 Ho ho ho, yesterday I was going through it when it comes to depression and anxiety, but there was a lot of steps I took yesterday that I want to share with all of you and maybe to help some of you who are dealing with the same things. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, typically what I'm doing here is taking a look at the YouTube community or pop culture, trying to see what lessons we can learn from them. But something I'm very passionate about is mental health because obviously I deal with my own mental health struggles. I know a lot of you do as well. So sometimes I talk about that too here on my channel. So if you're into any of that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And while you're at it, make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul, alright? So yeah, let's sit back, relax, chill. Let's have a little story time here. I'm going to share with you about my day yesterday because like I mentioned, I was going through it. And at the end of this, if nothing else, if nothing else, I just hope to inspire some of you to realize what I have to realize on a regular basis, which is my mental health does not get better by me just sitting back and hoping for it to get better. Like there are things that I have to do to take care of this thing, alright? So I hope that this inspires you to take some action steps if you aren't already. So yeah, anyways, I've been dealing with ups and downs. Those of you who follow my channel, I recently switched my medication. I was on Lexapro. I just recently switched back to Prozac. And for the most part, it's been going pretty well, but I still have my up days and down days. And when it comes to antidepressant medications, like any doctor will tell you, I'm not a doctor, but if you talk to your doctor about your antidepress, it's like they can take like weeks to kick in, alright? So I just kind of sit back and monitor what's going on and everything like that. So anyways, yesterday I was just going through it and it's hard to explain, but it was mainly my depression, but anxiety also kicked in later. Something I was dealing with yesterday and it's something that just comes and goes and it's, it was much stronger yesterday than it usually is. And it was like this lack of like confidence and motivation, like the negative voice in my head. And you might be able to relate to this. It can just do work on me, alright? It's just telling me that I'm not good enough, Chris. Why are you even going to make a video, Chris? Why are you going to even try this? Why are you going to try to help others? And as somebody who, whose life passion is to help others who are struggling, like I get into this headspace where it's like, well, if I'm going through it right now, what do I have to offer to anybody else? You know? So yesterday I just wanted to sit down. I just didn't want to do anything, right? But like I say at the beginning of every single video I do is we talk about the problem, but we focus on the solution because let me tell you, girl, let me tell you, one of my favorite parties, one of my favorite parties is a good old fashioned pity party. And I can sit in one of those things for hours back in the day. I can sit in one of those things for days, all right? So now when I get into that dark headspace, I'm like, okay, what can I do? What can I do? And yesterday I did about a dozen things. So I want to share with you all the different things that I did. All right? So anyways, I woke up and one of the things that I've been doing is I was actually sent this workbook. This is hashtag not sponsored, by the way, but this is the Upward Spiral Workbook by Dr. Alex Korb. And basically I've recommended his regular book, The Upward Spiral, like a million times. If you are somebody who struggles with depression or anxiety and you're really into like neuroscience, like you got to go check out his book, The Upward Spiral. I'll link both of them down in the description below. But anyways, I actually got in contact with him over on Twitter and he just came out with this workbook. So he sent it to me. So yesterday I spent some time reading it and working through it. I've been reading it for a few days now. But anyways, there's some like actual things that you can do in there. And part of what helps me, I was actually having this discussion with somebody yesterday, something that helps me and it might help you is understanding how my brain works, even if it's at like just a basic level, it helps me deal with what's happening. All right? Because when we don't know what's happening, it's kind of like being a mechanic, right? Like, if you don't know what's happening with your car, you get freaked out. But if you kind of have like a basic knowledge of your vehicle, when a light turns on, like, oh, is that a check engine light or is that a low tire pressure light? You see what I mean? You don't get as stressed out. So I love like reading and understanding what's going on in my brain. And you don't have to be a neuroscientist to understand this. So I took some time and I read this book and I did some of the exercises in this book as well. All right? And something interesting that happened yesterday was somebody actually DM'd me on Twitter and I get defensive, I'm a sensitive dude, all right? And they DM'd me on Twitter and like I felt like it was a little confrontational, you know? And I just had a conversation with them. I had talked to them for a while and they ended up being an awesome person and like they know more than I do in certain areas of mental health and everything. So it evolved into a conversation just like just having discussions and me saying, okay, what do you think I could do better, right? On my channel, what do you think I should look for? Because they were talking to me about different studies I use and everything like that. And I obviously don't know everything. I just try to learn as much as possible and then I think it's pretty cool when I learn stuff. So I try to share with all of you. So they gave me some tips and advice of what to look for in different studies that I'm citing and that was pretty cool. So I'm probably gonna send this video over to you. So thank you very much. I'm gonna leave you anonymous for this video though. But anyways, something else that I realized when I'm going through it, when I'm going through depression, right, is this. Like when depression kicks in, it is a very self-centered insidious thing. All we do is think about ourselves. All I could do was think about myself, my problems, my issues, what's going on with me. And I remember I was taught a long time ago is that when I'm feeling my worst, ask somebody else how they're doing. Which sounds crazy. Like when I was first told that I was like, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. But it's helpful, right? Because I go from feeling useless to useful. So I just started going through my phone and I started just reaching out to people. Some of them I DM'd on Twitter, some people I hadn't talked to in a while. Some other people just in my regular phone, I texted them, you know? And like some of them are like in recovery from addiction. Some of them are just other friends. And I just messaged them like, hey, how have you been lately? You know what I mean? And we had conversations and it helped me get out of my own thinking and talk to them and maybe offer them some, you know, not even like tips or support because I wasn't really in a place to do that yesterday. But I was there to listen and I was able to relate to their experience and helping others feels good. Like I cannot stress that enough. Like why do you think I do what I do? When you help others, it makes you feel good. Something I realized a long time ago is it's really hard for my brain to tell me that I'm useless and not a good person when I am actively taking steps to be there for other people. Like it's like these two voices are able to have a conversation and one that's able to be like, yo, that's not exactly true because look at all the steps that he's taking. So if you're going through it right now, get out of yourself for a second and reach out to somebody else and ask them how they're doing today and have a conversation. So about halfway through the day, that's when my anxiety kicked in. I don't know what happened but I started just feeling very anxious and panicky and luckily there is a 12 step meeting that has meetings like all day long, like just a mile away from my new place where I live with my beautiful girlfriend. So I took off, I went down to that meeting and I was just able to sit there. I was able to sit there and listen. And this was helpful for a variety of reasons. I was able to be around more people. I was able to be around more people who understand what I'm going through because they deal with their own version of craziness. I was able to hear inspirational stories about people staying clean no matter what and everything like that. Like that's one of the beautiful things about stepping into a 12 step meeting. Like you get inspired, right? You hear people sharing these experiences of going through something and being able to thrive and overcome it. And like I'm somebody where like I have like a fuel tank of hope and I need that fuel tank refilled with hope. And I'm like, you know what? If they can get through it, I can get through it too. You know what I mean? So when I got back home, you know, I did some more things. I was reaching out to more people and talking to more people. And I did a little bit of meditation, like meditation. Oh my God, like meditate people, meditate. Find an app on your phone. There are a million free apps on your phone. Like I personally use the Calm app, but there are so many different mindfulness and meditations on your phone. Even if you're doing it for one minute, two minutes, five minutes, whatever it is. Something I was taught by a meditation teacher a long time ago is it's more about frequency rather than duration, all right? So something else that I ended up doing was I reached out to my therapist. So I personally use better help on my therapy, all right? And one of the beautiful things about that is that you can message them, all right? Some therapists are better than others at replying and thank God I have an amazing therapist. But I was able to text her and I was like, yo, like I know our appointments tomorrow, but like I'm going through it today and I just need somebody to talk to, right? So I was able to like message her and go back and forth and she gave me some things to kind of reframe and look at different angles and everything like that. And it was very beneficial. And like she actually was messaging me back and forth for a while. So anyways, I'll always say this, like if you have access to a therapist, like get help, okay? Whether it's talking to a doctor and getting a therapist recommended, talking to your insurance company, talking to friends and family, all right? Or you can use better help on my therapy like I use. There's an affiliate link down below, but it's been very, very beneficial to me. So the other thing is, is like not only the people I'm reaching out to and trying to help, but I have my beautiful girlfriend Tristan. I have my son and everything. And you know, I'm able to talk to Tristan about what I'm going through and she understands like when I gotta take off and go to a meeting, my son, you know, he's hanging out here. He's on supper break. He wants to hang out. He wants to do this. And like, yeah, I was able to take him on an errand that I had to run. I had to send something to my dad in California. So I took him and we got back and he was asking me like, you know, if I can make like one of his favorite meals for dinner. And I was like dealing like, I do not know. Like I am not feeling well. He's like, are you sick? I'm like, kind of like, it's kind of like a brain sickness. He was kind of looking at me. But he like gets it because he and I had been talking about mental health since he was like five, six years old. But anyways, something that I realized and some of you might be able to relate to this as well is when I get depressed or anxious, like something I realized is that I'm not useful to other people. I'm not as useful as I could be. And that gives me even more motivation to take care of this thing, right? Like I do not want to be the father where my son has to experience just me being like completely like out of it and lethargic and just like, here go make your own thing and you know, whatever. Like trust me, sometimes I do when I'm busy and you know, whatever. But like when he wanted me to make dinner for him, like that's something I get to do today. Like I'm about to come up on seven years sober and seven years ago, I wasn't even allowed to see him, right? So I was like, okay, where is that motivation? I ended up making the meal and everything. He was all excited, came out pretty good if I do say so myself. So one of the last couple things yesterday, like I was just in my own head and everything like that. And I was like, you know what? I'm not gonna make a video today. I don't feel like making a video today. And one of the beauties of working for yourself is I don't gotta make a video today if I don't want to. And I was talking to a YouTube mentor of mine and I was telling him, I was like, you know, I've been consistent doing videos every day for a long time, usually multiple videos a day. And I was like, today I just don't feel like it. And he was asking me why and I just told him I was going through and he's like, hey, that's cool. Take the day off. And I'm like, all right, cool. You know, he was like giving me, you know, the past. Like take the day off. I'm like, thank you, I appreciate that. And then later out of nowhere he messaged me. He's like, you know though, discipline is a good substitute for motivation sometimes. And I'm like, damn, I'm like, you right, you right. Like, and this is me personally, like I have been given this opportunity thanks to all of you, thanks to you, my viewers. I've been given this opportunity to do this full time. And for me to just be like, oh, well I work for myself. I can just take whatever time off. Like I feel, this is just me. I feel that it's disrespectful to all of you to just be like, okay, I can just do whatever I want or whatever, like what I have called in sick if I was going through it, like no, I would have gone to work. I would have done my thing. So I'm glad that he gave me some real talk in that moment. And I was able to put out a video yesterday and like, yeah, like I'm happy that, you know, I was able to do that because now I can look back at it yesterday and say, okay, I did that, right. So the last thing is later that night, last night, I ended up going to another meeting. So I went to two meetings. I haven't gone to two meetings in a day, like since early sobriety, all right. And I'm very grateful that, like I'm grateful that I am in recovery from addiction because I have a place to go. You know what I mean? Like if I was just not, you know, in recovery, like what would I have done? You know, like there's not just random support groups that I can go to anytime. Like obviously there are support groups here in Las Vegas, but there isn't, you know, aren't that many places where they're doing it all day, every day. You know what I mean? So last night I was able to go again. I went to, so I went to a meeting in the middle of the day. I went to the meeting at night and I came back and like, yeah, I still wasn't feeling amazing, but I hung out with Tristan for a little bit. We lost a friend and I went to sleep and I woke up this morning feeling amazing. Oh, I forgot one last thing. I went to the gym. I went to the gym because something I realized in this book, like I need to take a picture. Maybe I'll put it up on the screen here, but like it talks about all the different neurotransmitters in your brain and how to get them going. And like pretty much every neurotransmitter in your brain, like dopamine, norepinephrine, endorphins, serotonin, all these things, like pretty much everything can get sparked by doing some exercise. So Tristan was like, why don't you go work out? I'm like, you know what? Why don't I try that? So before I made dinner, I walked my butt over to the gym. I hopped on the treadmill for about 20 or 30 minutes and I came back and just like, so like this morning I woke up feeling amazing. I don't know which thing it was. I was talking to somebody about this yesterday. I don't know which thing yesterday is helping me feel amazing today, but I am the type of person where I just have to keep trying everything there is until I feel better. I cannot sit down when I'm feeling depressed. I cannot sit here and sit in self-pity. I have to do things, you know what I mean? And when I woke up this morning, it was a complete 180 from yesterday because I went from feeling sorry for myself yesterday and being like, well, what do I have to really offer anybody? To this morning I was like, you know what? I have to sit down and record this video and share my experience with other people. So like I said at the beginning of this video, like if nothing else, if nothing else, what I want you to realize is our mental health is not going to improve on its own. There are things that we have to do. Like mental health is an action that we have to take. It's just like our physical health. We have to do things for it, all right? So like I always say this, like you don't have to do everything, just do something. So if there's one thing that you can do today, all right, to work on your mental health, do it. No matter what it is. In this video I've given you a dozen options to just do something, all right? Let's do this. Let's do this down in the comments below. Down in the comments below, tell me what the best thing that you do for yourself as a form of self-care when you're feeling depressed or anxious, all right? Let's have a conversation down in the comments below. Okay, but anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you do, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. And if you would like to support what I'm doing here, get access to our monthly Q&A and some other perks and benefits at the top on that Patreon icon right there. All right, thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.