Traci and Sydney talk about becoming aware of mental health issues as adults, generational and community conversations relating to mental health, regulating and understanding emotions, complex PTSD, anxiety, eating disorders, depression, working in mental health, somatic experiencing, grounding, medication intolerance, the importance of acknowledging and understanding physiological dysregulation, positives that come out of the difficult journey, self-compassion, speaking through metaphor and accessible language, giving yourself permission to rest, working with your nervous system or against it, “othered culture”, interdependence, learning about yourself through relationships, hope, disassociation, using alcohol and drugs for fun vs to escape, family, the legalization of cannabis, and looking for love.

Interspersed throughout the discussion are a few performances of original works by these artists, with poetry from Traci and music from Sydney.

Content/Trigger Warnings include language, eating disorders, suicide, death/grief, car accident resulting in serious injury, disassociation, sexual violence, substance use/abuse, alcoholism and domestic violence.

Genevieve and Vanessa talk about struggles with sincerity, coping through comedy, the effect of seeing more people open up about mental health, ADHD, therapy, being an oversharer, difficulty getting an autism diagnosis as an adult, self-diagnosing, anxiety, finding the right balance of being around people vs being alone, depression, creating a degree of separation when performing, the positives of neurodiversity, and the importance of laughter.

Partway through, Genevieve and Vanessa take a break from their discussion to perform a couple comedy bits.

Content/Trigger Warnings include language, suicidal ideation and alcohol use.

Carla and Dara talk about finding the right time to explore mental health in art, using different creative outlets to cope, alternative therapy methods, determining the best ways to work on mental health and how that is different for each individual, significant life changes, difficulty finding hope in dark times, pressure for women to keep emotions in check and to not be seen as overly emotional, societal perceptions and expectations of women, different writing methods/processes, reflecting on progress, and finding the freedom to be yourself.

Throughout their discussion, Dara and Carla also share some of their music and poetry.

Content/Trigger Warnings include trauma, sexual assault and disordered eating.