being run by marketers. For the woman who’s been doing the work all month and feels weirder about May than she did when it started.
The Spiral with Lauren Tobey — the science of stress, burnout, identity, and why you feel the way you feel. For the woman who’s done everything right and still doesn’t feel like herself. Here, we finally figure out why.
Timestamps
00:01-01:04 Introduction to Mental Health Awareness Month
01:06-02:01 The Bell and Its Significance
02:05-03:52 Cultural Shift from Bell to Candle
04:13-05:34 The Original Purpose of Awareness
05:34-07:16 Current State of Mental Health Awareness
07:39-09:42 The Performance of Awareness Months
10:09-13:59 Supporting Mental Health Beyond Awareness
14:00-16:54 Diagnostic Erasure and Pharmaceutical Influence
17:26-19:45 What True Awareness Should Look Like
21:30-25:38 Personal Reflection and Call to Action
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About the Show
The Spiral is a podcast about complex trauma, nervous system literacy, and the women who got told their pain didn’t count. Trauma-informed coach and author Lauren Tobey walks you through the Spiral Framework — the four states (Ashes, Ember, Flame, Rise), the threat and safety databases your body has been running without your permission, and the Machine that’s been making your decisions while you thought you were.
This is for the woman who’s been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, ADHD, or borderline when what was actually happening was a nervous system response to sustained relational harm. The one who looks high-functioning and is internally on a back porch staring at nothing.
It counts because your nervous system counted it.
Keywords
complex trauma podcast, cPTSD, nervous system regulation, trauma-informed coaching, polyvagal theory, women’s mental health, high-functioning anxiety, freeze response, dorsal vagal shutdown, fawn response, people pleasing recovery, codependency recovery, narcissistic abuse recovery, gaslighting recovery, mom burnout, perimenopause and trauma, ADHD misdiagnosis, BPD misdiagnosis, autism in women, childhood emotional neglect, attachment trauma, intergenerational trauma, religious trauma, hypervigilance, dissociation, Spiraling Into Control, the Spiral Framework, Ashes Ember Flame Rise, Lauren Tobey
