Holding It Together (Kinda) artwork

Mental Health · Michael Mackniak, Esq

Holding It Together (Kinda)

by Michael Mackniak, Esq

Here we will get real in our conversations about Mental Illness and Caregiving, and the messy reality of keeping it all balanced.    No sugar-coating, no clinical jargon—just real talk about the hospitalizations, the medication battles, and the toll it takes on a home   This is for the parents, siblings, and partners who are doing the impossible every single day.  Holding It Together is a home for the overthinkers, the multitaskers, and anyone who feels like they’re one spilled coffee away from a meltdown. 

Chart trend

Position in the Mental Health chart (US), last 90 days.

#36
all-time peak
17
days in the top 50 since May 2026

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

Kala Allen Omeiza: I Got Bullied In An Autism Lab

Send us Fan Mail Watching someone succeed can fool us into thinking they’re fine. Then Kala Allen Omeiza says something that stops us cold: she worked in top autism rese

Sep 10
46 min

Episode 2 Care Companion: You Can Love Them And Still Feel Worn Out

Send us Fan Mail Loving someone who is still alive but no longer feels like the person you knew can mess with your head in ways most people never see. On this midweek un

Sep 8
5 min

Justin Ray: Hospitals Without Walls

Send us Fan Mail The scariest part of a mental health crisis is not the diagnosis, it is the moment you realize the system can see the problem and still tell you it does

Sep 3
1 h 02 min

Episode 1 Companion: Six Hospitals Later And Everyone Still Acts Surprised

Send us Fan Mail Six hospitalizations in nine months can look like “care,” yet still leave a family right where they started: scared, depleted, and forced to explain the

Sep 2
9 min

Communication and the Cost of Silence

Send us Fan Mail A single missed conversation can be the most dangerous part of treatment. We start with David, a 62-year-old man living with schizophrenia who is stable

Aug 27
1 h 11 min

When The Doctor Becomes Family with Dr Mohamed Elziam

Send us Fan Mail A white coat can make people think medicine is all control, clarity, and clean answers. Then a crisis hits your own family, and you learn how fast that

Aug 20
1 h 02 min

Elder Care Is A Life Plan with Shanika Batchelor

Send us Fan Mail “A nursing home” is one of the most emotionally loaded phrases in caregiving and it often shuts down the real conversation we need to have. We sit down

Aug 13
46 min

The Dilemmas of Addiction

Send us Fan Mail We explore the hard edge between autonomy and suffering through Jamie’s story and the wider reality of co‑occurring addiction and mental illness. We ask

Aug 6
58 min

The Great Earwax Contraband Caper with Jolene Breinig

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving gets called a “labor of love,” but that phrase can hide the bruising reality: the physical work, the mental load, the split-second decisions,

Jul 30
59 min

The Future Proof Parent: Special Needs Planning Without Panic with Rebecca Iantuonni

Send us Fan Mail The scariest caregiving question isn’t medical. It’s the quiet one that shows up at 2 a.m.: “What happens to my loved one when I’m gone?” I sit down wit

Jul 23
1 h 02 min

Understanding Hoarding

Send us Fan Mail A home packed with newspapers, dogs, broken toasters, or “valuable” scraps can look like a simple cleanup problem until you hear what the objects mean.

Jul 16
1 h 03 min

All the Wrong Doors

Send us Fan Mail “No wrong door” is one of the nicest promises in mental health policy. It’s also the line that can break you when you’re living the reality: months-long

Jul 9
1 h 09 min

Set Boundaries And Still Love Them with Dr Michelle Sherman author of Loving Someone with Mental Illness

Send us Fan Mail Your loved one can be struggling in plain sight, and somehow the whole family learns to whisper about it. We sit down with clinical psychologist Dr. Mic

Jul 2
57 min

Caregiver Stress Reset with Alicia Feller

Send us Fan Mail Your shoulders are up near your ears, your jaw is locked, and you are running on adrenaline again and calling it “fine.” If that sounds like caregiving

Jun 25
1 h 09 min

Make The Strawberry Bunny Then Eat It with Kathy Micheel

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving can look heroic on the outside while you’re shaking behind the safety gate on the inside. We name that gap and get honest about the cost of t

Jun 18
44 min

Is This Mushroom Edible with Emerson Kerr

Send us Fan Mail AI is everywhere right now, and the noise makes it easy to assume one of two extremes: either it saves healthcare or it destroys it. I sit down with Eme

Jun 11
1 h 12 min

Why Your Brain Wants Jelly Beans with Dr Matthew Galati

Send us Fan Mail Your brain is not a fixed object, and neither is your future. I sit down with Dr. Matthew Galati, a family medicine and rehab physician who also survive

Jun 4
55 min

Caregiver Misconceptions with ("Host") Victoria Cuore

Send us Fan Mail HIPAA gets thrown around like a brick wall, guardianship gets sold like a silver bullet, and families get blamed for not having “the right paperwork” wh

May 31
55 min

A Daughter’s Guide To Dementia and Caregiver Burnout Recovery

Send us Fan Mail Silence is one of the cruelest parts of caregiving. When a parent has cancer, people show up with food and texts. When dementia or a mental health crisi

May 28
52 min

The Cloak of Client Choice

Send us Fan Mail A locked door, a hoarse voice saying “go away,” and a body on the brink of failure. We dive into the harrowing gray zone where autonomy meets danger and

May 21
1 h 09 min

Chart positions

Where Holding It Together (Kinda) ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 10, 2026).

#169 ▼ 22 Health & Fitness US
#49 ▼ 6 Mental Health US

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About Holding It Together (Kinda) on Reason.fm

Here you find the Apple Podcasts chart positions of Holding It Together (Kinda), its latest episodes to listen to directly, and reviews from listeners. Rankings are updated daily for the United States.

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