Nobody talks about the stuff they actually do when work gets hard. The fridge cig at 11pm. The four-hour LinkedIn spiral that ends in 18 job applications and a full body cringe. The drinking story you've never told anyone. This episode, we go there — all three of us.

Tom, Lorenzo, and Iman break down the full coping spectrum: the green zone, the gray zone, and the don't-ask zone (the stuff we'd rather not broadcast — but did anyway, on a podcast).

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/therealitygap Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/therealitygap

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRealityGapPod

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Welcome to the don't-ask zone

2:51 Lorenzo's LinkedIn doom scroll: motivation to human garbage in 60 minutes

9:00 Tom's drinking story (ages 14–18)

16:09 Lorenzo's caffeine dependency: 6 cups a day and withdrawal is real

17:23 Nail biters anonymous: Tom and Iman find their people

22:20 Lorenzo's gum chewing and the flavor-per-subject study method

25:20 Iman's cry-and-sleep-on-the-textbook method

28:13 Iman's morning routine: the coping mechanism that rewired her brain

29:08 "Put it in the box": Iman's containering technique

35:18 Tom's CBT toolkit: cognitive distortions and magical thinking

40:17 Tom's healthy coping mechanism: friends, family, and Jax

41:26 Iman's chosen family and Sunday dinners

43:56 Lorenzo's cooking: 45 minutes of pudding and a completely empty brain

47:30 Exercise, jiu jitsu, and why pain makes people social

48:51 Habit vs. coping mechanism: what's actually the difference?

53:00 The generational roast: Lorenzo starts a fight he cannot finish

1:00:34 Gen Z in the AI crossfire

1:04:24 Sign-off and the promise of a fridge cig

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