#45: Erin Herle - Submit The Stigma

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Erin Herle is a BJJ black belt who started the <a href="https://www.submitthestigma.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">#submitthestigma</a> campaign after she lost her father Robin Herle to suicide.<br></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Erin <span class="font-129386">started training jiu-jitsu in the summer of 2009 after being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, ADHD, and suffering bouts of depression.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, Erin tours the world (not literally atm because, you know, the pandemic) teaching seminars loaded with humor and sprinkled with mental health advocacy. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On this episode of the Fight Back Podcast, Georgia and Erin jam about the importance of mental health and how martial arts is an epic medium to improve mental health and help you overcome your trauma. <br></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Erin and Georgia discuss: </span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">How the stigma around mental health historically manifested for Erin </span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">What attributes of BJJ make it helpful for mental health and potentially life saving</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">The not so obvious ways learning to fight is a form of self defense </span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Learning to take up space</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Learning to regulate emotions </span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">What 'self care' really means and why most of the stuff on instagram is BS</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hypothetically, what would a stigma-free BJJ class look like</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And loads more. This is a long episode, fair warning. It's a podcast so pause and take a break whenever you like but I highly recommend sticking with it because there's a lot of great nuggets of wisdom in here! </spa