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A podcast about creativity as the path from surviving to thriving. Real, authentic, and unfiltered conversations surrounding the creative act—daily practices, small moments, and bold leaps that cultivate a better life.
For those of us who've mastered survival but are ready to do more than just get by. Hosted by Jon Murphy, PMHNP-BC—exploring how embracing creativity in ways both small and large becomes the bridge from enduring to flourishing.
Disclaimer:
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice or treatment. The views expressed are my own, drawn from clinical experience and personal perspective. If you're in crisis, please seek support from a licensed professional or emergency services.
What's up, survivor Gang?
Welcome back to Survivor Notes.
My name is Jon Murphy, psychiatric
nurse practitioner, and you're
here with me on the Compass
Point Institute podcast Network.
Just settle on in and let me
talk about what's going on.
August 15th, 2025, that was the day that
Jon Murphy, myself, the man that's talking
to you now, became a published author.
Happy to announce my first book Cheat
Codes, how I hacked my ADHD Brain,
and you can too now available on
Amazon as well as the Kindle store.
I'll leave.
Links in the show description,
but I wanted to mention that I
got a book, so I hope you read it.
I hope you enjoy it.
Here's the story behind the book.
So I started a blog, my Focus Path
blog, and I wrote on this before
ai, I just wanna mention that.
This is real writing here.
Real words flowing outta my
fingertips and my pencil.
And what was I writing about?
I had this very strange
thing that happened.
I somehow ended up in a chair 20 years
after I was diagnosed with ADHD, and
I'm prescribing meds to people with ADHD.
I had somehow got it in my head that
I didn't have ADHD, the medicine
that I always took, that wasn't meds.
It was a problem.
That was the problem, and I went
to grad school and it was the same.
Wash, rinse, repeat cycle.
Didn't have good habits crammed at
the last minute, took medication
when I needed to take it.
The PCP gave it to me.
Didn't ask me any questions.
I didn't know what I was doing.
Probably thought I was
doing something wrong.
' cause the way you get
treated at the pharmacy.
And then I went off the meds and I've
been off the meds before, of course
in most of my twenties, mid twenties.
I went to undergrad without 'em.
But nonetheless, I went and somehow
ended up in the chair at ADHD
clinic and I saw the ad and I
was like, oh, I know these meds.
And then I sat and talked to
patients and I realized, whoa,
I really do have a problem.
So much of this stuff is tied up in,
whoa, there's something not quite
right about me, but it's something
you probably always knew all along.
We have to survive conditions,
situations, and circumstances.
We gotta survive 'em.
And part of this is surviving the world
and understanding our limitations.
And the fact of the matter was I had been
working in high stimulation psychiatric
unit environments, and now I was just
face to face with a person, another
human being, telling me their life story.
It was a privilege to be there,
and I was living like a monk.
I was sober.
I was waking up at the same time
every day, going to bed, working
out, and I was falling asleep.
So that was a wake up call time
to get serious about my medication
and when I did, took my own
advice, met a great psychiatrist.
Shout out to you, Dr.
Parsons, if you're out there.
Great guy.
And he helped me get on track and
then I developed behaviors and
patterns of trying new things.
Eventually I slayed those dragons,
felt pretty good about myself
because I proved I was worthy.
But that's just the beginning of my story.
Why do you feel unworthy
in the first place?
Nonetheless, so many people had issues
with ADHD, so I've read about it.
Developed all these strategies,
habit formation, it's sound,
behavioral science, 1, 2, 3.
Initiate plan, reflect I.
I know the roadmap.
I wrote about it and I compiled it
and I refined it, and I updated it.
And there it is for you
on Amazon cheat codes.
But I caution you that the reason
why it was so boring to teach those
skills, and I'm glad it's all there.
It was the first time I fused
self-disclosure with my practice.
That worked really well.
People, you gotta know
what the struggle is.
The struggle is real.
And I remember sitting across
from an old clinician and feeling
like what's wrong with me?
Or.
You know that cold, detached
dehumanized, look here, take
these pills and you need to focus.
But developing consistency with
the medications, all that stuff is
secondary because you gotta, now what?
You gotta apply the medication.
You can try things you haven't, you can
initiate in situations, you can actually
execute the things that you want.
I saw an interesting quote on
ADHD comment on the Compass
Point Institute, YouTube channel.
Someone said ADHD if it was just being
lazy, it would be more fun ' cause
it's so shame soaked and hard and
challenging when you can't do the thing.
But if you're a lazy, that's fun.
It feels good to be lazy.
It doesn't feel good to not be able
to do it despite everything and.
I wrote about it for a bit
when I was writing my memoir,
which is on hold for now.
I think that the memoir just
can't come out that fast.
Get the first 40,000 words or so,
whatever it is, and it was this like
memory of just falling asleep at
my desk and the English class, and
everyone's laughing at me, including the
teacher and the spit all over my desk.
My goodness.
It's what's a make of that?
And I felt like I was doing it
on purpose, even though I wasn't.
Isn't that weird?
Nonetheless, here we are and
I got my first book on Amazon.
I'm pretty proud of that and I think
it's a great way to start my writing
sort of career, this phase of my
career as an author, as a writer.
I love to write.
I'm excited about the
things I had planned.
This book's meager.
It's just a little 50 pager,
so it shouldn't be too tough.
And at the end of the day, what you're
buying is not this long literary prose,
but just some common sense strategies,
some cheat codes to apply to your life.
So in true ADHD fashion, there it is.
There's the guide.
But the reason why it was so
hard to teach these skills is
because these things suited me.
So you wanna take the principles that
lie outside yourself and apply them
uniquely to you, because our nervous
system are automatic responses to things.
Those things that we perceive as a
threat, that's a much deeper, that
will determine our success or failure.
The things we're threatened by.
What are we freaked out by?
Are we someone that embraces change 'cause
that was good for us, or recoils from it?
'cause that was bad.
All things to be talked about and
considered when we're crafting
our survival story and writing
the survival story is powerful.
Doing this work is powerful.
It's healing, and you
gotta speak it out loud.
Whatever happened, whatever's going on.
These narratives exist.
Everything's not, it's not that bad.
You're just being dramatic bootstraps.
It's all your problem walking
around with your head.
Maybe it is.
And it's not until you write it
down, you look at it that you
realize, whoa, that did happen.
And we know we're not crazy 'cause
our grownup brain picked it all up.
So here we are.
2025 Survivor Mode Survival
Notes survivors out there.
We're all surviving it for here.
And no matter what you're moving through
and what you're going through, no matter
where you are across this world, I saw
there's multiple countries listening.
So what's up to everybody?
And we can go through this together.
There's a lot of division
in the world today and.
We can scroll passively and subject
our minds to propaganda and divided
conquer, psychological warfare tactics.
Or we can scan ourselves and say, how
do I feel now when I go on the phone?
How do I feel when I get off?
And ultimately creation the internet.
You have a voice.
I have a voice.
I'm using it now.
But there are perils.
Simply put.
Use your voice, engage on your
terms, disengage on your terms.
I went on YouTube, so I've been
posting a lot of stuff there.
Compass Point, YouTube channels,
as well as other channels I've
had over the years looking around.
But the main ones at Compass Point
Institute, going in and getting familiar
with it, it's just such a beast.
The algorithm over there.
And all of a sudden I just see all
this stuff and new viral video, some
influencer, some, white influencer
has some real talk and it's just the
same old stuff, the race narrative.
But he's telling the truth though, and
it's just so confused and confounded
and there's the, it's a confusing
world out there, but we should never
be divided by the color of our skin.
Superficial things, they
mean pretty much nothing.
But that's what they want.
They want us to be divided.
They want us to feel like we're alone
in this world, but we survived and we
survived a group that was dysfunctional.
But you get to choose
what group you're in now.
And I'm running the show over here.
I'm building a community
over here of survivors.
And I know I can because I've
done the work individually
with the patients that I see.
I know your struggles are real.
That's your truth.
You can own it.
You can speak it, you can name it.
You could move with it.
The change is being responsive
to the people, the circumstances,
the situations, the technology.
No matter how personal or how macro
we gotta move in the world, we
have to take that input and move
in the world, not react, respond.
So I'm gonna ask you not to
react to me, but to respond.
Think about it.
Apply it to your life.
If anything feels automatic
and involuntary, chances are.
So long as you're over like 20 or
21, you don't need to do it anymore.
We go on and here we are as adults.
It's safe to feel it's safe to move.
It's safe to go anywhere
to shift the focus.
To responsiveness, so take it in.
When you hear the words from me,
Jon Murphy or Jonathan Murphy as
a, I'm embracing my full name, my
full legal name, Jonathan Murphy.
It was always Jon Murphy.
I remember writing.
It was so simple, but it's very clear
now why Jonathan was not the name I liked
because I was teased this little song.
Jonathan, da weren't dancing around.
, If any of you guys have been bullied
by your own family, I get it, but I
don't have to worry about it anymore.
And for the first time, cut out all these
people, the doors, cutouts too extreme.
There was no cutting.
Just a gentle breeze.
Close the door.
Dink suddenly I look at my name,
eh, I guess I don't mind it.
It's my name after all.
So Jonathan Murphy.
There's a million of them too.
Amazon.
The book is Cheat Codes.
How I hacked my ADHD.
Brain, you can too.
Gimme a, a review over there.
That'd be great.
Five stars.
Nah, only if you think there is, it is
five star worthy, which I hope you do.
But either way, that
type of thing is helpful.
Nonetheless, it's helpful.
It's helpful to have you here
on Survival Notes, trying to
get in as regularly as I can.
If you wanna stay in touch with One Market
on, just check out my Focus Path blog.
If you're in the states of
Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Washington, and Oregon you could be
a patient of mine, but this is my.
A kind of personal space here.
So you'll, you see me dialoguing a bit
differently when it's clinical, but
whether you're dealing with ADHD, adult,
autism, interpersonal, family issues,
narcissism, complex PTSD, or even bipolar
disorder, I think maybe you've been
through the system and how people kinda.
Just be like, here you go.
Here's your pills, or whatever.
But I like doing it a different way.
I think everyone's story is
unique and ultimately it's
just about reorienting people.
What have you been through?
What have you gone through?
And then one day, hopefully
it is, people just move on.
They kind of drift in and out.
' cause all they need is themselves.
All you need is yourself.
It's just a reminder of that.
It's a little bit of validation
that we're not losing our minds.
We're not crazy.
We really did go through it.
And we can change, and we
can learn and we can grow.
' cause ultimately there are
gonna be people out there.
They're not so fortunate
to have empathy and care.
But if you do, you're
one of the lucky ones.
So there it is.
Okay.
Hey you.
You're the lucky ones.
We're the lucky ones 'cause we survived.
And we'll talk to you next time.