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Mental health and the Holidays!
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Oct 19, 2022
Why are the holidays so hard for those with mental health difficulties? Caren & Rob talk about ways to help and some resources to support you through the holidays. #holidays #holidaysandmentalhealth #mindingyourmentalhealth 📌 Subscribe to Caren's Channel: https://YouTube.com/cgmusc 📌 Subscribe to Rob's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDD7_s8ATlyaMv2SwfqsWnw Watch all shows on Roku: https://bit.ly/3R9d4Ry Follow Rob on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/altereduniverse1 Follow Caren on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/carenglasser Follow Caren on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carenglasserlive Follow Caren on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/carenglasser
View Video Transcript
0:00
here and welcome to minding your mental
0:02
health I'm here with my co-host and Son
0:05
Rob Glasser hey Rob how you doing
0:08
too bad well that's good because we like
0:11
to talk about the topics that shape
0:13
mental health today and we teach the
0:14
importance of inclusion and share why we
0:17
should be kind so whether you're here
0:19
live or on replay we love you let us
0:22
know where you're tuning in from right
0:23
below so believe it or not the holidays
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are arriving like now oh my gosh so we
0:32
thought it would be a great topic right
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to talk about Mental Health
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and the holidays so what you got over
0:37
there Rob
0:39
I hate that no I'm just kidding
0:41
um well like so many people
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um not only is it the end of the year
0:45
but you know things that they like
0:47
savings time uh the winter brings on
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darker days and less light all of those
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things already can cause a switch in
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your mood right
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um adding to that things like the
1:00
festivities so to speak as some people
1:02
call them
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um can cause that mood to damper even
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more
1:08
um whether it affects your Daytime
1:11
Nighttime every time every time we are
1:15
going to go over from North Shore uh
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which is a university health system uh
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they wrote a quick little article about
1:23
how it how it can affect uh the the mind
1:28
um as they mentioned as I already said
1:30
because of the time difference and
1:32
because of how things change you're
1:34
already in a mindset of oh crap I'm
1:37
losing hours I don't want to do anything
1:39
add on to that the fact that you're like
1:42
oh crap it's also the end of the year
1:45
just kidding
1:47
um so they put down some ways to feel
1:50
good now the first few are things that
1:52
generally are going to make you feel
1:54
better no matter what they say avoid
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things like processed foods avoid too
1:59
much alcohol or any stay hydrated get
2:03
your fill of physical but also get your
2:06
sleep as well
2:08
these are General things that you and I
2:10
talked about before right and we'll
2:12
probably talk about again but it's
2:14
important to note because as doctors
2:16
have said if you don't have the right
2:18
rest you don't have the right activity
2:20
you're not going to feel too high
2:21
whether it's physical or emotional
2:24
whatever the case may be right now they
2:27
recommend a few things to do first
2:29
before bed and then a few ways to combat
2:31
sad which we're going to talk about sad
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in a minute so a few things to do before
2:35
bed shut off those Electronics
2:38
but that's so I know right we just now
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for me it's funny because before bed
2:45
before I take a shower I'm on the phone
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we do have a phone in the room strictly
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for an alarm but otherwise
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um that's about it go to bed during the
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week and weekend actually during a usual
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time so the other day we talked about
3:00
routines and how a lot of people like to
3:03
go to bed early between 8 30 and 9. so
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if you can stick to a general time the
3:08
better you're going to feel the more
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habit it's going to build and before
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long you won't even know the difference
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right they say aim for seven to nine
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hours now I know there's always that up
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and down thing some people can do less
3:20
some people do more don't actually do
3:22
too much because the more you do the
3:24
worse you actually feel they say right
3:27
and if there's different kinds of sleep
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right there's REM sleep there's deep
3:30
sleep there's light sleep right and I
3:32
didn't actually know that until I looked
3:34
at my Fitbit and it tells me how
3:36
terrible I sleep it literally tells me
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that I deep sleep for three minutes how
3:40
sad is that Apple tells you that you
3:43
suck at sleeping apparently
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um
3:46
so seven to nine now it depends on you
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guys some doctors will agree some won't
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if you get a good chunk of sleep
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whatever it is to you do that right
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obviously you don't want to make it too
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short but you want to make it long
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enough where you wake up and you're more
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or less refreshed okay I feel good and
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lastly they say as soon as you wake up
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look out the window see something that's
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light our blinds right now open up so
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the first thing we do see I mean it is
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actually still darker in the morning but
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more or less a few minutes after we see
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the sun
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that's cool yeah so those are General
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things so of course all we've talked
4:25
about so far are things that we know
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right you know you want to limit the bad
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stuff keep up with the good stuff now
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sad otherwise known as seasonal
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affective disorder is basically what you
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call depression or uh anxiety for those
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around certain Seasons you can get it
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from other Seasons some people when
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summer comes it happens some people in
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the spring comes however because of the
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temperature because of the light change
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winter seems to be the 90 time right
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most people do it now I learned about
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that recently and I think I actually
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have that I talked about my therapist
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says it makes sense so while the rest of
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the year it's generalized for the season
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it's seasonal lucky me right so I get 12
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months of just different anxiety like
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you come by it honestly Dad has it too
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so there you go oh fine I can blame him
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um all right so what do you do when you
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have that so people with sad often
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extreme have trouble with sleeping so
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again the first thing they say maintain
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a regular schedule go to bed wake up as
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similar as you can right yesterday you
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talked about how no matter what you do
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you're up at 4 or 4 30. that's just what
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happens if that is you and you notice
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that it's not really changing your
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function cool take advantage of it
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you know and I laugh about it I wish I
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could sleep longer but at the end of the
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day I'm up and I get more work done
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between four and eight than most people
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do in their entire day and that's
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because it's quiet so I happen to like
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that not Everyone likes that I know that
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hey you know it works and it works every
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now yeah number two we're going to talk
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about this a little bit later but light
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therapy so I'm going to talk about it
6:13
right therapy basically mimics what you
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would be getting outside through a
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device and a few minutes we'll go over
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that next up um if antidepressants
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aren't your thing CBT that's actually
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what I do so I thought this was a great
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one because
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what it does is you kind of put yourself
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in the scenarios as to why what who and
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what is happening inside again not
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everything is a perfect solution but if
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you can do the things and in my case
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what do I do I keep myself occupied so
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whether it's meditation spending time
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with my wife doing videos with you
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whatever the case may be CBT has taught
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me that my solution process is doing
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things that I enjoy right and for those
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who are watching and going but what does
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that mean CBT it's cognitive behavioral
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therapy and it and it works it really
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does work so just put that in your your
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hat somewhere it's cognitive there you
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go
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um another one they recommend regular
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exercise you won't have to ask me twice
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I do it pretty much three times a day
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whether it's physical stretching
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meditation right do something to move
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you take a walk many people do walk I
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look outside my window people walk up
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and down it's a thing only takes about
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10-15 minutes maybe go around your block
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you're good lastly and we're actually
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going to talk about one of these two
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aromatherapy
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um essential oils not only are they good
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for you know the head if you got a
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headache or something but depending on
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the scent it helps you there so we put
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up the link on there if you guys want to
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read the whole article um if you guys
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are in the area where that is I don't
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think that's from California if you're
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in the area check them out they probably
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have some resources as well right but
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speaking of those things how about we
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share
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some that we do I know you want to start
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you want me to go ahead and start I'll
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piggyback on you okay so if you are not
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up to the clinical things and that might
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be a little too much for you there's
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probably stuff around your house
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including the people there that you
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might enjoy to make you feel better so
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the first thing for me biggest thing is
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quality time so whether it's me and her
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just watching TV whether we're eating
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whether we're playing a video game it
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doesn't really matter what we're doing
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quality time is the name of the game and
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I think that's the name of the game for
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many of people right
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um but around the time and you know she
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knows specifically my my issues with
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this time of year so it's good to have
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the support system it's good to have the
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person so what I would suggest is if
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maybe this is new to the other person
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let them know what's happening give them
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you know let be like hey this is why X Y
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and Z happens around
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October to December or whatever the
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months are right right but that's number
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one I think quality time is the biggest
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thing and it doesn't have and like I
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said it doesn't have to be anything
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anything
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um doing just sitting right and being
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you know I don't know I think you'd
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agree with that right I I would and
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again this is like we always talk pick
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the one that works for you so we're
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going to give you a bunch of different
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choices of things that you can do
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um and pick the one that works I do
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agree quality time spending time with
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our loved ones spending time with you my
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you know Dad and and my friends it it
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kind of takes you away from that oh it's
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the holidays and it's too much too much
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noise too much every everything right I
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like to make cookies and I like to bake
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bread and I like to you know make
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brownies and things so that's what I do
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during the holidays I kind of get into
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and I make a potato pancakes vodkas for
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Hanukkah and I don't know about the food
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right but for me it gets my mind off of
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what I don't want to be thinking about
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out and I'm focused completely on what I
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do want to be focused on in this case
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it's cooking and baking
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all right well since I brought it up
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before since yeah um we are big on
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candles it actually came out of a date
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box that we got
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um I'm not sure what it's supposed to
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smell like but it's pretty good
10:28
um or uh we got this from you I know
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from the box you had uh aromatherapy I
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think this is lavender if I'm uh correct
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right and it's something simple you
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light it you scent it you do whatever
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um I really now
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I would say put this in a small place
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because we put it in a bigger area and I
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lost the scent probably about two
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minutes after I put it down right but
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when you put it close enough to you and
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you can feel it whatever and lavender I
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know helps with with sleep as well but
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scents are good now it's got to be the
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right scent not every candle is going to
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work for you but
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you know this is a free candle okay
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we're free and it lose your mind it
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soothes your body you lit you smell it
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and you just go ah and I think what
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we're talking about is setting the stage
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so that we are comfortable so if setting
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the stage for you is lighting a candle
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or putting on a diffuser I have a
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diffuser that runs most of the days and
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it turns colors too so it's kind of cool
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you know I plug it in but I turn music
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on Maybe music is the thing that's going
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to soothe your soul during this time
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right so I totally want to suggest that
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um what kind of activities do you do Rob
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all right well
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first up uh journals this actually came
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out of a date box as well I think the
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same one is this
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um and these are always fun to do they
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have quotes they have questions uh this
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one is if you can magically turn back
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the clock what would you do
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um some of them are oh here you go if
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money grew on trees I'd buy you what
12:00
that's a good one
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um so this is a fun thing to do now
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something that I came across uh two
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things I did are boxes you can make so
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this one I made for Krista this has uh
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special memories that we've had whether
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it's from wedding whether it's from
12:15
dates and this is great for any time of
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year this is something that you can open
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up uh you put some pictures in you put
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some jewelry you put some whatever and
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this is really really fun I think now
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you got your mason jar now this one I
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love so this is the blah day box you can
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tell I made it myself and it says open
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to feel good I made my guy have little
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googly eyes down there so all I did this
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was actually a box from an alternate
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universe event that I did before and I
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just threw a bunch of stuff in here that
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I would want or she would want when
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you're not feeling so high whether
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physically or mentally
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um a puzzle book uh a regular book maybe
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a a game maybe a toy
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um
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sky's the limit and I think this is good
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for most people or almost everybody
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because you get to pick what you do I
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love that idea yeah now I would be amiss
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if I did not put in my most favorite
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thing in the world from the back of me
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but when I really feel down I got my
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toys uh this little guy it's Snorlax
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sleeping and I also have oops
13:21
keep you sleeping she got me both of
13:23
these they're adorable off of off of
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Amazon noise
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but really you know
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dumb thing is simple
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touching and feeling right
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um I yeah I joked earlier I was like I I
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like doing the dogs but I'm not going to
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bring them in because they're going to
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eat the cat food right but then you know
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that's the thing too it's the thing you
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have to hold to love to cuddle to soothe
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you to see you so that's
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that's the the things I have around the
13:50
house that you don't really think about
13:52
and so you use them and you go that
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makes me feel very good right I love
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that and I will say I mean just a caveat
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too it none of this is like the cure-all
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right this is just kind of like the you
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need a quick pick me up do something
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like this at least for the moment right
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it distracts you also it gets you out of
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that headspace of I'm I'm depressed or
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I'm sad or I hate the holidays if you
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shift and do something it just
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because I know we use the word distract
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a lie usually distract is kind of a
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negative thing because you're kind of
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how does this word distraction here
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change versus I'm curious what you're I
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well I'm gonna I'm just gonna guess
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because I I do think that's the right
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word we're distracting our brain from
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thinking overthinking whatever it is
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that we're thinking and when you
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distract it and make it go in a
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different direction you can't help but
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stop thinking about whatever you were
14:50
just thinking now we're not saying it's
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going to go away forever and you're
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never going to think it again because
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that's not that's not true but it's all
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about in the moment distracting yourself
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so I think it's a great word I totally
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think it's a great word
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I was just curious you know put you on
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the spot for a second yeah well you
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always do I so
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my diffuser
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I put music on I have my dog I have
15:14
Christopher who right now wants to leave
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so I'm not going to pick him up but he's
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somebody he's something that I will hold
15:20
on to when I'm feeling a little stressed
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during the holiday time for me it's the
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noise it's the tumult it's the activity
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um I am very much an introvert and which
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makes people laugh when they say that
15:34
you know when I say that because how can
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I be an introvert I'm sitting here in
15:37
front of a camera you know talking to a
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bunch of people but I would rather be in
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my house
15:43
with nobody
15:45
I'm an introvert so put the holidays on
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top of that
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that's that's not good
15:52
now you and I were talking about
15:53
something earlier and you talked about
15:55
light and they're going to use light
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therapy so I'm going to throw that up
16:00
right now um and I'm going to put a link
16:02
into the uh chat as well light therapy
16:06
it's kind of a cool thing guys
16:08
um
16:09
they have done studies and I'm going to
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scroll this right now they have done
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studies that when you sit in front of
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this it's like a white light almost it's
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a UV free full spectrum LED very very
16:23
powerful lights and you can see some of
16:25
them are you know a little pricey but a
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lot of them are like under 50 bucks
16:30
um and I suggest you do that what it
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does is it distracts you it jolts you it
16:35
puts you in a different space
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um and that's kind of what we're talking
16:39
about here right looking for those
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things that are going to help you
16:43
um I really encourage you checking this
16:45
out I put the link in there
16:46
um there's all different kinds and I
16:48
we're not telling you which one's the
16:50
best and which one's not the best um
16:51
your aunt my sister uses a light bar
16:54
during the winter months and it helps it
16:57
helps
16:58
get you out of your you know head so to
17:01
speak
17:03
well some of the uh specs of it uh it
17:06
improves sleep mood focus and energy uh
17:09
bright life has been proven to do all
17:11
that plus more feeling you revitalized
17:14
at the end along with that most of them
17:17
are portable and practical use right
17:20
right so you can either get a tiny one
17:22
that looks like the Kindle or get a one
17:25
that looks like the lamp but either way
17:26
you can fit them in most any space
17:30
whether it's your office whether it's
17:31
your house correct wherever you might
17:33
need this extra yeah it actually always
17:37
thinks about in Alaska there are
17:39
literally months out of the Year where
17:41
they don't get light and I'm wondering
17:43
and actually I think I read somewhere
17:44
that they do have something like this I
17:46
think there's a supplement they take to
17:48
get the vitamin D but think about I mean
17:50
there are places where you don't see the
17:52
Sun for like half the year so it's like
17:54
winter
17:55
all the time
17:57
um so this kind of thing is probably
17:59
used more often around the world than
18:02
you and I even think yeah
18:04
um and again you know if you don't you
18:05
know if it doesn't work for you that's
18:06
cool but take a look I mean you know
18:08
check with check with your medical
18:10
providers they might say the same thing
18:13
um but they're pretty cool I mean I
18:15
might even grab one I know last year you
18:17
told me about it I was like ah right now
18:19
I'm looking at it I'm like okay maybe I
18:20
do
18:21
um so there's other ways though that we
18:23
can feel good during the holidays and
18:24
how about you know there's studies that
18:26
say when you give
18:28
it makes you feel good so during the
18:30
holidays that's why I bake cookies
18:32
that's why I make bread because it's I
18:35
don't eat it all
18:36
clearly I don't eat it all but I I give
18:39
that I made I make homemade gifts right
18:43
and I give and I think giving makes us
18:46
feel good would you agree
18:48
yeah I mean anytime you can help someone
18:50
do something or give or volunteer
18:57
whatever word you want to use
18:58
[Music]
18:59
um
19:00
it's probably the easiest and it's a
19:02
free resource because usually the
19:04
person's down the street next door
19:06
exactly
19:08
um
19:09
yeah I think you said most of it so so
19:13
um we'd love to hear from you whether
19:15
you're you're watching live right now I
19:17
see we have people on if you're watching
19:18
live or you're on on I was going to say
19:20
on Memorex that's the old joke if you're
19:22
on repeat or a replay let us know what
19:25
you do over the holidays does it affect
19:26
you do you go into the holidays saying I
19:30
don't want to go into the holidays and
19:31
when you do go into holidays is there
19:33
something that you do to help yourself
19:35
going through the holidays
19:38
um I want to throw up something right
19:39
now we introduced it last week and that
19:43
is the let me get rid of this for a
19:45
second
19:46
that is the finding your passion
19:50
ebook and what we love about this so
19:53
much and I'm going to put up the link
19:54
because you can just go there it's
19:56
absolutely free go to minding your
19:58
mentalhealth.com this is an ebook about
20:00
finding your passion and there's a bunch
20:02
of steps on you know we say them you say
20:05
to somebody I don't know what my passion
20:07
is how am I supposed to follow it I have
20:09
no idea what it is well this book
20:11
actually will help you Rob and I put
20:13
this together we hope that you enjoy us
20:14
let us know what you think
20:16
any last minute thoughts I mean here's
20:19
literally the holidays are right around
20:20
we're good Halloween is two weeks away
20:22
or a week and a half away oh
20:24
uh any last thoughts about getting
20:28
through the holidays
20:30
um I mean I think we'll throw up some of
20:32
the numbers in a minute and stuff like
20:33
that but um
20:35
you know
20:37
um
20:39
I don't know I mean I I'm not you know
20:41
I'm not the one to tell somebody else
20:42
how to or how not to per se right
20:46
um but if you are concerned if you have
20:49
a question if you want to chat whatever
20:53
just find someone and do it with
20:55
um
20:57
you know whether it's through you know a
20:59
company like uh National Institute of
21:01
Mental Health or Nami or whoever right
21:03
it doesn't even have to be one of them
21:05
it could just be your your parents your
21:08
spouse your dog I mean whoever you want
21:10
to talk to uh maybe not your dog they
21:13
can't talk about but they still make you
21:14
feel good
21:15
um you know just talk
21:17
um
21:19
but yeah and if it and if you need extra
21:22
help go check out NIMH National
21:25
Institute of Mental mentalhealth.gov at
21:28
the end
21:29
um also Nami very well known I mean I'm
21:31
sure you've heard this um National
21:33
Association of mental illness and that
21:36
is at dot org check that out we also
21:39
encourage you to go check out the 988
21:43
number again holidays are here and if
21:45
you are struggling You are not alone I
21:48
know Rob says all the time reach out to
21:50
him on Twitter he's there reach out to
21:52
me you know and that's really we're here
21:55
people are you know people needing
21:56
people and that's where you know we
21:58
can't cure you we can only just be there
22:00
to be an ear and to listen but if you
22:03
need more than that 988 call that number
22:06
and they will make sure that you get to
22:07
the right area
22:10
we love doing these shows I hope that
22:13
you love them as much as we do we want
22:15
you to what go out give somebody an
22:18
awesome day we'll see you next time on
22:22
minding your mental health have a great
22:24
day everyone bye-bye
#Anxiety & Stress
#Depression
#Mental Health