Poison Waters - "Painting on a smile."

02/08/21 • 62 min

Meet Poison Waters (aka Kevin Cook): one of the most popular drag queens in Portland, Oregon. She's glamorous and is full of infectious positivity - if you've ever been in the same room (or Zoom!) as her, you know the power of her smile. Yet recently, Poison realized that sometimes she was "just painting on a smile," covering up her emotions with makeup and big hair, and eventually that all built up and had to come out. All the sadness, the anxiety, the stress and overwhelm about the state of the world... It's a lot! So Poison and I talked about letting our emotions out, embracing your weird and being uniquely yourself, and the importance of taking days off.

You can keep up with Mentally Together on Instagram @mentallytogetherpod. Cassidy's Instagram is @cassidyquinntv, and you can watch the video version of each podcast episode at YouTube.com/cassidyquinn.

Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/cassidyquinn.
Books recommended by Mentally Together guests (including an anxiety book recommended by Poison Waters!): https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together
Mentally Together is a creation from Cassidy Quinn in collaboration with Coba.fm.

The Plant Doctors
If you're a crazy plant person like me, you'll love The Plant Doctors. Use code CASSIDY for 15% off.
GroundUp Nut Butter
Nut butters that spread good by helping women overcome adversity. Use MENTALLYTOGETHER for 15% off.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Support the show

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Previous Episode

Shoshana Bean - "What if you're enough?"

For our second episode, meet Shoshana Bean! She's an actress, singer, just an incredible performer. You may have seen her as Elphaba in the musical Wicked on Broadway, or more recently, as Jenna in Waitress on Broadway. And when she’s not performing on Broadway, she’s working on her solo career, where she’s sold out concerts around the world. Yeah, she’s talented, she’s creative, she’s gorgeous, and she’s just a lovely HUMAN! But as we all know on this podcast, just because everything seems perfect from the outside, doesn’t mean that person doesn’t have mental struggles they deal with every day.

So Shoshana and I talk about - living in the uncomfortable, the importance of letting your emotions out, how to retrain your brain to tell yourself positive things instead of negative things, and why it’s *so dang hard to know that we are ENOUGH in this world.

Join Cassidy on Patreon at Patreon.com/cassidyquinn.
Mentally Together is a creation from Cassidy Quinn in collaboration with Coba.fm.

The Plant Doctors
If you're a crazy plant person like me, you'll love The Plant Doctors. Use code CASSIDY for 15% off.
Zoom+Care
ZoomCare offers same-day doctor visits—that you can book online or from their app.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together

Next Episode

Ashley McGirt - Therapy and racial trauma

THERAPY. Of course, it's come up on multiple episodes of our pod so far, because DUH this is a mental health podcast. So this episode, we have an actual therapist - Ashley McGirt! She’s also an author, a public speaker, and a wonderful human doing hard work to break down the stigma around mental illness.

Ashley is one of the leading therapists in the US specializing in racial trauma. She’s spoken about it at many events, including a Tedx Talk called Dying While Black: Links between mental health, chronic stress, and death. And recently, she started the Washington Therapy Fund, which provides free therapy to help eliminate the financial barriers to Black healing.

So we talked about what inspired her to become a therapist, racial trauma & the history of racism in the mental health field, and what exactly therapy entails - you know, for those of us who may or may not have been there before...

Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/cassidyquinn.
Pre-order Ashley’s new book, Mental Health Survival Kit for Anti-Racist Advocates
Donate to the WA Therapy Fund to provide free therapy to help eliminate the financial barriers to Black healing.

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests (including Ashley's other book about mental health tips for travelers!): https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together
Mentally Together is a creation from Cassidy Quinn in collaboration with Coba.fm.

Zoom+Care
ZoomCare offers same-day doctor visits—that you can book online or from their app.
GroundUp Nut Butter
Nut butters that spread good by helping women overcome adversity. Use MENTALLYTOGETHER for 15% off.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Books recommended by Mentally Together guests: https://bookshop.org/lists/mentally-together