Almost Advice: How to Take Care of Yourself

Explicit content warning

02/23/25 • 41 min

"Self-care" has become a buzzword, repackaged and sold to us as $8 green juices, expensive meditation apps, and Instagrammable bath bombs. But let’s be real—none of that actually fixes the feeling of barely holding it together. So what does real self-care look like, especially when your brain is actively working against you? In this episode, we’re cutting through the BS and talking about what actually helps.

First, we get into the fundamentals—sleep, nutrition, movement, and why your brain hates doing things that are good for it. Then, we tackle the mental health industrial complex—why some advice is solid, some is useless, and some is just another way to make you feel like you’re failing at life. Finally, we talk about survival strategies that actually work—how to trick your brain into cooperating, why humor is an underrated coping skill, and why sometimes, the best self-care is just getting through the day in one piece.

Whether you’re dealing with burnout, depression, or just trying to function in a world that demands way too much, this episode is for you. No toxic positivity, no impossible standards—just real talk about how to keep going, one ridiculous day at a time.

All music found on Pixabay

All music found on Pixabay

Previous Episode

Into the Fog of Psychosis Part 2: Aftermath

New Year’s Eve has always been my favorite holiday—until 2018, when it became a dividing line between the person I was before my hospitalization and the one I was trying to become after. In Into the Fog of Psychosis: Part 2, I walk you through what comes next—the exhaustion of recovery, the identity crisis that follows psychosis, and the quiet war of trying to exist in a world that wasn’t built for people like me.

From job interviews that feel like performances to the infuriating reality of getting (and affording) the right medication, this episode is about what happens after the crisis, when the world expects you to be fine again. Because the truth is, recovery isn’t linear, it isn’t neat, and sometimes, just existing is the biggest battle of all.

All music found on Pixabay

Next Episode

David Fincher, Chuck Palahniuk & The Fight for Control

Ever feel like you’re trapped inside a meticulously crafted David Fincher thriller or a Chuck Palahniuk fever dream? You might be. In this episode, we dive into two of the most fascinating, unsettling, and two of my favorite creators of all time—David Fincher and Chuck Palahniuk—exploring how their work dissects power, obsession, identity, and the illusion of control.

I’ll unpack why Fincher’s characters believe they can master the chaos and why Palahniuk’s characters surrender to it, the real horror of Fight Club, and how these stories resonate with mental illness, self-destruction, and the search for meaning in a world that doesn’t care. If you’ve ever felt like life is just one long nihilistic monologue with a Trent Reznor soundtrack, this episode is for you.

Beneath the Noise - Almost Advice: How to Take Care of Yourself

Transcript

Welcome to Beneath the Noise .

If you're here, you're probably familiar with the chaos of life—especially when you're living with mental illness. It’s the constant tension between control and surrender, between trying to keep it together and watching everything unravel. Today, we’re talking about what it really means to manage that mess. Not just the stuff people tell you to do—exercise, eat well, go to therapy. We’re going beyond the basics an