In this episode, G-Rex and Dirty Skittles dive deep into mental health, creativity, and resilience with their special guest, Mary K. Savarese. Mary, a traditionally published, best-selling, and award-winning fiction author, shares her journey through anxiety and how writing became her lifeline. Known for her quirky titles and imaginative storytelling, Mary K. Savarese has captivated readers with her debut novel, Tigers Love Bubble Baths & Obsession Perfume (who knew!), a mystery romance with a supernatural twist that has won eight prestigious awards.
In this conversation, Mary opens up about how her creative process has helped her manage anxiety, especially during major life transitions like becoming an empty nester. G-Rex and Dirty Skittles also share their experiences with mental health, offering insights into the tools and strategies that have helped them cope with depression and anxiety.
Key Takeaways from This Episode:- Creative Outlets as Therapy: Discover how engaging in creative activities, like writing or journaling, can be powerful tools for managing mental health.
- Coping with Major Life Changes: Learn about the impact of life transitions, such as becoming an empty nester, on mental health and how to navigate them.
- Building Resilience: Hear personal stories from Mary, G-Rex, and Dirty Skittles about their battles with anxiety and depression and the strategies theyâve developed to build resilience.
- The Power of Persistence: Maryâs journey shows the importance of perseverance, especially when facing rejection or setbacks in any creative endeavor.
This month, weâre thrilled to be sponsored by X-Sense Smoke Alarms! Keep your home and loved ones safe with X-Sense smoke alarms. These advanced alarms connect directly to your mobile phone, providing real-time alerts and peace of mind no matter where you are. Plus, you can enjoy a 20% discount with the code XSENSESD. Click here to purchase and secure your home today!
Connect with Our Guest, Mary K. Savarese:- Website: https://www.maryksavarese.com/
- Books: https://www.starwriterstrilogy.com/
- Twitter: @maryksavarese
- Instagram: @maryksavarese
- Facebook: Mary K. Savarese Author
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, reach out to the crisis hotline in your area. It's OK not to be OKâmake sure you're talking to someone.
- United States: 988 - https://988lifeline.org/talk-to-someone-now/
- Canada: 988 - https://988.ca/
- Worldwide: Crisis Lifeline
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Audio Editing by NJz Audio.
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#MentalHealth #AnxietyRelief #CreativeTherapy #WritingAsHealing #Resilience #MentalHealthJourney #MaryKSavarese #AuthorInterview #SelfCare #EmptyNester #OvercomingAnxiety #MentalHealthPodcast #FantasyAuthor #DepressionSupport #HealingThroughCreativity #PodcastLife #MentalWellness #CreativeWriting #CopingStrategies #SelfHelp #MentalHealthPodcast #Grex #Dirtyskittles #STGOIOH
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Hey there, listeners. Welcome to Shit That Goes On In Our Heads,
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the podcast where we normalize conversations around mental health.
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That's right. I'm Dirty Skittles, and alongside my amazing co-host,
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Hugh Rex, we are here to share real stories and tips from our incredible guests.
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Each episode, we deep dive into struggles and triumphs of mental health,
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offering practical advice and heartfelt support. because no one should feel alone in their journey.
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Join us as we break the stigma and build a community of understanding and compassion.
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Tune in and let's start talking about the shit that goes on in our heads.
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Three, two, one. Welcome back to another episode of Shit That Goes On In Our
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Heads. I'm Dirty Skittles.
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Me and G-Rex are joined here today by Mary Faye Savarese. Welcome, Mary.
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Welcome, Mary. Thank you so much for having me, Jurex and Dirty Skittles.
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I am so thrilled to be here.
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I am too. I am too. I have to ask, what's the poster behind you?
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Those are my two books in my trilogy. The first one is, I write with quirky titles.
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So the first one is The Girl in the Toile Wallpaper.
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My genre is fantasy adventure because reality is too real for me.
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And the second book coming out next week is the star writers club fantasy adventure.
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I like game oh my
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genre of like what i what i have been reading as of late might be a little bit
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different i mean it's fantasy but i now have fallen into the spicy book content
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so the adult romance type stuff so yeah everything is good what about you g-rex
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what are you reading these days she is dying,
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I am dying I've been reading a lot of self-help books lately I found myself
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kind of getting back into like a depression path so I just started reading some
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books and doing a lot of journaling more than reading.
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Yeah, I hear you. So we're on two opposite sides of the world, aren't we?
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Yeah, we are. You still go to shit and I still work for a great company,
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but I, you know, I needed a release. So I just started writing again.
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Yeah, I hear you. Well, welcome. So what got you into writing?
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You know, many years ago, I always had these ideas to create a fantasy world
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and I raised the family and everything worked, everything, the volunteering, the work.
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And my time always went on the back burner.
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So I always had this desire and I had to prove it to myself.
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So once they had three kids, older kids, once they started to go off to college,
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I just sat down and I I started to put my ideas down on paper.
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This was over 10 years ago. And my goal back then was to become a traditionally
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published fiction author.
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And little did I know, talk about a shit show, because rejection after rejection.
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And back then, self-publishing was taboo. It's not what it is today. day.
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And it took me over 10 years to find, well, to have a publisher come to me,
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a small publishing house and say, hey, we're interested.
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But I always joke that I'm an overnight success, a 10-year overnight success.
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But part of that journey for me and being with you here today,
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it really helped Helps me in the dark times of my life, becoming an empty nester
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and not dealing with that anymore,
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but dealing with other issues that I have to come to terms with now.
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And what I loved about going through your recent shows are the tools you need.
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To do that because it's never-ending. Never. As you said, D-Rex, it's journaling.
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You know, it's just never-ending. And I find myself dealing with new anxiety
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things in my life that I didn't deal with before.
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So it's a journey. It is a journey. You know, it's funny, like depression just
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kind of creeps back up on you and kind of comes out from nowhere.
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Nowhere now this one kind of had a reason for coming
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back but it came back and I was like well you know I
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have tools one of my tools is journaling so I
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just started writing and writing and I the more I wrote the
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better I felt and also just kind of stepping away from social media for a little
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bit helped immensely yeah question yes when you have you always kind of had
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like this want to be creative in the outlet of writing or did it one day you're
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like let me just give it a shot and it worked.
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And I love, that's what you are and what I am. We are creative. I just love that term.
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Like I said, it was always something, it was a passion that was always in my
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belly and it took a while for, as I said, I had to have time for myself.
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And once the kids started to leave the nest,
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That's where my writing really took off.
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And I journal everything myself, titles.
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Like for me, I write with quirky titles.
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The title of my first debuting novel is Tiger's Love, Bubble Bats, and Obsession Perfume.
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Who knew? And that was a murder mystery.
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And that was the first book that I received a contract for.
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So it's always been, I start with something in my life that I'm exposed to.
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And that particular title, I had visited a reserve in St.
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Augustine, a wildlife reserve, and there was this beautiful 600-pound Siberian
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tiger that walked across the plank and slipped into this dad of bubbles,
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and they sprayed Obsession perfume on the tiger's tongue.
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And I went, my God, my mouth was open.
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I said, that is the title of my next novel, because here's this creature.
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He was like a person just swimming in the bubble.
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And I created a whole story around that. And basically, the girl in the Toile
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wallpaper, when I live in Florida now, back then I lived in Connecticut and
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I loved Toile. Now, Toile is not a mural.
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Toile is very artistic. It can be fabric.
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It can be wallpaper, anything. It's been around for centuries.
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And it's two very vibrant colors.
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And it tells a story. It has different themes. and I loved it so much. I had it so much.
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I had so much wallpaper in my house. I couldn't even sell my house because they
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said it was just too much.
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But when I looked at that wallpaper, I saw love, I saw betrayal,
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I saw everything. And I wrote the story.
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And, you know, and back, and after, you would think as a creative,
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as an author, the Tigers book did exceptionally well. Now, award-winning,
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eight awards, best-selling.
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And then when I went to my publisher, I said, I have an idea for a trilogy.
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And they said, we're not interested in trilogies.
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And I approached another small publishing house, an all-women's publishing house,
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and they were interested.
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And then I went, oh, can I say the word? S-H-I-T?
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Yes, you can. Absolutely. I went, oh shit, I just sold them a trilogy.
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I'm halfway through the first one. I have a general idea of the second one and
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I have a general idea of the third one.
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And it was like, oh my God, talk about anxiety. But one thing I find is a creative thing.
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This is what helps me. I hate the marketing part.
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I hate all of that. The girl in the twirl wallpaper has won like six awards.
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But I love the creative part because I've learned, I deal with severe anxiety.
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And I learned that if I am creating, all that goes away.
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So that is my desire. That is my passion.
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My husband runs around does a million things I'm a homebody just lead me to
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my writing and I am in heaven that's my love language you're talking about my
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life I'm like that just sounds perfect to me so I'm I have to like take a moment
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here because I find it very interesting your creative,
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outlet right helped you deal with anxiety and then
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g-rex you also going through your battle
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depression and just life and turning to journaling to
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help you with that and I just think it's like the both of
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you are on the same level but just different sides of
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that scale so I just think that's super interesting
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and I had to at least acknowledge it so G-Rex for you where
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you are now because I know you're writing is I
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know the last time we talked you were having like a bit of a writer's block are
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you still there or are you able to kind of work through at least journaling
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through it well over the last you know a couple weeks you know i got a trauma
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response right so i was able to take that trauma response and it opened up a
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block so i've now been able to like really.
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Take like that trauma that happened right around christmas time and put it on
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paper and that's exactly where i want it i want it out of my head and onto some
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paper but it's very healing like Like, I would say over the last week,
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I've probably written like over 100 pages and just like really like zoned in on that.
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My little empathetic heart needed to find an outlet.
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And so after I talked to my therapist, she's like, go back to writing.
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So I did. I went back to writing and it's night and day.
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I'm able to take all that negativity and all the hurt and all the pain and put
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it on paper. And then once I do that, I can walk away and I feel so much better.
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And I really think that like journaling is great. And sometimes it's not words.
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Sometimes it's doodles.
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Sometimes it's just random thoughts. But when I went back and read it,
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I was like, damn, this is good.
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I think that's what happens, right? Like I think when you start to feed that
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part of yourself and like invest time back into something that's making you
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happy or it's serving a purpose for you.
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I just think that's the best to just be able to dive into yourself like that.
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Mary Kay, when your kids left, like when you became an empty nester,
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did you find that's really when your anxiety like really started to kick in?
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You know, I've had anxiety my whole life, but not something that I wasn't,
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I didn't even think about it.
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It's not something I wasn't able to control.
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And sometimes there's an anxiety that is good because it prevents you from procrastinating.
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But then there's that bad anxiety. So, basically, what happened for me when
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the third was a senior in college, something went on that subconscious level in my brain.
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And what happened to me was it exposed, that anxiety exposed itself physically.
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Physically, I would be standing.
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I remember I was standing, my legs would go numb, my arms would go numb.
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And I had no idea it was this severe anxiety.
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So at that point, I had all these physical tests done and there was nothing wrong.
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That's where you start. And that's when they say, look, time to get some help.
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And I always avoided that. I'm like, I don't need any help? I could figure this out by myself, right?
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Women, we wear so many hats and we're always doing a million things.
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Well, it got worse and worse. And thank God that I did have a very close friend.
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She said, no, we're going to get you into therapy. And that is where I did go
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on medication for severe anxiety and the tools began.
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And for me, and it took me a year and a half to come to the realization that
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I had to deal with this, that my family unit was dead.
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And what I mean by that is the babies I raised, the toddlers I chased after,
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the teenagers, I would stay up all night waiting for them to come home. They were gone.
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And my brain just wasn't able to accept that.
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And once I worked with the tools, as you said, G-Rex, the journaling, the breathing,
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the, you know, and it's, you know, you turn to like, I turned to the Prosecco
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and that you learn just makes things worse and you have to weigh everything in your life.
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But, you know, and then I'm grateful that I did go through that journey because
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I ended up on the other side.
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And you learn and you're able to deal with it. And this is life.
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Yeah, I like that you said go through that journey. Because I think sometimes
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when I hear you got to move past it, I don't like hearing that.
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I'm like, no, you've got to, you've got to find the way to get through it,
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whatever that looks like for you and find your hour. And you're right. I mean, it never ends.
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And, you know, I'll get these nice little motivational things every day.
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And I just want to share this with your audience because it was so apropos for
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this meeting with you guys today that your brain is your worst enemy.
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And then it's your most beautiful, most wonderful friend.
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You just have to learn how to traverse through it.
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To, you know, to understand it. And the other thing is fear.
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If you give into that fear and you run away, it'll never help you.
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But if you say, yeah, I'm going to deal with that and get through it,
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you're usually able to pat yourself on the back and say, man,
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this was the greatest experience.
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I'm so happy I did that. And I said, oh, I've got to share that with both of
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you today because that is so true for so many of us.
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Yeah. And if I could add to that, it's also like, don't give up because I think
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the first time we try something that's hard, if it doesn't really,
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if it's too hard, at least for me, I'll, I couldn't do this and then kind of give up on it.
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But if you keep at it and try again, you'll be surprised because you'll get different results.
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I think of that like with speed dating my therapist, right? So I went through
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three therapists before I found someone that worked.
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But like I put in the work. I put in a lot of work over the last 19 months.
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I'm so happy to be alive. And I'm happy I went through what I went through.
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Because I don't think that I would be at some point in my life where I am right
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now. It's still hard some days.
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Like I'll admit I cried the other day. I hadn't cried in a while.
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But I cried and then I wrote. and then I felt better and I slept through the night.
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So, you know, it ebbs and flows, right?
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Like some days you're like really good and then all of a sudden something happens
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and you hit rock bottom again.
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But it's climbing back up to the top and using your tools to get you back to
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the top is what's helped me.
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And, you know, I'm going to be 61 in a couple of weeks, but,
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you know, it's all these things that I'm learning now that I wish that I would
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have learned probably 20, 30 years ago because I think it would have made life a little bit easier.
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And that's why I'm so happy we do this podcast because we have our age range is like 24 to 59.
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So if some 20 year olds out there listening to this, I can use these tools.
00:16:59
Your life will be so much better. You know, I love that you said that because
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30 years ago we were told, oh my God, it's taboo.
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You don't want to see a therapist. You know, it was like the plague.
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So we didn't have the tools. You kind of just went on and some people didn't make it.
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You know, but I'm just so happy that, you know, you guys are out there and you're spreading the word.
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And because everybody goes through this, nobody's like free from this.
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Maybe that happens in the afterlife, but it's like, we all have to deal with this.
00:17:41
Yeah. Mary, do you sometimes wonder, like, I wish I would have started writing
00:17:46
when my kids were in the house before that life change happened?
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Or are you, what are your thoughts on that?
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Yeah, I love that question because I say, like, my theme throughout my trilogy
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is, it is written in the stars, which means that's your destiny.
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And it wasn't, and things that are meant to happen for you may not have happened
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yet, but they will happen.
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Happens so for me I don't I
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always say myself don't look back you know it
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wasn't meant to be then and it's
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meant to be now and that's the way
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I look at things yeah yeah I
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sometimes wonder myself like I think it took me a while to find the therapist
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I did and get through what I needed to get through and I'm so grateful for it
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I wonder sometimes should I wish that I would have done this earlier because
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I think to some degree, I wasn't ready for it.
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Even though I thought I was, I just wasn't. I think timing is everything.
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It happened when it needed to happen so that I was capable of handling it. So I just wanted to ask.
00:18:56
Well, you're a badass, so, you know. Who? Yeah, you're a badass.
00:19:04
So, Mary, another question I had is, like, do you rethink about what your books are?
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Or do you have to be in, like, a special mood or atmosphere when you're coming up with your titles?
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Or do they come to you, like, when you're having a little bit of anxiety?
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No, they come to me. like my experiences in
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real life and I always carry this like my little
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notebook and I hear fabulous names or
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I get ideas or I have an experience I'll write it in so I really have titles
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like for another 10 manuscripts I haven't developed the story yet so I begin
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with the title I'll get a general idea of where I wanted to go and then creating
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the characters is the most important thing.
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And then that's what gives me like the greatest joy is to start writing.
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And I always say one thing I did learn from my editor, because my editor would
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send me, if you can see it in your head as the movie, you can put it down on paper.
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And that's what works for me. And she and I go back and forth all the time and argue on whatever.
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But that's what I I enjoy and yeah, sometimes.
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Like I'm relaxed, it'll come to me.
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Other, usually if I'm under severe stress, no, or that anxiety,
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no, it's not coming to me. It does help.
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And then once that starts to happen, you know, it's like that calm that comes
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over because you know what?
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You're not thinking about yourself and the shit that's going on and there's
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something else going on. Your brain is focusing on something else.
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That's that part of it that we have to learn that it's so, so hard.
00:20:58
You could get that brain to focus on something else. And for me,
00:21:02
like I always stress like the hobby,
00:21:04
it's not writing or having a podcast that it's like, if there's something in
00:21:10
your body and your soul that gives you such joy.
00:21:14
That's what's going to help you, right? Right. Yeah.
00:21:18
Like I cannot do what you guys do because that would give me such anxiety.
00:21:23
But to sit at my laptop and to worry about coming up with that doesn't give
00:21:29
me anxiety because for me, I find I write one sentence and then it's like this
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explosion happens in my brain.
00:21:36
It gives me ideas for something like three chapters down the road.
00:21:40
And then I go, that's why I write.
00:21:43
And that's why it gives me such pleasure. sure I have
00:21:46
a question oh go ahead go ahead I was just gonna say I
00:21:49
love that like that's kind of how I do
00:21:51
it but I will actually go outside do a little bit of grounding before I sit
00:21:56
down and do any writing I won't do that in the winter because it's just damn
00:22:00
cold up here but I find a way to ground myself or center myself before I can
00:22:04
start writing I know yourself that's what I was thinking I'm an an ex-New Yorker. I grew up in Brooklyn.
00:22:12
Yeah, winters here suck. But it's okay. It's better than hurricanes.
00:22:17
Yeah, it's true. We have our issues, too. I'm curious.
00:22:21
Do you feel like these books, whether they're fantasy or not,
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are an extension of some part of you?
00:22:28
Oh gosh, an extension of me. Like a piece of who you are.
00:22:35
Here's why I ask. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you where my thought was going.
00:22:39
Because I heard you said a line where sometimes you'll go back and forth with your editor.
00:22:43
And for whatever reason, the immediate thought I had in my mind was like,
00:22:47
oh my gosh, how would I handle that?
00:22:48
Because I would pour myself into some sort of a creative outlet.
00:22:53
But now somebody has to consume that. And I get like this with the podcast,
00:22:57
right? Right. So somebody has to take it in and either like it or not.
00:23:00
Right. So like, how would I be able to stand for something that I created if
00:23:05
somebody else didn't like it?
00:23:06
So that's kind of where I was going with it. Like, how do you,
00:23:09
I guess, stand up for what you've written and what you've created?
00:23:12
Well, one thing I did learn is as an author is any book that is out there,
00:23:18
it begins as a manuscript.
00:23:20
It is that is edited out of it for good reason.
00:23:26
And you can love your editor you can
00:23:29
hate your editor but damn they know what they're doing
00:23:32
and there are many times that I
00:23:35
finally just give in because they say no I want to go but there are times where
00:23:40
I know my characters inside out they're not really me they're figments of my
00:23:46
imagination and as I'm writing I have to ask myself what are these characters
00:23:52
character's motivation.
00:23:53
So I don't walk around and I become the characters like loud.
00:23:57
I become the character in my head to work through like why they should do this
00:24:02
or why they should do that.
00:24:04
And boy, I'll tell you, if there's a reason I feel it is so critical to that
00:24:10
story, I'll fight the editor on it.
00:24:12
But other times it's like they have such incredible ideas is and they know how
00:24:17
to manipulate your words and the sentence and the editor that I've worked with
00:24:23
or the editors on Publish Up Man they really give you that masterpiece that you want and yeah it
00:24:30
sucks it sucks because they told me many times how many times am I going to
00:24:36
tell you you don't know what you're doing you know how many times I've heard
00:24:40
that and you really and then that's That's where the drink comes after I'm done
00:24:44
with them. It's like, phew.
00:24:48
I need a couple of drinks tonight because they just like washed you.
00:24:53
But that's the journey. And then on the other end, when you get that book and
00:24:58
it's, you know, you're like, shit, they knew what they were doing.
00:25:01
Excuse my language. No, you don't have to know. You don't have to worry about
00:25:06
your language on this podcast. Not at all.
00:25:08
I know. I was like, I'm surprised I haven't. Have I? Yeah, I have a really bad body mouth.
00:25:13
I was going to say, I'm always dropping F-bombs. so
00:25:17
me too yeah i'm
00:25:21
no go ahead i was just gonna say like you're giving me because a
00:25:25
part of why i think i haven't opened up how
00:25:27
create like my little creative outlet like i can resonate with you 100 when
00:25:32
you say your husband's out doing a million things and your happy place is here
00:25:36
like that is me right now i'm spending time to redo my room my happy place that
00:25:42
will allow me to be creative in there, right?
00:25:46
Because I have all these ideas and I'm writing notes and I have this stuff that
00:25:49
I want to do, but I've always been battling with the fear of failing.
00:25:55
If I am investing a part of myself, and I don't quite know where this came from,
00:26:01
so maybe I should go back to therapy.
00:26:02
But if I am investing my time, my money, I don't want to fail.
00:26:09
And that's silly, right? Right. Because like that's part of life.
00:26:12
You just got it. And so I'm getting to that stage. I'm like,
00:26:15
you just got to do it. Like, what is the worst that can happen? Right. Exactly.
00:26:19
That's like you hit the nail right on the head.
00:26:22
The older you get, the more you hear failure is good.
00:26:25
Everybody fails. And you can come out on the other end.
00:26:30
And it's like one door closes. Like for you guys, what you're going through
00:26:36
the job, one door closes.
00:26:37
And I truly believe there's going to be something better that opens up because
00:26:42
I'm always that positive person.
00:26:44
And one of the things you learn with the anxiety and depression is the more
00:26:50
positive you are and the more grateful you are.
00:26:53
And, you know, that is such a big help to get through it.
00:26:58
So true. So like when we were talking about failure, you know,
00:27:02
we've had a couple of bad reviews on the podcast.
00:27:04
And, you know, I looked at them and I, you know, I reviewed them and I still
00:27:09
know in my heart that we're doing
00:27:10
the right thing. and we may not be everybody's cup of tea and I get that.
00:27:15
I fully believe in like our podcast and my, you know, 30 skills with my best friend.
00:27:21
I get to do this one Saturday a month with her. And we've learned so many different
00:27:26
tips and tools and tricks on just to how to manage my own depression.
00:27:30
Right. Like, yeah, I still go to therapy. I go to therapy at least once a month,
00:27:34
but you know, there's other people that have gone through something similar
00:27:38
where they may have a different tip or trick and I'm always looking for to,
00:27:43
you know, try something new. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:46
Yeah what those people do and we'll kick rocks also it's a choice if you don't
00:27:50
like it don't listen to it amen but no you're giving me hope hearing your story mary because.
00:27:59
It's helping like me kind of reiterate this to myself like dude you can do this
00:28:04
like it's fine like it's not i don't have to put so much pressure on and i'm
00:28:08
doing it for me at the end of the day it's what i like to do i like to be creative
00:28:12
and whatever that means for me you know so i i don't I appreciate you sharing this.
00:28:17
Yeah. No, I mean, if there's something that you love to do,
00:28:20
like I said, I had so many rejects, 10 years of rejections, but because this
00:28:27
was such a passion and I always felt,
00:28:30
you know what, if I never got published or, you know, at least I could go back
00:28:35
and create because that was my outlet.
00:28:38
That was my journaling is to create these fantasy worlds.
00:28:42
Yeah. I have a random question. If you could relive any day,
00:28:48
exactly how it was, you can't make any changes, relive that day, what day would you pick?
00:28:54
I guess when I had my first child.
00:28:59
Your life totally changed from that point on, yes. Yeah. What about you, Jura?
00:29:08
I would go back to, it was right before my mom had passed away.
00:29:14
I had flown out to Colorado to spend some time with her. I would take that afternoon back.
00:29:19
It was super healing, super emotional.
00:29:24
It was the last time I got to see my mom alive.
00:29:28
But it was like, it was healing. Yeah.
00:29:32
Yeah. I would not redo, you know, this might not be a popular thing to say,
00:29:37
but I would not redo my son's first birth. I hated being in labor.
00:29:44
Traumatized. But what I would, there's one day that in my mind was almost perfect,
00:29:50
which is hard because I'm a perfectionist.
00:29:52
It was the day I got married. everything was just
00:29:55
it was like almost like everything fell into
00:29:58
place that day yeah and the energy was
00:30:02
so positive so I would do that day all over again oh you
00:30:06
know business is gonna listen to this after and he's gonna be like oh my god
00:30:09
yeah he'd be like oh so sweet all right I have a random question what is your
00:30:17
favorite word what is my favorite word oh what immediately popped into my head was love.
00:30:26
That's like the first thing that popped in because, God, that's everything, right? Love. It is.
00:30:35
Dirty Skittles, what's your favorite word? Ask me.
00:30:41
And then ask me my second. Yes. No, go with your second. Okay,
00:30:46
what's your second favorite word? Fun.
00:30:50
Yes. Fun.
00:30:53
I love that word. What's my favorite word? Well, I know what your least favorite
00:30:59
word is. Oh, tell me. Good one, yes.
00:31:02
My favorite word probably is son, I would have to say.
00:31:08
My son. I always say son. I'm like, son? Because I just, I don't know.
00:31:12
I've wanted a child for so long, so now that I have one, it's probably what
00:31:15
I'm going to go with today. What about you, G-Rex?
00:31:19
My favorite word is living. living
00:31:23
yeah good i'm so grateful to
00:31:26
be alive i wouldn't have anything i have
00:31:29
today if i hadn't gone through all that other crap yeah
00:31:32
really hard stuff but living life has so much to offer and i'll tell anybody
00:31:38
life on the side of depression is a thousand times better than it was prior
00:31:42
yeah well thank you mary your story has been amazing you've inspired me you're
00:31:48
giving me that confidence that I was like, I'm almost there.
00:31:52
I'm almost there on my own. Now hearing you, I'm like, okay.
00:31:54
You guys inspired me because I just went through this weird thing again where
00:32:03
I felt like my brain just like there was a fizzle. It just short-circuited.
00:32:09
And it was like I lost memory And I panicked.
00:32:14
And it was a day where the anxiety level hit 100%. Bad family news and just all these other things.
00:32:25
I was on a podcast. I forgot my train of thought.
00:32:30
And I felt this thing in my brain sizzle.
00:32:35
I got through it. So I was like, oh, my God.
00:32:41
It was like I thought I really was starting to lose memory.
00:32:44
But I learned that anxiety, depression, what happens to you, it's just horrible.
00:32:52
And you do need those tools and to get help, you know, and I could never give up. Never give up. Ever.
00:33:00
There's always that glimmer, right? There's a glimmer that something better
00:33:05
is going to come out of this.
00:33:06
And it did for all of us, right? For you and me, Mary.
00:33:10
Life has a way of kicking me in the ass. And it literally kicked me in the ass.
00:33:15
But we get to do this and we get to share all this great information and tools with our listeners.
00:33:22
So where can our listeners find you?
00:33:26
I am all over the place. Hey, Simon, Dawn, Barnes & Noble, any independent bookstore.
00:33:32
If you go in, the book's not on the shelf. Just give them my name.
00:33:36
They'll order it. Go to my author website, www.maryksavarese.com,
00:33:45
and I'll guide you to where.
00:33:48
But yeah, if your audience loves fantasy and adventure intertwined with romance,
00:33:54
then you'll love The Girl in the Twa Wallpaper and The Star Writers Club and
00:33:58
the third book in the trilogy,
00:34:00
Return the Girl in the Twa Wallpaper.
00:34:04
See, you guys are great with your podcasts, and I just love to bring you to
00:34:10
a fantasy place, give you an adventure away from our reality.
00:34:15
I love that. I love that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
00:34:19
Yes, thank you so much, Mary. You have a great weekend. Thank you so much.
00:34:24
Hi, all. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I'm G-Rex. And I'm Dirty Skittles.
00:34:30
Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. We'd love to listen
00:34:34
to your feedback. We can't do this without you guys.
00:34:39
It's okay to be not okay. Just make sure you're talking to someone. Okay.
00:34:43
Music.