HealthyGamerGG - Why We Do This…

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

Dr. K talks about Healthy Gamer, and why we do what we do. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/healthygamergg/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I like this because, you know, I think this client really exemplifies, like what we see, what we try to accomplish, how we help, and also that sometimes we can't do it all, and you need to see a therapist. Sometimes the most efficient way to get help, to improve is actually to just get help. And I just wanted to share with y'all. I know there's been a lot of negativity on the subreddit recently. I mean, I think it's good. I think it's healthy. But just wanted to share this with y'all. So coaching changed my life. Hey, I see a lot of people venting in a lot of posts, which is fine, and I get it. And at one point, I did the same. But then anxiety got the better of me, and I deleted it. However, I wanted to give a shout out to the Healthy Gamer Coaching Program and hopefully

you guys a bit of hope for the future. A bit about me, I was a multi-college dropout desperately trying to find solutions for what seemed to be a never-ending cycle of mental problems. Like many of you, I started watching Dr. Kay videos and a lot of the problems he discussed really resonated with me, and by watching the online coaching videos, it made me feel better that other people shared my problems. I figured, heck, if I could pay for weed monthly, then I could pay for the coaching program. I was too scared to commit myself to an expensive therapist because A, was unsure if they would be a good fit, and B, I knew I had a lot of talking to do. So I signed up for the coaching

program, and lo and behold, I did it biweekly for about a year. I did it for so long I participate in in one of their long-term coaching client surveys, I can give you a brief idea of what it entailed for me. Let me preface it by saying it is definitely not therapy. What it was for me was a safe and unbiased place I could just fucking vent for 50 minutes. Whether it was old problems or new, I could vent about life and the questions my coach asked, helped me dig deeper about life and myself. This eventually, after one year, led me to realize I needed actual professional therapy. I started professional therapy and initially went two weeks and now I go about every eight. This all happened in a little under two years.

TLDR, I went from being addicted to video games from eight to 18 years old, lost in a spiral of substance abuse, weed, Nick, Addy, and could not find myself and was beginning to isolate from friends. Now I move states and am dealing and processing my emotions more clearly, no longer I'm addicted to weed, Nick, or Adderall. I dropped all other medications as well, and I'm only on Lexapro. I'm getting social life. back and regularly hang out with groups of friends now. I also now regularly attend school and work a full-time job, which I was doing neither of these things a year ago. Just wanted to quickly write this up was meaning to after coaching ended. Don't really follow the community,

but still see some posts. Shout out to Dr. Kay. Shout out to Healthy Gamer. And as much as I wish I could give a name, I figure it's best not to. Shout out to my coach that dealt me with rantings during all those sessions. There is hope y'all will be, there is hope, y'all will be okay, much love. I wanted to share that because I think the person really grasps a lot of what people don't understand about coaching. The first thing is that it's not therapy, and this person is like, it helped me a lot, and by the way, it's not therapy.

We also want to put together a study about what percentage of coaching clients wind up in therapy. So actually, one of the outcomes that we really look at, or not look at, but we want to look at is helping people get into mental health treatment because there's sometimes barriers and stigma and things like that. So coaching and therapy are like two different things. And I think this person is a prime example of, you know, how to do both. That there are some things that you actually need a therapist for, but some of these things like building good habits, getting back into school, getting a job, socializing. Right. And this person says they were venting,

but I think they were doing a lot more than that. I'm pretty sure if we asked this person's coach, they would say that they're doing a lot more than venting. They're really starting to understand what holds them back. What is it within me that perpetuates the cycle? That's how we figure out how to break out of it. So I love this post because it touched on a lot of different things. So people do have a lot of concerns about the cost of therapy

because therapy is expensive. And part of what we try to do is make our coaching affordable. Part of the other reason is because sometimes people, you know, will complain about the price, but they'll like this person. We'll buy weed every week, right? Some people really can't afford it, but I think a lot of people, we've seen this as well. A lot of people can't afford it. They just choose not to.

So I like this because, you know, I think this client really exemplifies, like what we see, what we try to accomplish, how we help, and also that sometimes we can't do it all, and you need to see a therapist. And it's okay to need both. For what it's worth, I think this person's progress is probably in the minority. Like, I don't know many people who have done as much as this person does after, like, you know, a year of coaching and therapy. Like, that's a lot. They really put their life together, which is exactly why we're here.

This is why we started the program. It's to do this. And also your mileage may vary. I think this person has really put – I mean, this is where it's important to understand that if you come into coaching, it's not going to fix you. It's going to help you fix yourself. And I think what this person is leaving out is all the work they put in. Because if you just come to coaching and you're like, coach me to success and sobriety, go.

I don't want to give up weed. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I'm not going to move. I'm not going to do anything. Fix me. That doesn't work. The key thing, though, is that a lot of us have struggles and we don't know how to start.

We don't know how to untangle things. We don't know how to get unstuck. And coaching can help with that. So if you sign up for coaching and you want to end up like this person, let me make it very clear that if you want to end up like this person, you're going to have to put in the work. Will the coach help you? 100%.

But they can't do this for you. They can help you do it for yourself. And by the way, one of the primary goals of our coaching program is for people to no longer need it. it's to end it. Equip you with the skills, help you put together your life, and it's really about self-understanding and developing your own skill set. It's not about developing dependency. Sometimes, though, it takes a while, right?

It could take a year. For those of y'all, but I just want you to think about that because, like, there are people in our community out there that are going to be smoking weed all the time, multiple time college drop out, no job, no friends, like, struggling. And they think, like, oh, my God, I can never put my life together. This person did it in about two years. Sounds about right.

If you all have heard me talk about this before, you know, I'll say like six to 18 months to really get started. You can start to see progress in two to three months. Like all of our outcome studies, what we presented at the American Psychiatric Association, for example, I think was an eight or 12-week outcome study. So we started to see some changes. But it really takes a...

I mean, putting together your life takes years. But you can get started and make good progress and starts to get a lot easier and feels a lot better pretty quickly.