JCIP #284 - Daniel John - Part 2

In episode 284 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked back in with Daniel John. Daniel is the Founder of the mental health platform ‘You, Me & Anxiety’, which he founded in February 2018 to try and tackle the stigma around anxiety, provide him with a channel to voice his own experiences of anxiety and amplify the voices of others. We first checked in with him in JCIP #60, where we discussed the origins of the platform, the skills it gave him and his experience of anxiety, panic attacks, childhood bullying, his religious upbringing and much more.Since we first checked in, Dan decided to take a break from the platform for his own mental health. He was experiencing difficulties in his work and career, which was causing him significant distress.He went on holiday to Lisbon in Portugal for a week with a friend in November 2022 and had a life epiphany. He then took the decision to leave the job he was in and go travelling for three months. However, whilst he was travelling, he started to experience strange symptoms, including exhaustion and chronic pain, which he’d never experienced before.He tried toughing it out but in the end it got too much for him and he made the decision to come home and sort it out.After not receiving the best advice from his GP, he decided to go privately and was told the issue may be caused by bacterial overgrowth in his gut, where his immune system was weaker because of the workplace stress. After a period where he thought it was getting better, at the end of that year, the pain and fatigue came back and Dan began to believe the symptoms were psychological.One day he saw a book in his mum’s house called ‘The Mind Body Prescription’ by John E. Sarno. He read it and after reading it once, his symptoms went down by roughly 30%. Now, whenever he feels these symptoms flare up again, he re-reads the book and uses it as a literal mental and physical tool to help his mental health. He went back out travelling again, enjoyed it and has now returned to the UK where he is back in a stable place with his career. In this episode, we discuss: why he’s starting the platform back up again and his goals for this next chapter, what has changed and stayed the same in the mental health conversation since we first checked in, and the types of voices he wants to amplify on the platform going forward.We then discuss that continued mental health journey, the emotional build-up which may have been at the heart of that distress and pain and the relationship between physical health and mental health.And finally, for the first time, we discuss Dan's relationship with his father, which may explain the origins of some of the experiences we discuss and why he’s reacted the way he has in these periods of his life. As always, #itsokaytoventYou can find out more about You, Me & Anxiety here: https://medium.com/you-me-anxietyYou can follow the platform on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youmeandanxiety_/You can listen to Part 1 of Dan's journey here: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-60-daniel-johnSupport Us:Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpukGoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-healthMerchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shopMusic: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvkSupport Us:PatreonPayPalMerchandise