“Labeling locks you in” — Neuroscientist tells Mel Robbins that 95% of lifestyle diseases are caused by “thought life”

Neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leaf recently appeared for an interview on Mel Robbins’ podcast on July 10, 2025. During the latest conversation, Leaf opened up on the impact of “thought life” on people, claiming that it was one of the reasons that led to lifestyle diseases.

While speaking to Mel Robbins, Caroline said that in today’s world, people prioritize certain things, such as toxic positivity and medication. Leaf then shared some advice for everyone by saying:

“What we have to do is embrace all the scariness, sadness, darkness of life, and you use that to learn and to grow. That’s essentially what we need to do. So labelling locks you in. Because PTSD is not an it. It’s a behavior. Depression and anxiety are not an it. They’re emotional warning signals. PTSD is a behavioral warning signal.”

In the podcast episode, Mel Robbins also referred to a portion of Dr. Caroline Leaf’s book, where the latter wrote that she has anxiety, depression, and PTSD, which can turn out to be harmful. Robbins asked Leaf about the meaning behind the line, following which Caroline referred to a “biomedical model”, which managed to categorize human experiences into diagnosis, label, and treatment.

Caroline mentioned that the mind can produce the brain, adding that the body and mind might be negatively impacted if the mind keeps “feeding” everything to the brain. Leaf explained:

“You become vulnerable to disease. And the research shows that 95% of lifestyle diseases come from our thought life. 95%. So that’s established scientific fact. The labels of PTSD, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, they all seem as though they’re the same as something like diabetes, but they’re not.”

Notably, thought life refers to the mind’s ability to perceive, process, and adapt to everything that exists around an individual, as stated by the official website of Fred Johnson Counseling. The site also says that thought life comes with a challenge, where anyone has to ignore negative and hurtful thoughts about themselves or someone else.

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Dr. Caroline Leaf explains the concept of PTSD in Mel Robbins’ podcast

During her recent appearance on Mel Robbins’ podcast, Dr. Caroline Leaf clarified that PTSD was not like other health issues where people could choose a medication to treat themselves. Leaf mentioned that the word PTSD could be used for various reactions to different circumstances.

Caroline explained that a person might not be dealing with PTSD if that particular individual had been to war or had to face a bullying relationship at work. She further stated:

“Each one is it’s own unique story. You can’t just take that hugeness, stick it in a label and say, ‘Oh your brain is broken here. Let’s fix it here.' It’s not about your brain. It’s about your mind. It’s about the experience. So, it’s about the experience that you’ve had. So, adverse response to adverse experience is very normal.”

Leaf also agreed with Mel Robbins that the above-mentioned situation could also make a person healthy. Mel questioned Caroline on how she wanted people to think about trauma, anxiety, and depression. Leaf responded by saying:

“I want you to think about them as simply how you’re showing up, as words, descriptions, for how you’re showing up, as opposed to diseases of the brain.”

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The YouTube description of the latest episode of the podcast stated that it intended to make people understand how to prevent negative thoughts alongside healing from past trauma and reset the mind for peace, focus, and resilience. Meanwhile, the YouTube video has received almost 28,000 views as of this writing.