Brian Sachetta is an author, blogger, and mental health advocate based in Boston. After working through his own battles with anxiety and depression, he created Get Out of Your Head® — a brand and book series that helps others navigate their mental health through practical, real-world tactics.
Brian Sachetta Vroom Vroom Veer Show Summary
- The episode opens with host Jeff Smith welcoming guest Brian Sachetta. Jeff asks Brian what he’s most excited about in his business.
- Brian explains “get out of your head” is his writing and mental health brand. He has books—one focused on anxiety and another on depression—coaches clients, appears on podcasts, and sometimes writes blog posts. He clarifies he is not trying to replace a therapist but wants to supplement therapy by helping people “fill those gaps” between appointments with advice, storytelling, and tactics. He also says he is a software developer by trade who does the writing and mental-health work nights and weekends, and is working on a revised edition of his first book for about its tenth anniversary.
- Jeff and Brian note how common mental-health struggles are. Jeff shares that he was depressed in his twenties (not diagnosed) and has stories from that time.
- Jeff asks Brian about his early life. Brian says he grew up north of Boston in a little suburb and attended a public high school. He describes persistent fear and nervousness in high school that he couldn’t name—he felt anxious but didn’t talk about it. He reflects that home life was loving, but they “didn’t necessarily talk about a lot of problems,” and the culture led to repression. He describes ping-ponging between school (where he felt fear) and home (where he didn’t feel he could process or discuss it).
- Brian says his anxiety ramped up in college. After his freshman year he was extremely anxious; his mother noticed, and after he broke down and cried she asked what was going on—Brian calls that a turning point, a “fear and the healing point.”
- Jeff shares a family anecdote about his mother swallowing a bottle of aspirin while drunk at a party and then making herself vomit; he uses the story to illustrate generational repression and how people “speak about it never again.” Brian commends Jeff for talking about it publicly.
- They discuss “big T” traumas versus many “little t” experiences. Both agree small, cumulative “lowercase t” events can build up, be invisible, and cause long-term problems. Jeff says he closely watched his mother after that incident and that his role in high school changed.
- Jeff reveals that later in his twenties he had depression and suicide moments, describing an existential dread and the feeling that “life was absurd.” He says he made a couple suicide attempts, recounting one episode where he took rat poison, didn’t die, felt very ill, “went to work,” and then reached a “fuck it stage” where he decided he wouldn’t kill himself—he contrasts that as a phase, not true health.
- Brian relates: his second book focuses on existential depression. He describes how doubts about religion, reading, climate-change research, and Tolstoy’s A Confession contributed to his depressive thinking about meaning and death. He shares that during his depression he feared death and the idea of oblivion consumed him. He explains where he ultimately landed: acknowledging life is hard, finding joy in small moments, doing your best on the ride, and accepting that the ride will end.
- Jeff observes that for him suicide was more about avoiding problems than truly wanting to die. Brian agrees this rings true and transitions to describing an Ayahuasca journey he did, which he frames as something that helped reveal the underlying issues driving his suicidal thinking.
- Brian introduces the Ayahuasca experience: he and friends went to a ceremony; he watched a Netflix episode about such a place beforehand; he says the medicine shows “layers of the onion” and can reveal things you’ve pushed down. He describes visions, voices, and the sense of seeing “the shadow side.” He stresses it’s not for everyone and depends on openness, setting, etc.
- Brian recounts what the Ayahuasca showed him: it focused on relationships and how he kept people “at arm’s length.” The medicine showed him that he often avoided direct confrontation or honest communication, keeping relationships manageable rather than honest. He explains that during the journey he saw imagery (parents as celestial orbs, doors representing aspects of his life) and heard messages like “you have to let go of your parents.”
- Brian discloses a longstanding private struggle: growing up in the 1990s, the word “gay” was used as a derogatory label and created fear. He had a particular fetish since childhood that led him to fear it meant he was gay; that fear contributed to a depressive episode in college where he felt he had to hide or outrun it. He recounts poor experiences with therapy (an unhelpful therapist who suggested fetishes come up only when depressed) and antidepressants that didn’t help.
- In the Ayahuasca vision, Brian describes doors his dad (as a celestial orb in the vision) opened: one door indicated a woman he’d dated “was not your person”; another vision told him “you have to let go of your parents.” Then his dad showed many doors representing trauma—most were small or empty, until a large, spotlighted door appeared in the middle. Behind it he saw a woman doing the fetish. The message from the vision was that the core healing work was finding someone to share everything with—truth, honesty, and openness in relationships—not hiding parts of yourself. Brian emphasizes that it wasn’t just about the fetish but about a “lifestyle of truth” and that keeping people at arm’s length was sustaining anxiety and depression.
- Brian gives concrete sensory details from the ceremony: he felt visions breaking, and when a particular vision evaporated he passed gas, noting that people often symbolically release tension (vomiting, gas, sighs, etc.). He frames Ayahuasca as a way to reveal the “water” you swim in—the habitual background shaping your life—and says the medicine can help you see and cut through that.
- Brian stresses that the real work is communication and deep relational honesty; that anxiety and depression often stem from not having relationships in which you can share everything. He says therapy could also get you there over time if done well—Ayahuasca is a faster, more intense route, while meditation and other practices are slower ways that can lead to similar insights.
- Jeff describes his own early exposure to energy work and meditation (an “energy work” session on a massage table with an older mentor) and says those experiences were like a BIOS update; that led him to seek meditation and other tools. He prefers slower approaches like meditation and says psychedelics/plant medicine can produce a “firmware update” but aren’t his personal choice due to the physical purging aspect.
- The conversation moves to beliefs about afterlife and meaning. Both Jeff and Brian describe an agnostic stance: they want to believe in meaning or something beyond death but acknowledge they don’t know. Jeff says he leans toward agnosticism—he wants to think consciousness continues but can’t be sure; he reasons that if atheists are right and there is nothing after death, it can’t be all that bad. Brian agrees, saying he tries to stay agnostic, hopes for meaning, and recognizes the arrogance of claiming absolute certainty.
- As the episode wraps up, Jeff offers to continue but they agree to end. Brian provides contact info from the transcript: his website getoutofyourhead.com (no dashes, no spaces) and Instagram @getoutofyourhead (no dashes, no underscores). He mentions the full Ayahuasca story is available on the Mind Body Matters podcast by Greg Rennie. He invites people to DM him—“DMs are open.”
- Closing banter: Jeff jokes about the show’s usual “vroom vroom” style and veers; they both reflect that the conversation was a veer off the traditional path but valuable. They thank each other and sign off.
Key themes and takeaways (as presented in the episode)
- Get Out of Your Head is a brand/project aimed at supplementing traditional therapy with books and coaching focused on anxiety and depression.
- Anxiety and depression often come from both obvious and subtle sources; many people carry “lowercase t” experiences that accumulate.
- Honest relationships—openness, communication, and trust—are central to healing for both guests. Brian’s Ayahuasca journey emphasized that sharing your true self is core work.
- Psychedelic or intense spiritual experiences can rapidly reveal underlying issues, but slower methods (therapy, meditation) can lead to similar insights over time.
- Both hosts take an agnostic, non-dogmatic view on meaning and the afterlife while valuing practices that help them live better now.
- Practical contact: getoutofyourhead.com, Instagram @getoutofyourhead; full Ayahuasca account on Mind Body Matters by Greg Rennie; Brian’s DMs are open.
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