How to Enhance Your Mental Health with ‘Chopped’ Champion and memoir author Brooke Siem

Seeds of Sunshine - A mother-daughter podcast

Season 2, Episode 59

Join your hosts Carmen and Sophia Micsa and learn about the memoir author Brooke Siem’s fight against depression and antidepressant withdrawal symptoms.

Brooke Siem was among the first generation of teens to be medicated with antidepressants. Her debut memoir, MAY CAUSE SIDE EFFECTS, was published in September 2022 and was named one of Good Morning America's Most Anticipated Reads. Her work on antidepressant withdrawal has also appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Post, Psychology Today, Insider, Mad In America, The Washington Examiner, and more. She is also a Food Network "Chopped" champion and author of the newsletter, Happiness Is A Skill.

Brooke Siem: “We all suffer the exact length of time that decide to suffer, and then there is the lightbulb moment.”

On this Seeds of Sunshine episode:

• Learn what is the radical transformative moment in your life.
• Learn to question the medications prescribed.
• Being open to various modalities of healing is important in the battle with depression.
• To live a happier life, Brooke focuses on the creative aspects, such as painting, cooking, and practicing high-level gymnastics.
• Brooke believes that it’s important to address the darkness by doing the inner work.
• Her advice is to never stop taking your meds cold turkey like she did, as it is extremely debilitating.
• Although Brooke felt deeply out of culinary shape, she managed to win the prestigious competition ‘Chopped’ while on antidepressant withdrawal.
• Although May Cause Side Effects was not written from a therapeutic perspective, Brooke realized that her memoir was what society needed.
• The most powerful piece of advice she has to offer to others is to allow for more time to process feelings.
• Brooke loves her new life and hopes that you will find her memoir helpful and inspiring.

To purchase her memoir, which will also come out in paperback in April, please go to her website, and wherever books are sold.

To connect with Brooke Siem, please follow her on:
Author | Speaker | Chef (@brookesiem) • Instagram photos and videos
Brooke Siem | Facebook

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Full editing credit & art design to my daughter Sophia Micsa.
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