An Update From Laura About a Chronic Illness

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and some real REAL talk this week. But first: Taylor interrupts Pam's nighttime routine with a late night drop of The Tortured Poets Department. Does it live up to the hype? Did Andrew just confess to murdering former members of the pod? A not-so-fun update in the name of resiliency: Laura shares that she has multiple sclerosis (MS), what her journey to diagnosis looked like, and how she's doing now. What it's like to move through the stages of grief and eventually reach a space of processing through humor. We cover questions from our Patrons to go a little more in depth on Laura's experiences living with a chronic illness. Most important of all, we talk about the representation of MS in The West Wing, Laura's favorite show. As we continue on this journey we call life, we'll face different hurdles that challenge our mental health. How are we all doing? The panel shares what outlets help us get a mental break from the tough shit, and what resources we use to work through it. Journaling, limiting distractions, mid-day walks, crossword puzzles are all things we here at the show use to break up our days and limit stress and anxiety. Pam shares the 4-7-8 Breathing Method as well as the 5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique This week's recommendations are good for the soul: donate to the Shepherd Center for World MS Day (Laura), Brick to help limit screentime (Andrew), and attending the yearly Record Store Day (Pam). And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon and Apple Podcasts: "If your dog and a loved one were drowning and you could only save 1, who would it be?" "Umm which 'loved' one are we talking about?" Inspired by a NYT Ethics column, we'll be playing a classic game of 'Would You Rather...?' What's worse? Having legs as long as your fingers, or fingers as long as your legs? (We spend way to much time imagining how this would play out - absolute nightmare fuel.) Andrew hits us with a super secret surprise question... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices