About Episode

It’s extremely common for people who are highly creative to also constantly battle with things like depression, anxiety, and attention issues. If you’ve listened to past episodes you know this is basically the story of my entire adult life, and I even delve into the link between depression and creativity in the very first episode of this show. For years I believed that I must just be a weak person, or maybe I was just doing the wrong things, or worst of all..maybe I was just “broken.”

When my journey of overcoming depression and anxiety began there was no definitive diagnostic test that proved what I was battling was real, so it was easy to think (or have other people believe) that I was just “making this stuff up.” Luckily with some amazing advances in genetic testing over the last several years, depression and anxiety can be tested no different than whether or not you might have diabetes.

More importantly, with the results of your genetic testing, you can make much more informed decisions about lifestyle changes that can significantly improve the quality of your life…possibly without the need for antidepressants (but please consult a medical professional before making any changes to your prescription medication, regardless of what you might learn in this interview).

I’m very excited today to have the opportunity to speak with quite possibly the foremost expert on the entire planet when it comes to genetic testing, and more importantly interpreting the results of genetic tests from companies such as 23andme. My guest is Dr. Ben Lynch, the founder of the company Strategene, and he’s also the author of the book Dirty Genes: A Breakthrough Program to Treat the Root Cause of Illness and Optimize Your Health. In this episode we talk all about the genetic mutations that are very common for those dealing with mental health issues, and more importantly the simple lifestyles changes you can make to better manage (and even overcome) your mental health issues.