 Well, it looks like one of YouTube's best commentary channels, I'm Alex, is taking a little bit of a break from YouTube and that's 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 like to do is take a look at what's going on in the YouTube community or pop culture, try to see what lessons we can learn from them. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And like I said, I'm Alex just kind of opened up on Twitter and we're going to be talking about that, but I'm all about Twitter baby. So if you're not following me yet, make sure you follow me on Twitter and Instagram at the Rewired Soul. All right. So yeah, a couple of things just to start off. I love I'm Alex, all right. Like he was one of the first commentary channels that I got into. I respect the dude. Like it's not just his humor, like anybody, not anybody, but a lot of people can be funny when doing commentary. But what I appreciate and respect about on Alex is that you could tell he has a strong moral compass and value system, and he's not afraid to talk about what he feels is right and what's wrong. A great example of this is during the whole James Charles, Tati Westbrook and Jeffree Star situation, like I was like, this is a good dude. So the next thing, I don't know I'm Alex, I think we might have had maybe one or two Twitter interactions and it might even be zero. I know I reply to some of his tweets and stuff like that. But anyways, I don't know him. So this video isn't so much about what I'm Alex is going through. But as a lot of you might be able to relate from the outside, we can kind of understand what he's going through. So in this video, I'm not here to talk about the mental health of I'm Alex. I want to share some of my own experience that you might be able to relate to as well. And maybe some of these tips might be able to help you the same way they helped me. All right. So anyways, let's get started. Let's discuss what he said on Twitter. So over on Twitter, he said, over the last few weeks, I've started getting stress-induced migraines and nosebleeds again that have resulted in me oversleeping. So if it comes across that I'm not myself in videos, it's probably that. I don't want to ask for any more than I get, but patience is appreciated. I've tried taking a couple of weeks off to relax, but it's not helped. In fact, only got worse. I'm probably going to take a few hiatuses over the next few months in hopes of a fix. TLDR, feel like crap, might go to a sunny country and have a few cocktails. All right. So I want to talk about a few things that many of us can relate to. So the first one is stress migraines. Like, oh, my God. So I used to get wicked, crippling stress migraines. So I can relate to Alex in this aspect. Now, I don't know what is causing his, but what was causing mine was, it was, it was a variety of things. One of them was work. All right. I had a very stressful job when I was working at a car dealership in the service department. That job entailed a bunch of people yelling and screaming at me all day. And me being a people pleaser, like, if you're a people pleaser working in any kind of service industry, it can be very stressful. But aside from that, that was back when my alcoholism was really taking off and my life outside of work was also becoming highly, highly, highly unmanageable. So I started to get a lot of stress migraines. And because I didn't see a doctor, like, I had no idea what they were. I would just take, like, some excessive migraine and hope for the best. But this was just one of the most painful experiences of my life. Like, the way it felt for me, it's crazy because I can actually feel my body reacting to it as I'm explaining it. But what it felt like to me was it felt like these muscles were getting tense in my neck up to the back of my eyeball. And it felt like somebody was squeezing my eyeball. But really it was around my temple area. But for those of you who have never had a stress migraine, these can be awful. The pain, the pain I was enduring was so severe. There were times that I was at work and I was having one of these stress migraines. And I would actually have to go to the bathroom and throw up. Like, I would not wish these things on my worst enemy. So it's awful. I feel super bad that Alex is going through these. And if any of you are going through these as well, I feel bad for you too. But anyways, what helped me a lot with that was, first off, once I got sober, like I quit drinking and using drugs. Because that was causing a lot of my problems. Like, for example, work triggered a lot of stress, which I tried to self-medicate with alcohol and later drugs. But because of the alcohol and drugs and my dependence to them, it caused even more stress in my life. So sobriety has helped me out a lot. But even if you're not a drug addict or an alcoholic, just on a physical level, cutting down or cutting out drinking or even drug use can be very beneficial, all right? But anyways, I have a lot of tools that I use now as well that help me manage my stress. So I do not get these stress migraines. I'll tell you this. Probably in the last seven years since I got sober, I think I may have only had one or two, all right? They've come back, but it is not nearly as frequent, like two and seven years. I used to get them on, like, probably a weekly basis, all right? But anyways, the next thing that I want to talk about is how Alex talks about how he's already taken some time off and he's probably gonna take a little bit more time off. But it sounds like in his tweets that he's still gonna be uploading and trying to work. And that's one of the things about YouTube. Like, you don't get, like, a disability check or like, you take time off and you still get money. You know what I mean? Like, we have to keep working no matter what's going on with our mental health. But here's the thing. Something that I realized, me personally, me, all right? When it came to my mental health, like, I had to do more, like, taking a break and traveling is excellent. Like, sometimes you just need to get away from all the noise, all the noise from your cell phone, from social media, especially social media influencers. Like, we can be on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, constantly, just constantly engaging and just constant feedback and everything just coming in. Like, just getting away from it and disconnecting totally can be very, very beneficial. But something I was taught a long time ago about my personal mental health, and I've seen it happen to others as well, is I was told, no matter where you go, there you are, right? So although breaks can be very beneficial in my experience, they can also not get down to the root of the problem. So for me personally, when I've had to take breaks and everything, I have to combine it with something else. So for example, as somebody who's in recovery, I attend, you know, 12 step meetings, but if you're not somebody in recovery when you're taking a break, like other things that are beneficial is spending time with friends and family members, talking to friends and family members. Your support group, whoever that is, talk to them. Something that is extremely beneficial is working with a therapist. Like, I have a therapist and I truly believe everybody, if you have the means to get a therapist, please, please, please do so, all right? Because working with a therapist helps you get down to the root causes of your problems because we don't just wanna put a bandaid on these things. Like sometimes when we take a break and we come back, we feel all rejuvenated, but if we haven't been taking actionable steps forward, it's only a matter of time until it happens again. So whenever I hear a fellow YouTuber taking a break, I always get a little worried. I'm just like, okay, I hope they're doing something else or this might happen later on down the road again. Now, something else that is completely up to you but I highly recommend it is talk to your doctor or if you're seeing a psychiatrist, talk to your psychiatrist. Like, there are medications that can help you. Now, to make it perfectly clear, first off, I'm not a doctor or therapist or psychiatrist, but this is based on my experience. Like, antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, whatever is causing a lot of this stress aside from external factors, there are biological factors as well. So medications can help greatly. I'm currently on Prozac. It's a non-narcotic antidepressant which also helps with my generalized anxiety disorder. But if you've never taken one of these medications, a few things to know. One, they don't immediately start working. Sometimes they can take a couple of weeks to start making the changes in your body. The second thing is when they start working, they aren't just this like, this immense happy pill. All right, this is why it's so important that we're doing other things, such as therapy, such as meditation, such as working with our support group. For some of us, it's more physical exercise, eating right and all these other things. Like, our mental health takes just as much work as physical health. So it's not something that's just gonna be fixed or cured by a pill. Like, I put a lot, a lot of work into my mental health. I've actually opened up recently on my channel about some of the stuff I've been struggling with and one of the reasons why I switched medications. But I actually started working out of a depression workbook that's like really rooted in neuroscience and getting like different neurotransmitters like up and going and everything. So yeah, like there's so many different things that you could do for your mental health. So if you can relate to Alex the way I can, like just know that you can reach out, you can get help. There's a variety of different resources out there. All right, something I always recommend. If you feel like therapy is something that you need to do, talk to your doctor. Some primary care physicians will also prescribe antidepressants. That's how I get mine. I don't see a psychiatrist. My primary care doctor just does it. But your doctor can also recommend a good therapist or talk to your insurance company. Or another option is I actually use BetterHelp online therapy for my therapist and she's licensed just like all the therapists on BetterHelp. So if that's something you wanna try, there is an affiliate link down in the description below and what that means is you get some affordable online therapy and a little bit comes back to help support the channel. All right, so anyways, I wish the best for Alex in his journey and I hope he starts feeling better soon. But yeah, let me know down in the comments below if you can relate to this as well, all right? That's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And don't forget to follow me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. If you would like to help support what I'm doing here, click or tap on that Patreon icon right there, all right? Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.