Removing stigmas related to mental health starts by educating and enhancing one mind at a time. To that end, I create education videos.
Hi I'm Dr. Tracey Marks and I'm on a mission to make education about mental health accessible to all.
AI can be useful for reflection, but support is not the same as treatment.
Use tools wisely, especially when symptoms are serious.
06/23/2026
Lena hadn’t thought about her ex in months. Then a song came on in the grocery store — not a famous one, just one they used to play — and suddenly she felt twenty-six again.
Here’s the part worth holding onto: she wasn’t flooded with him. She was flooded with the state of being with him.
A cue doesn’t just remind you of a person. It can pull your body back into how you felt around them.
That isn’t your brain failing. It’s your brain recognizing a pattern, exactly as designed.
You’re not unmotivated. Your reward system is depleted.
Anhedonia — the inability to feel pleasure — is one of the core features of depression most people don’t talk about. Your dopamine system has gone quiet, so nothing feels worth the effort.
Treatment doesn’t just reduce sadness. It brings the reward system back online.
Send this to someone who’s lost their spark.
It’s Not Your Personality series — Part 18. Follow for Part 19.
06/22/2026
You can go months without thinking about someone, and then one song brings them back like they never left. That doesn’t always mean you haven’t moved on.
When someone mattered, your brain stored more than the facts — it stored the whole state of being with them, including the version of you from that season.
So what returns is often that state, not the person. Once you can see that, you can meet the memory without falling back into it.
Which cue does this for you — a song, a place, a smell?
Sometimes the task is small, but the emotional history attached to it is huge.
Start by separating the action from the shame story.
Your conflict style isn’t a choice — it’s a threat response.
Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn aren’t personality types. They’re four exits from the same threat system, and the response often starts before you decide anything.
Once you can see it, you can interrupt it.
Save this for the next time things heat up.
Signs your “mood swings” are actually emotional flashbacks:
• Sudden waves of fear, shame, or helplessness with no clear cause
• Feeling small, young, or “in trouble” when nothing happened
• Exhaustion afterward with no explanation
Emotional flashbacks don’t come with images. Just the feeling. The feeling is old. The trigger is new.
Send this to someone whose reactions don’t make sense — even to them.
Signs You Didn’t Know You Had series — Part 16. Follow for Part 17.
06/19/2026
Real repair has three layers, and most apologies only reach the first.
Layer one is the apology, naming what happened.
Layer two is accountability, owning the choice without excuses and without collapsing into self-attack.
Layer three is repair, behavior that changes over time.
That third layer is the one the nervous system actually reads.
Here’s the trap: after you apologize, you feel relief, but the other person may still be checking whether it’s safe. Pressure to “get past it” doesn’t rebuild trust. It becomes more data.
Trust can’t be rushed. It has to be re-predicted.
You have more control over your brain’s resilience than you might think.
Five things build cognitive reserve: lifelong learning, social interaction, mentally challenging work, brain-engaging activities like reading or learning a new language, and regular exercise.
One caution — a stressful job isn’t the same as a challenging one. Overload creates strain; real challenge should feel satisfying, even when it’s hard.
Pick one to add this week, and send this to someone building the same habit.
06/18/2026
“I’m sorry you feel that way” can lower the tension in a room while giving the brain almost nothing to work with. A vague apology avoids naming the event, so the receiving brain is left wondering: do they even understand what they did?
A specific apology works differently. It names the action, the impact, and the change.
“I interrupted you and dismissed what you said. I can see how that left you feeling unheard. Next time I’ll slow down and let you finish.”
That gives the thinking brain something concrete to organize around: act, impact, change.