This one's for anyone who's ever felt like they had to prove they were struggling before someone would finally believe them. More info, resources & ways to connect - https://www.tacosfallapart.com/podcast-live-show/podcast-guests/loot-the-body This time on Even Tacos Fall Apart I sat down with Loot the Body, a Twitch streamer, homeschool mom of seven, and mental health advocate who turns face painting into a way to open up hard conversations. She streams as Mental Health and Makeup, and her whole mission comes down to one line she lives by: your worth isn't something you earn, you already have it. Loot lives with bipolar disorder, and she walked us through what that actually looks like day to day, not the neat two month manic and two month depressive cycle people picture, but mood shifts that can hit four times in a two week stretch. During manic phases she'd chase validation in ways that hurt her marriage. During depressive ones sleep became her only escape from feeling like a failure. She talked openly about passive suicidal ideation, the kind where you're not trying to end your life but you catch yourself hoping you just don't wake up, and why that still counts as an emergency worth calling for help over. We got into her two week inpatient stay, the structure that helped her steady out, and the moment a doctor finally listened close enough to catch what years of misdiagnosis had missed. Getting the right diagnosis, she said, was one of the biggest steps toward learning to manage her illness instead of just surviving it. Loot also opened up about miscarriage, the ignorant comments she heard from people who meant well but had no idea what to say, and the one sentence that actually helped: it's okay to grieve. She talked about Poland syndrome, a condition she was born with that wasn't fully visible until puberty, and how she learned to stop apologizing for a body that didn't match anyone else's. Underneath all of it is a woman who homeschools seven kids, still finds time to crochet through her manic energy, and built a community on Twitch that gave her somewhere to land when her dad passed away suddenly. She's honest with her kids about what she's going through because bipolar disorder runs in her family and she wants them to see that naming a struggle out loud takes away its power, not adds to it. If you've ever felt like admitting you're struggling makes you weak, this conversation is going to hit different. Loot reminds us that one in two people will deal with a mental illness at some point in their life, so the odds are good that whoever you're talking to gets it more than you think. Self care isn't selfish, asking for help isn't failure, and feeling unheard by the people meant to help you is one of the hardest parts of getting better. Grab a taco, settle in, and listen to a conversation about bipolar disorder, mental health advocacy, and what it actually takes to keep showing up for yourself and your family when your brain is working against you.
