 So something that's been coming up more and more frequently over the last couple of years is how many YouTubers are opening up and talking about their own depression. And from the outside looking in, so many of us can wonder, how can it be that somebody who seemingly has everything be so depressed? And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in this video. 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, what I try to do is take different topics from the YouTube community, try to see what lessons we can learn from them to improve our own mental and emotional well-being. And something that I'm extremely, extremely passionate about is mental health. So if you're into those things, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And real quick announcement, make sure you're following me over on social media at the Rewired Soul because I have been working my butt off to finish writing Rewire Your Anxiety. All right? I finished like the written version not that long ago and I've been like recording the crap out of the audiobook. So it should be out this weekend. My editor Zach, he's editing the audiobook. So make sure you're following me on social media. I'm already giving away 20 free copies. I'm going to be giving away more, but you got to follow me on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul if you want to get yourself one, all right? So anyways, yeah, let's let's talk about this. This is something that's been on my mind a lot. It's always on my mind like mental health is just in the forefront of my mind. Those of you who are just now meeting me, hi, I'm Chris. I'm somebody who struggled with depression, anxiety for most of my life. I was in active addiction for almost a decade. I just celebrated seven years clean and sober. And it's something that I often look at because I part of my mission in life is to give people hope, right? I used to be in that dark place and don't get me wrong, depression and anxiety still flares up, but my life is a million times better today. And something I try to do with my platform is not only teach all of you, but hopefully if I can help some of the other creators out there, that'd be awesome too. So the first thing I want to talk about in this video, I'm going to be talking about different factors that play into depression, not only for YouTubers, but just a lot of you might be able to relate to this too, but I'm not going to dive deep into the biological stuff, but I do just want to mention that like there are biological factors for depression. I highly recommend you check out a book called Lost Connections by Johan Hari, and there's some other great books out there like Upward Spiral. Like I have a whole reading list, all right? But anyways, biological factors don't play as big of a role in depression as a lot of us may think. So yeah, in this video, I want to talk about some of the other factors, right? So like I said, like for a lot of people out there who are watching this, like most of you are viewers, like there's only a small percentage of us who are creators, and then a lot of you are viewers, and I know me personally, even with my own depression, like looking at other people, like it made sense why I was depressed, but how could these other people be depressed? These people who are rich or famous and they have everything, or maybe they have like a wife and kids or whatever it is, you know, always going on vacation, like how, how are these people depressed? And one thing that I really think plays a major role in YouTuber's depression or even celebrity depression, or even if you're somebody who's worked your way up like the corporate ladder and experienced depression is the bill of lies that we've been sold since we were kids, especially here in the United States. And what that is, is what will equal happiness, all right? And by the way, I did like a 45 minute podcast episode talking about this a little bit more in depth. If you want to check that out, it'll be linked in the description. But what I mean is, especially in the United States, you know, like we have a capitalist society. So like we are taught from a young age, like work hard, make money and everything like that and like do your thing, boo. But we're taught that if you make X amount of money, if you get a certain amount of power, you will be happy. So especially like you see with the new generation and everything like that, like one of the most common careers that young people say they want to get into is like YouTube or a Twitch streamer, right? But even in other fields, right? Even if you just want to be like, I don't know, like a bank owner or something or bank owners, even a thing. I don't know what it is, but anyways, we're taught that if you achieve this thing, you will be happy. Now I can share with you from my personal experience that I learned a long, long, long time ago that money does not equal happiness. All right? Like I remember when Justin Bieber opened up about, you know, his depression and everything like it was like last year on Instagram, people lost their crap. Right? Like they were like, what? You make all this money. How could you be depressed? Oh, there's people like me struggling. And like, here's what I try to teach people. Money does not equal happiness. Money just equals decreasing stress. There is no guarantee that once you make X amount of money, you won't be depressed. But the problem is, is that so many of us think that it will be. So I just want you to kind of picture this for a second when it comes to your favorite YouTubers, when it comes to celebrities, when it comes to people who you just feel are better off than you. Like imagine working your butt off for most of your life or your entire life to get to the top of this mountain. You're told at the top of that mountain is pure bliss. Right? And then you get there and it's not what you expected. You know what I mean? And my personal experience was that like when I was deep in my addiction, my drug addiction and alcoholism, I had everything you could imagine. From the outside looking in, I had everything. I had a great job. I was making a boatload of money. I was making so much money that I was able to fully support my son's mom. I was fully able to support my son. I was able to, you know, we had the house. We had two cars. We were going on vacations, all these things. And I was more miserable than I've ever been. And for me personally, I'm grateful for that experience. Like in my 20s, I saw what it was like to make all this money and be absolutely miserable. Right? And something that I absolutely loved was one of my favorite authors, Mark Manson, he wrote like the subtle art of not giving an F and everything is after his newer book. But he had a blog post like saying, what kind of crap sandwich do you want? And what he's talking about is no matter what we do in life, there's always going to be a struggle that comes along with it. Like there's this delusion that a lot of us have that, oh, once we get here, our struggles are going to go away. No, no matter what you do, there's going to be a new struggle, right? Like YouTubers have YouTuber struggles. Obviously, like YouTube comes along with being in the public eye, everybody seeing you, all the comments you get, being on, you know, Twitter and Instagram, all the comments, just complete strangers judging you and saying all these things to you, right? But like for you out there as well, like even if you work your way up in a company, like you might be an employee and you have employee struggles, then you become a manager. You have manager struggles, right? Same thing. Like when you're in high school, you have high school struggles. When you get to college, you have college struggles. Once you graduate college, then you got adult struggles. You see what I mean? Like there's always going to be struggles, but a lot of us fall victim to this delusion that once we get from point A to point B, the struggles are just going to be gone. And this is why it's so important, no matter where you're at in life, that we have to constantly be working on our mental health, right? Because of these expectations we have that once we get here, everything's going to be fine. The problem is, is that good old fashioned, hedonic treadmill where the goalpost keeps moving, all right? We constantly want more. We constantly crave more. It's hard for us to just stay in one place, especially when you look at people who are so passionate and motivated to keep improving their life, like they're never satisfied. And part of that is good, right? Because it keeps us in this forward momentum, but part of us needs to look at this and say, okay, but I also need to be grateful for where I'm at right now. And the last thing I want to talk about is I was actually just reading an article on Mashable about how like depression and anxiety has become trendy. And as many of you know, we just had the tragic loss of Edeka. And a question a lot of people have is, like, why wasn't more done? How did some people not know? And, you know, I was covering this on my channel, you know, back in, what was it, April or May when he had to stand off with the police and, like, I'm somebody who, you know, not only have I had my own struggles, but I worked in a addiction and mental health treatment center for a little over three years. I'm looking at this, I'm like, man, like, it's right there. Like, we see it going on. But when I was reading that Mashable article, I'm like, man, like, it makes sense. It makes sense why things fly under the radar and I'll link the Mashable article. But like so many people right now, we're diluting the message of mental health. Like, I'm so glad that more people are talking about mental health, but it's like the pendulum is swinging in a different direction. First, we had nobody talking about mental health. Now we have everybody talking about mental health. So it's difficult for people to see, like, which situations are more serious because you have a lot of people where they're saying they're depressed when they're actually sad. You're seeing a lot of people saying they have anxiety when they're actually just experiencing nervousness, right? And I think this is one of the reasons why it's so important for people to be more educated about mental health because there are varying degrees. Like some things are just natural human emotions. These are things that we're all going to experience at some point or another, right? But we need to be able to differentiate between is this person depressed or are they just sad, right? Like, at what point do we start taking this seriously? Because in the sad case of like, Edykah, how many people were out there just saying like, oh, he's just trying to get views. He's just trying to get attention. And the worst part is like so many people, it woke them up, right? When we lost Edykah, but this is happening all around us every single day. Like how many people in your life are people saying like, oh, they just want attention. Oh, that's all they're doing. Like this is this is not something new. And this is why I just encourage everybody to get educated about this stuff, right? Like I'm not a therapist. I'm not a psychologist or anything like that. Although I've worked in treatment. I've done a lot of peer support. I do some sober coaching and life coaching and things like that. But like I'm nobody special. Like before I even worked in the facility before I got my certifications and everything, I was constantly educating myself about mental illness because it's so, so, so important. We we hold physical health on this huge pedestal, right? And it is very important. A lot of physical health can help your mental health as well. But you can have a six pack and be utterly depressed the same way you can have millions of dollars and be completely depressed, right? So anyways, I would love to know your thoughts on this subject down below. Like, do you think that too many people are talking about mental health and they don't really understand the difference between sadness and depression or nervousness and anxiety? Do you think that's diluting the message? Or do you have any experience with thinking that once you get to this one place, you'll finally be happy. But it just came with new stresses. All right. But anyways, again, if you're struggling, like, do not be afraid to get help no matter how much you have or don't have, help is available. OK, if you cannot afford therapy, like find support groups, find people to talk to. All right. But anyways, again, make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the rewired soul, rewire your anxieties coming out this weekend, the ebook and the audiobook. So make sure you stay tuned for that. All right. But if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, 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 become a patron, support what I'm doing here, get access to some perks and benefits. Some people even get free books. If you're at a certain Patreon to you can click or tap right there. All right. Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.