Episode 9: Johanne
*Content Warning: Discussions of depression, mental illness and suicidal thoughts.
Welcome to the season finale of Rebelliously Tiny. Here’s this week’s question: “Hey there, I just wanted to let you know how much I love your art and how it makes me feel so understood and a little less alone. I'm 21 years old and for the past few months I've been feeling so alone and so afraid of what the future holds. I feel hopeless and useless. Most days I can't even get out of bed. I feel like I'm wasting my life. I need hope and motivation. Honestly I need a bit of a reason to live. Do you ever feel this way and do you have any words of wisdom?”
As we mentioned in the first episode, this podcast began as Ambivalently Yours’ way of asking her community for help. This is why she decided to end our first season with the person she has turned to the most throughout her life: her mom, Johanne. Together they discuss what to do when you wake up with negative feelings and have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. Johanne then shares tips on how to stay motivated, in a way that only a mom could. Johanne and Ambivalently Yours also use this opportunity to look at their personal relationship and family history, and the influence it has had on the way they face the world. They also talk about the challenges of becoming more emotionally open and the advantages of learning how to ask for help.
A podcast by Ambivalently Yours
Co-produced by Hannah McCasland
Recorded at (with their technical and financial support) Oboro Arist-Run Center in Montreal
Technical support: Stéphane Claude
Music: Greg Barkley