Dr Alex George: How To Strengthen Your Mind & Build Mental Fitness
Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
Intro
This chapter explores the complexities of mental health treatment, contrasting it with physical health approaches. It introduces innovative concepts like the 'traffic light theory' for emotional assessment while tackling stigma and sharing personal recovery journeys.
From my experience working as a doctor, it’s very clear that we don’t treat mental health in the same way as physical health. And even though awareness about mental health has grown in the past decade or so, we still have a long way to go when it comes to understanding this topic and changing our attitudes towards mental health. Someone at the front of the campaign to change the conversation around mental health is Dr Alex George. Dr Alex is a TV doctor, best-selling author, and Youth Mental Health Ambassador to the government. Alex has become a well-known and respected figure amongst healthcare professionals in the UK, from his years as an A&E doctor, bringing the nation accessible and reassuring advice directly from the frontline throughout the pandemic. Alex is on a mission to improve mental health support for young people and has become prolific throughout the UK in his campaigning for Early Support Hubs and he’s recently published his latest book The Mind Manual: Mental Fitness Tools For Everyone - which we dive into during this episode. In the conversation, we talk about how to assess your mental health and understand the baseline that’s normal for you, we talk about how to build mental fitness and navigate feelings like anxiety and loneliness, and also discuss some of the ‘universal truths’ from Alex’s new book that everyone needs to remember. Enjoy :)
Disclaimer - this conversation includes discussion around suicide.
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00:00 Intro
01:37 What is mental fitness?
03:16 How does someone know what normal is?
07:06 Why we have high suicide rates amongst men
09:08 The hardest thing about mental health
10:40 The power of therapy
23:09 Dealing with anxiety and ADHD
31:00 Loneliness
34:01 Losing your brother
41:36 The stigma of mental health
48:59 The wheel of life exercise
58:21 How to set boundaries
01:15:37 How to deal with imposter syndrome
01:23:30 The mind manual
🔗 CONNECT WITH DR ALEX
📕 The Mind Manual Mental Fitness Tools For Everyone
🎙 Stompcast
🔗 CONNECT WITH ALI
📲 Join My Telegram Community - https://t.me/+bH5gLHty5kBiOGZk
📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED
Attached: Are you Anxious, Avoidant or Secure? How the science of adult attachment can help you find – and keep – love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller - https://geni.us/CGV7Pb
Alain de Botton - https://www.alaindebotton.com/
Ben West, Mental Health Campaigner - https://www.benwest.org.uk/
No More Mr. Nice Guy by Robert Glover - https://geni.us/IwIFR
📄SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT
Visit the website for the transcript and highlights from the conversation - https://aliabdaal.com/podcast/
🎙 ABOUT THE PODCAST
Deep Dive is the podcast that delves into the minds of entrepreneurs, creators and other inspiring people to uncover the philosophies, strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives.
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