051: Discovering Your Worth and Loving Yourself Through Mental Illness Recovery with Lauren Dow

While there is definitely still a stigma surrounding mental health, there are beautiful individuals who share their stories of struggling with mental illness and seeking treatment and healing to live a fulfilling and impactful life. Lauren Dow is one of those individuals.

A lot of the episodes of Wake Up Call have covered anxiety and how to cope with it, but in this episode, Lauren shares her experiences with eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and more, and how she came to terms with seeking treatment and how she used her stories to become an author, speaker, and podcast host. If you or someone you love is grappling with mental illness, you are not alone and this episode is for you.

As a suicide survivor who has struggled with bipolar disorder, major depression, eating disorders, and anxiety, Lauren Dow has found profound healing through authoring In Body I Trust and Your Wild Journal. She is here to remind you that you are not alone in this beautiful mess of a journey we call life.

Connect with Lauren!

• Website - https://laurendow.com/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/laurendowwrites/
• TikTok - @laurendowwrites

GIVEAWAY! I am hosting a giveaway of a copy of Lauren’s book, In Body I Trust! Here’s how to enter!

1. Head to Apple Podcasts and leave a written review of the Wake Up Call Podcast.
2. Screenshot your review and DM me the screenshot on Instagram @aliciadhopkins
3. I’ll choose one winner and send them a copy of Lauren’s book!

Here are some key takeaways from Lauren’s powerful story:

• Mental illnesses can manifest in so many different ways in different people. If you’re feeling emotions or sensations to such an extreme that you’re struggling to enjoy life or be present in your body, it’s so important to seek help.
• If you need medication, it does not mean you’re broken. It just means you need some assistance to have the quality of life you deserve.
• Seek out other people whose stories resonate with you and make you feel seen. You are not alone, and finding a community helps solidify that.

Welcome to the Wake Up Call Podcast with Alicia Hopkins (that’s me!). My goal in this podcast is to share valuable and actionable tips on what I call the “Core Four” - mindfulness, movement, habits, and growth - so you can build a life that feels true to you. I will be interviewing people who have had a “wake up call” that their good-on-paper life wasn’t lighting them up, and what they did to change that. Join us every week for a new episode of the Wake Up Call Podcast with Alicia Hopkins!

Connect with Me!

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/aliciadhopkins/
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/adhcoaching