The Way We View Mental Health is Backwards and Absurd

The wooden table I'm seated at oozes an oaky aroma. I've proposed a place the other two men I'm with have not eaten yet. The restaurant happens to be among the best BBQ joints in all Texas. Plates of brisket, beef rib, and sausage clutter our serving trays along with mac-n-cheese and corn casserole. Whenever you are introduced to new people, the majority of people do this over a beverage. If you're in Texas, you break bread to worm your way in their heart.

One Of the guys in all black with a short mohawk points a fork at me with brisket dangling off the end. "So tell me about the business that you work for. I understand who your boss is. Jake in the group August Burns Red, correct?"

Always wonder what people will think when I tell them that I work in mental health and music. It's a bizarre mix. Nevertheless, the mental health portion alone is where I knowingly fear they'll judge me. The stigmas are stickier than gum jammed below a movie theater chair. People assume you are a bleeding heart social justice warrior who wants people to pet kittens in a safe area on a school campus. That, or they believe you or your household had issues, and that's the way you got to the area. Both men I'm seated facing combat veterans like me, along with the word"mental health" has its stigma from the military. It may get you blacklisted and stunt your livelihood, but the army complex still harps about the issue given the pace at which soldiers kill themselves. All three people have endured losing a friend to suicide, so I imagine that they understand and proceed.

"Everyone  Has songs or albums they hear on their best times and worst days, yeah? Like when you're going through a breakup or headed to the shore?"

They nod while one of these chimes in. "Or lifting heavy!"

I laugh and keep. "Jake, Who you said, had fans come up to him after shows and discuss how they grapple together with his lyrics. Out of these conversations, he heard a lot of stories that are hard. Everything from a break up to melancholy to suicide ideation. Combat in the army even, misuse, self-injury, isolation... you name it." They continue to nod while one of them scoops more mac-n-cheese in his mouth. "Jake wanted to assist his fans courageous their wounds, locate purpose, and find healing. He wished to create a legacy of life-transformation where his fans became emotionally secure and developed mental resilience and grit. Through community and by leveraging the power of technology we are ready to..."

The one with the mohawk can't contain his thoughts and interrupts. "That is outstanding! Everybody goes through tough times in life and I've had my minutes coming home from Iraq. That's the one thing we have got to do more of... exactly what you're doing. Having people become emotionally fit beforehand."

That is every time a significant problem within the mental health catastrophe appears on me. He was perfect. How we react to and think about mental health is completely backward.

A Fitness Center For Your Mind

There's  A woman in the gym I attend in Austin, Texas who is made an incredible transformation. One evening while in a going-away party for a fellow gym I commented, "I really don't mean this to sound weird, but the work you've put in at the gym has shown and I wanted to congratulate you on your hard work. You should be really proud!" She grinned from ear to ear and thanked me, then explained how it's been a long journey towards getting healthy and she still had more barriers to conquer.

Whenever We see folks putting in the effort in their physical wellness, we applaud them. Whether they're obese -- or even when they're an athlete training for an IronMan -- we root for the men and women training their own bodies. Should you find somebody who's healthy in the gym you not ask, "Why in the world are you exercising? You're already fit!" Everybody knows upkeep necessitates work.

But the exact opposite is true of mental fitness.

If You visit a counselor people always assume something in your life is likely horrendously wrong. A year after my daughter was born, I had to explain to a bunch of people my wife and I were not seeing a counselor because our marriage was rugged. We had been visiting a counselor to check-in and make sure we weren't overlooking blind spots which could become potential issues. You take your car in for tune-ups to make sure it retains running so why the hell would not you do it for your psychological and psychological wellbeing?

Yet, When the majority of people talk about seeing a counselor or developing emotionally resilient, there is a cloud of shame that seems to surround the dialogue such as smog. While I've mentioned I still attend recovery meetings from time to time just about everyone assumes I'm on the point of relapse. Just like exercise at the gym, I'll only stay mentally fit if I continue exercising.

While  The woman in my health club is making substantial gains, what could happen if she left the progress she desired but stopped exercising? Let's say she starts to eat junk food? All her hard work could be lost.

The same goes for when you go through conflicts in life. If you don't continually work at developing your mental health and self-love, you may get healthy for a season, but if you don't keep at it, then you'll fall apart. Those previous demons can come hurrying back, and perhaps even worse than before.

None Of this matters to a degree because how we view mental health is like telling a morbidly obese person they ought to get on a treadmill. It's responsive, and not proactive. We ignore the problem until it becomes life-threatening.

We Don't Care, Until We Care

Every mass shooting, star suicide, or reports of the bullying outbreak go viral, so the entire world only then reacts to emotional wellness. We demand a change of our legislators and society while the public outcry runs something along the lines of"we want better access to mental health!" Yet nobody can explain what they mean by that announcement.

But, This logic is partially flawed. Legislation won't make somebody more emotionally resilient. More accessibility to mental health options, advisers, or goods does not mean people will use them. Take it from our company. We offer men and women access to community and mental health resources every day, but several men and women refuse them. A lot of this has to do with the way we talk about mental health as I explained. It's a source of shame or condemnation as opposed to something we all actively exercise and promote. That is due to how we react to dreadful events around the globe. Thus if we speak about mental health, it always conveys the burden of somebody firing up a school, killing themselves, or being seen as too feeble to take care of life. Whether subversively or we're communicating to our culture that in the event that you need or would like to become an emotionally fit person, you better be pretty screwed up first.

That's  Where the conversation has to shift within our culture. As social beings, we have to lift each other up communally. Every little change we've seen in our community at HeartSupport has been due to the community. It's other men and women lifting the person and supporting them along the way. Research by the World Health Organization has recognized this fact. They report:

"Mental Wellness is produced socially: the presence or absence of mental health is above all a social indicator and therefore requires social, as well as individual solutions."

If We continue to react to each bit of news we see instead of proactively shifting the dialogue, stigmas, and solutions -- then nothing changes. Rather, we must turn into a culture that encourages and spurs another to create the resilience we all need to grow mentally fit. Imagine what that would look like if we realized it? Less depression and anxiety. Fewer school shootings and bullying. Fewer keeping-up-with-the-joneses and more enjoyment of what you've got. If we could teach our society to become proactive, instead of responsive then we may just see a difference.

Until That occurs, I fear our news media cycle will continue to help keep us outraged because we grow farther isolated and ingrown, thinking we are helpless until it's too late when all the while we could have gotten resilient.

The Dialog, however, has to start with us. We need men and women to share stories just like they would at a gym. We have to continue to break the stigmas while our communities and friends champion emotional fitness.

And if this occurs? Hopefully, I will be out of a project.

Looking at living with depression

I was diagnosed with dysthymia (also known as persistent depressive disorder) around five or five years back. This disorder is characterized by a low mood happening for at least two years combined with two other symptoms of depression. In general, I've discovered I have fairly awful fatigue, I can never get enough sleep, concentration doesn't come easy to me, and I have been proven to be indecisive from time to time. I have also found that I tend to struggle with feelings of hopelessness or not being incredibly interested in things in addition to irritability that can cause working in the professional challenging from time to time. Now I'm feeling particularly unmotivated to write anything, and so I figured it'd be a perfect moment to write about my mental illness!

Being Tired All The Time Sucks

Saying It out loud like that probably does not surprise anyone. However, in day to day life, I think that it can be simple to forget about it. I put a fairly ambitious goal to write one post daily in December. 1 thing that I forgot about if setting this aim is that there are some days where all I could do is the bare minimum to skate by because I am physically exhausted. Today, unfortunately, ended up being one of the days so this article is going to be the bare minimum for me to test" wrote a post today" in my inner todo list.

I Believe this impact has become much greater as my scope of responsibility has improved. When I was only accountable for myself at work it was not a big deal when I was having an off day. Now I'm juggling two projects while having others look to me to get insight into our product, Android best practices, the way to do something in Kotlin, and other things. When I'm fighting back fatigue it's no longer impacting only me but it affects others that rely on me. To sum it up, being drained stinks, and I think that it causes a feedback loop that makes me more depressed.

Lack Of Success From The Professional Life Sucks

I Assume that this will hold true for all professional settings, but I am a software engineer by trade so my personal story will draw from these experiences. There always seems to be something new coming out which I should be studying about or studying. There are times where I really do believe incredibly motivated and that I will catch up on a lot. The majority of the time though is spent battling with this feeling of anxiety and why can not I just be sleeping instead, so pulling it together can take a lot of energy.

I have found I'm prompted by the lowest hanging fruit so than large tasks; I presume that this gives me a feeling of accomplishment. This implies larger and more running jobs tend to be de-prioritized for items that are simple to finish such as responding to Slack or clearing out my inbox. Just today I was working on finishing a characteristic once I was thinking of sponsoring a local event. I instantly jumped on the message to discuss the details and was instantly drained when we weren't able to come to an agreement. Some days I wish I could just close Slack, switch off my phone, and concentrate, however, I don't believe the world in 2018 is built well for people who want to disconnect.

Being Indecisive Has Caused Plenty Of Problems

Perhaps not  Being able to generate a decision and stick to it can have some dramatic impacts. 1 difficulty I face is not being able to unwind after work or properly destress on weekends. Previously I would play video games however I've found just deciding which sport to play is a major job (first world problems, I know), so I typically end up sitting on YouTube for a few hours until I finally work up enough energy to play a game for just a little bit.

Another Recent instance has to do with career improvement. I had been confronted with the option of applying to become an Engineering Manager or stay the course as a Senior Engineer and continue to trek towards becoming a Principal Engineer someday. Through a great deal of indecisiveness and a basic feeling of dread (what if I'm a shitty supervisor?), I ended up staying the course and passing on the opportunity to interview for the position. Was this a good career move? Likely not, most high-level technology positions need management in there even though I had been a dreadful manager I might have constantly jumped back over while still having the term supervisor in my resume.

Depression Is Not Fun

I guess the point I am trying to create on this article (besides being able to say I wrote something today) is that depression is not fun. There are some times where I flat out don't have the capability to perform more Than the bare minimum and there is not any good explanation in the present world To support this. While my present manager likely would be fine with me Posting"Hey everybody, I am feeling super depressed today, going to take the day to sleep" In the early Slack, I think they're the anomaly. I think I'm  Waiting to get a world where emotional disorders are treated like bodily  Ones; it'd be nice if using a bad day mentally was respected in the same manner as someone that captured the flu.

Other links:

- https://www.providencejournal.com/lifestyle/20200227/conquering-dysthemia-is-daily-battle
- https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/local_news/isolated-challenges-dealing-with-the-mental-health-of-social-distancing/article_9563afb0-5769-5b1e-afa6-258642650f03.html
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/the-lowdown-on-low-grade-depression

Vitamins for Teenagers With Depression & Anger

Teen depression is a serious and Possibly life-threatening problem: 500,000 teens in America try suicide every year. Five million of them succeed. If a miserable teen appears to be in danger of hurting himself or others, caregivers must seek medical help immediately. But, medical research indicates that there are nutritional strategies that you could use to decrease the severity of adolescent depression and the anger that often accompanies it.

Vitamin B6

Japanese researchers studied more than 6,000 school children and found that high levels of vitamin B6, as measured by dietary questionnaires, were correlated with lower levels of depression amongst both boys and girls. This result confirms a previous study of 140 individuals in Massachusetts, which found that higher rates of depression were correlated with lower plasma levels of the vitamin.

Although the link between higher levels  Of vitamin B6 and reduced rates of depression is unclear, a likely explanation is that it is crucial for the synthesis of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Since serotonin is a precursor to melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone, vitamin B6 may improve sleep as well.

Additional studies indicate that this vitamin can reduce the amounts of the hormone prolactin, which can be connected to high levels of hopelessness and anger in young women. Because high levels of prolactin correlate with premenstrual syndrome, high vitamin B6 intake can minimize mood fluctuations during this phase of their reproductive cycle.

If your teen  Is deficient in vitamin B6, increasing her intake of this nutrient can enhance her depression. However, if her levels of this vitamin are already sufficient, supplementation will probably offer no benefit.

Folate

Folate, of which folic acid is one form, has also been implicated in depression. The exact same Japanese study that found a link between low vitamin B6 levels and melancholy also found a link between low folate levels and depression. Researchers in Poland found a similar significance.

Folate plays an essential role in regulating numerous molecules that influence the nervous system. It aids in the production of S-adenosylmethionine, which is necessary for the synthesis of serotonin and the formation of myelin sheaths around the nerves. Folate also decreases homocysteine, an amino acid that is often raised in depressed patients which impairs the function of neurotransmitters and their receptors.

Vitamin C

One of the indications of vitamin C deficiency is depression. Studies by this nutrient were administered to depressed patients revealed that 30% improved. Although this is below the rate of improvement found in placebos, it does imply that vitamin C can boost depression for some people, particularly if they have low levels of it in their bodies.

Hugh D. Riordan, M.D., notes that providing vitamin C supplements into someone who isn't deficient in the nutrient will have no effect, stating: "it's extremely important to look at the individual biochemistry to watch what is missing and what needs to be enhanced. Then you can do an excellent deal."

Zinc

Dr. Riordan, at precisely the same article, discusses a girl with depression who had been greatly helped by zinc supplementation. Rigorous scientific research conducted in Japan supports his belief. In this study, girls were randomly divided into two classes. The first group received vitamins just, and the second group received vitamins containing 7 mg of zinc. The women at the zinc group revealed statistically significant reductions in depression and melancholy, but the women in the vitamins-only group did not. Dietary Strategies

The Latest thinking on depression is that it is an inflammatory disorder in which the cytokines made by inflammation change neurotransmitter levels. A recent review of the medical literature found that omega-3s could possibly be a fantastic treatment for childhood and adolescent depression, maybe because they reduce inflammation. Some studies also have found that they are effective in reducing hostility in young men and women.

If insomnia  Is an issue for teenagers, they may want to supplement with flax oil since it includes a mix of omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9 fatty acids that act as precursors for substances included in the initiation and maintenance of sleep.

A Couple of individuals with chronic depression have Improved by removing gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, rye, triticale, spelled and Kamut, from their diets. Others have enhanced by identifying and removing food allergens or allergens in their environments.

The lesson out of research on vitamins and minerals  Melancholy, however, is that there's not any"magic bullet" for melancholy  That is going to be equally effective for everyone. The best nutritional Strategy for combating depression would be to eat a balanced diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids and also to remove foods The person, for whatever reason, does not tolerate well. A Physician  Can order blood work which can determine what nutrients your adolescent may be Lacking, thus allowing you to supplement her diet in the best way. This Procedure requires effort and discipline, but it can save your Adolescent from years of unhappiness.

How Alcohol Affects Your Mental Health

I saw a Twitter thread recently asking people to comment on what they will give up this season to help their mental wellbeing. There were hundreds of responses that range from food items to poisonous relationships.

One thing I did not see a lot of was booze. The men and women who did mention alcohol said that their psychological health improved once they cease drinking. I found this to be true for me, as well.

I am almost 4 years and I've suffered from depression, anxiety, and alcohol problems most of my life. My father also suffered from precisely the exact same thing, but sadly, he didn't make it. He was able to seek support for his depression, but he could not bring himself to stop drinking. And that eventually took his own life.

Alcohol was the only worst reason for my anxiety and depression. I knew this from both my own experience and because I used to be a mental health nurse. Research is very clear in regards to alcohol and psychological health -- in the event, you suffer from any kind of mental health dilemma, alcohol can make it worse.

When stopping drinking, my anxiety and depression symptoms improved rather than just a little -- a lot. I was more relaxed, slept, and didn't wake up anxious about how I usually did after drinking. I also seemed to digest food better and could collect my ideas more rationally.

My drinking binges, the most peculiar pressure I ever had was after I stopped drinking for a few days. And needless to say, I knew why that was the most frequent symptom of alcohol withdrawal is stress.

And Though I understood that as a nurse, I was addicted to alcohol, so I couldn't face it. It was my crutch, as dreadful as it sounds, I chose to stay sick rather than stop drinking. This was the exact same justification that my dad followed.

I guess this is a popular story amongst many who have mental health difficulties and who also drink too much. We know it will not help our physical or mental health, but we can not stop.

Most people with mental health issues choose alcohol because it calms us and seems to assist our symptoms in the beginning. Indeed, one or two drinks generally have a calming effect. The cause of this can be that alcohol suppresses our nervous systems, which is the reason we originally feel good.

Unfortunately, Once we've got a few drinks and then stop at the night, the nervous system rebounds from this serene state and snaps on the contrary direction. That is exactly why we feel so damn nervous once the alcohol begins to burn off.

It is important to know that a few beverages can cause this challenging effect. Even more importantly, those who suffer from mental health issues are already proven to have a sensitive nervous system. This means we're prone to significant swings in our neural synapses, so adding more irritating chemicals can have devastating outcomes.

The issue is, people with mental health problems already have a lot on their plate. Not only do we have to take care of our life-altering symptoms, but we cope with stigma and judgment everywhere we turn. And guess what's a great deal of stigma attached to it? Alcohol dependence.

So Those of us with mental health and dependency issues can really find ourselves in a pickle. Whichever way we turn, somebody will judge us for both our mental health and alcohol issues.

This Is why most of us stay silent. And even when we start to talk out about our mental health issues, we will usually maintain our silence about alcohol. After all, why do we tattle-tale on our preferred coping mechanism? Sadly, this contributes to worsening mental health and addiction symptoms.

This Was the situation for me until I reached out for assistance and quit smoking. My dad stayed silent, continued his drinking, and paid the ultimate cost.

In The mental health system, we typically refer to individuals with mental health and addiction problems as having concurrent disorders. The study shows that those with concurrent disorders are at higher risk of suicide, severe disability, and death.

But, The reason people remain silent about their alcohol issues, is because they feel it helps them cope with their emotional wellbeing. However, what if people understood more about the consequences of alcohol and exactly why it makes their psychological health worse?

Yes, many people understand that excessive drinking is not good for us, but most of us do not know why. More so, once you're already hanging by a thread due to severe depression, you might need a damn good reason to give up the one thing you believe helps you, right?

The best we could do today is to talk about this more openly and with better information. As a former nurse and alcoholic, I am committed to getting this info out there the best way I could.

Quitting drinking assisted my nervous system to find balance again. Only then, could I address my depression and nervousness adequately. Alcohol only further confused my psychological wellness and made it virtually impossible to obtain the root cause.

You should also know that in the event you take medication for anxiety or depression, alcohol will prevent it from working correctly. Alcohol disagrees with most mental health prescriptions by obstructing the entire body from metabolizing it correctly. Even more frightening is that adding alcohol with prescription medication causes intense stress to the liver.

If That is bad enough, you should be aware that a stressed liver also causes difficulties in our nervous system, which may further our mental health problems.

So you may see that alcohol causes a vicious cycle which simply feeds into worsening addiction and mental health issues.

If you're someone who drinks heavily and also has mental health difficulties, please talk with your physician about it. Staying silent may have severe consequences. I know that it's difficult to discover non-judgmental help, but with a little perseverance, you'll find what you need.

You're not alone, and trust me, help is out there. There are better ways to Deal with and alleviate the symptoms of mental health problems. But  Unfortunately, alcohol isn't one of them.

Science Is Showing How Gut Bacteria Affect The Brain dont bother taking probiots yet

Scientific research is nearing a consensus that germs in our digestive systems influence our brains. The microbiome within our bowels, populated by billions of germs, appears to play a substantial role not just in our digestive health, but also our mental wellbeing. Exactly how this happens is still being worked out, using each new study turning over a different proverbial rock of chances. Despite these advances, we don't yet know-how, or if, probiotic supplements may enhance our mental health by changing gut bacteria. The promotion of those products is way ahead of the truth, as a quick review of what we understand will reveal.

First, a brief sampling of the most recent bacteria-brain research, including a study that found specific hormonal exchanges allowing communication between bowel bacteria and the brain. This is especially noteworthy because the hormone in question is cortisol, the so-called"stress hormone"-- a well-established indicator of stress levels in humans and other mammals. The study has been conducted in pigs, which reveal several physiological similarities with humans, and it identified a possible communication pathway between bowel bacteria and the brain that uses cortisol for a station to send"messages" The implications of this research will take a while to unravel, but one first takeaway is that our stress-response system might play an integral part in how gut bacteria communicate with the mind.

Another recent research  Suggests that gut bacteria may influence depression and anxiety. This study was conducted with mice raised in a sterile, germ-free environment devoid of bacterial influence. Researchers exposed that these mice into gut bacteria and observed what occurred compared to mice which were raised in a regular, germy atmosphere. The germ-free mice exposed to bacteria developed stress and depression symptoms on the level with all the individual equal. The researchers identified a specific brain region influenced by the bacteria, and guess our early-life vulnerability to bacteria may predispose us one way or another to anxiety and depression later on. Again, the decisions are speculative, but the research is exciting as it moves us somewhat closer to figuring out what is happening.

More studies like these are penalized and yet another tide is in the Planning phase. So why, with all this research, can't we make grand claims for the guarantee of probiotics? After all, if we have an inkling that gut bacteria influence our minds (and we certainly have more than an inkling at this stage) then why not jump on board the probiotic nutritional supplement extract?

The reasons can be boiled down into some big ones.

The probiotic philosophy would be to burst the gut with countless of Allegedly"good" bacteria, in hopes of populating from the bad ones. Even though re-populating the gut with good germs sounds plausible, there's little scientific clarity around that gut bacteria are "good" or even if this eligibility is even legitimate. Bacteria may be"good" or"bad" depending on a slew of factors. Less clear is which bacteria influence the brain and the way they're exerting their influence.

But let us say we can achieve ideal clarity on that stage, there is  Still a huge gastric barrier beforehand. Whether you're ingesting a probiotic with one billion or 30 billion live bacterial cultures, they nevertheless have to endure your stomach acid to do anything worthwhile. Only a couple types of germs have proven immune enough to endure that peril (lactobacillus and bifidobacteria), which means almost everything else in your pricey probiotic capsule is toast.

But let us say that issue is solved with a wonderful pill coating -- what will this military of germs do as soon as they arrive at your gut? We just don't understand enough to know for sure. Last year per review of clinical trials In humans concluded that the study"demonstrates a lack of evidence for an impact of probiotics on fecal microbiota composition in healthy adults." In other words, we don't know precisely what probiotics are doing from the intestine -- and there's at least a possibility that they aren't doing much to make a difference.

Given how little we know about what probiotics can achieve in our bowels, jumping to a further conclusion they can improve our mental health is actually reaching. That hasn't stopped those advertisements these products from creating outlandish claims, but that's a standard operating procedure for a massive chunk of nutritional supplement marketing.

Where real science is concerned, we do not yet know if probiotics Can attain the promises made to them, or what kind of probiotic formula will establish successfully. We may eventually find out that probiotics need to be tailored to a given person's microbiome like bespoke clothing. Once that's established (if it can be created ), then perhaps we'll have a better opportunity to understand the way probiotics may enhance our psychological health -- supposing the underlying concept holds up over time.

Right now we do not understand enough to justify the claims made for probiotic supplements. The promotion is leagues ahead of this evidence, And we would do well to view these claims without a doubt. Perhaps one-day Probiotics provides our brains a boost, but we're just not there yet.