Podcast: Baseball’s Doc Gooden’s Journey from Star Pitcher to Mental Health Advocate

Inside Mental Health Podcast Guest and Host Bio

Dwight Eugene Gooden, aka “Doc,” is well known for his baseball heroics. Dwight’s career accolades include Rookie of the Year, a Cy Young Award, three World Series championships, and a storybook no-hitter. Earning the nickname “Doctor K” due to his propensity for pitching strikeouts, it could be argued that Dwight Gooden earned it all in his playing career. Dwight Gooden’s history also includes substance use and addiction, league suspensions, arrests, and a long road toward learning how his various struggles were associated with his mental health. Receiving treatment and now over four years sober, Dwight Gooden uses his unique perspective to offer support and insightful guidance to others struggling with mental illness. Having served thousands through various speeches, talks and advocacy endeavors, Dwight Gooden is retired from baseball but considers now the prime of his career as he sees his true purpose in helping others.

In addition to participating in various mental health causes, Dwight Gooden is working to spread nutritional awareness through St. Augustine’s Fountain. He also looks forward to when the New York Mets will give him the highest honor a player could receive from their club when they retire his #16 jersey this year.

Our host, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, “Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations,” available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author.

Gabe makes his home in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. He lives with his supportive wife, Kendall, and a Miniature Schnauzer dog that he never wanted, but now can’t imagine life without.

To book Gabe for your next event or learn more about him, please visit gabehoward.com.

Episode Transcript

Producer’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript has been computer generated and therefore may contain inaccuracies and grammar errors. Thank you.
Announcer: You’re listening to Inside Mental Health: A Psych Central Podcast where experts share experiences and the latest thinking on mental health and psychology. Here’s your host, Gabe Howard.

Gabe Howard: Hey, everyone, I’m your host, Gabe Howard. Calling in today, we have Dwight Eugene Gooden, nicknamed Doc. At 19, Doc became the youngest starting pitcher in Major League Baseball history until that point, and in 1986, he helped the Mets win the World Series. Doc, welcome to the podcast.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Thanks for having me. How’s everything going? And all that good stuff.

Gabe Howard: Oh, thank you so much for being here. It is going fantastic. You know, Doc, I want to admit I, I had not heard of you in until I started researching you for this show. So I did a lot of googling on who Doc Gooden was. And I got to tell you, two things came up. One, your incredible baseball career, a Cy Young Award, your 98 mile an hour rising fastball. But as we’re going to talk about today, a lot of other stuff came up.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yeah. Oh, 100%.

Gabe Howard: Yeah. History with addiction issues with alcohol and but here’s the thing that I noticed right here. Here’s the thing that kind of struck me. They were never together. You were either the greatest baseball player in, like, history up until this point, or you were somebody who suffered from addiction. And I’m putting it nicely. Sometimes it is straight up called you an alcoholic. I don’t understand why they couldn’t put the two together? From your standpoint, you’re you’re just, Doc that that all lives in one body. What’s it like for you to see it all separated out like that?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: You know, the thing was, I think a lot of it I know myself, I was in denial for a long time. I think the people who really love me, the family didn’t have no history of it. And my family, they was in denial. And what baseball people want you to doing? Well, they underlooked a lot of stuff. But for me it was like living two different lives. And I remember going to Celebrity Rehab in 2010 and it was a time for me. I had to remove the mask. And what I mean by removing that mask, getting honest with myself. Admitting to the world that, hey, I have an addiction problem. I have a major problem I have to deal with. This is what I’ve been suffering with. Because I’m a baseball player, on the other hand, I’m basically a junkie and unless I get this taken care of, I was no different than a junkie living on the street. The only thing I had money, so I had a place to live. But I was no different than those guys. I mean, I had a serious, serious problem. When I was in New York, things were well. But when I go home to Tampa, I would turn into this other person. So, you know, it was like two different people there, Doc, and there was Dwight, the junkie. I’m just laying out there the way it was until I went and got help.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: I went to numerous rehab rehabilitations, got to the point where I knew what I was going to say. I knew what to say. Until 2019. I went to a mental health place called High Focus in New Jersey. That’s when I really got the proper help that needed and felt out my demons what to do and what not to do. Why? Sometimes I would literally be crying. Once at a drug dealer’s house. I couldn’t understand that. But I got the drugs. I was crying because I didn’t want to do it. I knew what was going to take me, but the cravings and the problems that I had, what my brain was telling me was to go get it, and that this mental health place, I mean, at first they go there and admit that I have a mental problem. It’s kind of embarrassing because growing up in my household, you know, men don’t hug, men don’t cry, men, you don’t share your person. So I had to relearn all that for my kids I told them I was going to do. I know they’ll be picked on in school. All that stuff. Your dad is crazy. All these different things. But unless I did this, I would have been dead. It’s 100% I’d have been dead.

Gabe Howard: I want to ask you, Doc. It sounds like, you used the word junkie and everything that I’ve read. You know, they use the word alcoholic, person addicted, you know, abusing drugs and alcohol. Everybody was really comfortable talking about your abusing drugs and alcohol. Like it was just like, hey, of course he abuses drugs and alcohol. Then you went to the mental health rehab clinic and you started addressing your mental health, and suddenly everybody was like, well, you’re crazy. He’s nuts. There’s it seems like people were okay with you abusing drugs and alcohol. And by people, I mean, like the general public were okay with this idea that a baseball player could be an alcoholic or be a drug addict, but they weren’t okay with this idea that a baseball player could be somebody with mental health issues. Is that what you saw it from your perspective as well?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yeah, you’re right on with that 100%, because now you’re dealing with something different, like they said, okay, it’s acceptable to society that you have a drinking problem or you have a drug problem. Now when a mental part come in like, oh, hold on, this is serious than we thought, because I think America don’t have enough history on mental health. They look at it just a word. But this is serious people. And you don’t have to be talking to yourself or, you know, seeing things that have a mental problem. My mental problems have me. Why was why was I going to do this? What made me going to do this? Why was I crying? Going to get this? So I had feelings and I had to just accept that and not worry about what people are going to say. Just get myself together because I didn’t like the person that I was. And when I use the word junkie, it’s because I would be stuck in a bathroom for three days. You know, that’s a mental problem. I mean, it’s something seriously wrong with that. I was missing my kids’ birthday parties, missing their school activities, all that stuff. That’s a mental problem. Something’s going on. And I think for me, once I took care of the mental problem, then the drugs and alcohol became secondary. I was able to understand the problem to that. But before I got to mental health and had to accept that, then I was struggling with the rest of my life. I would do good for four years, I would do good for seven years, but eventually it would come back. I think now, not saying it can’t come back, but I’m in a lot better place now that U understand it and reach out for help when I need it so it don’t come back.

Gabe Howard: You’ve been fighting this for a long time. A long, long time. I mean, I I’m not trying to call you old doc, but.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: I’m old, I mean, I’ll be I’ll be 60 this year.

Gabe Howard: Yeah, I mean, 60 years, but it sounds like all the way back in 1986, in the early 90s, in some of your earlier relapses, they didn’t address mental health at all, like it wasn’t even talked about. And I’m not talking about in the society pages. I’m not talking about in rumors. I mean, like the treatment center, you would go in and be treated for drug and alcohol addiction, and nobody in the medical community brought up this co-occurring disorder or brought up how this is impacting your mental health. Is that true? Did the medical community also separate this out?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yes. And I think part of that, like most programs, they are 28 day or 60-day programs. They kind of follow the reason of 28- and 60-day programs, because health insurance, health insurance only covers 28 days or 60 days. So when your health insurance run out, okay, you’re good. You’re cured now. And it’s sad that it’s that way. And now I’m trying to get into what we’re doing with teenage addictions and try to expand that where you don’t have to have insurance and help these kids before you get to the point where they’re incarcerated or, you know, possibly have to lose their life.

Gabe Howard: I. It really resonated with me when you said, you’re a 60-year-old man and you’re an athlete. You’re first off, the male is enough, right? Being a 60-year-old man is enough not to want to cry. Being an athlete is enough not to want to cry. There’s so many stereotypes of why being an African American man, you can’t cry. There’s just so many reasons that men cannot cry. And you’ve said it a few times in this interview, you’re like, I was crying, I was crying, I was crying like. Like you owned it. Like it was nothing. Were you always that way? Did you think it was always okay to just cry?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Not in front of my parents. Because my dad would say, man, don’t cry. You gotta be tough. Many times I want to go to my dad and just talk to him and say, dad, I’m suffering. This is what’s going on. This was really going on. I’m tired of hearing this. And my mom was great. She was opposite, you know, strong lady from Georgia, third grade education. But you wouldn’t know that if you talk to her. She say son is okay. Like the first time I told her I was going to rehab, she was happy. She said, good, you can go there, get the help you need and come back. And I want my son back, never knowing for sure I’ll do it because she knew something was wrong. She thought it was just alcohol where alcohol was accepted. She didn’t know the drugs and my dad never said one word. When I told him that I know I had to hurt him because he never said anything. So I know I heard him bad, but sometimes you just want to tell your friends how you feel. But I couldn’t do it many times. I was in my house by myself and I was just bust out crying. I mean screaming out loud, crying, begging for help, praying, get out of this mess because I was stuck and couldn’t get out of it. But then at the same time, I was put on a pedestal by everyone so I couldn’t tell them I had this problem real bad and it’s getting worse and eating at me. I would just say, you know, I’m not doing well today, okay? You know, just relax or they’ll say, don’t do drugs, just drink.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Alcohol is a drug. And I know if I do one I’m going to do the other, but nobody will understand that. So I just had to be a better man. And I think by the mercy of God kind of just told me it’s okay to reach out and get help. And the last time I got in trouble in 2019, they want to send me back to rehab. I said, no, I need more help than that. I know all the stuff in rehab. I’ve been there. I think 7 or 9 of them let me go get some mental health. I need to go to a mental institution. They looked at me like, you’re serious. You’re not that crazy. You’re not that bad off. What is not that bad off? I mean, I mean, doing drugs stuff over 25 years and a lot of times I didn’t want to do that. So it’s a problem. It’s a major problem that by the grace of God, I’m still here. So by still being here, I still think my focus I’m still in contact with High Focus today. And I have to I’m not afraid to admit that because I know what pain looks like. I know what pain feels like. Anybody going through it, I want them to know it’s okay. They’ll get help if you need it, be yourself. And to me, that’s being strong and wise. But just sit back and learn about what Americans say and society’s going to say. I mean, you’re just killing yourself and destroying anybody. Anybody that loves you going down with you.

Gabe Howard: It’s fascinating to me. As you pointed out, you had a 25-year history of abusing drugs and alcohol and some of the things that it cost you was an entire season of baseball.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yes. Oh, man.

Gabe Howard: That’s a really big consequence for a baseball player who cannot play for an entire year because of alcohol and addiction issues. And yet when you said, I want mental health help, they said, well, you’re not that sick.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: I know.

Gabe Howard: I mean, how can you miss a year of work, how you missed an entire baseball season? And they’re like, well, listen, at least you’re not crazy. I that’s it’s utterly fascinating to me that anybody would table it that way. Yet I know you’re right. I absolutely, unequivocally know you’re right. And I want to point out to our audience, the reverse is also true. I live with bipolar disorder, and in my community, people are like, well, at least you’re not a drunk. At least you’re not a drug addict. At least you’re not a I’m like, what are we doing? We’re really like, what are we doing? We’re all suffering. We’re all having these issues. And frankly, we have a, it co-occurs much, much more than we’re comfortable admitting. And yet we still keep it separate. I want to ask you, though, Doc, you missed an entire year of baseball. Now, to a lot of people, that’s the, quote unquote, rock bottom. You missed a year of playing baseball, and yet you still relapsed multiple times since that. Can you talk about this concept of rock bottom and why missing a year of baseball wasn’t enough to get you well?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yes, I think for me most people labeled rock bottom. I think to me, and what I went through rock bottom is when you did, that’s the way I see it, because so many times I thought I hit rock bottom. It was rock bottom for a year or two years, but it wasn’t completely rock bottom because I hadn’t got it yet. I hadn’t got to the point where I understood what was going on with addiction, and then there’s no cure for it. I mean, only thing you can do is day by day, go to meetings by the counselors and stay away from places and people that you use with. I understand that, but for me, when I missed a year of the season of baseball and baseball was all I knew. That’s the only job I ever had since I was nine years old. Baseball. And when I read that letter, Bud Selig said suspended for an entire year, the 1995 season, I read a letter over and over and thinking I missed something. And it’s true. I went out that night on like a three-day binge. Instead of saying, okay, I missed it, let me get myself together a three-day binge. There’s a gentleman named Ray Negron that lives in Saint Petersburg. At the same time, he works with the Yankees still to the day. And Bob Klapisch is a writer in new Jersey, told me he was a guy because I was trying to go to Japan.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: I was in so deep now about my addiction. I still wanted to go play baseball. I said, hey, maybe I can go to Japan and play. So he said, yeah, this guy Ray Negron can get you to Japan. I called Ray up. Ray came over, we never met, but we lived there. We knew we had mutual friends. So he said, I can get you in Japan. You gotta get in shape first. You gotta get your life together first. He said, that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna work out every day. After that, I got a guy, Ron. Doc, he gonna take you to some AA and NA meetings. Then we’ll have lunch. We gonna do that every day. And once you get right, we’ll go to Japan. And so I said, okay. So I started doing that. So once I started training, going to meetings every day, hanging around good people, hanging around, people in recovery. So I feel good. Then I told Ray, I said, hey, I don’t want to go to Japan now. He said, that’s good because I wasn’t gonna send you to Japan anyway. But he jump started me on my way back and so I started spending more time with my kids, pick my kids up for school. That how I started loving myself again. Things started coming together. And then by the end of 95, the suspension was uplifted. I talked to a couple of teams. I signed with the Yankees.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: I met Mr. Steinbrenner, Steinbrenner talked with me and my dad. He said, all I want you to do get your life together. What have you been doing with your time away from baseball? He asked me all those questions before we even talked about baseball. Then the next day, we went back and we signed the contract. But that’s one of the best things that happened, which is, like you said, relapse still came after that. After I retired, I think I retired. Looking back at I retired too soon.

Sponsor Break

Gabe Howard: And we’re back talking with major league baseball star Dwight “Doc” Gooden.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: 2000, I hurt my knee. So they said, I’m going to miss some time and I would miss three months and then I’ll have to rehab three months. By that time, the season would be over. But Mr. Steinbrenner said, oh, you can come work for me. So without taking time to think about it, I retired in the next two years. It was ironic that during spring training I got arrested both times in spring training. She goes because psychologically I still want to be playing baseball. Baseball is still going on and that time will come up. I’ll be depressed, you know, everything going. I go right back to drinking and drugging. I got arrested. It happened both times. We found out while I was in mental health program that was happening because technically, I would have been on the baseball field. I retired too soon, so that was part of it. Not to justify anything.

Gabe Howard: It’s really fascinating to me the way that the world works. Right? As I’m sitting here, I’m thinking that this guy’s a he. He won a World Series, he’s a Cy Young Award winner. He was a millionaire. And I’m just I’m super focused on that. And I want I want to own it. I’m. I keep saying society and the listeners think this. I think it too. I’m like, I’m sitting across from a multi-millionaire that, that very, very few people will win a World Series. And that’s incredible. But the

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yeah.

Gabe Howard: Thing that you keep saying over and over again is time away from your kids. You keep bringing up your kids as the biggest thing that you lost. And I’m starting to feel a little guilty that I think the biggest thing that you lost, and many of the listeners think that the biggest thing that you lost was this time at baseball. But you, you, you bring up your kids a lot. I do think we forget that, that celebrities and athletes are, in fact, human. Can you talk about the human toll of this outside of baseball and the millions and the things that people write about?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yes, 100%. Because like baseball, like you said, I won the Cy Young. I won the rookie of the year. I won the World Series. I won every award a baseball player could possibly win. But I can’t get back the time that I lost with my kids. I mean, I lost like 15 years where I don’t remember. It was like a blackout when my kids were growing up. You can’t get that back. Missing school activities, missing Little League games, all this stuff. Missing Little League play. I mean, kids plays. Missing now, my kids now I’m grandfather and I see my grandkids. That’s why I remember my kids up. So from this place to there, I miss that. And the kids suffer. Just like you. I had one son get held back a grade because when I got incarcerated, he gave up. He’ll go to school, but he didn’t want to do anything. That’s because I hurt that kid real bad. By him doing that. And you can’t get that back. Building the trust with your kids, being accountable against your kids. And one of the saddest things that still bothered me, that I did through my addiction. Instead of coming home and admitting I was having an affair, I said, well, if I get a divorce, I don’t have to explain that. Not knowing that I’m divorcing my wife and the four kids, addiction took me to that point.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: All that, that low of a level and just that sad and creepy of the person. I divorced my wife and four kids so I can go get my own apartment and get high as long as I want. I don’t have to explain that nobody and today that stuff still eat at me. But I had a thing with guilt, shame, embarrassment I had to deal with too. But my therapist told me. She said, If God can forgive you and your family forgive you, how come you can’t forgive yourself? At that time, I didn’t want to forgive myself because it’s already premeditated. I was going to use that to continue to get high, keep drinking so I know I wouldn’t have learned that at a rehab. I had to learn that at the mental institution. So I’m so thankful for those places and glad I went there to get that and get back today. I’m accountable to my kids. They love me. We have a great relationship. I got an iPhone that I don’t know how to use as you see, but I got it’s like a FaceTime, my grandkids and great grandkids and life is great. But I do know if I lose focus, all that can be lost again. So just day to day and doing life.

Gabe Howard: You talked about your family forgiving you. Have they forgiven you? And was that hard fought?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: That was hard fought because one is one example. When my kids, my boys are grown now. When I was in school, I told them I’m gonna pick them up from the bus stop. When I got to the bus stop, the bus was going on the bus because so many times I told them I was gonna pick them up. I would never show. So they said, you know, dad said, we won’t get on the bus. So they got on the bus and left. So it’s time over time, over time. And I think now they forgive me because if I go in the bathroom, I’m in there for an hour. They’re not gonna come knock on the door, or my girlfriend will come kick the door and like she normally do, it’s okay. Dad’s not here. She’s okay. But in the past, I’ve had my mom kick in the door. My nephew, Gary Sheffield, who played football, he kicked in the door wondering what you’re doing here now. I said, I’m coming somewhere. I’m gonna be somewhere. They know I’m going to do that. But I had to allow them to build trust on their time and forgive them on their time. I can’t say, look at me now. I’ve been good for a year. You guys should forgive me. They had to do it on their own time. Because remember, some of these kids, they hold life being high. So now it’s just a matter of time after time. But I say, hey, I don’t feel good if I don’t return a call. They know something’s going on. I’m busy not thinking dad’s out getting high again, but that’s one of the best opportunities, the gifts you can get to have your kids forgiven.

Gabe Howard: What was going on that made you think that your only choice was drugs and alcohol? What was going on in your mind that you looked at all of that and you were like, you know what, this is my best path forward.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: I think what happened with me, I started drinking, I was like 12 years old cause I saw my dad drinking. So I had to go in. And when he went there, I drink one of his beer tastes pretty good. And when I became adult, I started getting my own beer, and it came, I called, I started smoking marijuana, and one day in 86, I went home. I was going to get some marijuana, and my cousin was like a street guy. He had girls working for him. I mean, he sold drugs. What’s his house to get some money? He didn’t have any. He went to go get it. And while he went to go get it, I’m looking around his house and he’s got all these different rooms. There’s two girls and them making out, and I go in the room, obviously, you know, I’m 20 years old. I’m curious, like, hey, what are you doing? You want to join us? I said, yeah, I want to join you. They say, well, hey, do some of this. They had cocaine. I said, no, I’m not going to do that. They said, well, you can’t join unless you do this. But women is my weakness too. I struggle with women all the time when I was younger. And so I tried it the first time so I can join in with them. And the first time I tried it, I fell in love with it, not knowing, but I became addicted. I found out the first time I hit it, so I did it. Did the coke, join these girls. They said, you know, I want to come and get marijuana no more. I was come to get the cocaine and for the first probably year I was okay. But then it was getting worse and worse. And the what you call it, the circumstances were getting worse and worse as well. I became addicted right away. And so any time I would feel bad or feel good, that was like my scapegoat. That takes me away from the road.

Gabe Howard: And you, as a baseball player. It was going on. I want to make sure I we remember that 20 years old you were, you, you were a a a major

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yes.

Gabe Howard: League baseball player.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Oh, I was in the prime of my career at that time. Not to blow smoke, but I was the best pitcher in baseball at that time. And when I go to Tampa, I want to be a drug addict. So it’s like two sides. I’m just giving it to you straight.

Gabe Howard: How did that live inside you? To be both I it’s incredible to me and again to the average person they’re thinking why you’re blowing it. You’re blowing it. You’re the best pitcher in the world and you’re doing cocaine. Why are you doing this?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: It became. And when people say as a disease, it took me a long time to admit that it was a disease. I said, you know, I’m just weak. Like I can fix my my curveball wasn’t working. I knew how to fix that. I can’t throw a ball where I wanted I knew how to fix that. But with drugs. I didn’t know how to fix that because I thought if I take two days off, I’ll be fine. I don’t go around Ricky’s house. I’ll be fine. But it don’t work that way until you go inside a place and use the tools that they give you. Then you start to self on recovery. But it’s a lifetime commitment. My problem was I was dealing with a two headed sort. What I mean by that, when times were bad, I would use when times were good, I was celebrating youth and it was my way of escaping. And then the problem is, like you said, why would you do cocaine? Here’s the thing that kept me sick for a long time when I used cocaine. And then now I would be out a three-day binge. And then when you sober up now you got to deal with the guilt, the shame, the embarrassment. Why you miss your mom’s birthday party, why you weren’t at your daughter’s recital. Now I would get high again, self-medicate to cover all that up. And now you’re right back in that cycle again. And I was stuck in a cycle of guilt and shame when I sobered up. And then I was high. You try to stay in it, and it’s just. I don’t know how I’m alive, to tell the truth, but I thank the good Lord had me here to tell my story and be straight, because these people did a lot less than me. There’s lots of lives and I’m still here. I think that’s the only reason I’m here, is to share my message and my message. Messages help the younger generation come around. That’s what I believe.

Gabe Howard: Doc, as we’re nearing the end of the show, I want to ask you. You’ve relapsed multiple times. You’ve been sober since 2019, you’ve gotten help for mental health. You’re sharing your story. You’re helping people understand that they need to look at their entire bodies or physical health, their mental health. They need to pay attention to co-occurring disorders. I mean, I, I love your message and I love your story, but I, I have to ask before we leave, why is this time different? Why are you not going to relapse this time, considering all of the other past relapses?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: I think the main thing, like you can’t never say never. They say, well, I say never, because if I do the same thing that I’m doing today and I did yesterday, I won’t do it tomorrow and I’ll be fine. I’m around some good people and I’m not afraid to let somebody know if I’m not feeling good today and how I feel. I’m not afraid to tell somebody, you know, I’m not going go to that event today. I can be honest with myself and be okay with it, because I was a people pleaser for a long time as well. So I can just be okay with saying that person don’t like me or I can’t make this person like me, I’m fine. I’m going to be okay. And the people that I’m dealing with now are very good people to me. They won’t tell me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear. I think that helps a lot. And not to just get off subject, but we have this new diary supplement that we use too. It’s called Aquilegy.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: This is the thing that helps the brain. It really works. And I’m not blowing smoke, I’m just sharing my experience because, like I say, if I help somebody make a life change, I’m willing to do that. And that really helps me as well. And you can take it with medication and just give it a try, you know, if you really want to help yourself. And it helps with the mental aspect, the thinking helps the brain function better. Just puts you in a better place. Because like I say, depression is real. All this stuff is real. You know, you hear these big words. And I know when I was a kid, I didn’t know what that means. My dad just told me, son, let’s go out and play, son. Forget about it, son. Don’t share this. But I had to relearn all this over and Aquilegy helps me do that as well. I’m not just blowing smoke. Try for yourself. And I think it really works. It works for me anyway.

Gabe Howard: Doc, I know you have your assistant in the room. Where can folks find you online?

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Hey, you come in?

Assistant to Mr. Gooden: It’s Doc Gooden. You just go to his page on Instagram. You can just go to Doc Gooden on Instagram.

Gabe Howard: Dwight Gooden on Instagram. Of course we can Google, Doc, because you’re famous. You’ll come up everywhere. You got your own cards and everything.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Yes. Sounds good, yes.

Gabe Howard: [Laughter] Doc, thank you so much for taking the time today, and thank you so much for your hard work as it comes to helping people lead better lives and sharing your story and being so honest about it, I. I can’t tell you the message of pay attention to your mental health, and it’s a powerful message, and I’m glad you could be honest with our listeners today. Thank you.

Dwight “Doc” Gooden: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. You’re doing a great job and helping me share the message. So keep doing your thing too, buddy, and thanks for having me.

Gabe Howard: Oh, you’re very welcome, Michael. And I want to give a great big thank you to all of our listeners. My name is Gabe Howard, and I am an award winning public speaker. And I could be available for your next event. I also wrote the book “Mental Illness Is an Asshole and Other Observations,” which you can get on Amazon. However, you can get a signed copy with free show swag or learn more about me just by heading over to gabehoward.com. Wherever you downloaded this episode, please follow or subscribe to the show. It is absolutely free and you don’t want to miss a thing. And hey, listen up! Can you do me a favor? Recommend the show. Share in a support group, share it on social media. Send somebody a text message. Send somebody an email. Mention it at your next outing because sharing the show is how we’re going to grow. I will see everybody next Thursday on Inside Mental Health.

Announcer: You’ve been listening to Inside Mental Health: A Psych Central Podcast from Healthline Media. Have a topic or guest suggestion? E-mail us at show@psychcentral.com. Previous episodes can be found at psychcentral.com/show or on your favorite podcast player. Thank you for listening.