An Amelia resident wants to help you find your weird with his new podcast, Finding Weird.
Eric Dean, who works as a psychiatric social worker and discharge planner for Mercy Health Clermont Hospital, launched his podcast into the weird void earlier this summer.
“I wanted to start a podcast as a means of scratching the creative itch during a time when the world was sequestered in their homes during COVID,” Dean said. “I get to work in mental health daily, but my vocational capacity doesn’t always lend itself to meeting with every single patient nor to practice in a way that is more genuine to me. I am a cynical and practical person by nature and enjoy meeting patients on their level and in a language they can understand.”
He previously worked with adolescents and he said they often appreciated that he was straightforward in his communication and worked to “embolden their self-acceptance and resilience toward accepting themselves as they were – that there was nothing ‘wrong’ with them.”
The podcast explores the depths of Dean’s eclectic weirdness to show how doing so can help one’s mental wellness, including his own.
As someone who has suffered from depression and anxiety, tapping into his weirdness, such as Dungeons & Dragons, the tabletop role-playing game or ghost hunting in Cincinnati or even jumping on the hobby horse that is podcasting, has helped Dean.
Throughout his life, Dean has felt like he was “swimming upstream” to please others and fighting against his own inner identity, but once he decided to follow his own path by accepting who he was, he was able to turn around in the stream and life became much easier.
“My mental health became more manageable as I acknowledged it and switching college study from opera performance to social work was scary, but pivotal change in my life. As my knowledge of mental health grew, I was able to grow in my self-understanding and grace,” he said.
But what is weird? Dean said weird for him is a form of genuine expression of the self.
“The archaic Scottish meaning that I shared in one of the episodes is that weird is one’s destiny or fate. I feel like the journey to identifying, owning up to, and celebrating what makes someone unique is a key component to self-actualization and living a life of contentment. Living my weird makes me happy and I’ve not always felt that way,” he said.
If people decide to listen to the podcast, Dean said he hopes people get from it what they need in the moment. For some, that means the calming, dulcet tones of Dean’s apropos podcasting voice or for others, it’s hearing about something they’ve been wanting to try but were afraid what others might say. And still for others, the episodes about depression and anxiety may come at “an opportune time for someone learning about their own struggles or the struggle of a loved one.”
And for still others, like this reporter, they also enjoy the dad jokes and the cringe factor. Each episode features an interlude with a dad joke (or several) related to the theme of that particular episode. For example, Episode 5 on hobbies, Dean presented this dad joke, “What is Spider-Man’s favorite hobby? Web design.” He then plays the badum tss sound effect.
But on a serious note, Dean said mental illness is nearly universal, so it’s much more “normal” than normalcy and so is having so-called weird moments or interests.
“Being weird is OK, having a diagnosable mental illness is OK, and there is only one you out there. No one will experience the world as you have and that is why every unique viewpoint is so important needed in this world,” he said.
As the podcast has gone along, up to eight episodes as of this writing, they’ve become an extension of Dean’s insatiable appetite to learn new things and his obsessions with the whims of his “weird brain.”
“Most of my initial followers were coworkers and family who just have an obligation to listen (thank you all!),” he said. “I’ve been most surprised by hearing from them about how it has helped them spend more time with themselves in reflection and growing in their self-acceptance.”
Dean’s also been pleasantly surprised by the listener base developing internationally, with places like Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany and France popping up on his “listener map.”
“Truly outrageous and humbling!” he added.
Going forward, Dean said he plans on developing the net of possible hobbies and guests to explore.
“We have three episodes coming up with a cynical psychotherapist who took up the saxophone, a bank employee turned Brazilian jiu-jitzu student and an ex-military turned civilian engineer who crafts fictional stories based on beloved video game franchises,” he said.
He also hopes to get the Facebook page and group for Finding Weird to become more active so he can do more podcast episodes based on their hobby suggestions.
You can find the page at Facebook.com/FindingWeirdPodcast and the Facebook group is Finding Weirdos.
“I want people to know that weird is wonderful and that it is totally normal to feel like a round peg above a square hole,” he said. “Just roll on your side to another place that is more comfortable to you. I hope that it can be my podcast.”
Finding Weird is also on Instagram at findingweirdpodcast where Dean likes to post episode updates, behind-the-scenes photos and funny and of course, weird, memes.
To learn more about the podcast, please visit https://findingweird.buzzsprout.com/. The podcast is available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and at that link through Buzzsprout.