🎧 No Feeling Is Final – Listener Guide
A gentle guide for a sometimes-intense listen
Hi, and thank you for being here.
Listening to stories about mental health can be powerful — but also tender. This guide is here to help you care for yourself while you listen to No Feeling Is Final. Whether you’re here out of curiosity, solidarity, or because your algorithm sent you, welcome.
This seven-part memoir series touches on some big themes: suicide, hospitalization, medication, the mess of the mental health system, and trying (sometimes repeatedly) to stay alive. It also holds moments of dark humor, inflatable elephants, and optimism. It’s okay if now’s not the right time for it — listen when you’re ready.
Below are some notes to help you decide how and when to listen, as well as some quotes from listeners about what the show’s meant for them.
⚠️ Content & Care
This podcast includes:
Suicidal thoughts and ideation (including real audio from moments of distress)
Hospitalization and the psychiatric system
Diagnoses and medication (both helpful and not)
Personal recovery and making meaning
Occasional strong language (sorry Mum!)
Importantly, the series is intentionally not graphic. There is not graphic mention of suicide methods. Suicidal thinking is discussed and this includes some passing mention of methods but these intentionally avoid specific details. (I know first-hand how important it is to avoid that kind of information when you’re really struggling.) Care has been taken to avoid descriptions that could be distressing.
You’re allowed to pause. To take breaks. To skip. To come back later. Or not at all. You’re the expert on what you need.
Some listeners have told me they listened from a psychiatric hospital, or in the middle of a suicidal crisis, and found it comforting and validating. Others have said they needed to wait until they were in a different headspace. Everyone’s different. You get to choose what’s right for you.
What Will I Hear?
In No Feeling Is Final, you’ll hear real recordings from my panic attacks, diary entries, and even moments from inside a psychiatric hospital. The series blends raw audio with humor to take you inside the day-to-day reality of living with mental illness and the complex journey of recovery. Expect powerful, vulnerable moments that capture the intensity of mental health struggles, alongside moments of dark humor and personal insight.
For more details on each episode (including spoilers), you can check out the full Episode Breakdown further down this page.
💬 Was this made with care?
Yes!
The podcast was created by me (Honor), drawing on my own lived experience and shaped with input from others with similar experiences, as well as trauma-informed mental health professionals. It was editorially reviewed by ABC Audio Studios and clinicians before release.
We did our best to make something honest and kind and curious.
🧭 Is it all doom and gloom?
No!
While I don’t offer neat resolutions, the story moves toward hope. It’s messy and human, and maybe that’s why it resonates with people. It’s also funny! You might laugh. You might cry. You might text your friend halfway through and say “this is a lot,” and that’s fine too.
🧒 Should I share this with someone I love?
This is a personal decision — especially with younger listeners or folks currently in crisis. But many people have told me they’ve shared the show with friends, family or therapists to help them understand what it’s really like inside a brain that’s struggling.
You can also listen alongside someone or discuss it afterward — whatever feels right. If you’re not sure whether to send it to your friend, send them this guide. If you are that friend, you can listen to the podcast at the link below.
If you are a parent and aren’t sure whether your child should listen, you can read this guide (or send this guide to them). If you want further information check out the full Episode Breakdown below or listen to the show yourself. Ultimately you will know your child best.
💭 What listeners have said about the show
“I listened to your podcast last night. I couldn’t stop crying. I have never felt so understood in all my life… I had given up hoping I might ever hear it spoken from another person; who isn’t just trying to imagine, but who knows.”
“So raw and relatable. It’s like nothing I’ve heard before.”
“I just started listening to your podcast while I work and I found myself crying, laughing, feeling warm, singing and reminiscing on what makes me the way I am… basically I just feel a lot less alone, a lot more seen and a lot stronger for a moment in my day.”
“I have never for a moment wished I was dead but my daughter feels it most of the time. I walk alongside. Am always there. Love her to bits. And found your honesty, vulnerability, fear, exploration of voices in your head, songs, moods etc revealing, insightful, helpful.”
“Helped me immensely in a really difficult time.”
“As a young performer with chronic illness and mental health struggles, I get so sick of the 'it gets better' narrative. Your story is different — it’s not sugarcoated, it’s not dramatized, it just is what it is. And I appreciate that so much.”
“I’ve always been a self-reliant, self-taught person, and I thought everyone could just get better on their own. After listening to your podcast, I now understand my son’s struggles better. Thank you for helping me see things differently.”
“Thank you for making this. It was grounding in a way I’ve never experienced — these ongoing feelings are never articulated in the public sphere.”
📰 What the critics have said
“Darkly funny… [and] though it deals with heavy subject matter, the power of 'No Feeling Is Final' is in the case it makes for going on living.”
— The New York Times
“The subject matter may sound brutal but the series was warm and, at times, life-affirming… It is, quite simply, the best thing I’ve heard all year.”
— The Financial Times
“Total magic.”
— The Atlantic
“A remarkable achievement in the world of artistic audio-making… explores its oftentimes distressing subject matter with a surprising amount of levity—without occluding the pain at its core.”
— AV Club
“Something rare… a visceral podcast about mental health”
— TIME Magazine
“No Feeling Is Final succeeds by painting a vivid picture of day-to-day life with mental illness, something that wouldn’t have been possible without Eastly at its center.”
— PodcastReview.org
🤝 If you need support
You’re not alone.
🇦🇺 In Australia: Call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 658 467
🌍 Worldwide: Visit FindAHelpline.com for free, confidential support in your area.
💌 Want to know what happened next?
A lot has happened since No Feeling Is Final first came out. I’ve made a behind-the-scenes page where I share personal updates, answer the most common listener questions, and reflect on what’s changed (and what hasn’t).
It’s also the best place to sign up for occasional emails about what I’m working on next — from creative projects to mental health advocacy and everything in between. Check it out here.
Episode Breakdown and Content Warnings (Spoilers Ahead)
[Spoilers Ahead]
Below is a breakdown of the key episodes in No Feeling Is Final. These summaries contain spoilers for the series and are provided to help you make an informed decision about what content you’d like to engage with. The series has been reviewed by clinicians and adheres to ABC's editorial guidelines to ensure the sensitive handling of mental health topics.
Note: the series has some strong language throughout.
Episode 1 - "Hi, My Name Is Honor"
Themes: Introduction to mental health struggles, documenting personal crises, and challenging simplistic narratives about seeking help.
This brief opening episode establishes Honor's intimate audio diary approach, introducing listeners to her personal journey through mental health challenges and suicidal thoughts. Through raw recordings, Honor reveals the gap between her outward appearance and inner turmoil, laying the foundation for a series that goes beyond the oversimplified "just ask for help" narrative around suicide.
The episode uses authentic voice recordings, conversations with loved ones, and reflective narration to create an immersive experience that invites listeners into Honor's world. It sets up the podcast's central question: how do we find reasons to stay alive when our minds are telling us otherwise?
Content warning: Discussion of suicidal thoughts, mental health struggles, emotional distress, references to feeling hopeless, personal recordings from moments of crisis, existential questioning about whether life is worth living.
Episode 2 - "The Voice"
Themes: The inner critic, panic attacks, and the experience of suicidal thoughts.
This episode opens with a gripping, first-person account of the battle with The Voice — that critical inner dialogue that relentlessly amplifies anxiety and self-doubt. Honor introduces us to how these thoughts manifest in her daily life, taking us through a particularly vulnerable moment recorded during a panic attack. Through breathing sound effects and audio from Honor in distress, we hear the raw, real-time experience of being consumed by mental turmoil.
While confronting, this episode sets the stage for Honor’s larger journey of survival. By giving space to these intensely personal moments, it invites listeners to explore how the inner critic can overwhelm even the most mundane experiences.
Content warning: Panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, self-criticism, distressing audio of a panic episode.
Episode 3 - "The Vast Wasteland"
Themes: The struggle to access mental health care, societal systems, and the experience of diagnosis.
This episode offers an honest look at the obstacles in the mental health system that prevent many from receiving the support they need. Told through a surreal game-show format, we experience the frustration of being stuck in a system where help feels out of reach. Honor’s journey to finally receive a diagnosis brings clarity, but also reveals the deep disconnect between what she needs and what’s available.
Through humor and sharp reflections, this episode challenges how the system often fails to meet the complex, human needs of those it is meant to serve, while also exploring the relief — and sometimes burden — of understanding one’s diagnosis.
Content warning: Struggles with accessing mental health care, rejection from clinicians, the impact of mental health diagnosis.
Episode 4 - "A Good Patient"
Themes: The psychiatric hospital experience and the limitations of care.
In this episode, we step inside a psychiatric hospital with Honor, where she navigates the sterile, often unhelpful realities of inpatient care. Through candid narration, Honor shares her experiences of feeling misunderstood and unseen by the professionals who are supposed to help. She reflects on the frustrations of being a "good patient" — compliant, but still struggling with a lack of effective support. This episode gives a voice to the complex and often invisible struggles of being in a system that doesn’t always know how to treat the person, just the diagnosis.
Content warning: Psychiatric hospitalization, suicidal thoughts, unhelpful responses from clinicians, emotional distress.
Episode 5 - "60,000 Thoughts"
Themes: The power of obsessive thoughts, therapy, and the search for answers.
Despite trying various therapies and medications, Honor continues to struggle with the relentless barrage of repetitive thoughts. This episode explores her attempt to track and understand these thoughts through tools like mood tracking and therapeutic exercises. It’s a poignant reflection on how mental health can be a maze of trial and error, where answers often seem just out of reach. Honor’s realization that some ideas about mental health — including the efficacy of diagnosis and medication — may be more complicated than she first believed is a pivotal moment in the series.
As Honor questions her identity and her relationship to her diagnosis, this episode sheds light on the emotional complexity of living with mental health challenges that don’t neatly resolve.
Content warning: Suicidal thoughts, mood tracking, medication struggles, the complex relationship with diagnosis and identity.
Episode 6 - "Emotionally Deluxe"
Themes: Personal recovery, relationships, and questioning the mental health system.
Honor continues her journey in therapy and personal growth, exploring alternative ways to make sense of her experiences. She begins to take on new roles, like working in mental health as a peer worker, and questions the boundaries between patient and professional. This episode gives a raw, unfiltered look at how recovery is messy and never linear. Honor’s reflections on romantic relationships and her questioning of her diagnosis lead her to new insights about the system and her own capacity for healing.
The episode also highlights the powerful role of connection — finding others who share similar struggles can be both validating and transformative.
Content warning: Intense therapy, struggles with personal identity, critical reflections on the mental health system, personal recovery.
Episode 7 - "Now is the Time for Cake"
Themes: Personal recovery, emotional resilience, and learning to live with mental health.
This final episode offers a reflective look at Honor’s journey through mental health crises, recovery, and the complexities of navigating ongoing struggles. While the series has led us through painful and intense moments, this episode brings a sense of quiet optimism. It explores how small steps in recovery — like responding to emotions with compassion and learning to not judge oneself — create meaningful shifts over time.
Spoiler Alert: What may have initially sounded like one isolated crisis actually reveals itself to be a recurring pattern of suicidality that has stretched across more than a decade. This insight recontextualizes the entire journey, emphasizing the depth of Honor’s struggles and the ongoing nature of recovery.
In the end, the episode is a celebration of small victories and the importance of community, including Honor’s "Big Feels Club," which serves as a space for people to hear from others on the long term mental health path.
Content warning: Emotional struggles, personal growth, reflections on recovery, long-term suicidality.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or in crisis, help is available.
In Australia, you can contact Lifeline at 13 11 14
or the Suicide Callback Service at 1300 659 467.
For free, confidential support in your country, visit FindAHelpline.com.