Megan Devine, author, psychotherapist, and one of the top grief experts today, wants you to know that grief is normal. It’s not a mental illness. That’s not to say grief is easy, of course, it’s absolutely not. And it isn’t to say grief is simple because it’s not that either. It’s powerful and complicated, so much so that it can mean grieving for what your own life could have been but wasn’t. If you’ve experienced a persistent mental health problem like depression or anxiety, or if you’ve had some trauma - simple or complex - that forever altered your course, then you may be in mourning over possibilities that, essentially, died. And that’s a challenge. There are lots of support groups to help your grief around a loved one’s death, not many for mourning your own missed life. Megan is here to help. She offers insight into this type of grief that is so often ignored and has practical advice for how you can move through your grief with health and compassion.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.

Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!

Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.

Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.

Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh

“Me no cry because cookie is finished,” Cookie Monster once said. “Me smile because cookie happened.” Eels has been a band for 35 years and just dropped their 16th studio album, with the Cookie Monster-inspired title Cookie Happened. In that time, Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) has been the only constant, writing and perform songs that can be, at times, deeply moving, sly funny, and just about everything in between. E joins us to talk about the mental health component of his life and of his music. Along those lines, it doesn’t take long to arrive at Electro-Shock Blues, Eels’ 1998 album informed by the death by suicide of his sister, the sudden death of his father some years before, and the terminal cancer diagnosis of his mom. He tells us that while depression has been a constant visitor over the years, the hard times have taught him a kind of determined persistence. E also mentions that despite Cookie Monster inspiring the album title, the cover has a green skeleton dunking a basketball. He offers no explanation, nor did we seek one.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.

Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!

Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.

Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.

Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh

Audiences know Murray Hill as the hilarious pencil-mustachioed guy who looks like a Catskills comedian. Much of that identity was deliberately formed after an abusive childhood where he was raised as a girl and sure didn’t feel like one. He grew up, broke hard with the past, named himself for the Manhattan neighborhood he landed in, and became a cabaret star. Which is great! But that trauma also meant alcoholism, a mental breakdown, and ultimately effective treatment.

Murray Hill’s new memoir is Showbiz!: My Life as a Middle-Aged Man.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.

Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!

Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.

Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.

Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh