depression

How to Focus on Mental Wellness During Winter

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We are currently in the middle of one of my least-favorite times of the year – winter. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of aspects of the wintertime that I love. But very small amount of those things tend to happen in January/February. Whether it’s seasonal affective disorder or a natural reaction to the lack of sunlight and generally cold weather, the wintertime can be difficult and lead us to being more prone to mental health challenges. At times like this, I often feel like I want to take my foot off the gas when it comes to my mental health. But in fact, this is actually the time of year when our mental health toolkits can do a huge amount of good. While I always recommend to try new techniques and strategies to improve your mental health, it changes a bit during this time of year. This time of year, I try to stick with what works.

Now what does it mean for something to “work” for us? Maybe it’s that something is easy for us to handle, or that it comes naturally to us, but I have a slightly different perspective. When it comes to my mental health, knowing what works for me depends on one thing above all else: what symptoms, if any, are being triggered in that moment.

When I say that my symptoms are being triggered, I don’t just mean how I feel in that moment. I actually take a step back and try to think about how my mental health is impacting me. This could mean running through the long list of symptoms of anxiety or depression. It could also mean thinking about if these symptoms feel new or are happening more than they used to. It’s a self-assessment of sorts, to try and understand the problem at hand. If you don’t understand the problem, how can you find the solution?

If I can figure out my symptoms, than it’s time to take the next step and attack them. Over the years, I’ve collected several mental health tips and techniques, all of which are solutions to specific symptoms or problems. With time, I’ve been able to identify the right technique for the situation, and am able to figure what’s needed in that moment. Am I always successful in doing this? Absolutely not. But I am doing better than I used to, and that’s a big win.

Whether it’s building mental wellness or combatting mental health challenges, this is a time of year where people are particularly prone to feeling worse than usual (and that’s not even factoring in *everything* that’s going on in the world today). While we should be paying special attention to our wellness, we should also remember what works for us, what heals us, and what helps us. The spring or summer might be the time to try something new or off-the-wall for our mental health. But if you know that reading a book brings you peace, or building a to-do list of little items to knock off will help you feel accomplished, please go for it. Little wins add up and this time of year, I know I could use all the little wins I can get.

Are there any special ways you take care of your mental health during the winter time? Do you think this time of year is harder on your mental health than others? Let me know in the comments!

"One kind word can warm three winter months." - Japanese Proverb

Five Ways I Build Mental Wellness

Nathan Smith6 Comments

As it is Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s a good time to share resources, tips and techniques about mental health and wellness. After a decade-plus of living with depression and anxiety, I am proud of how I’ve learned to manage my mental health challenges. However, chronic mental health issues can mean I sometimes go through my day on auto-pilot, which isn’t great for my mental health. That’s why I want to re-share a few things I turn to when I want to work on my health and build mental wellness. While there are a lot more tips and techniques in this area, these are five things that work well for me. Hope you find this information helpful!

Meditation

My journey with meditation has been lengthy, but I’m finally at a place where I can confidently say it’s part of my mental health toolkit. Meditation has grown in its importance and value in my day-to-day life, and I’d say there are more days than not that I get in a meditation session or two. What I enjoy most about meditation is that I’ve stopped seeing it as a solution to my problems, and more as a practice and way of being. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say meditation is the perfect solution for everyone (I’ve tried it more than a few times), it doesn’t hurt to try!

Exercise

You might already be aware, but physical exercise can play a big role in improving one’s mental health. While it’s important to make sure people have a healthy relationship with exercise and working out, I know that it can also be damaging to only do things when I have the proper motivation (thank you, depression!). Exercising, in any capacity, has the opportunity to give someone a brief confidence boost, raise the heart rate more than it might previously, and make us feel like we have accomplished something. There are many other benefits to physical exercise, but I’ve come to appreciate the benefits to my mental health and wellness more than anything else.

Therapy (There’s More Than One Type!)

Shocker, I know – a mental health blogger suggesting therapy. But I want to go beyond the generic “therapy is good for you” advice and take things a step further. Instead of suggesting that people look into therapy more, I want you challenge what your idea of therapy is. Yes, there is sitting in a room with a therapist, or on a Zoom call with a mental health professional; but therapy is so much more than that. There are several types of talk therapy, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) and so many more. And even beyond that, there are types of therapy that involve activities and movement, going beyond talking and trying to meet the needs of other parts of who we are. I’m not here to say that therapy will solve all your problems, but it is often a safe place to figure out where you can start.

Getting to Know Myself

One important part of building my mental wellness is improving my relationship with someone very important — myself. We spend our entire lives getting to know ourselves, understanding who we are and how we see the world. But there are some things about ourselves that are hard to come to terms with. Maybe it’s part of our personality, or an experience we went through, but all of these things encompass who we are and why we act the way we do. When I think about my mental health challenges, I know that there are aspects of my personality don’t play a significant role in why I deal with anxiety and depression. But those aspects do make up the person I am, and understanding how I see the world helps me understand how it impacts me. I know this might sound a little off-the-wall but the more I’ve focused on understanding why I do things, the more I’ve understood my mental health challenges.

Reflection

Whether it’s through journaling, talking with people or simply sitting and doing some thinking, reflecting on my mental health journey has done some amazing things for my mental wellness. When I reflect on the journey I’ve had, I can see my growth. I can see the improvements I’ve made, and the ways I’ve gotten better at managing anxiety and depression. Upon reflection, I can also look at the ups and downs with a gentler lens that I’d been able to before. I’m not perfect, and I’m never going to be. But rather than chase perfectionism and “getting rid of” my mental health challenges, my reflection leads to gratitude. To being proud of who I am and what I’ve experienced. And it’s that attitude that has made me stronger, braver, and better equipped to face the challenges that I know lie ahead of me. And I know that upon reflection of what we’ve been through, many people reading this might feel the same way.

While these are important ways to build mental health and wellness, they’re far from the only ones! What do you do to build mental wellness in your day-to-day life, and what helps you work on your mental health? Let me know in the comments below!

How My Depression Changed Over Time

Nathan Smith2 Comments

You know, it’s funny. You would think, after ten years of living with depression, of experiencing it on and off, I’d have a better understanding of it by now. Some days I feel like I do. I feel like I understand why I’m experiencing symptoms, or I know exactly what I can do to alleviate these symptoms and feel better. But other days, it’s like I’m dealing with depression for the first time. Maybe that sounds like I haven’t learned much about depression, but I’d disagree. For me, there’s a difference between learning about depression and learning about how to deal with my own depression — and that’s what I’d like to talk about today.

When I first learn about a new idea or concept, I love to take in as much information as I can. I don’t know if this is the most helpful way to learn, but it’s my instinct to cast a wide net. Early on in my journey with depression, I cast as wide of a net as I could. I read books, listened to podcasts, watched videos, and tried to glean as much as I possibly could about what it’s like to live with depression. And even though I learned a lot that was helpful, I was also overwhelmed with the amount of information and experiences that exists. Not all the information I learned worked for me, and I got frustrated quickly.

I’ve written about this on the blog before – when it comes to dealing with depression, what might work for me might not work for you, and so on and so forth. But this isn’t simply a message of finding what works for you. What’s gotten me frustrated lately is to see how my depression has changed and adapted to the changes in my life as I continue to move through it. The intrusive thoughts have changed course, attacking different areas of my mental health. The things I was insecure or anxious about at 20 years old aren’t the same things that exist today, and my brain knows that. The symptoms of depression may not change for people over the years but sometimes, it feels like they come from everchanging sources.

At some point in talking about depression, I realized I had to change my focus. Instead of learning as much about the topic as I could, I needed to learn more about myself. I needed to learn about my instincts, my habits, how I dealt with success and failure. I didn’t really know myself, and that lack of self-knowledge was a barrier to mental wellness.

That’s not to say any of this is easy; getting to know ourselves is a life-long journey. We’re constantly growing and changing, and so is the world around us. This is all to say that what’s true for us one day might not be true a few years down the road, and that’s okay. The better we come to know and understand ourselves, the better equipped we are to deal with the mental health challenges in our lives. I know that despite everything, I am better equipped to handle my depression than I did ten years ago, and that fact gives me strength for the present and hope for the future.

I’d love to hear from you on this topic! Do you think the way you experience mental health challenges changes over time? What tips or techniques have you done to help improve your own mental health? Let me know in the comments!

Suicide Prevention Awareness Month 2023

Nathan Smith2 Comments

CW: This post discusses suicide and suicide-related topics.

In case you didn’t know, September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in the United States. Every year, I do my best to use this month as an opportunity to share information, statistics and resources related to suicide prevention. Suicide is not only an extremely serious topic, but a public health issue. We can’t continue to ignore this topic, as hard as it may be to talk about. Suicide prevention means speaking up, sharing our stories, and reminding others that they are not alone.

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The Surprising Impact of Depression

Nathan Smith2 Comments

There are several symptoms of depression that can make life challenging. Whether these impacts are on our physical health, our mental health or something else, you don’t always know how these symptoms will impact you in your day-to-day life. After years of living with depression, one thing I’ve come to realize is that my experience with depression has a massive impact on the way I see the world. And even though this impact has done a world of good in some areas, it has a negative impact in others. Today, I’d like to reflect on an unintended impact of my depression that I’m hoping to shift my thinking about.

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A Busy, Busy, Busy Mind

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As someone who lives with anxiety, my brain often feels like it’s moving a million miles per hour. I think we all feel this way at one time or another; we have so many things to do, and it doesn’t seem like there’s enough time to do it all. I’ve noticed the themes of relaxing and slowing down on my posts in recent months, and I think that’s a response to my current state of being. I always deal with the challenge of a busy mind from time to time but lately, I feel like it’s a daily struggle. Why is my brain trying to do everything, everywhere, all at once? And what can I do about it?

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My Misperception of Self-Awareness

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There are many new buzzwords in the world of mental health, and one of the ones I’ve thought a lot about is the idea of self-awareness. In the past few years, self-awareness is brought up more and more in regards to living a mentally healthy life. Though it seems like a simple concept, my journey with self-awareness has been anything but simple. I used to be under the impression that once I improved my self-awareness, my anxiety and depression would go away. In today’s post, I’d like to share why I was wrong, and how I plan to fix it.

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A Reflection on Depression

Nathan Smith1 Comment

Sometimes, depression takes. It takes things away from you, and you feel empty. You didn’t even know you wanted some of these things. But depression puts those things out of reach, making you feel less than once again. Depression doesn’t care what your plan is, or what your goals are. Your timeline is irrelevant in this scenario. All that’s in front of you is a long, painful, endless moment, as far as you can see.

We don’t always see what depression takes. Our vision can become blurry, or our brain foggy. Memories might go missing for a short time; moments you might have enjoyed vanish out of thin air. What was simple then is difficult now. What makes sense in one moment is impossible to comprehend in another. Our minds wander about all the time, but we’re under the false impression that this can only be in a positive way. When it happens in a negative way, our mind has betrayed us. What was once a safe haven is now a space we’re afraid to explore.

We don’t choose depression. It chooses us, it selects us, it casts its invisible hand out and taps us on the shoulder when it wants to come out and play. Sometimes the explanation is as plain as day. Other times that hand seems to reach out of the abyss, stunning us with its timing and cutting precision.

We get tired of depression. We hope the pain will end, we wonder when will the long night be over. We wonder how long it will go on, and feel helpless in its stead. We think that maybe this time is different, that it feels more manageable in this moment…until it doesn’t. We get frustrated that depression seems to have outsmarted us once again. We outlasted it once, we’ve beaten it before, why is it coming back yet again? We’re one foot out of the boxing ring, but depression wants to fight another round.

We’re not always up to the task of fighting our depression. It can sap us of energy, make us feel tired and exhausted. It can feel like an endless moment, like we’re in a room feeling for the light switch on the wall. It’s right there and we know it exists but we can’t find it, moving our hand along the wall endlessly. It feels like it will never end.

But we do learn from depression. We learn about the way it takes shape within us and around us. We learn how it impacts us, what our reaction is to it and the best ways for us to manage it. We learn that it ebbs and flows; that it has happened before and it will happen again. There’s good reason to be fearful of this fact, but there’s comfort there as well. We’ve been through the dark before, and we’ve come out into the light. We’ve grown stronger, we’re better prepared. There’s hope in what we’ve learned.

There’s a lot we don’t know about depression. Oftentimes, we’re left with more questions than answers. But there is power in pushing on. There’s power in moving through, in understanding ourselves in a better way. There’s also power in resting when we know depression has gotten the better of us. And that is my lasting thought in these moments, in these times when depression gets the better of me. I feel helpless, but I am not helpless. I feel powerless, but I am powerful. I’ve been through this before, but I’m a different person than I was before. Depression might take, but I won’t give. And in between these challenges, I will continue finding joy, hope and inspiration where I can find it. I will be better prepared when depression comes around again.

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." - Desmond Tutu

Not Seasonal, Just Depression

Nathan Smith5 Comments

The more experience I’ve gained on my mental health journey, the better I’ve gotten at recognizing my depression and the reasons behind it. That being said, depression can still be tricky. There are times where I feel like I know exactly why I feel depressed; other times, it’s like a feeling or emotion comes out of nowhere. The wintertime is actually one of the trickiest times to recognize my feelings. Is it just a time of seasonal sadness, or is it something I need to look into further?

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I Am Not My Depression

Nathan Smith1 Comment

There’s a phrase I see a lot when I am scrolling through social media or finding mental health resources on the Internet that always gets me thinking. The concept behind them all is that you (or I, or anyone) is “more than” their mental illness. So for instance, I am more than my depression; I am more than my anxiety; I deserve to be known for more than experiencing mental illness. And while I do think it’s a helpful approach to shrinking the stigma, this type of approach – overcoming obstacles, “beating” mental illness – is still difficult for me to manage. That’s why I want to offer an alternative phrase to use today, and see how folks like it.

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