The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Unraveling Schizophrenia: Dale Walsh’s Journey and Advocacy

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Unraveling Schizophrenia: Dale Walsh's Journey and Advocacy Amazon.com Dewlivelove.net About the Guest(s): Dale Walsh is an accomplished author and mental health mentor who has navigated the challenges of schizophrenia for over five decades. Removed from Dartmouth College in 1975 due to delusions, he has since recovered robustly, mentoring family caregivers of those diagnosed with schizophrenia. Walsh, a prolific poet with over 5,000 poems and several poetry collections on Amazon, also holds a degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, graduating Magna Cum Laude. His passion extends beyond writing; he's a dedicated New York Yankees fan. Episode Summary: In this enlightening Valentine's Day episode of The Chris Voss Show, host Chris Voss interviews Dale Walsh, a remarkable mentor for family caregivers of individuals living with schizophrenia. Walsh shares his journey from being hospitalized for mental illness in 1975 to his current status as a thriving author and mentor. Transitioning through self-discovery phases, including a self-professed identity crisis in his youth, he has harnessed his experiences to empower others through his books, poetry, and coaching programs. This episode is a blend of personal anecdotes, mental health advocacy, and insights into Walsh's creative endeavors. Listeners are treated to Walsh's eclectic personality as he presents a poem detailing his journey through schizophrenia, emphasizing the moments that defined his path. The conversation touches on a critical but often misunderstood element of schizophrenia—anosognosia, or the inability to recognize one's mental illness—highlighting Walsh's profound understanding of the condition. Furthermore, Walsh introduces his "Do Live Love" methodology, an eight-step program aimed at helping caregivers and families nurture their relationships with those experiencing mental illness, while simultaneously reclaiming their individuality. Key Takeaways: Dale Walsh's life experiences have positioned him uniquely to aid family caregivers in dealing with schizophrenia, emphasizing understanding and communication. Anosognosia—lack of awareness of one's mental condition—is a significant barrier to treatment for individuals with schizophrenia. Walsh's personal journey from mental health diagnosis to empowerment illustrates the potential for recovery and impactful advocacy. The "Do Live Love" mentoring program provides a structured approach to helping families and caregivers interact effectively with those diagnosed with mental illnesses. Comedy and creativity, including poetry and storytelling, are integral to Walsh's approach to sharing his experiences and offering support. Notable Quotes: "Schizophrenia means you're living in a reality that was not conceived on earth." "A delusion is much more difficult to get rid of because it's at the very foundation of your identity and your personality." "The biggest obstacle towards recovery is if you don't think there's anything wrong with you." "Do Live Love is my eight-step program to help caregivers break the cycle of codependency." "What happened after Dale died? I became an alter ego for 33 years. I became Dew."

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hey, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the big show. We certainly appreciate it. As always, the Chris Voss Show is a family that loves you but doesn't judge you. And, you know, Welcome to the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement or review of any kind.

Anyway, we have an amazing young man on the show. We're going to be talking to him about his books, his poems, his authorship, etc., etc. One of his latest books was called Entering a New Era of Dew, under the pen name D.E. Walsh. And we're going to get into some of his insights on what he does. Dale Walsh joins us on the show today. He has been dealing with a diagnosis of serious mental illness for 50 years since being removed from Dartmouth College and hospitalized for delusions in 1975.

He's been challenging an often difficult road back to his sanity from the pits of psychosis for which he was hospitalized 15 times before 2006. He now considers himself fully medically, medicationally recovered and uses his experience with both his condition itself and the knowledge of the mental health system to mentor the family caregivers of those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He's lived in Hackensack, New Jersey with his own unsupervised bachelor pad since returning to Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1981, which he graduated magna cum laude five years later.

He is a prolific poet with an archive of 5,000 plus verse works and five poetry collections on Amazon under the author name D.E. Walsh. And he's also a dedicated New York Yankee fan. Welcome to the show, Dale. How are you? Thank you very much, Chris. Great to see you. I'm doing great. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day to you, too. I know two dudes wishing each other Happy Valentine's Day. It's kind of weird, isn't it? No, I'm just teasing. I'm just having fun with it.

It's the next holiday. I'm not sending you chocolate, Dale. Okay, I appreciate that. Dale, give us the dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs? Okay, my mentoring dot com is w dot d e w l i v l i v-v-e l-o-v-e dot net do live love dot net that's for my schizophrenic mentoring program i think you were going to lead us off with a poem you kind of tell us a little bit about your journey and what you do there in the poem form absolutely so this is this is what i

call my introductory poem it's actually in my second collection, which is called me to choke because in mental hospital I awoke with Rumi Gabriel, the main bloke who did my delusions and angelically stroke, while a doctor claimed my brain broke the moment Divine Gag I spoke, testifying I was only a bit quack with clinician's diagnosis psychotic attack, preventing me from getting sanity back until I came to Teaneck Hackensack to pursue resident therapy program track and deal with my evident lack of reason among psychiatric patient back who never gave me any slack under interrogation of story and crack so that's that's in a nutshell Chris I, I was at Dartmouth College, I had a very good year, but I was doing I was drug addled, I was doing a massive amount of marijuana and other

things like LSD and stuff. So in the summer, I came up with what I thought was a great the greatest joke I'd ever come up with, which was, Hi, I'm God. One thing led to another, and three days later, or five days later, after being interrogated by a set of Ivy League college psychiatrists, I was in a hospital with a roommate named Gabriel, who was very deferential towards my mother, Mary Alma, whose second husband's name was Joseph, and who ultimately married the judge. Was there a reason you were taking so much drugs?

Were you maybe coping with trauma or something that was going on personally for you? It wasn't trauma. If it was trauma, it was very deeply buried. I just loved drugs. I mean, to be honest, I loved old drugs. And my mother had a history of mental illness. So basically, it threw me over the edge into psychosis and a delusion. And that's why I got taken away.

So that's when you first had your diagnosis of schizophrenia. Is that correct? Yeah. So that's when you first had your diagnosis of schizophrenia, is that correct? Yeah, I was hospitalized for 13 weeks in New York City, and then I came to a program in Teaneck-Hackensack, and I was in there. It was a private residential program under the direction of one doctor, and I was in that program getting intensive therapy for five and a half years three three sessions a week two group sessions a week and then i got my own apartment went back to fairly dickinson university and graduated five years later magna cum laude in english congratulations now you do some different

things where you do coaching consulting tell us about some of the work you do there i am trying to become a professional podcast guest and but also i'm uh so my my main focus is i've done a lot of entrepreneurial things in my life i after i graduated from fairly i i spent the next five years helping fairly to write papers and in all subjects except the hard sciences to supplement my disability income. And then I just basically got out of a position where I was a financial advisor for World Financial Group for three years and financial educator but now my focus is developing my skills to mentor the family caregivers of those with schizophrenia because one thing I realized I realized a couple of things Chris but one was that I realized how much how I put my own family through because of my illness and secondly I, I realized that, you know,

the ability of family members and caregivers to deal with their challenges is extreme sometimes. And they don't have a team like their loved ones who are diagnosed. And sometimes they need as much help, if not more than the people who are actually suffering from the illness. Oh, there's I mean, there's a thing about being a caregiver that is also takes a toll. If you're if you're caring for someone who is, you know, has health issues or mental issues, you know, there's there's a bit of a challenge there in, you know, being able to understand stuff. And it's probably good that you're on the other side to kind of advocate for the patient maybe a little bit in helping the caregiver understand what the patient is going through. Does that sound right? That's basically why I launched this is because I feel that with my experience of 50 years

dealing with schizophrenia, I basically know the condition inside and out. And I think one of the great obstacles that caregivers have is they just have no information about what schizophrenia is. And, you know, even if they have a therapist or a doctor, the doctor talks about delusions or hallucinations and, you know, the professionals talk about symptom ology and everything But I myself had to find a you know, I think I came up with a definition Which I think is pretty here, which is it's a freemium means you're living in a reality that was not conceived on earth. Ah So, I don't know I know I know some voters that are doing that right now that's a lot of people say but just in my own case so that was the problem i never you know people say that people

with schizophrenia are always hallucinated i'm never hallucinated in my life chris but my delusion about being god was like my big problem but you know people talk about delusion and you know trump voters or democrats are delusional and everything but you know and but the idea that a delusion is a singular thought isn't is inaccurate a true delusion is a person is a structure of belief that is at the very foundation of the personality and therefore a delusion is much more is much more more difficult to get rid of because it's at the very foundation of your identity and your personality rather than just like a series of like bad thoughts or something oh it sounds like the dating group i run. I run one of a few thousand people. It's kind of interesting.

I'm writing a book on it right now. So do you see visions of other people that come talk to you? Do you not have any of that? Or is it just a branch? As I say, I feel I'm very, very grounded in reality at this point. There you go. And so you're able to advocate for both the caregivers and the patient of a family and i imagine it can be hard because you know there's

a lot of things that i've gotten involved with the people over the years i remember one time i got a girlfriend who had weekend alcoholism and it wasn't like alcoholism you know full blow all the time uh you know she was getting drunk and passing out but it was on the weekends when she would do it it was you know i'd be like where what why am i dealing with dr jekyll mr hyde here why why are there two different people before me and so you know trying to navigate these things if you're not in if you're if you're not suffering from them and you're not you're not like part of the the the, it's hard to understand what's going on with a loved one. And you want to take care of them. You want to help them.

But you don't fully understand what's going on. It's like you didn't go to school for this stuff. So you do coaching on the website so that you can help people. You teach them. You walk them through the different issues. I know you have a PDF on your website. People can get for free a download of an overview of schizophrenia. And so people can get some details from you for free there.

Yeah, I'm not sure if that's going to be working, Chris. But the thing is, the reason is do live love. Live love is a basic therapeutic method that basically the Lord downloaded to me. And it's an eight-step program that I take my clients through. And it stands for learn, integrate, validate, explore, and then listen, observe, value, and express. So these are all like skills that are essential for my clients to develop in order to not only better communicate for themselves, but what I'm most interested in, helping them break the cycle of codependency of caregiving

so that they can reclaim their own integrity of self and ultimately be in a much better position to help their loved ones. There you go. It's good to have that so you can have the thing. I see people can also sign up for a 20-minute discovery call on your website. They can find out how to talk to you directly and maybe see if they're a good fit for the coaching and the services you offer. It's a 45-minute talk that they can have, and it's www.calendly.com slash DaleCoach55. So if you go to Calendly, you can just make an appointment.

I'd be happy. I'd love to help people, and i have a couple of different programs to you know but my my main my main jam is live love which is a three three month pro a session program where we go through the eight steps of the live love program that's awesome then uh so it helps people you know what what is What is something that a lot of people don't understand about schizophrenia, whether they're a caregiver or they're just out there in the public? I think the most important thing that people don't know about is a thing called agnosognosius, called A-N-O-S-O-G-N-O-S-I-S.

It's a term that is discussed in the book, I'm not sick and I don't need help by this doctor, this PhD in psychology named Javier Amador, whose brother was schizophrenic. And agnosygnosia is a term taken from neurology and means it's used for stroke victims who can't comprehend there's something wrong with their brain. So, you know, agnosognosia is not only, you know, some estimates say that it's a symptom in 60% of people with serious mental illness. But it's actually like the biggest obstacle towards recovery. Because if you don't think there's anything wrong with you you're you know and you aren't in denial it's just like you can't comprehend there's a big difference between being

in denial and just being able not able to comprehend but if you're unable to think to understand there's something wrong then you aren't going to take your medication, which is essential, in my opinion, just from my own experience. I don't think I'd be as well as I am without my medication. But ultimately, you aren't going to take your medication. You aren't going to be complaining with the doctor. You're going to be rebellious against the doctor and for the first 10 years of my life chris i was i was an agnostic no i but i was more like a co-force because i was in the program to to submit to therapy but it was only i i had a vision of the world being imploded in the thermonuclear holocaust i call that the death of dale and that was 10

years into my therapy but the death of dale like really basically killed my personality in every way except utterly and that that killed my delusion but also made me realize just how sick i'd been when i realized that there was something wrong with calling myself God all the time. Yeah, I think a lot of people think they're God the way they behave. That's a topic for another story. I feel after 50 years, my goal is until the night that I'm God, but my goal is to help people who think they're God to integrate that thought system into reality so that they might be able to exist. To exist and do things.

Let's talk about, let's get some plugs in for your other books. Now, you've got how many books again on Amazon? I have five poetry books, and I also have written six novels, including my bestseller for the last century called The Lord's Follies Book Two or The Flight of the Diolina, which is my spaceship. And I call that a apocalyptic romance. And those are unpublished, but I plan to eventually publish them. So I also have a memoir, which I want to get out on amazon very soon i just have to edit and format and everything and that's called escape from the ivy league or how becoming

god changed my life and that's just that's the story of my psychotic break at darmoth and my first hospitalization how i became what was the thing again how I became escape from the Ivy League or how becoming God changed my life that could be good that could be like a movie that would be kind of interesting movie maybe I don't know I think it could be yeah it might be it might be an interesting movie to check out how became maybe maybe i'll title that my next book see how well that sells did we cover all the different variations we ended this mentioning of we led off with this entering in the new era of do your initials d-e-w under d-e-walsh your pen name you want to tell us a little bit about that book actually oh as i as i just mentioned the deaths of dale

so what you know people say what happened after dale died and i say basically i became an alter ego for 33 years i became due actually this has some background that chris you know i'm a disney chipmunk because this is actually my big joke after I'm God which is you know I'm a Disney chipmunk because of Chip and Dale but did you know I'm also a Disney duck my initials are do my father's initials were Lou my father my best friend's name is you and his father's name was Donald so you get Huey Dewey Louie and Donald that's the background to the joke it goes now you want to hear the joke yeah Yeah, let's do it. Okay, what do you get when you cross the Disney chipmunks with the Disney ducks?

What? Me! So anything more we need to cover? Go ahead. In regard to your question about Dew, I basically have five personalities. dewey do duck and genius and there's a big debate in a psychology psychiatry about whether multiple personalities actually exist but so i i'm in the third stage of my life dale lasted 30 years dewey lasted 33 years and entering the new era of dew actually is the is the the poetry that kicked off my entrance into my third phase of life of dew in 2018

and so now you're in the dew phase of your life i am and i figure that that's going to last about 30 years still oh that's good to have that's good to have well as we go out give us your final pitch out for people to reach out to you on board with you they do a call with you what you can help them with in any Website is www.dewlivelove.net. D-W-L-I-V-E-L-O-V-E.net. That's my website. And you can sort of see what I do about mentoring family caregivers. And then there's my Calendly link, which is where you can make a free 45-minute call to me. That's www.calendly.com slash dalecoach55 and then if you go to amazon and put in under books search for books you usually have to scroll some because i'm not a

big bestseller but if you scroll some and find books poetry collections byE. Walsh. I'll have five books there. And so people can check out all the stuff there. Thank you very much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. I appreciate you having me, Chris. It's been a great honor, and I thank you for your time. Thank you. It's us, too.

As always, folks, check out his books. The one book I think we profiled or we let off was the one on Amazon there. Thanks to my aunts for tuning in. Go ahead. They're all on Amazon. They're all on Amazon. And the one I mentioned, the poem I recited, that's a book called Fossil Fuel for the Brain. Fossil Fuel for the Brain.

Thanks to our aunts for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschross, linkedin.com, force.chrisfoss, chrisfoss1, the TikTokity, and all those crazy places on the internet. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time.

And that should have us out, Dale.