Mental Health

Try this quick exercise and notice what changes you experience. Take a deep breath, fill your lungs with as much air as possible, and slowly let that air out. While you exhale, notice any tension in your muscles or body. That tension that you felt could be driven by anxiety.

The neat thing about our brain and body is they both communicate with each other all the time! That tension you felt was your “flight, flight, or freeze” response protecting you from danger. Yet, there is no immediate danger. This system is not benefiting us when the physiological responses make our thinking cloudy, rushed, or overwhelmed.

Instead, we can learn new coping mechanisms that help us refocus our energy and think more clearly. In a nutshell, anxiety is our body and brain responding to a perceived threat.

Curious to learn more? Begin today and schedule a consultation.

Yes and no. They both are a response to a perceived threat to our safety. However, social anxiety (now known as social phobia) is a persistent fear of negative judgments from others.

Stage fright is a great example of the experience of social anxiety, yet for most, that feeling exists in other areas too, such as meeting new people, going to the grocery store, competing in athletics, etc.

My approach begins with reducing the projection of our thoughts into assumptions that other people think that way too. Then, we foster courage and bravery to face our fears and build our strength up slowly.

Not all judgments are bad. Criticism is a kind of judgment that induces shame and blame. While evaluation is a tool to see our areas for improvement without shame. Ready to begin finding relief?

Depression can manifest from genetics or our environmental experiences. Essentially, we can think our way into depression with common thinking errors, such as "should/must" negative statements or over-identifying with issues in our life (we are not sad, but we can feel sad). We can also have a genetic predisposition for depression. If a family member has experienced depression, we are more likely to experience depression. Research has disproved that the neurotransmitters "cause" depression. Instead, the chemical imbalance in your brain IS depression, and our environment and genetics manifest the symptoms of depression.

Depression is a complicated disease with multiple causes, and no single gene or environment has been empirically validated as the "cause" of depression. Therefore, depression is a collection of symptoms, not a single entity. Aka produce (depression) is a collection of fruits and vegetables (symptoms).

A framework I try to teach is a "foundation of wellness" that we focus on creating an environment that resists depressive symptoms. Since depression is a collection of multiple "symptoms," everyone will have a unique foundation.

For example, isolation breeds depression, but as an introvert, we need time in solitude. Solitude = healthy time alone recharging our energy; isolation = unhealthy time alone shaming and criticizing ourselves. An extrovert would have moments of daily socializing in their foundation of wellness, but an introvert would focus on the quality of socializing as part of their foundation.

To begin building your foundation, click here.

Remember, depression is a collection of multiple symptoms, not a single thing we are.

Common symptoms of depression:

Fatigue/sleep changes

*Yes, you may be feeling more depressed because you feel tired/lazy; you may feel tired/lazy because you are feeling depressed.

Sad most days

*Being sad is a human experience and not to be avoided completely, yet if every day or most days you feel sad, that may be an indication of depression.

Changes to your thinking

*Do you feel worthless, hopeless about your future, or feel helpless and alone in your struggles?

*Focus changes, you struggle to focus or quickly switch tasks when previously you could focus.

Anhedonia

*Loss of pleasure of activities you used to enjoy. When was the last time you enjoyed a special moment?

Irritability/anger

*Particularly in males, although all people can experience an increase in family and friends “walking on eggshells”

Social Withdrawal

*Introverts still need socialization. A gauge of if you are withdrawing is if you are not taking care of basic hygiene or avoid socializing due to fatigue or “not wanting to” even though it has been several days since you have seen another person.

Recurring thoughts of death or not wanting to be around anymore

*Please take action today and seek help; you are worth it!

**Any Emergency room can support you to keep you safe. If you have a plan or feel unsafe, please seek emergency medical care or dial 911.

You being lazy or unmotivated.

A characterological flaw that you are defective or broken.

A sign of weakness.

Yes! Often they build off each other.

For example, we may have intense fears of judgment, so we isolate ourselves to avoid that fear, resulting in increasing isolation leading to sadness.

Trauma is a word that carries heavy connotations. I use the language of “painful past memories” to express that those traumatic events may shape how we see the world, but those events remain in the past. We aim to process those memories and remove the “painful” part, so they become memories rather than painful memories.

Painful memories are a part of the environmental component of developing depression. In addition, experiences lead us to believe that we are hopeless, helpless, or unsafe resulting in depressive symptoms and anxious thoughts.

I combine knowledge from stages of change and other treatment modalities to create a safe space for you to enter into a brave mindset to confront the fears that are hampering your quality of life.

Courage begins one step at a time, and I will not rush those steps for your journey. Instead, I will meet you where you are and walk with you to relief.