May 6, 2024 • 22 mins
Discover the transformative power of mental health awareness with me, Dr. Charlyce, as we navigate the complexities of conditions like major depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder during Mental Health Awareness Month.
Please accept this invitation to the Live Event:
The Healing Arts Toolkit for Mental Health and Wellness
We discuss:
- Major Depression and how to assess your risk with 2 questions
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Bipolar Disorder
If you are having a crisis, you can contact 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Join me, and let's journey together toward better mental health and an understanding that could change lives.
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- Functional Medicine
- Meditation
- Energy Healing
and more!
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Art of Healing podcast.
This is Dr Charlize and, asalways, thank you for joining me
for today's episode, which isMay, is Mental Health Month.
When we talk about mentalhealth, we could be talking
about our mental wellness, whichis our ability to focus, our
(00:23):
ability to feel joy, to feelhappiness, connecting with
others in a meaningful way.
And then we could also betalking about mental health in
terms of not feeling well.
There's a term in medicinecalled dysthymia, in which your
mood's not good but you don'thave clinical depression, or
(00:46):
feeling apathy, which is, again,not full depression, just not
appreciating joy that you wantto appreciate, just not quite
feeling yourself.
And then, of course, we couldalso be talking about mental
health in terms of diagnosis,and those are when the mental
(01:06):
environment has become pervasiveand chronic and has not backed
off and has led to things suchas full-on major depression
disorder or generalized anxietydisorder or bipolar disorder.
But no matter where you are,you can tell.
(01:28):
What I'm leading up to ismental health is important for
all of us.
We all have to think about ourmental health.
According to the NationalAlliance on Mental Illness,
22.8% of US adults experiencemental illness in the year 2021.
And 5.5% of US adultsexperience serious mental
(01:51):
illness.
So that's up to 1 in 20 adults.
Nearly 17% of US youthsexperience some kind of mental
disorder, and this is going tobe young people between the ages
of six and 17.
And up to nearly 8% of adultsexperience mental health
(02:12):
disorders in combination withsubstance use disorders.
And it's not that wenecessarily need the numbers to
remind us because these werebefore the pandemic, but it's an
excellent reminder to all of usthat when it comes to mental
health illness, mental wellness,that to some extent we're all
(02:34):
at risk, and if it's not uspersonally, it's someone that we
know and love.
So knowing how common feelingunwell mentally and mental
health disorders are, ourdiscussion today is important.
It's definitely worth takingnote of.
So I want to let you know thatthe Art of Healing community,
(02:58):
the Healing Arts community andDr Charlize, we have been
meeting monthly.
We've been doing a free Zoomcall or a masterclass, so we'll
be doing one this month as well.
We'll be meeting on May 25th atnoon, central standard time.
If you check your show notesyou'll see a link to go to the
(03:21):
landing page that will sign youup.
I'm finding out that works bestis to have you register through
the landing page first, so thatI know who's coming.
Then the details of the meetingwill come out within about a
week to a few days before themeeting.
So we are going to bediscussing my recommendations
for mental health and wellness atoolkit of sorts and with
(03:44):
attending this class you'll comeaway with some tools that you
can use to maintain mentalhealth, to have a look if you
don't think you're so mentallyhealthy, and some next steps to
take.
If you're interested, I woulddefinitely encourage you to sign
up.
When you sign up, you do get arecording sent to you, but so
far, having us having met threetimes, it's a really nice
(04:07):
community and it's nice for youall to get to meet each other.
So I want to make sure that Iplug that, because I'm noticing
that the same folks areattending really getting to know
each other.
It's a new endeavor.
So I think that meeting everymonth we can see where this
takes us.
So I think that meeting everymonth we can see where this
takes us.
So the most common mental healthdisorders, which most of us
(04:32):
probably are somewhat familiarwith, but at the top of the list
, major depressive disorder willbe the most common, and this is
the clinical condition in whicha person suffers from a cluster
of symptoms that range fromdepressed mood, sadness, apathy
(04:52):
that we mentioned beforesleeping all the time or not
being able to sleep, havingchanges in the way, either going
up or down, changes in appetiteeither more appetite or less
appetite.
I'll make sure I put in theshow notes.
Being able to assess yourselffor depression is actually a
thing.
Now, of course, you need to beunder the care of a physician,
(05:15):
but you can actually gauge yourown depression.
Risk with answering twoquestions, risk with answering
two questions.
So we can do those twoquestions together right now.
So in the past two weeks, howoften have you been bothered
(05:36):
with any of the following?
In the past two weeks, have youhad little interest or pleasure
in doing things?
And if you would answer yes,would that be not at all?
Zero.
Several days, that's a score ofone.
More than half the days, that'sa score of two.
Nearly every day is a score ofthree.
And the second question is inthe past two weeks, how often
(06:01):
have you felt down, depressed orhopeless?
Zero, none at all.
Several days, that's a score ofone.
More than half the days, that'sa score of two.
Nearly every day is a score ofthree, and if you answer yes to
(06:23):
any of those, it's actually timeto think about next steps.
So, although that seems reallybrief and really short and like
probably not enough time to know, is this, am I really having
some depression?
It turns out that severalclinical studies show that just
two questions are is quitesensitive, for knowing if
(06:45):
someone's at risk of havingdepression Now.
It doesn't mean that yourequire treatment, and quite the
opposite.
If you are answering yes tothose tests, what it tells you
is that it's time to beproactive about your mental
health and take some steps toimprove your health right now.
Mental health, and take somesteps to improve your health
(07:07):
right now.
Depression is associated withphysical diseases, so it's not
something that's just in thebrain and, matter of fact, many
studies are showing thatdepression really isn't in the
brain at all.
It's more likely in the gut,but that's a topic for another
(07:28):
conversation, isn't it?
With depression, we seeincreased risk of heart disease.
It's a well-known statisticthat for individuals that suffer
from a myocardial infarction,they have a high risk of
developing major depression.
It used to be.
The thinking was that they werejust depressed because they had
this horrible thing happen tothem by having a heart attack.
(07:51):
But it turns out there's someneuro biochemical changes within
the heart and the brain thatare so high risk of leading to
clinical depression thatpatients must be screened for
depression and physicianstreating patients after a heart
attack must be ready to treatthem for depression, because it
(08:12):
so commonly occurs and that canmake recovery from a major event
like a heart attack much moredifficult.
Heart attack is when the heartloses blood flow, so those
people come out of the eventfeeling very tired, having chest
pain, not feeling well andrecovering from a surgical
procedure, in addition to beingon many medications, and then to
(08:35):
take the additional hit offeeling depression that starts
often weeks and months after themajor event very difficult.
Depression is also associatedwith developing diabetes.
It is so common for people thatare developing diabetes to have
(09:00):
symptoms of depression, so muchso that sometimes when I'm
working with a patient you can'teven tell which came first,
because for the person that goeson to develop diabetes, they're
often having depressionsymptoms six months to a year
before becoming diabetic.
But then that's also confusingbecause the symptoms of diabetes
(09:23):
are terrible for the moodFatigue and anxiety and all
those things where a blood sugarfluctuation would cause also
are being caused by depression.
But there's a strong tie ofdepression and diabetes and also
a strong tie for individualsthat are having trouble
(09:46):
improving their diabetes orrecovering from diabetes their
diabetes or recovering fromdiabetes.
In my practice, we view diseasesdifferently than the way
they're viewed in traditionalmedicine.
So in our community we don'tsee diabetes as a permanent
(10:07):
disorder.
The way we see it is atemporary disorder that is very
much impacting your health, butwe anticipate recovery from it.
We may have to come up with anumber of strategies to help
your body heal from diabetes,but the way we see it in the
membership practice, diabetes isnot permanent.
(10:28):
So with my own patients, ifwe're having trouble with
improving the metabolism,improving diabetes, we have an
open discussion about what'shappening in the mental health
landscape and many times that'swhere we're missing the mark
that we may be focusing too muchon the nutrition, too much on
(10:49):
the muscle movement in themitochondria, and we're totally
missing the mark on maybesomething that my patient has
gone through that's traumatizedthem and has brought their mood
down and that's what's causingtheir blood.
So anxiety is the next mostcommon mental health disorder
(11:22):
that many of us will suffer from.
There is the sensation orfeeling of anxiety and there's
temporary states of anxiety, butgeneralized anxiety disorder is
the pervasive feeling of doomand gloom, something bad's going
to happen.
It is the activation of thesympathetic nervous system and
(11:44):
basically, you know, the bodyand the mind are tuned in such a
way that everything is workingwell in terms of survival, but
it is not working well as far asrest, digest and flourish.
So that means that sleep'sdisrupted, digestion is
disrupted, mood is disrupted,sexual function is disrupted,
(12:07):
elimination of waste isdisrupted.
Elimination of waste isdisrupted.
All of these systems start totake a toll as the body stays in
a state of chronic stress.
Individual that are sufferingfrom generalized anxiety
(12:34):
disorder suffering morefrequently from chronic pain,
digestive disorders, heartissues, especially high blood
pressure.
For individuals that havechronic high blood pressure,
there is an element of anxietyto your disease, of anxiety to
your disease, whether or notthat is on the conscious or the
subconscious levels totallydifferent, but it definitely is
(12:57):
there.
Your hypertension or high bloodpressure, unless it has a known
and obvious cause, more thanlikely has something to do with
your autonomic system being in aconstant state of stress and
changing your hormone system sothat everything is tuned to
stress, creating a system inwhich your blood pressure stays
(13:18):
higher than it needs to be allof the time.
There are actually a number ofquestionnaires online that you
can do for yourself.
If you are concerned abouthaving a generalized anxiety
disorder and I'll make sure toput that in the show notes, and
again, that's not the same asjust being anxious some of the
time but either with that anddepression, just know that, even
(13:41):
if you're worried aboutpossibly developing it, it's
definitely time to talk about it, definitely time to take some
preventative steps, or, ifyou're already being treated for
those, really justreacquainting yourself with what
that feels like and maybe evenhaving a look at anything else
that's going on in your body andif there's a relationship to
that and the mental health issuethat you are trying to heal.
(14:07):
Another common mental healthdisorder is bipolar disorder,
which, according to theSubstance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration,or SAMHSA, is a serious mental
illness in which unusual shiftsin the mood, ranging from
extreme highs to extreme lows,are present, and the person who
(14:28):
suffers from bipolar disorderhas changes in their energy,
thinking and sleep.
Bipolar disorder has a numberof variations.
So there is a bipolar disorderthat's characterized more of
having the mania or too muchenergy.
There is a bipolar disorderthat's characterized as having
(14:52):
the depression part and thenthere's variations in between.
Bipolar disorder is difficultin the diagnostic stage because,
as far as this shifting of mood, I've heard people say commonly
(15:16):
in conversation on social mediaoh, I felt so, bipolar, I felt
so, and what they're referencingis well, I'm assuming what
they're referencing is thattheir mood changed rapidly.
They went from happy to angryor sad to joyful or something
like that where the mood shiftedquickly.
While that is an aspect ofbipolar disorder in general, in
(15:40):
bipolar disorder those states ofbeing are going for a long time
, over several months to evenyears, where a person may live
in mania and not realize it andthen, because of biochemical
changes, the brain and thenervous system becoming just
(16:02):
simply burnt out, shifts to astate of depression in which the
person cannot function, can'tdo as much, is feeling
frustrated because they mayrecall three or four months ago
they could work two jobs, run ontwo hours of sleep, still have
time to party with friends,still drink, still this long
list of things they were doingto now not getting out of bed
(16:25):
for 20 hours a day.
For people who are survivingbipolar disorder, this becomes a
reality, but this is a verypainful and uncomfortable way to
live Because the mania hasconsequences on the mind, the
body and the life.
Individuals that are havingmania can often make very bad
(16:47):
decisions.
Because they have more, willoften feel that they can
accomplish things that theyaren't capable of.
Things that can occur duringmania are spending money that
you don't have, to the pointthat it looks like a shopping
disorder.
Some people with mania mayengage in things like gambling.
Some people may engage inbehaviors such as abuse of
(17:12):
illicit drugs or excessivebehaviors like having multiple
sexual partners, and that's notnormally something that they
would do.
And when people are in mania,typically this isn't a state
they stay in all of the time.
It tends to be something that'sgoing on for several months and
(17:33):
then, for reasons we understandand don't, there's a shift in
which a person crashes and thenthe exact opposite state exists.
So when that depression sets in, it means that the person
doesn't have the energy to dothings that they want to do,
possibly aren't functional, andit's also a dangerous place to
(17:56):
be because in that depression,or even in the mania, harming
self-harm is a real reality.
To mention that, if you'relistening to this and you're in
a bad place, and you're actually, if some of this is resonating
(18:19):
with you, particularly thisself-harm, there are resources
that you can reach out to prettymuch worldwide, definitely in
the United States.
If you dial 988 from any phone,you can connect to someone to
talk to right away if you werein a mental health crisis.
So as we're traversing throughthis, please don't feel prideful
.
If you're hearing this andmaybe I'm uncovering something
(18:39):
very deep with you you shouldreach out for help.
Absolutely, you should call 988, call your physician if some of
this is resonating with you.
But do understand thatespecially thoughts of harm,
death, dying, killing yourself,hurting yourself, is not normal
and is treatable and somethingcan actually be done.
(19:00):
But in particular, bipolardisorder that's when things can
become dangerous because inthose extreme states the
judgment and the thinking don'tcorrelate with who the person
really is.
So that covers the most commonmental health disorders or
(19:23):
mental issues illnesses.
I wanted to do an overviewbecause throughout this month
we're going to touch on these.
We're going to touch on some ofthe biological consequences of
these and then towards the endof the month.
During the masterclass thatwe'll have together, we'll talk
about first steps that you cantake.
(19:44):
If this is you Now, if you aresomeone who is suffering from
one of these disorders andyou're wondering if there is a
different approach thantraditional medicine, which can
be multiple pharmaceuticals yes,there is.
So I encourage you.
If, after this podcast, you areinterested, you can sign up for
(20:07):
a free call with me.
Now.
My services are not availablein every state.
However, I've found that justwith the connection call we can
figure out something that canhelp you, even if it's not
directly working with me.
So, as always, thank you somuch for listening to the
(20:27):
podcast.
Make sure you check your shownotes so that you know how to
connect for this month'smasterclass, which will be
exciting.
And if you are not on my emaillist, you should definitely sign
up, because in the email youget a copy of this podcast and
other resources and information.
Thank you for joining me andI'll see you next week.
Welcome back to the Art of Healing podcast.
This is Dr Charlize and, asalways, thank you for joining me
for today's episode, which isMay, is Mental Health Month.
When we talk about mentalhealth, we could be talking
about our mental wellness, whichis our ability to focus, our
(00:23):
ability to feel joy, to feelhappiness, connecting with
others in a meaningful way.
And then we could also betalking about mental health in
terms of not feeling well.
There's a term in medicinecalled dysthymia, in which your
mood's not good but you don'thave clinical depression, or
(00:46):
feeling apathy, which is, again,not full depression, just not
appreciating joy that you wantto appreciate, just not quite
feeling yourself.
And then, of course, we couldalso be talking about mental
health in terms of diagnosis,and those are when the mental
(01:06):
environment has become pervasiveand chronic and has not backed
off and has led to things suchas full-on major depression
disorder or generalized anxietydisorder or bipolar disorder.
But no matter where you are,you can tell.
(01:28):
What I'm leading up to ismental health is important for
all of us.
We all have to think about ourmental health.
According to the NationalAlliance on Mental Illness,
22.8% of US adults experiencemental illness in the year 2021.
And 5.5% of US adultsexperience serious mental
(01:51):
illness.
So that's up to 1 in 20 adults.
Nearly 17% of US youthsexperience some kind of mental
disorder, and this is going tobe young people between the ages
of six and 17.
And up to nearly 8% of adultsexperience mental health
(02:12):
disorders in combination withsubstance use disorders.
And it's not that wenecessarily need the numbers to
remind us because these werebefore the pandemic, but it's an
excellent reminder to all of usthat when it comes to mental
health illness, mental wellness,that to some extent we're all
(02:34):
at risk, and if it's not uspersonally, it's someone that we
know and love.
So knowing how common feelingunwell mentally and mental
health disorders are, ourdiscussion today is important.
It's definitely worth takingnote of.
So I want to let you know thatthe Art of Healing community,
(02:58):
the Healing Arts community andDr Charlize, we have been
meeting monthly.
We've been doing a free Zoomcall or a masterclass, so we'll
be doing one this month as well.
We'll be meeting on May 25th atnoon, central standard time.
If you check your show notesyou'll see a link to go to the
(03:21):
landing page that will sign youup.
I'm finding out that works bestis to have you register through
the landing page first, so thatI know who's coming.
Then the details of the meetingwill come out within about a
week to a few days before themeeting.
So we are going to bediscussing my recommendations
for mental health and wellness atoolkit of sorts and with
(03:44):
attending this class you'll comeaway with some tools that you
can use to maintain mentalhealth, to have a look if you
don't think you're so mentallyhealthy, and some next steps to
take.
If you're interested, I woulddefinitely encourage you to sign
up.
When you sign up, you do get arecording sent to you, but so
far, having us having met threetimes, it's a really nice
(04:07):
community and it's nice for youall to get to meet each other.
So I want to make sure that Iplug that, because I'm noticing
that the same folks areattending really getting to know
each other.
It's a new endeavor.
So I think that meeting everymonth we can see where this
takes us.
So I think that meeting everymonth we can see where this
takes us.
So the most common mental healthdisorders, which most of us
(04:32):
probably are somewhat familiarwith, but at the top of the list
, major depressive disorder willbe the most common, and this is
the clinical condition in whicha person suffers from a cluster
of symptoms that range fromdepressed mood, sadness, apathy
(04:52):
that we mentioned beforesleeping all the time or not
being able to sleep, havingchanges in the way, either going
up or down, changes in appetiteeither more appetite or less
appetite.
I'll make sure I put in theshow notes.
Being able to assess yourselffor depression is actually a
thing.
Now, of course, you need to beunder the care of a physician,
(05:15):
but you can actually gauge yourown depression.
Risk with answering twoquestions, risk with answering
two questions.
So we can do those twoquestions together right now.
So in the past two weeks, howoften have you been bothered
(05:36):
with any of the following?
In the past two weeks, have youhad little interest or pleasure
in doing things?
And if you would answer yes,would that be not at all?
Zero.
Several days, that's a score ofone.
More than half the days, that'sa score of two.
Nearly every day is a score ofthree.
And the second question is inthe past two weeks, how often
(06:01):
have you felt down, depressed orhopeless?
Zero, none at all.
Several days, that's a score ofone.
More than half the days, that'sa score of two.
Nearly every day is a score ofthree, and if you answer yes to
(06:23):
any of those, it's actually timeto think about next steps.
So, although that seems reallybrief and really short and like
probably not enough time to know, is this, am I really having
some depression?
It turns out that severalclinical studies show that just
two questions are is quitesensitive, for knowing if
(06:45):
someone's at risk of havingdepression Now.
It doesn't mean that yourequire treatment, and quite the
opposite.
If you are answering yes tothose tests, what it tells you
is that it's time to beproactive about your mental
health and take some steps toimprove your health right now.
Mental health, and take somesteps to improve your health
(07:07):
right now.
Depression is associated withphysical diseases, so it's not
something that's just in thebrain and, matter of fact, many
studies are showing thatdepression really isn't in the
brain at all.
It's more likely in the gut,but that's a topic for another
(07:28):
conversation, isn't it?
With depression, we seeincreased risk of heart disease.
It's a well-known statisticthat for individuals that suffer
from a myocardial infarction,they have a high risk of
developing major depression.
It used to be.
The thinking was that they werejust depressed because they had
this horrible thing happen tothem by having a heart attack.
(07:51):
But it turns out there's someneuro biochemical changes within
the heart and the brain thatare so high risk of leading to
clinical depression thatpatients must be screened for
depression and physicianstreating patients after a heart
attack must be ready to treatthem for depression, because it
(08:12):
so commonly occurs and that canmake recovery from a major event
like a heart attack much moredifficult.
Heart attack is when the heartloses blood flow, so those
people come out of the eventfeeling very tired, having chest
pain, not feeling well andrecovering from a surgical
procedure, in addition to beingon many medications, and then to
(08:35):
take the additional hit offeeling depression that starts
often weeks and months after themajor event very difficult.
Depression is also associatedwith developing diabetes.
It is so common for people thatare developing diabetes to have
(09:00):
symptoms of depression, so muchso that sometimes when I'm
working with a patient you can'teven tell which came first,
because for the person that goeson to develop diabetes, they're
often having depressionsymptoms six months to a year
before becoming diabetic.
But then that's also confusingbecause the symptoms of diabetes
(09:23):
are terrible for the moodFatigue and anxiety and all
those things where a blood sugarfluctuation would cause also
are being caused by depression.
But there's a strong tie ofdepression and diabetes and also
a strong tie for individualsthat are having trouble
(09:46):
improving their diabetes orrecovering from diabetes their
diabetes or recovering fromdiabetes.
In my practice, we view diseasesdifferently than the way
they're viewed in traditionalmedicine.
So in our community we don'tsee diabetes as a permanent
(10:07):
disorder.
The way we see it is atemporary disorder that is very
much impacting your health, butwe anticipate recovery from it.
We may have to come up with anumber of strategies to help
your body heal from diabetes,but the way we see it in the
membership practice, diabetes isnot permanent.
(10:28):
So with my own patients, ifwe're having trouble with
improving the metabolism,improving diabetes, we have an
open discussion about what'shappening in the mental health
landscape and many times that'swhere we're missing the mark
that we may be focusing too muchon the nutrition, too much on
(10:49):
the muscle movement in themitochondria, and we're totally
missing the mark on maybesomething that my patient has
gone through that's traumatizedthem and has brought their mood
down and that's what's causingtheir blood.
So anxiety is the next mostcommon mental health disorder
(11:22):
that many of us will suffer from.
There is the sensation orfeeling of anxiety and there's
temporary states of anxiety, butgeneralized anxiety disorder is
the pervasive feeling of doomand gloom, something bad's going
to happen.
It is the activation of thesympathetic nervous system and
(11:44):
basically, you know, the bodyand the mind are tuned in such a
way that everything is workingwell in terms of survival, but
it is not working well as far asrest, digest and flourish.
So that means that sleep'sdisrupted, digestion is
disrupted, mood is disrupted,sexual function is disrupted,
(12:07):
elimination of waste isdisrupted.
Elimination of waste isdisrupted.
All of these systems start totake a toll as the body stays in
a state of chronic stress.
Individual that are sufferingfrom generalized anxiety
(12:34):
disorder suffering morefrequently from chronic pain,
digestive disorders, heartissues, especially high blood
pressure.
For individuals that havechronic high blood pressure,
there is an element of anxietyto your disease, of anxiety to
your disease, whether or notthat is on the conscious or the
subconscious levels totallydifferent, but it definitely is
(12:57):
there.
Your hypertension or high bloodpressure, unless it has a known
and obvious cause, more thanlikely has something to do with
your autonomic system being in aconstant state of stress and
changing your hormone system sothat everything is tuned to
stress, creating a system inwhich your blood pressure stays
(13:18):
higher than it needs to be allof the time.
There are actually a number ofquestionnaires online that you
can do for yourself.
If you are concerned abouthaving a generalized anxiety
disorder and I'll make sure toput that in the show notes, and
again, that's not the same asjust being anxious some of the
time but either with that anddepression, just know that, even
(13:41):
if you're worried aboutpossibly developing it, it's
definitely time to talk about it, definitely time to take some
preventative steps, or, ifyou're already being treated for
those, really justreacquainting yourself with what
that feels like and maybe evenhaving a look at anything else
that's going on in your body andif there's a relationship to
that and the mental health issuethat you are trying to heal.
(14:07):
Another common mental healthdisorder is bipolar disorder,
which, according to theSubstance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration,or SAMHSA, is a serious mental
illness in which unusual shiftsin the mood, ranging from
extreme highs to extreme lows,are present, and the person who
(14:28):
suffers from bipolar disorderhas changes in their energy,
thinking and sleep.
Bipolar disorder has a numberof variations.
So there is a bipolar disorderthat's characterized more of
having the mania or too muchenergy.
There is a bipolar disorderthat's characterized as having
(14:52):
the depression part and thenthere's variations in between.
Bipolar disorder is difficultin the diagnostic stage because,
as far as this shifting of mood, I've heard people say commonly
(15:16):
in conversation on social mediaoh, I felt so, bipolar, I felt
so, and what they're referencingis well, I'm assuming what
they're referencing is thattheir mood changed rapidly.
They went from happy to angryor sad to joyful or something
like that where the mood shiftedquickly.
While that is an aspect ofbipolar disorder in general, in
(15:40):
bipolar disorder those states ofbeing are going for a long time
, over several months to evenyears, where a person may live
in mania and not realize it andthen, because of biochemical
changes, the brain and thenervous system becoming just
(16:02):
simply burnt out, shifts to astate of depression in which the
person cannot function, can'tdo as much, is feeling
frustrated because they mayrecall three or four months ago
they could work two jobs, run ontwo hours of sleep, still have
time to party with friends,still drink, still this long
list of things they were doingto now not getting out of bed
(16:25):
for 20 hours a day.
For people who are survivingbipolar disorder, this becomes a
reality, but this is a verypainful and uncomfortable way to
live Because the mania hasconsequences on the mind, the
body and the life.
Individuals that are havingmania can often make very bad
(16:47):
decisions.
Because they have more, willoften feel that they can
accomplish things that theyaren't capable of.
Things that can occur duringmania are spending money that
you don't have, to the pointthat it looks like a shopping
disorder.
Some people with mania mayengage in things like gambling.
Some people may engage inbehaviors such as abuse of
(17:12):
illicit drugs or excessivebehaviors like having multiple
sexual partners, and that's notnormally something that they
would do.
And when people are in mania,typically this isn't a state
they stay in all of the time.
It tends to be something that'sgoing on for several months and
(17:33):
then, for reasons we understandand don't, there's a shift in
which a person crashes and thenthe exact opposite state exists.
So when that depression sets in, it means that the person
doesn't have the energy to dothings that they want to do,
possibly aren't functional, andit's also a dangerous place to
(17:56):
be because in that depression,or even in the mania, harming
self-harm is a real reality.
To mention that, if you'relistening to this and you're in
a bad place, and you're actually, if some of this is resonating
(18:19):
with you, particularly thisself-harm, there are resources
that you can reach out to prettymuch worldwide, definitely in
the United States.
If you dial 988 from any phone,you can connect to someone to
talk to right away if you werein a mental health crisis.
So as we're traversing throughthis, please don't feel prideful
.
If you're hearing this andmaybe I'm uncovering something
(18:39):
very deep with you you shouldreach out for help.
Absolutely, you should call 988, call your physician if some of
this is resonating with you.
But do understand thatespecially thoughts of harm,
death, dying, killing yourself,hurting yourself, is not normal
and is treatable and somethingcan actually be done.
(19:00):
But in particular, bipolardisorder that's when things can
become dangerous because inthose extreme states the
judgment and the thinking don'tcorrelate with who the person
really is.
So that covers the most commonmental health disorders or
(19:23):
mental issues illnesses.
I wanted to do an overviewbecause throughout this month
we're going to touch on these.
We're going to touch on some ofthe biological consequences of
these and then towards the endof the month.
During the masterclass thatwe'll have together, we'll talk
about first steps that you cantake.
(19:44):
If this is you Now, if you aresomeone who is suffering from
one of these disorders andyou're wondering if there is a
different approach thantraditional medicine, which can
be multiple pharmaceuticals yes,there is.
So I encourage you.
If, after this podcast, you areinterested, you can sign up for
(20:07):
a free call with me.
Now.
My services are not availablein every state.
However, I've found that justwith the connection call we can
figure out something that canhelp you, even if it's not
directly working with me.
So, as always, thank you somuch for listening to the
(20:27):
podcast.
Make sure you check your shownotes so that you know how to
connect for this month'smasterclass, which will be
exciting.
And if you are not on my emaillist, you should definitely sign
up, because in the email youget a copy of this podcast and
other resources and information.
Thank you for joining me andI'll see you next week.
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