CTE, Hyperbaric Therapy & The Hidden Toll Of Olympic Bobsledding | William Person 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.

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

CTE, Hyperbaric Therapy & The Hidden Toll Of Olympic Bobsledding | William Person

December 01, 2025 • Nicholas Wichman – Lived Experience Host • Season 1 • Episode 29

Olympic bobsledder and mental health advocate William Person opens up about repeated crashes, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), and the terrifying mental fallout—panic, memory loss, “lost years,” and suicidal thinking—in this conversation with host Nicholas Wichman (“The DEFECTIVE Schizoaffective”) and co-host Tony Medeiros (“IndyPocket”). He explains how hyperbaric oxygen therapy changed his life, and why athletes need better concussion protocols, treatment options, and real support around racism, trauma, and brain injury.

William shares how going from track and field to Olympic-level bobsledding came with repeated head injuries, dementia-like symptoms, and feeling completely disconnected from time, reality, and the people around him. He opens up about leaning on caffeine just to function, losing friends to suicide, having his struggles minimized, and trying to navigate life while his brain and mental health were falling apart.

We also get into how hyperbaric oxygen therapy works, why it’s still treated as “experimental” despite powerful results, and the financial barriers that keep most injured athletes and everyday people from accessing it. William’s vision now? To build a wellness center where people with CTE, brain injuries, and serious mental health struggles can get real treatment instead of being dismissed, overmedicated, or left alone until it’s too late.

In this episode, we talk about:

– What CTE actually is and how repeated sports injuries can slowly destroy the brain

– How William went from track and field to bobsledding and Olympic aspirations

– The crashes that left him with memory loss, panic attacks, and feeling like he “lost some years somewhere”

– Why people around him minimized his symptoms and how isolating that was

– How hyperbaric oxygen therapy works, what it felt like, and the changes he saw in his brain and daily life

– The financial and systemic barriers to getting hyperbaric therapy and other innovative treatments

– Suicide in the athlete community and how many people are suffering in silence

– The role of racism in sports, medicine, and mental health, and how it shaped William’s experience

– His vision for a wellness center focused on athlete mental health, brain injury, trauma, and real recovery

Support William’s healing work and follow his journey:

Donate to William’s GoFundMe for CTE Recovery Therapy for Athletes and Veterans: https://gofund.me/9f3f3f476

Follow William on TikTok for updates on CTE recovery and hyperbaric therapy: https://www.tiktok.com/@hyperbarichealing?_r=1&_t=ZT-91qgIucMuKb

Content note: This episode includes discussion of brain injuries, racism, shootings and suicide. Please listen with care.

If you’re suffering with any brain-related trauma and want to be a part of a supportive community, hop on our Discord “The Struggle Bus” and share your journey (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