 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, my channel's all about mental health. So if you're like me and trying to figure out how to improve your mental and emotional wellbeing, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And I am feeling great today. Thank you for asking. Yesterday, I was very sick. If you saw the videos on my second channel, I talked a little bit about it, but I am feeling like a million bucks today. All right, I feel cleansed. I feel like the evil got out of my system. And just in case, I got my handy-dandy tissues right here with lotion on them, these feels nice. But anyways, yeah, we're gonna be talking about some mind-blowing mental health stats. All right, and kind of the premise, kind of get you ready for this video and why I want to make it. Like, when I first started working on my mental health, like all the information out there was just overwhelming, right? Like you have so many people. It's like when you diet, you know what I mean? And everybody is just like, do this, do that. Have you tried this? Have you tried that? All this stuff. And it's just like, oh my God, right? Like struggling with depression or anxiety, it's already overwhelming enough, right? Like just life is overwhelming. So when you get all these different things thrown at you, like it can put you in that kind of like decision-making paralysis where you don't do anything. Something that helped me out a ton, a ton, which I'm hoping will help you out today is this, all right? Pay attention. You don't have to do everything, just do something. All right? So find one or two things that works for you and give them a try. And if they don't work, give them the boot. Try something else. Okay, so anyways, over on my Instagram the other day, I did a bunch of stats. I love getting information from all of you, okay? So I asked a bunch of questions, put up a bunch of polls and hundreds, I mean hundreds of you replied because rewired soldiers are the best. So I wanted to go through these polls and yeah, so you'll get an idea of what people are doing for their mental health and maybe you'll give them a try and I'll toss in some little facts and stuff like that along the way, all right? So like, first off, I thought a lot of people, I thought these stats were gonna be like five, 10%, but mm-mm, baby, uh-uh. So the first one is I said, do you meditate? 31%, 31% of people meditate, all right? And you'll see a pattern with these first few. They are 100% free, okay? So meditation is something I started doing four or five years ago and five minutes a day, five minutes a day, you don't gotta sit there for an hour or anything like that. One of the biggest things I see people say about meditation, I can't meditate, I can't stop from thinking, meditation isn't about stopping your thoughts, it is impossible to stop your thoughts, all right? Meditation is about noticing your thoughts and not latching onto them, all right? We sit there and we watch them pass like clouds in the sky. I was just reading a book on meditation the other day and one of my favorite analogies is it takes you from being inside the movie to being inside the movie theater and just watching. Next one, I asked, do you journal? 33%, all right? Not 100% free, but you can go to your local dollar store, I think even like grocery stores or Walmart or whatever, they have dollar notebooks, okay? Journaling is my jam. Like some of you know that I am a writer and sometimes I swear to you, I swear to you. Sometimes if I'm not like handwriting in my journal, like I'll just open up a Word document on my computer and just start just typing. Like something I realized a long time ago is that, you know, just keeping it in and keeping these ruminating thoughts going over and over and over and over again. Like when I'm able to write them down, it's like opening up this cage and just letting those things get out there, right? Another great benefit of journaling is when we get depressed, we can think that every day is terrible, right? Oh my God, this is never gonna end and all this other stuff. But when you have a journal, when you have documented proof that not every day is a bad day, you can flip through your journal on a bad day and say, oh, okay, I was feeling all right on that day. So obviously these things don't last forever. Boom, 33% again. I asked, do you talk to people in your support group? I love that so much. So human connection is one of the biggest things. So check it out. When you are connecting with other human beings, you are getting releases of oxytocin, okay? And this is for connection and not feeling so alone, right? And it's so simple, it's so simple. Like just one or two people, one or two people in your life that you can reach out to and just be like, yo, having a rough day. You know what I mean? Like for those of us in recovery, like, you know, not only do I have a support group but I can go hit up a 12 step meeting or whatever it is. One of my suggestions too is like, look online. Like Facebook has a ton of support groups. If you're into Reddit, Reddit has a ton of support groups. When we are struggling, it's easy to feel like we're completely alone and nobody understands. But by having a support group, especially people who have been through what we've been through, it helps us feel less alone. Now we're getting into the crazy stuff. Do you exercise 55% of people exercise? And check this out. I didn't even get specific in this poll, but like exercise is just physical movement at all. But it is one of the best things that you can do for your mental health. Like I'm in the process of scheduling some interviews on my podcast. One of them is a neuroscientist who specializes in depression. Dr. Alex Korb, you probably heard me mention him. But anyways, exercise releases serotonin, releases endorphins, releases dopamine, right? It also helps if you can't sleep at night. But exercise is one of the best things you could do for your mental health. Like sometimes when I'm not feeling it, when I'm not feeling going to the gym or just going for a walk, like just going for a little walk, like I'm like, okay, well, even though I don't feel like doing it for my weight, I want to do it for my mental health. And not many people, not many people go to the gym and regret it afterwards, right? Unless you like do something really dumb. But I got faith in all of you. Then I asked, do you get seven to eight hours of sleep? I thought this number was going to be like 2%. But 43% of people say seven to eight hours of sleep. So they want you to get eight hours of sleep. I typically do about seven. Now that I'm eating better and exercising, seven hours seems to do me just fine, aside from these eye bags. But that's just part of my face, I think. Anyways, getting good sleep is the best. It is up there with exercise. It's like exercise, sleep. Exercise, sleep, all right? When you sleep, your body is just rejuvenating, right? Lack of sleep. I don't even have time to go into all the studies. But lack of sleep, not only is it messing up your mental health, but you can't think logically. Willpower, they've done studies on that, like your willpower, absolutely tanks. So if you're getting terrible sleep, you're more likely to binge eat or, I don't know, binge shop or do a bunch of things that aren't good for you, all right? So get you some sleep. Next one, do you practice gratitude? 68%. Oh, this makes me so happy. It makes me so, so happy. So check it out. They have done studies, numerous studies on gratitude and simply writing down five things a day, five things a day that you're grateful for. And even if you gotta start out with one, it is going to boost your overall well-being. They've done studies, they show that it decreases, depression increases overall well-being. The reason being is because our brains are wired for a negative bias. We are so good at spotting the negative, right? Our brain is wired like that. But when we retrain it to be grateful, amazing things happen. I cannot explain this to you. I've had my son do a gratitude journal every night. He has a little alarm on his phone. And I'm sure there's a variety of factors, like he has a great mom and he's a good kid. But since he's been keeping that gratitude list, I've seen a huge change. Like for example, one of the reasons we started it, I noticed after school, he would, when I would ask him about his day, he would tell me like a bad thing, right? And I'm like, this ain't right, you know what I mean? And I just said, hey, here, start keeping a gratitude journal. He only writes down three things, by the way. And over time, that doesn't happen anymore. That doesn't, like after school, he'll tell me about good things that happen. And I believe it's because the science is valid and he's starting to spot the positives rather than the negatives. All right, so all of those were free, okay? F-R-E-E, free, okay? But this next one, I said, do you take antidepressants or other mental health medications? 29% of people said yes. So first off, if you are worried about taking them or you like, you know, think you shouldn't have to, just realize you're not going to be the only person taking these medications, all right? I take medications, 29% of everybody who answered this takes medications and trust me, I get it. Medications aren't for everybody. But like, I had to learn that medications aren't the end all be all. They are not going to fix all of your problems, right? But say for example, like with depression. With depression, it's so hard to get the motivation to just even get out of bed in the morning. When you're taking these medications, it gets you to that baseline where you can get some stuff done, right? Where you can at least get out there and go for a walk around the block to, you know, do some chores around the house, like small little, these small little goals that get this momentum going to get you out of that depression, all right? The last thing I'll recommend when it comes to medications is, always remember two things. Always remember these two things. Just because you didn't respond well to one medication doesn't mean all medications are bad, okay? You have to work with your doctor. You have to follow up with your doctor. Like that's something that I had to do. I had to find the right medication for me. Like they actually like, I don't know if your insurance will cover it, but some, you can actually do like genetic testing, which will tell you which medications you'll have a bad reaction to. It's pretty dope. I used to, when I worked at the rehab center, like we actually did, we had like a genetics testing place. So we did these little mouth swabs and I found like, oh, okay. These medications don't work, right? So get you some. And if you have like Medicare or there usually are free clinics in different cities around the United States, if you live in like a decent size city, like here in Las Vegas, I think we have three or four. And the wait times might be a little bit long because they're free, but like if you're really struggling with depression or anxiety, like I highly recommend you look into that because that might be the first step towards getting better. And lastly, I asked, how many of you have a therapist? 34%. Hi, I'm one of those people too. Therapy is so, so, so amazing. Like when you find the right therapist, it's like sometimes finding the right therapist is like dating, okay? Or it's like medications. I don't know why I jumped to dating, but sometimes you gotta find the right one, okay? So, no, it's kind of like medications just because maybe they didn't work in the past. Doesn't mean they're not gonna work now. You might have had the wrong therapist. You might have had a bad therapist. I can't tell you how much it bumps me out when I see people who they had a bad experience with one therapist and it just soured their taste for therapists forever, right? Like there are a million different therapists out there. Get a new one, try a new one, right? I've had some DMs recently asked me about therapists and like, do I know anybody who specializes in this or that, you know, whatever. Here's what I recommend. Talk to your doctor, talk to your insurance company and see if they can recommend a therapist who specializes in what you're struggling with. Anxiety, depression, trauma, borderline personality disorder, whatever it is. You know what I mean? Typically like your insurance company will have a list of that stuff. I also recommend, I might do a video on this. Like if you want me to do a video on this, let me know in the comments. We're breaking down each type of therapy. Like for example, like cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, rational motive behavioral therapy, all that kind of stuff. Because then you can narrow it down even more and say, okay, that therapy sounds like it would work for me. Let me find a therapist who specializes in that. For example, borderline personality disorder, DBT, very effective. If you're struggling with trauma, EMDR therapy. A lot of people benefit from that type of therapy. So you just gotta understand how these therapies work. Find a therapist who specializes in this and give it a try. And if that therapy doesn't work, call up to another one. My therapist, she's well versed in quite a few of them. And since I'm always doing research, I'm like, hey, I wanna try that. Like she's been helping me with REBT, rational motive behavioral therapy. And that thing's my jam because I get really irrational with my thoughts sometimes. And that helps me get back on track, all right? So talk to your doctor, talk to your insurance company. Me personally, I use BetterHelp online therapy. It's a really cool service. I've had my therapist for about a year now. And they also help support the channel. So if you wanna give BetterHelp online therapy a try, there's always a link down in the description. Basically what that means is you get affordable online therapy. A little bit comes back to support the channel. But I don't really care where you get therapy from, but just please for the love of God, give it a try. So in the last video, where I talked about my little weight loss journey, I asked you all for your best weight loss tips. And this one comes from Beck Finnerty. And she says, stay away from fructose and corn syrup as they make you hungry in crave. It's quite addictive. Girl, I am working on it. Something I'm trying to really get better at is recognizing processed food and everything like that. Especially foods that have empty calories. Since I'm trying to be more mindful of what I'm eating, there are foods where you eat them and they are a ton of calories and they're terrible for you. And then you're hungry right after. You know what I mean? So thank you Beck for reminding me I need to get better at that, all right? So for this video, down in the comments below, let me know what your favorite mental health practice is out of everything that we listed, all right? But thank you to everybody who participated and answered these polls. I also did one more thing, but this video got too long. So I'll break that down into another video. But as you can see, as you can see, a ton of people are out there doing just one thing for their mental health. And some of these people might be doing multiple things. You never know, baby. But anyways, 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 a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. As well as everybody who buys my mental health books at therewiredsoul.com as well as the Rewired Soul Merch, like the logo shirt, all right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.