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General Hospital (GH) star Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) recently welcomed New York Times bestselling author Laura Day onto his podcast. They talked about trauma, bipolar disorder, and other aspects of mental health.
Content warning: This article discusses self-harm and may distress some readers.
During the episode on Sunday, the real-life Sonny Corinthos and Laura Day looked at the line separating intuition from crippling anxiety, and discussed how people can survive distressing emotional situations.
Facing Anxiety
GH followers know that Benard created his State of Mind podcast as a safe platform for discussing mental illness. So, it’s no huge surprise that Day discussed how people cope with pain.
Day said that “Everybody endures pain. It’s how you endure pain and what you do with it.”
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She added, “The worst parts of life bring us to the best if we have the tools. And that’s the real if.” So she believes that kids should be taught “from the minute [they] are born.”
Maurice Benard agreed that it’s a shame school children aren’t taught more about mental health.
Growing Up
According to her official website, “Laura Day has spent four decades using intuition to help both individuals and billion-dollar companies identify and achieve their goals. She is the author of six books.”
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But she suffered a difficult childhood before she became a notable author and speaker.
Maurice asked Laura Day how old she was when her mom was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It wasn’t easy for her to answer all the questions, because her mother took her own life.
But she was able to say, “I really don’t know because I think her first suicide attempt was when she was a teenager… she was 43 when she committed suicide and I was 14.”
Grief and Suffering
The conversation also turned to grief and deep pain.
She said, “There have been times in my life where I thought, how is my heart still beating when I’m in this kind of pain?”
General Hospital fans who watched the podcast heard Day explain that during intense suffering, understanding why things happened matters less than having steps to move forward.
“Understanding your life may matter far less than learning what to do with it,” Day said. Instead of staying stuck in past trauma or identity, she suggested that viewers ask, “Who could you become if you stopped repeating the person you’ve already been?”
Bipolar and Anxiety
Benard’s been very open about living with Bipolar Disorder, and he could relate to some of Day’s experiences. The ABC actor discussed his own battles with severe mania, panic, and how manic episodes warp perception.
He remembered his psychiatrist looking at him and saying, “You’re not crazy.” That validation, along with the right medication like lithium, helped save his life, he noted.
Treatment Options
Maurice Benard and his guest also talked about the divide between medical psychiatry and holistic healing. Day didn’t see it as a choice between one or the other. She cited Bernard’s book, saying, “Love and lithium helped me.”
She detailed how simple physical resets, like avoiding screens right when waking up, help. “Before I look at a device, I get light in my eyes, I drink water, and I write,” Day shared.
Benard agreed that essential daily habits and physical discipline help when managing mental health.
Viewers React
In the comments section, many GH fans and podcast listeners appreciated the honesty between them.
One person wrote, “Laura was a great guest to have on. For a lot of us, life has hugely been a matter of mere surviving…it’s just that simple. Literally just surviving. And if you hang in there, you learn that there can even be thriving in the surviving.”
Here’s another appreciative response from the discussion:
This was a terrific and very important talk!! I deal with anxiety on a daily basis even with being on medication. For instance, I’m already anxious about work tomorrow. I try to deal with it the best I can and Laura’s tips were very helpful!
Your thoughts? Join the discussion and come back here for more General Hospital cast news and updates.