Public Safety & Crime Prevention | Perception Vs. Reality w/ Officer Manning Artwork

Beat The Mental Health Out Of It! | Dark-Humor Conversations On Serious Mental Illness & Trauma

If you live with mental illness—or love someone who does—and you’re tired of sugar-coated wellness talk, this show is for you!

"Beat The Mental Health Out Of It!" blends dark humor with real recovery so you feel seen, steadied, and a little lighter. We tell it like it is, so you don’t have to.

Hosted by Nicholas Wichman (“The DEFECTIVE Schizoaffective”) and often joined by co-host Tony Medeiros ("IndyPocket"), this is a brutally honest mental health podcast about what it’s actually like to live with serious mental illness on the schizophrenia spectrum. We talk schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, BPD, PTSD, addiction, religious trauma, bad therapy, psych wards, meds, disability, and trying to build a life in a system that isn’t built for us. You’ll get:

– Lived-experience truth from someone who hears voices, dissociates, relapses, parents, plays music, and still shows up.

– Grounded insight from a mental health professional who has sat across from hundreds of clients and worked inside the system.

– Edgy, stigma-smashing, sometimes controversial conversations about mental illness, relationships, family dysfunction, religion, work, creativity, and survival.

– Challenging takeaways and coping ideas you can actually try—along with laughs that punch up, down, left, right… everywhere.

This show is for people juggling therapy, meds, trauma, and everyday chaos who want honest talk, gallows humor, and zero judgment. Whether you’re schizoaffective, living with schizophrenia or psychosis, dealing with PTSD, supporting a loved one, or just trying not to lose your mind, "Beat The Mental Health Out Of It!" gives you language, community, and brutally honest hope.

We’re not your therapists—we’re fellow passengers on “The Struggle Bus,” sharing what we’ve learned the hard way and refusing to suffer in silence.

All Episodes

Beat The Mental Health Out Of It! | Dark-Humor Conversations On Serious Mental Illness & Trauma

Public Safety & Crime Prevention | Perception Vs. Reality w/ Officer Manning

October 06, 2025 • Nicholas Wichman - Mental Health Advocate • Season 1 • Episode 25

Gender dynamics, trauma, and preparedness: why many women excel in the police force, the emotional toll of critical incidents, and how public safety has drastically improved over the last several years.

We talk perception vs. reality of danger, prevention limits with motivated offenders, lessons learned from past incidents, and the habits that protect officer mental health.

Episode focus: female-officer perception & strengths; trauma processing; safety perception vs. reality; active-shooter preparedness; the true motivation behind mass-murderers; multi-agency response; prevention limits; the power of positivity, resilience & officer wellness.

We cover:

Female officers in policing: interview strengths, perception, and on-scene expectations
The emotional toll: guilt, responsibility, and evidence-based ways to process trauma
Safety perception vs. statistics: media cycles, mindset, and community fear
Violence motivations: what prevention helps—and why some threats persist
Not all assassinations need a motive: some people worship chaos
Multi-agency coordination: how reps and shared language speed real-world response
School safety readiness: threat assessment, drills, and post-incident learning loops
Learning from past incidents: translating debriefs into training that actually sticks
Positivity as a discipline: peer support, perspective, and daily mental-health hygiene
Resilience tactics: routine and boundaries that last

Add one readiness tip (e.g., door checks, plain-language prompts) and one resilience habit to our Discord "The Struggle Bus" and we’ll pin the best. (link below)

Beat The Mental Health Out Of It! is a candid mental health podcast with lived experience—schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia spectrum psychosis, BPD, PTSD, trauma recovery, coping skills, and dark humor that fights stigma.

Hosted by Nicholas Wichman (“The DEFECTIVE Schizoaffective”) with frequent co-host Tony Medeiros, ("IndyPocket"), we talk serious mental illness, psych wards, religious trauma, bad therapy, meds, disability, and messy real-world coping.

New episodes drop every other Monday at 6am ET.

Want community and support? Join our Discord, “The Struggle Bus”: https://discord.gg/emFXKuWKNA

All links (TikTok, YouTube, Streaming, etc.): https://linktr.ee/BTMHOOI

Podcast cover art by Ryan Manning