 Have you ever wondered why your mental health just doesn't seem to be improving? Well, in this video, we're going to discuss why, but you know how we roll. We're going to offer some solutions as well. 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. So what I try to do, I try to talk about different topics that can help improve our own mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And if you're not yet, follow me over on Instagram and Twitter at The Rewired Soul. All right? So, yeah, this video, I want to jump just right into this thing. Why am I making this video? Well, part of it is because there is a common misconception that I was part of as well, where we think that most of our mental health issues are biological or chemical imbalances, right? And those do play a role, but from my own personal experience, as well as my experience working with others, we put too much weight on the biological factor. And what this can do is it can set us up for failure. Part of my experience was as soon as I got on anti-anxiety, anti-depressant medications, I just thought everything was going to be blissful and great, right? But it wasn't, all right? Everything's got better, but they still had a long way to go. So in this video, we're going to talk about the three different components that have to do with our mental health and what we can do about it. All right? So, I'm reading this book right now called Psychological by the neuroscientist Dean Burnett. He is an amazing, amazing author. Like, I will link his book down in the description below if you want to check it out. But like, if you're like really looking to learn about mental health on all different fronts, like, check out this book. All right? But anyways, one of the chapters I just finished was he was talking about George Engel, who the hell is George Engel? George Engel came up with the biopsychosocial model of mental health. All right? So there is a long history of mental health research and everything like that. And there are different camps that, you know, oh, it's mainly biological, right? You get psychiatrists and doctors and everything like that. Then you get, you know, the top psychologists from history, like Siegman Freud and Young and everything. And it's like, oh, it's psychological. You know what I mean? So George Engel came up with the biopsychosocial model. All right? So when I was going to make this video, I was actually going to make it a three or four-part video. I was going to go bio, psycho, social, and then kind of put it all together. But I'm going to try to condense it all in this video. If there are more topics that you want me to dive in deeper on or you have questions, let me know down in the comments below. All right? So first, let's talk about the biological factors that affect our mental health. So yes, there are biological factors. The chemical imbalances that we talk about, those can play a role. So for example, when it comes to depression, we have a wide range of neurotransmitters that our brain is supposed to create, all right? So you got endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, all that kind of stuff. There's like a bunch of them. And sometimes our brains just aren't doing that. And this is where medications can come in. So this is why it's important to talk to a doctor or a psychiatrist. But aside from that, when it comes to biological factors, we need to know that there is a genetic component, all right? If you have a family history of depression, they've even found out that if you have a family history of trauma, that can be passed down through generations. They've done studies from like Holocaust survivors and found out that their grandchildren were more prone to anxiety based on the trauma that their grandparents went through, all right? And then there was also something called epigenetics. I talk about this a lot when I'm teaching people about the science of addiction. You can have genes lying dormant in your body and then they activate after a traumatic event. So for example, somebody might have never had a problem with drinking or substance abuse or anything like that. Then they go off to war or they have another traumatic experience happen and boom, all right? The gene becomes activated, okay? So the next biological factor is gut health. This is something that I've been really fascinated with lately and I want to dive more into it. But anyways, when we hear neurotransmitters, we think that they're all up here, but that ain't the case, all right? You have neurotransmitters in your gut, okay? So there are a lot of people who are trying to improve their gut health to help improve their mental health, okay? So the last thing, when it comes to the biological factors, your mental health can affect your physical health. For example, people with depression can start feeling like physical ailments. Sometimes people are getting misdiagnosed with physical illnesses because of their mental illness. I think Dr. Mike has quite a few videos on this where when he talks with clients or patients, he asks them like, what's going on in their life as well? And we know like stress and everything like that can lead to like heart disease and a bunch of other issues, okay? So now let's talk about the psychological factors, okay? The psychological factors are thinking can be f***ed, okay? And this is one of the biggest things. Like for me personally, I found this was one of my biggest issues and it's the issue that I find with a lot of people I talk with. So you could take all the medications in the world, but if we don't get down the psychological factors, we're gonna be screwed, okay? So one of the biggest issues is cognitive distortions, okay? The way our brain processes information and the lies that our brains tell us, right? The whole world's against us. We're not good enough for those of you out there who struggle with anxiety like I do. This is going to be awful. This is gonna be the worst thing to ever happen to me in my life, right? These psychological factors. The thing is, as we go through life, if we don't take care of those psychological factors, we are training our brain to get into these various thought traps, okay? So we need to work on that. Now, there are a wide, wide, wide range of therapies and some people do better with some therapies than they do with others and everything like that, all right? So the next thing I want to talk about is social, okay? So the social factors, this can mean a wide range of things. So let's start out with childhood and everything like that. Your experience and your environment can play a major role in your mental health, okay? So for example, let's compare the biological factors to the social factors real quick. So addiction. If addiction runs in your family, I believe there is about a 50% chance that you can become addicted, okay? It doesn't mean that you will become addicted, but there's about a 50% chance. But if you were raised by an alcoholic or an addict, your chances of becoming addicted are 80%, okay? So that is the social factor weighing in much more than the biological factor, all right? But also, your environment, like if you were in a house where there's a lot of, you know, verbal or physical abuse and things like that, these can play a role, okay? But as we get older, these social factors, they can be the toxic relationships that we're getting into that are just destroying our mental health, all right? It could be the people that we're hanging out with and associating with, okay? It can be the bad situations that we're putting ourselves in where we're keeping ourselves in a bad environment, all right? So now let's talk about the solutions, okay? So biological solutions. Like I said, go see a doctor, okay? So first step, talk to a doctor. You can also set up an appointment with a psychiatrist. If you haven't set one before, like if it's your first visit, sometimes it could take a long time, okay? I have personally never seen a psychiatrist, but my primary care doctor is the one who prescribes my ProZac, and before that, I was on Lexapro for my generalized anxiety disorder and depression, okay? So talk to a doctor. And a doctor can help you with all these other things that we're talking about as well. Now, I just want to say, one of the reasons that they have this whole biopsychosocial model is because some people believe that doctors overprescribe medications. I'm telling you this right now. Like the best practice for doctors, if they are putting you on any kind of mental health medications, they should, should be referring you to a therapist or a psychologist. Some kind of mental health professional, all right? If your doctor is just giving you pills and telling you, hey, your life's gonna be fixed, be a little concerned about that. And sometimes you might have to go through the effort to find that mental health professional, all right? So medications can help, but just remember, medications are meant to get you to a baseline, all right? So for some people with antidepressants, those medications are just meant to help you get out of bed and to get you active and things like that, okay? But the next thing is exercise, all right? Exercise, like I recently started going back to the gym and it wasn't even because of my weight and I know some of you are like, but Chris, you need to work on your weight. I know, okay? But the way I kind of tricked myself into getting back into the gym was because of my mental health. Exercise is the best thing you can do for your mental health. Like I cannot stress that enough, okay? Like for example, antidepressants, most of those are like SSRIs, so they help with serotonin levels and everything like that. When you exercise, when you exercise, we're talking serotonin. We're talking endorphins. We're talking oxytocin. We're talking like all the good neurotransmitters, okay? So even if you can just walk around the block, you know, every other day, a few times a week, whatever it is, or if you have a gym in your apartment complex, like I do, just get your butt out and moving, all right? So as far as gut health, you could talk to your doctor about that as well. Some people actually go through tests because you might have some issues with your gut or certain bacterias and things like that, okay? So now let's talk about the psychological factors. Therapy, therapy, therapy, therapy, okay? Now, one of the reasons I started this channel was because I know how many people out there don't have access to mental health care, right? Even if you're in the United States, our, you know, mental health care system, it sucks, all right? It's not nearly as bad as some other countries, but it still sucks. But if you have the resources to go to therapy, whether it's through your insurance or like I said, if your doctor can refer you or if you can meet with a psychologist, whatever it is, there are so many different therapies, all right? Some of the best therapies, in my opinion, are CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, DBT, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and my new favorite is REBT, Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, all right? So yeah, I personally use BetterHelp Online Therapy. So if you would like to try that out, I do have an affiliate link down below. What that means is that you get affordable online therapy and a little bit comes back to the channel to help support it. But I've been working with my therapist for the last almost a year or so, and she is phenomenal. I love it. And when I started educating myself about REBT, I talked to her about it. So now we do a lot of different REBT methods. Now, some of you are like, but Chris, I can't afford therapy. I don't have insurance. Okay, listen, come here, come here real quick. Get some books, okay? Like get books, look stuff up online, whatever it is. There are so many books out there that have CBT, DBT, REBT, all types of therapies, right? Where the best psychologists and therapists in the world are putting those practices in books. There are workbooks and so many other things, right? So you can start catching those cognitive distortions. They'll give you journaling exercises. Like when we say that we don't have money for therapy, we are letting our mental health make an excuse for us not to get better. Okay, it is 2019, baby girl. There are so many ways to get access to these things. If you're watching this video, you have an internet connection. You can find these things. But just for example, I discovered REBT after learning about the amazing psychologist Albert Ellis and he has a ton of books, all right? So currently I'm reading this book about people pushing your buttons, but the book I read before that from Albert Ellis was how to stubbornly refuse to make yourself miserable about anything, right? And they sound like kind of like corny self-help book titles, but these are legit. The reason I love REBT is because those of you who know me, I love me some tough love and REBT is this kind of like tough love, like acknowledging these ridiculous thought patterns that we get into, all right? So lastly, let's talk about the social solutions, okay? So this has two sides to it. The first one is recognizing the talks of people in our lives. And for some of us, that's our family. And we need to work on setting boundaries and everything like that. Like we have the holiday season coming up. And like, I'll be real with you. Like when I first got sober, I had to distance myself from certain family gatherings if I wasn't in the right headspace and I couldn't do it. But also take a look at who your friend group is. Take a look at who you're dating, okay? Like this can weigh heavily on your mental health, especially if you're in some kind of like abusive relationship, like this is not good for you. So something that we need to get better at and something that changed my life for the better was learning to set boundaries. I used to be a huge people pleaser. I just kept everybody in my life. I always said yes and everything like that. So part of this is we have to work on eliminating the toxic people in our lives. But the second part of this is we need to get good people in our lives, okay? So many of us are worried about the popularity contest and having as many friends as possible. You know, like I always think about like people who like have weddings and they're like, I'm inviting like 300 people. I'm like, how many of those are like close friends? You know what I mean? And if you have a lot of friends, that's cool. Do your thing, all right? But me personally what I realize is I would rather have a very small tight-knit group of supportive people than just a bunch of acquaintances, all right? Like we as humans are social creatures, okay? Like our brains based on our evolution are designed to get depressed and anxious if we are not making social connections. One of the worst things we can do is isolate. So find a support group. Again, it's 2019. There are so many support groups that you can find online, Facebook for whatever it is, trauma survivors, addiction groups, self-harm, personality disorders, everything, depression, anxiety, everything, all right? And you guys, I am working on it too. I hope by the end of the year I can reset up, you know, the rewired Soul Facebook group and maybe a Discord server and everything like that. But for right now, like use the comment section, like share your experience. If you need help, reach out. If you guys need to reach out to me, okay? Like I am not always gonna be able to answer your questions or like crazy, but I can point you in the right direction. And if enough of you are DMing me and I see commonalities, I can start working on setting up different support groups and everything like that, all right? But I think the social aspect is probably not the easiest because if you have social anxiety like I used to, it can be difficult, but you need to get that strong support group. Okay, so anyways, that is the biopsychosocial model. Start working on all three. It's not just one, okay? We gotta put in some work on this. And like I said, if you have questions about anything I mentioned in this or you want me to dive deeper on certain subjects, let me know down in the comments below, all right? And in the description, I also have some resources, some of the books I mentioned, like the one from Dean Burnett, the Albert Ellis books and things like that, all right? 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. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel through other ways like buying my mental health books or merch or whatever the case might be, all right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.