What If Your Illness Became Your Superpower | Ep 392

What If Your Illness Became Your Superpower | Ep 392

A single 90-page book lit the spark. We walk through how Prescription for Living evolved into Voices for Voices—hundreds of episodes, a growing publishing arm, and a mission to help people navigate mental health with courage, clarity, and practical tools. The heart of the story is simple: belief comes first, patience powers the middle, and impact becomes the true return.

We share a candid look at seasonal affective disorder and the quiet discipline it takes to keep showing up when the days are dark and the numbers don’t flatter the work. From early counseling prompts to tangible frameworks for advocacy, you’ll hear how “prescriptions” can be more than medicine: conversations, music, routines, and faith that widen our capacity to heal and serve. We also explore how ADHD and OCD energy can be redirected from chaos to contribution, turning lived experience into empathy and output that actually helps people.

The journey extends into Voices for Voices Publishing with titles like Atalan, The Young Siren Born, and The Search of Drake Colton—stories that fuse faith, adventure, and purpose for readers of different ages. These projects broaden our reach and deepen the legacy we’re building together. Money won’t follow us, but the lives we touch will echo forward. If belief, advocacy, and service resonate with you, lean in with us: subscribe, share the show with a friend, and consider supporting the mission so we can help more people, in more ways, for years to come. Your listen, your share, and your voice matter.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome And Seasonal Check-In

2:56 Why Keep Going Without ROI

6:30 Belief, Patience, And Adversity

10:10 Origins In The House Of You

13:40 Prescription For Living Philosophy

18:20 Advocacy And Self-Belief

22:30 Making Illness An Asset

26:00 From Book To Publishing Arm

29:00 Atalan And Expanding Universe

32:20 Young Siren Born And Youth Author

35:40 Legacy Over Money

39:00 Purpose, Faith, And Daily Drive

#IllnessToSuperpower #ChronicIllnessAwareness #TransformingStruggles #EmpowerThroughPain #MentalHealthMatters #HealingJourney #LivingWithPurpose #ResilienceInAdversity #FindingStrengthInWeakness #DisabilityAdvocacy #EmbracingOurDifferences #MotivationalStories #AlternativeHealingApproaches #SuperpowerMindset #ThrivingWithIllness #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices392

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Seasonal Check-In
• 2:56 Why Keep Going Without ROI
• 6:30 Belief, Patience, And Adversity
• 10:10 Origins In The House Of You
• 13:40 Prescription For Living Philosophy
• 18:20 Advocacy And Self-Belief
• 22:30 Making Illness An Asset
• 26:00 From Book To Publishing Arm
• 29:00 Adolan And Expanding Universe
• 32:20 Young Siren Born And Youth Author
• 35:40 Legacy Over Money
• 39:00 Purpose, Faith, And Daily Drive

Transcript

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us, whether you're here in the United States, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Antarctica, Greenland. It's incredible. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us for at least a part of this episode. So thank you very much. The days are getting a little bit shorter, and uh actually the shortest day, I think, is here tomorrow or the day after. And for those of us like myself that have this thing called seasonal effective disorder, and uh you know, short days, you know, it's means that most of the day it's dark and there's very little sunlight that's available. So I I always like to think internally to myself that once I make it uh to the winter solstice, and then the day after, that's when the days get a little bit longer by like a minute or two. Uh so we're at that that part now. So I have that to look forward to from uh just a purely human perspective. Um again, thank you for for being with us. This is episode 392. It really is just incredible. Say this time and time again, but it really is. Small organization like ourselves, we have no business having 392 episodes going on 400, except for the fact of the drive and the intensity and how we are driven by our higher power to continue pushing out information, content, experiences, guests. And talked about this on a previous episode, probably a couple previous episodes, by now, but it's because it's so important is you know why do we keep why do we keep at this? Why do we keep doing this? What are we getting out of this? What's the return on investment that we're getting out of this? And before we can get the return on investment that is so easily seen and heard of or being paid X dollars, X amount, Y amount, whatever, whatever letter, the alphabet you want to use, number, and so before we can do that, we have to believe. Because if we don't believe in ourselves, nobody else is gonna believe in us. You've seen how busy the world is, you see how busy your life is, how how busy everybody's life is, especially around this time of year for a lot of us, not everybody, but a decent amount of individuals. And so, if it's been a practice of anything, it's been a practice of patience, which is very hard, not easy. I'm not a patient person. I want yeah, I want things, I want things now, and so do a lot of other people. They want results, they want dollar amounts, they want all these other indicators. Otherwise, why are you doing this? It's just a hobby. Well, it's not just a hobby. It's not it could look like one. But it's not. Or not show us signs. I'm saying, okay, well, today's the day to quit. And then one thing or the other happens, and here we are, and we're talking to you. Talking to ourselves. And then another day goes. Alright, this is the day that it we're we're finishing it up. And then we find ourselves somehow, some fashion around voices for voices. Before Voices for Voices, before the house of you, I never to this extent fully appreciated, fully understood what it meant to be an entrepreneur somebody doing something a little bit out of the ordinary. Some might say, oh, big deal. That's just you talking in front of a camera and a microphone. That's just you wanting to be popular, you want people to love you, you want the no. That would have stopped again on episode like one or two or three, or maybe ten. But for 100 episodes to go and less pass, then 200, then 300, and to be so close to 400 total episodes. There is, there's there's quite a bit where I'm sharing. But as someone who started this organization around my mental health and helping. I thought we would do a little screen share to show how we got started. Okay if I can. Alright, so here we go. We're gonna actually start it over here. Okay. So right here you see faces, you see my name. Justin Allen Hayes, MBA, just fancy for going to um college for masters on top of my undergraduate. The House of You again, that's that's the brand before Voices for Voices, but I own that brand as well, so that's why we're able to do this, and then prescription for living. And I just want you to focus on for living. Yeah, you see prescription for living, and say, Oh, you want me to take a prescription, and you only can get better if you take prescriptions, and that's not the case. Prescriptions can come in all kinds of forms, they can come in the form of a conversation, they could come in a form of uh uh playing music, strumming the guitar, hitting the drums, playing the bongos, and it doesn't have to be perfect, doesn't nobody's perfect, first of all. It doesn't have to be exactly like this song, it can just be just how you're feeling, and that's what the prescription or the prescription for living in my book means. Other people can talk about why they may have prescription in their books. I'm talking about my my book. Prescription could be medication, but again, could be playing music, could be playing cards, uh could be a whole host of different things. And so this started. So what you're seeing and hearing, voices for voices, current day here, is a product of the House of You prescription for Living. Because if I didn't write this, and again, it's like only I think 90 pages, so this isn't some humongous novel. It just goes through my mental health, my mental health journey. We all have mental health, and so I go through my mental health and then my mental illness journey up until the time to publish this particular book. And so I have to I have to give it up for my um my counselor at the time, Alan. He challenged me. Because and this is years ago, seven years ago. Because if it wasn't for him challenging me to say, Justin, have you ever thought about putting this out on a book format? And we he wasn't talking about like for a best seller. He wasn't talking like that. He was talking like that prescription, like something that was gonna potentially help me by sharing, getting some things off my chest, out of my mind. And so if he had never challenged me, I never would have thought about putting the work in to put this particular book out. And so here's the back, here's the back cover. So you see, you know, about the author, so that's you know, most every book has that. I just wanna I just wanna kind of zone in on here in prescription for living. Justin will walk you through his life with mental illness and share what some of the early symptoms of mental illness are and when to seek professional help. A mental illness can impact your daily life, including work, interpersonal relationships, and nutrition. Self-diagnosing your symptoms and treatment is not the answer to mental health and mental illness. How serious mental illnesses are, and how you can and how to advocate for yourself in the face of adversity. And then lastly, in the these uh this bullet format, ways to make mental illness one of your greatest assets. You hear me talk these last two bullets a lot. How serious mental illnesses are and how to out, how serious they are and how to advocate for yourself in the face of adversity. I contend that that's exactly what's going on right now. The voices for voices and what we're doing. Because there's so much adversity, so much adversity, so much negativity, so much divisiveness. And so advocating for ourselves goes back to what I said at the very beginning of this episode. If we don't believe in ourselves and we don't believe what we're doing is making a difference, then we should probably think about doing something different, and that's okay. We we can do something different. We're all unique individuals, we're not all meant to do the same exact thing. So find what those things are or that thing, and then advocate for yourself when somebody questions you, stand up for yourself, stand up for people like you, just like I'm standing up for people like me. And I could as I mentioned, I could have quit so long ago, and people say, Well, you should just quit, or it's just a hobby, you can just do it on the side, and you know, nobody's saying that it's not a good thing you're doing, it's just you know, well, it it's um you know that where's that ROI? Where's that return on investment? Where are those dollar signs at? Where because see that's the traditional way of thinking. Like if I do A plus B, then I'll get C. And it may take a while for A to get to B, to have that opportunity to get to C. And so we can. We can stop, we could just hang them up, hang up the shoes, hang up the coat, hang up the hat, the jacket, what have you, and say, well, it's been a great run. And we're just we'll just call it a day. But not here, not now. I face so much adversity, and a lot of it I probably put on myself. Whether I knew it at the time or not, I I probably did. I did put a whole lot of adversity on me and others that didn't need to be there, didn't have to be there. But that's neither here nor there. It's only a one that adversity when it actually shows up and we know it's showing up, and we see it, and we hear it, and we can feel it, we can hear a pin drop in the room if we're able to hear. And then we make that decision. Are we good? Are we are we is it a hobby? Is it just something where we're just we're just doing for the heck of it? Or is it something much more? That's for each of us to decide that. And decisions aren't easy. They sure are not easy. See when you're helping people on on the level that we are it's hard to just say, uh, it's just a hobby. So we continue on. It's like the other the other day, can't stop, won't stop. We're gonna continue on. And then you see this laza bullet here. Ways to make mental illness one of your greatest assets. So one of one of my mental illnesses, ADHD, OCD, all you know, all those, you know, you know, that whole area there. So that comes with a lot of energy, a lot of a lot of ruminating, a lot of racing thoughts all over the place. That still happens, sure. Because like we know, or if we don't know, which Know by now the mental illnesses are not things that can be cured. Some days we have good days, some days we have bad days, some days we have in-between days, some days the first part of the day is good, second part of the day is bad, and on and on and on. But one thing I know from having that extra energy, what I was doing before, the partying, and all these things that weren't as healthy as I could be. That's what I was spending my extra energy on abuse and alcohol, etc. So instead of that now, now I know I have diagnoses, and I'm using that extra energy to help and to put shows out and to put our heads down. And how can we help? What can we do? What can we do better? How many episodes can we do? How many people can we help? And so that is a much better headspace than where I was, and so that's what this bullet means here. Ways to make mental illness one of the greatest assets. Doesn't stop it. But because I'm able to realize that, I'm able to use that ball of energy, or at least some of it, and do some good out of it. And what we've been told is good. Some good. So this book, The House of You Prescription for Living, I wrote, this is available on Amazon. It's available on electronic uh Kindle. It's available on Audible. If you if you listen to books, so you can find this. So the reason I'm showing this and why I I started off here is because without this book, this voices for voices would not will not exist. It just wouldn't exist. And then that leads to what else wouldn't exist. Well, voices for voices publishing wouldn't exist. Voices for voices publishing. The Adolan. Comic book. Story by David Solomon, art by Cooper Saunders. So without that first book, Voices for Voices doesn't start just as an organization. The show doesn't come together in whatever way, shape, or form it has. It's constantly maneuvering. And the Adolan comic book through Voices for Voices Publishing would not have come about. So here's the back cover of the Adalan for purchase on Amazon.com as well. Long ago, a prophecy was spoken of the Adolan, a chosen one who would be born to raise Atlantis from the depths and unite the land and sea. In a present-day teenage will lives an ordinary life on the Oregon coast until he discovers the truth. He is the Adalan. Suddenly his world is torn open as ancient powers awaken and his destiny begins to unfold. But in the shadows, the devil and his fallen angels are hatching a plan to destroy him before he can fulfill the prophecy. Every step Will takes draws him deeper into a battle, not just for his life, but for the future of heaven, earth, and the seas. This is the beginning of the Christian superhero cinematic universe, a groundbreaking saga from Voices for Voices published in that will expand into comics, traditional comics, novels, TV series, video games, and multiple spinoffs. As a special bonus, this issue also includes a sneak peek at another upcoming series, Otter Town. Okay. Without that first book, and we wouldn't have voices or voices. We wouldn't have had the comic book available. We'll have voices for voices publishing. And we wouldn't have The Young Siren Born, Book One, The Dream Dimension by David Solomon, Story by David Solomon, Art by David Solomon, brought to you by Voices for Voices Publishing. A back cover on this one reads, and I quote, when a deadly toxin filled the Rogue Valley's air, only a few of the siren born survived. Among them were Theo, Thomas, and Sadie, rescued and adopted by the man who found them, Mr. Benson, when he suddenly goes missing. The three must uncover the truth. Their search leads them into the mysterious dream dimension, where faith, courage, and biblical truth will guide them through secrets darker than they ever imagined. And this is perfect for young readers, ages eight and up. Okay. And you're seeing a trend here. And the last area we're going to cover on the show is a nine-year-old named Ryan Solomon, which is David Solomon, and Amanda Solomon's son, nine years old. He's an author. He wrote this book here, The Search of Drake Colton, also brought to you by Voices for Voices Publishing. From nine-year-old debut author Ryan Solomon comes an exciting demon hunting adventure for kids, ages nine and up. A story of courage, faith, and learning to lean on God for wisdom. When Princess Amy's parents, the king and queen, mysteriously vanished, her world is thrown into chaos. Determined to rescue them, she sets out on a dangerous quest to the Oregon coast. There, Amy faces a powerful vampire queen and a sinister she-wolf princess of the underworld. But hope still shines. A boy named Drake Colton may hold the key to discovering who took her parents. So all four of these prescription for living, the Adolan comic book, The Young Siren Born, The Dream Dimension, and the Search for Drake Colton by nine-year-old breakthrough author Ryan Solomon are available for purchase now on Amazon.com. And here we are. Now we're back. Back to the show. We're always on the show. We're just we're back without uh having a screen share. So that should be at least a few answers on why we continue doing what we're doing and ways to help others. That's that's really what it is. And so I look back and think, well, I wish I didn't have my mental illnesses, I wish I didn't go through a release thing, I wish I didn't, I wish I didn't, I wish I didn't, I wish I didn't. Well, if I wouldn't have, then we wouldn't be here today, tonight, this morning, whatever time of day you're watching or listening to this particular show. And I know, and we've said it time and time and time and time and time again. When we leave this world, when we leave this herd, we cannot take all that money, we can't stuff it in the coffin, we can't take it with us. I mean, we can stuff it in a coffin, but it's not going with you to the eternal life, it's not going with you to heaven. You're not gonna be able to take those cars, you're not gonna be able to take those mansions, you're not gonna be able to do all those things. But you know what you do get to take with you? You get to take a form of a legacy, and that is how we help somebody, how we help somebody's one person, two, a hundred. We have a big goal. We want to help over three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. That's a legacy. I don't have to worry about bringing that in the coffin with me. Because for years to come, there's going to be individuals that were touched in a not a sick way. They're touched by their hearts, listening, watching, reading. You know what? I never met this person in person. But because of this wide array of ways, there's an opportunity that in one, two, five, fifteen, twenty, thirty, fifty, seventy, a hundred years maybe goes by it. And somebody goes, Man, I didn't realize that at the time. But that person, they really cared about their fellow human beings. And so that's what we're here for. That's what I'm here for. Some Jesus says, All right, that's enough. It's enough shows, it's enough voices for voices, and then we'll we'll finish up. That's not right now. The easy thing would be, oh yeah. Let me just not worry about it. There's just a lot of things in in life we don't understand. And a lot we won't ever understand why. But since in in my soul is helping others and wanting to help people, that helps give me helps give me a trying to think of the word. If we weren't helping people, the decision would be much easier to just hang them up, hang up the shoes, or the but because we are and we're giving so many opportunities, and we have already, and by the day we're giving more and more and more and more opportunities to help people, truly help people. Something teeny tiny, it'd be something major. So we say if you're able to donate, all the all the donations are 100% federally tax deductible in the United States. Every single amount is tax deductible and helps our mission. And I've said it once, I've said it probably a hundred times. You may have heard the saying of how do you know you're doing what you're meant to do? The first thing comes to mind is or how and or and how do you how do you like it? Something of that that that nature. And the answer is, well, if I would do some if I'd be doing something where I wouldn't be getting paid, and I still got up and still had that fire in my belly and in my mind, that today could be another day where I could help somebody. That's how I know. Whether there's money attached to that or not. Whether there's something for sure or not. And so each and every day with voices or voices, it's been today number one is a day that the Lord has gave. Let us rejoice and be glad. And second of all, is if you're doing something that you like, you believe in, and you would do it if you weren't being paid. Right here. So that's different for everybody. I hope this episode's been enlightening. Give you a little bit of a timeline of the organization and in book form kind of and that's not that's not all, folks. There's there's more out there, and there's more coming. But just with the amount of time on our show that we have, we're as grateful to be able to spend some of that time with you. So smash that subscribe button, give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, share, subscribe, share, share, share, share the voices for voices TV show and podcasts, whether it's on Rumble, whether it's on YouTube, whether it's on Apple Podcasts, whether it's on Spotify, whether it's on iHeart, wherever you watch, listen to podcasts and shows, download them all. We have over 390. And text five of your friends and let them know about Vices for Voices. Thank you very much. This is Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices. Please be a voice for you or somebody in need. We'll see you next time, everybody.