Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Hey everybody, welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and today my guest is Corey Poirier. Corey is an author, a speaker, an advocate for finding purpose and passion to address the mental health crisis we’re facing today. Uh, his insights into this topic are rooted in his own personal journey.

And research, uh, making him a valuable voice in the conversation about mental health and wellbeing. And so with that, welcome to the show, Corey. I’m really glad to have you here.

Corey Poirier: Oh, thank you so much. I’m, yeah, [00:01:00] I’m really excited to be here. Looking forward to make some magic happen.

Scott DeLuzio: I love it. Yeah. Um, could you start off maybe by telling our audience a little bit about yourself and your background, kind of who you are and what led you to become a so passionate about the importance of finding purpose and passion in life, especially, uh, in the context of mental health.

I

Corey Poirier: I guess, Two sides to that in the sense that there’s what kind of, uh, I guess drew me to it from a, um, personal perspective in, in just in relation to what it did for my life. And then there’s also, uh, what I think is the connection, or I believe myself as the connection based on a lot of interviews.

So a lot of research to, uh, Uh, mental health as well. And so, first and foremost, I battled, uh, generalized anxiety and hypochondria for about four solid years. I mean, probably much longer than that with the anxiety, but four years that I can say for sure. [00:02:00] Um, the hypochondria side, for those that might not be familiar with it, I mean, I jokingly said, but there was probably some truth to it, I spent so much time in doctors waiting rooms that, you know, I probably should have my own coffee mug in their office.

And, uh, It was because, for those that don’t know, hypochondria is when you hear about a disease or an illness and you develop the symptoms of said illness or disease, even though you don’t have the symptom or disease. And so, uh, I battled that for about four years and it’s, honestly, it was like I compartmentalized my life.

Like, it was like, all I could picture was, like, I don’t know how to explain this, but it was like, minute by minute, like, everything seemed forever, because when you’re feeling like you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna live, because again, hypochondria, you think you’re gonna have a disease that will probably, uh, end your life prematurely, or you think that with anxiety, like, you’re always anxious and always on edge, um, you It’s really hard to look at the future, like, to see a future.

And so I say that to [00:03:00] say, how this relates to me is, I tried all your traditional and normal methods. For alleviating these two things I was dealing with and, uh, my mother’s bipolar mental illness runs in my family. So, uh, it would make sense that I would struggle as well. The only thing that ever changed it was ultimately, uh, Scott, whenever I.

This one night got tricked into performing stand up comedy and w...