 Dang it Drew, you know what, you know what man, I got a bone to pick with you. Because in your comeback video, you was all talking about how you don't want anybody talking about you, but this video, this video that you just released about living with depression was one of the most freaking inspirational pieces of content I have ever, ever seen in my life. So if that, we're going to talk about it right now and inspire some folks together. 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 is all about mental health and what I like to do is pull different topics from the YouTube community, try to teach you how to improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. But before we get started, check this out. We hit 10,000 followers on Instagram. I love you all so much. We can swipe up now and I just want to do so many things. So earlier I tested it out, I did a little swipe up to my last video, I also did a poll asking you guys if you want me to do like book recommendations because sometimes I don't like doing a whole book review but I thought it would be cool because I know a lot of you asked me for book recommendations and they're just like make a little Instagram story and say, hey, I'm reading this book. You want to read it with me or hey, I just finished this book. It was pretty good. You want to read it? So I read mental health books. So that's something I'm going to be doing with that sweet new swipe up feature. All right. But yeah, anyways, let's talk about our boy Drew Mawson. All right. It's crazy because this morning I made that video about Garrett Watts and talking about how he's been kind of gone and everything. And then like when I was researching to see like if Garrett's been on social media or if he's posted anything that I didn't see, I was wondering about Drew. I was seeing if Drew had posted anything and it had been a couple weeks. But Drew has been posting quite a bit, you know, compared to being gone for like a year, like who's posting quite a bit. And then boom, Drew rolls up in here and drops a video about living with depression and it was, oh, it was oh, so, so, so good. All right. So disclaimer for those of you who haven't met me, who the heck am I? Who is this guy right here? Well, I think Drew actually says it best with this first clip. Today I wanted to talk about depression. Before I say any of this, I just want to let everyone know. And I think everyone knows this. I am not a mental health professional. I'm pretty sure you know that. I don't think anyone watches my videos and they're like, he's like a psychiatrist, right? Like he has a doctorate. No, I this is all from my personal experience. I'm not going to fix you. I don't know any expert opinions or any of that kind of stuff. I'm just telling you what I've learned. So, yeah, I am a mental health professional. I work in mental health. I work in treatment, all of that. But I'm not a licensed therapist or anything. What I do on my channel is I talk to you about what I've learned through my own personal experience, as well as my own education, whether it's, you know, being educated by the facilities I've worked with or the schooling I've done or the books I read. But sometimes experience is the best teacher, baby. But anyways, yes, if you are in need of help, I will provide resources down in the description below. But we're going to be talking about that a lot in this video right here. But what I'm saying is like, I'm not great. So maybe you shouldn't even take my advice. Like, I know you might be thinking, like, oh, my God, really? The guy who like couldn't even get out of bed to make YouTube videos for like a million people to make money, like dancing around for a year. Yeah, that guy, here's my advice. Take it. I just want to show this clip, even though I could show like 30 clips from this entire video, but like Drew jokes about it. He jokes about his depression, right? And I think this is important. This is something that I do all the time. I joke about my depression. I joke about my addiction. I joke about my anxiety. I joke about all these things. And for me personally, it takes the power away from it, right? So there is something that I try to do and it's never to take myself too seriously and never take this thing too seriously. Like something that I have to find a balance with is, you know, being kind and compassionate to you, the viewers. But at the same time, too, like if you're getting offended by some of the stuff I talk about or the joking manner, I talk about it in like, I'm sorry, but that's the way that I cope with my mental health issues. But I think a lot of us could benefit by not taking it so seriously. To be honest, I overthink and I analyze everything. I think a lot of the backlash I get is because people take mental health way too seriously, way too seriously, right? And I see mental health the same as physical health, right? You don't need a disease to go to the gym. OK, so you don't need a mental illness or mental disorder to work on your mental health. You follow me, I think you do. But yeah, I've been depressed for a while. I mean, in junior high school, I used to go home every day after school and sleep for like five hours. Like I'd sleep until like 9 p.m. because I just didn't want to do anything. Like I wanted to do what I had to do. And then after that, I was like, why should I be away? So right here, right here, Drew is talking about sleeping, right? Oh, man, all the sleeping. So yes, this is a major sign of depression. And he talks about, you know, how it started when he was younger and he would just like sleep and sleep and sleep. So this is a huge sign, but I can definitely relate. And this also played into my substance abuse. I often joke with other addicts and recovery and stuff because my substances of choice were downers such as alcohol or prescription pain medications, you know, like dabbled in benzos, you know, whatever. But it's because I hated my life. I hated everything and I just wanted to sleep. So I would always joke with other people like if somebody's substance of choice was like cocaine or meth, I'm like, I do not understand you people. Like if you're an addict like me, your life sucks. So why would you want to be awake more? You know what I mean? So I was taking things to just knock out, pass out, just be done with my day and just like, like, that's how disgusting my life used to be and shows how far I've come. Like back in the day when I had days off, I would just go in and out of blackouts all day. And today I'm excited every single day to wake up in the morning and I stay up late because I love, I love being awake and enjoying this beautiful life that I have now. But I got help. I had help for my parents and I went out there and I got help from professionals. And that's the first thing I want to say, what you've heard before, it might be annoying to say, but you have to get help. This is the time to get help. Like if you're someone who has gotten help, obviously you're like, shut up. But if you haven't yet and you've been like waiting and waiting and waiting, today is the day. Like do it. Boom, get help. Let me repeat that for the people in the back. Get help. Okay. If you don't take anything away from the video, it is to get help. So if you are fortunate enough to have insurance, talk to your doctor, talk to your insurance provider, see if they can recommend the therapist. All right. My channel is supported by BetterHelp Online Therapy. I personally just started therapy with them. I just, you know, got linked up with my therapist a few days ago. I'm going to do a full review after I think about a month ago. Anyways, her name is Katrina and she is bad ass so far. I'm like sitting there because I'm kind of like, I'm like, oh, how are you going to fix me? I'm the mental health guy. And she's actually having me kind of like look at some of my behaviors and thought processes and things like that. I'm like, all right, Katrina, you know your stuff. But anyways, if you want to give BetterHelp a try, the link is always down in the description as well as in the pinned comment. It's pretty affordable. That's one of the reasons that I signed up for it. Um, but anyways, get help. I don't care if it's through BetterHelp or it's through your doctor, your insurance company, whatever it is. I have had therapists and then not had them and had to get a new one. Like that thought is so overwhelming. I'm going to link Drew's video because so many of you asked me about finding the right therapist and I'm not going to do a justice in this video, but Drew talks about this a lot, a lot. And that clip right there, he talked about switching therapists. So by the way, real quick with BetterHelp, BetterHelp makes switching therapists really easily. Okay. Like you can just click a button and just say, boop, switch therapist. But if you're seeing an in-person therapist, please, please, please do not worry about offending them. This is part of their job. If they are professional, they know that you might switch. You might find somebody new just because you don't click with them or whatever it is. It's the same for any of you who are in addiction recovery. Same thing with a sponsor. I get people all the time, they're like afraid to switch sponsors or break up with their sponsor. Listen, if you break up with a sponsor and they have an issue with you, they need to talk with their sponsor and it's more proof that they probably weren't the right person for you to begin with. You can take it one step at a time. Like you can tell a friend, you can tell your parents, I've been feeling sad. I think I might have depression. Something's going on. I don't feel right. That's the first step. And do that before you worry about anything else. I love how Drew says like just take baby steps and tell somebody. Tell somebody. Like I don't care if you want to start by just dropping a comment down below and saying, yo, I'm depressed. I need help. Just that could be something. But I highly recommend you tell a close friend, a family member, for all of my younger viewers out there. Like you got to talk to an adult about this stuff. All right. If you don't feel comfortable talking to your parents, talk to a counselor, talk to your teacher, talk to your favorite teacher. You all got to lose one teacher. I don't even care if it's a teacher. Like if there's like a hall monitor or like a custodian or something that you connect with, just talk to them. Talk to them, please. All right. But talking to somebody can be very, very beneficial. And like what Drew says is it feels good. It feels good because when we're dealing with depression or any form of mental illness or anxiety or whatever, it feels like a million pounds or just all on our shoulders. And when we just talk to somebody about it, it could be so, so, so beneficial and it could be this breath of fresh air. I would say be careful. Not that you shouldn't, but two things I think could happen. Number one, you can overwhelm somebody and you can turn them into your therapist and it kind of messes with the dynamic of your friendship. Like you can just put so much on them. Yes, dude, Drew. He is so wise and I hope he makes more videos about mental health. Like listen to what he's saying. Do not turn your friend into your therapist. All right. This can change the dynamic of the relationship. This is why it's important to seek a professional or find a support group. So always down in the description below, there is a link to the Facebook group as well as the Discord server for all of you rewired soldiers out there to talk and connect with others so you're not alone. We are people who are in there on like for a reason to help one another out. Okay. So Drew has another good suggestions in there that as mom mentioned, ask somebody for permission and say, Hey, do you mind if I, you know, say these things to you, right? Or if I tell you about these things or whatever it is and you got to understand most of the people in your life do love and care about you. So they're probably more than happy to listen to your struggles. All right. But I will tell you this on the flip side of that. This is one of the reasons why I don't let people just use me as their emotional banker. We all have those friends who all they do is call us and tell us about the problem, the problem, the problem, the problem. Then we offer them a solution and they don't take it. But they keep on calling us about the problem. That's when I set up a boundary. I said, Listen, I've talked to you 15 times. I've given you suggestions. You haven't done one of them. So I am no longer here for you to vent to about that. Like that's what I have to do for my mental health. So if you're somebody turning to a friend or family member, like talk to them and vent to them. But you need to start getting into the solution. All right. If you keep going back to them with the same problems, they're going to get pretty frustrated and pretty annoyed. But they have a right to be. All right. Like I used to do the same thing. I used to be a guy who stayed in the problem and didn't get in the solution and frustrated people. And it made me say nobody cares about me. But these people did care about me. But I am the only one who can help me get better. I am the only one with the willingness to get better. Nobody can give me willingness. Nobody can make me do anything. All right. So it's great for half people to vent to but you need to get into the solution. Like I even see it sometimes in our Facebook group or Discord server. People who are just constantly staying in the problem. It's time to start getting into the solution. All right. Baby steps. One of the things, one of the main symptoms of being depressed is that you feel unable to do things. I'm not an expert, but it feels like you're physically unable to do things. It's like there's a light switch of your energy and motivation. And it feels like someone literally turned it off. Like Alexa, please turn off motivation in the living room. Sure, Drew. I'll turn off your motivation and you'll be scared to open emails today. Lack of motivation. How many of you struggle with that? So according to the diagnostics attention school manual, the DSM-5, one of the signs of major depressive disorder is a lack of motivation. But see a professional do not diagnose yourself. I think you see in Drew's video how there could be an issue that you run across if you start to diagnose yourself and Google all sorts of stuff. But yes, a lack of motivation is a big issue. So when we talk about the biological reasons that depression happens, it's a lack of certain neurotransmitters and certain neurotransmitters like serotonin are responsible for motivation, right? So this is why some people take SSRIs which is an antidepressant medication and this can help jumpstart your motivation to get you to do something. But there's a book that I always recommend which is called Upward Spiral by Dr. Alex Korb. He has a ton, a ton of different things that you can do to start jumpstarting your motivation and it's through a bunch of different ways. I love that book so, so, so much. So if you're a neuroscience nerd like I am make sure you check down in the description below. Check that book out. Absolutely phenomenal. Is realize that depression is giving you reasons to feel bad and not everything you think is true. It might just be a symptom of your depression. Like I feel like I'm not an expert on this but I feel like sometimes it seems like I'm just in a sad mood and then my brain is like, oh, we're sad. What are we sad about? Like this person doesn't like me. This person thinks I'm stupid. I did this two years ago that made me look dumb and like in public. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Like this is something that like we need to get like written down or tattooed on our arm. Like if you get a tattoo of this it was not my suggestion but it's something that we need to remember. Maybe like put it on your mirror on a post note. That's what I would say. Take a post note, put it on your mirror, okay. Don't believe everything that your brain says. Okay, like think about it, okay. If we are people who are struggling with mental health issues we have a problem with this thing up here. So why am I going to believe everything that this tells me, right? It is okay to not trust your own brain. This is one of the reasons why I turned to other people for advice and support because I cannot trust this thing up here. You know what I mean? But something I learned from that book that I recommended called Upward Spiral is something called Biofeedback, all right. A lot of times when you do something with your body the mind will follow. So I made a video a long time ago and I talked to one of, man, one of our most loyal rewired soldiers, Gian, if you're watching this, what's up girl? I think that's your name Gian or that's just like your screen name, whatever. Like I told you to go check out my old video called The Pen Experiment, all right. This is an old experiment. If you want to go check it out, like search that video in my playlist it's called The Pen Experiment, right. But basically what they showed is by simply smiling people are more likely to be happier, all right. Because basically you're tricking your brain into getting into that mood, all right. There's a lot of other cool stuff in there about Biofeedback, like just having your body in certain ways it can make you more depressed or more confrontational, anxious, all that kind of stuff. Well, I think what it means is that when you are alone you will come up with things to feel bad about and bad things start to happen when you spend, oh that's what every therapist I've ever seen has told me. Drew, stop being alone all the time. Stop sitting down and thinking. Stop laying down and just thinking, thinking, thinking. That right there, I can't stress this enough. Isolation is the absolute worst thing that you can do for your depression, all right. The way I explain it to clients, and I know a lot of you love my analogies, isolating when you're depressed is like being in a horror movie and locking yourself in the room with a killer, all right. Don't do that. This thing can be our worst enemy. So stop isolating, okay. I know some of you don't have the means to like go out or anything like that or maybe you just don't have friends in your area. This is another reason why online support groups are very beneficial. So you're not isolating, you can get out of your head and talk to people about what's going on in your mind. I have had times where my bed in my old apartment, the corner of my room that had my bed in it, it became hell and it was like my brain was trained to feel bad in my bed. Do you know what I mean? It becomes this pattern where it's like that's where the bad things happen. And I literally felt like when I got in that bed, everything, it just started. I love it. I love it when people are like, I don't really know the science behind this or I think that they have these theories. Like a lot of people have theories that have actually been proven. So what Drew was saying is like, there's something about that bed that makes them think of all the bad things. Well, this is one of the reasons why your bed should only be for sleeping. So just an example, they've done a ton of studies where like if you watch TV in bed, like your brain associates that with like entertainment time rather than sleeping time. But there's been other studies. So if you're isolating and you lay in bed and you're just like, like I used to do, I just used to curl up in a fetal position and just throw a pity party for hours on end. My brain would associate the bed with ruminating thoughts, right? So if you spend a lot of time in your bed ruminating and not sleeping, your brain thinks, oh, hey, it's time to just start thinking about all the things in the world. So stop doing that, all right? Break that association with your mind. Only go to bed when you are extremely tired and ready to go to sleep. I am meaning to do either an email blast or some videos about the techniques that I use to go to sleep. I used to be a really, really bad insomniac and now I fall asleep like a baby. If you want a pro tip right now, turn on some Bob Ross just in audio form. What I do is I turn it on Netflix. On my phone, lock the phone, hit play and it's just audio and those brushstrokes and his soothing voice just make me pass right out. But the hard truth is that we are meant to interact with other people. You can't just go your entire day not even opening your mouth. Like sometimes I would spend two weeks alone and the only thing I would ever even say out loud would be to my turtle when I would go boo. So something that I did, like Drew's talking about, I set a goal to be around people. So he's talking about like this year he wants to be around people more. So I knew, I knew that isolation was making me more depressed, more anxious. Like I knew being stuck in my head was the worst thing. So something that I started doing was forcing myself to go hang out with people and I was so socially anxious and trust me, it was so, so awkward. I would just stand there just like, huh, huh, huh, right? And I just kept forcing myself to do it kind of like a form of exposure therapy, right? But as people, we are meant to be connected with other people. So when we're just simply around people, even if we're not interacting with them, it will make you start to feel better. That's another tip that I learned from that book, Upward Spiral. What are you waiting for? Pause this video and go buy that book. It's down in the description below. But anyways, something that you can do is like, say you're a writer or you like to read. Well, don't read at your house if you have a problem isolating. Like go to the coffee shop and just start reading there. Being around other people is going to start to spark different neurotransmitters in your brain and help you out with your depression. If you're going to believe bad things all the time for things that you have no way of knowing, you might as well try to at least a little bit believe the good things. I love this. I love what Drew said right there. I don't, have any of you watched that show Sense8 on Netflix? One of the best shows ever? And I'm so, so, so, so sad that it's over. But one of my favorite scenes comes from Kathyus in season one where they're talking and God, I forgot her name. But she's like, what if something terrible happens? And he's like, what if something amazing happens? Right? Like that's something that we have to start doing. Like we have to start doing that with ourselves. It helps us start to become more optimistic rather than pessimistic. I will never forget. It was like the first day of school for my son. And it was like second or third day and he was freaking out. He was like crying. Don't tell him I told you this. He might get embarrassed. But anyways, and he was like crying and he was so nervous. He's like, well, what if it's scary? What if, what if I have a bad teacher? What if I don't have any friends? I'm like, Dylan, what if this is the best year of your life? What if you have the best teacher? What if you meet the coolest kids ever? Right? And you just saw this little switch flip in his head. Right? Sometimes we just need somebody there to give us a different perspective or point of view. By the way, that's another reason why you need to hang out with more optimistic people because they can see things that you're not necessarily seeing because of your depression and all the lies that your brain's telling you. But if you watch this, I hope somebody watches this till the end. If you watch this entire video, I just want to say give yourself some credit because that's something I really need to help with and I really struggle with having positive thoughts about myself because they're so negative. Last but not least, man, Drew, you are one inspirational mofo. Like you guys, like congratulate yourself. Like there's so many of you who talk about how you watch my videos daily. Like you guys, even if that's the only thing that you did that day and I'm not saying like I'm this guru of mental health, but what I'm saying is the action that you took by watching a mental health video, like that's huge. There's so many people out there who are staying in the problem and not even attempting to get into the solution. So congratulate yourself for that. But like what Drew said is, like living with depression or living with anxiety, whatever it is, like going to work every day or being a mother every day or a father every day or whatever it is, like that takes a lot of work and congratulate yourself on that. Like, like doesn't mean you can cut, like not do anything and cut yourself all this slack. Like still try to get into the solution, but every day, like you should be celebrating your small successes. All right. Just the little baby steps that you're taking to improve your mental health. All right. But anyways, anyways, Drew Bonson, if you see this video, I am proud of you brother and we need to talk sometime. Coming out to LA soon. Let's link up. Let's collab. Let's talk mental health. Let's play some songs and play with cats. But anyways, anyways, again, if you need some help with your mental health, like make sure that you talk to your doctor, talk to your insurance company. I'm having a great experience with better help online therapy so far. If you would like to sign up for better help, click down below. They are a supporter of this channel. So basically what happens is you get a great deal on online therapy. A little comes back to support the channel. Win, win, baby. And my therapist is fully licensed and amazing. All right. But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked 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 are all amazing. And if you would like to become a Patreon and get some exclusive videos and perks and all that stuff, click the top right there. All right. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time.