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Being Well Podcast: Trauma or Personality, When to Walk Away, and Burnout: October Mailbag
October 13, 2025

In this episode of the Being Well Podcast, Dr. Rick and Forrest open up the mailbag to answer listener questions about trauma and its impact on personality, boundaries, anger, and burnout. They discuss how to distinguish the authentic self from the patterns we needed to learn to survive, how to balance duty to self with duty to others, and how to work with explosive anger by first joining with it. Finally, they discuss the importance of moving from empathic distress to compassion in order to prevent caregiver fatigue. Topics include cognitive defusion, taking a bird’s eye view, filling your own cup, and being with your feelings without judging them.

Key Topics

  • 0:00: Introduction
  • 01:30: Question 1: Trauma or Personality?
  • 07:53: Question 2: Managing Boundaries with a Depressed Partner
  • 28:32: Question 3: Dealing with Explosive Anger
  • 37:45: Question 4: How to Prevent Caregiver Fatigue
  • 47:16: Recap

Forrest is now writing on Substack, check out his work there.

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