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[APPLAUSE]
KATI MORTON: Hey, everybody.
Thank you so much for having me here.
The thing that I want to start off
with whenever I do talks like this,
I always want to make sure that we're
talking about the same thing.
Because people talk a lot about mental health
now and nobody really defines what that means.
If you were to think about, if I just asked you,
does anyone know the difference between mental health
and mental illness?
We might not know.
And that's OK.
No judgments.
I bet if I wasn't a therapist, I would've never
even thought about that.
But the difference between mental health
and mental illness I think is really, really important.
And I'll start off by talking a little bit about mental health.
And mental health is just like physical health.
We all have it.
It's something that we can take care of.
If I'm sleeping well, eating well,
and engaging with my friends and family.
I'm doing all of a self care that I need.
Maybe that's taking walks.
Maybe that's playing with my children or an animal.
Maybe that's coloring, journaling, you name it.
I'm doing all of that stuff.
And then I feel really good.
I start to feel pretty happy.
And I'm able to do all that I need to do every day.
That's when we have a good mental health.
And I wrote down the definition.
And that is it's a person's condition
with regard to their psychological and emotional
well-being.
So that's mental health.
Then on the flip side, mental illness--
because I like to compare this to our physical health
and physical illness.
So mental illness is like when we catch a cold.
It's like we may be really tired one day.
And then I kind of feel sweaty.
And I'm just not sure.
And then I, maybe I get a cough.
And before I know it, I'm laid up in bed
and I can't do all that I need to do every day.
You have to drink water, take your medicine,
you need to sleep.
And mental illness really is no different.
And mental illness is when our mental health deteriorates
to the point that we can't do everything
that we need to do in a day.
And that's really how we kind of talk
about it when it, between mental health professionals,
just about functionality.
So considering, maybe like Laura was saying, having
a tough time in her life--
considering how I was doing before that tough time.
What was I able to do then?
What time did I get up?
How restful was my sleep?
How did I feel during the day?
Was I able to function and focus during work the whole time?
Or was it really difficult for me and I
struggled to stay focused and to complete all the tasks?
And so just keep that in mind as we talk about these things.
Like knowing when to get help, we're going to get into that.
But mental health is something we all have,
we can all take care of.
And when we're really struggling,
it can become a mental illness.
And there's no judgment on either end.
You wouldn't judge someone if they got the flu, would you?
Be like, man, you should have just like,
I don't know, slept more, like smiled more,
maybe take a shower.
No.
You'd be like, oh, that sucks.
I was sick last week.
It's been going around.
And don't think mental illness is something
you can catch from people.
That's not what I'm trying to get at.
I'm just saying that we can struggle to function.
And mental health and mental illness
are no different than physical health and physical illness.
Now the question that I get a lot on my channel,
just in general, is, how do I know
if my mental illness or my mental health
struggles warrant getting professional help?
I think a lot of us are scared to reach out.
Like, oh, am I sick enough?
I get a lot of questions about that.
Like, how sick do I need to be to call someone?
How sick do I have to be to see a psychiatrist or a therapist?
A psychiatrist being a medical doctor
who can prescribe medication.
A therapist is someone like myself--
that I'm like, how does that make you feel?
That's the difference.
OK?
But how bad does it have to be before we see someone?
Not bad at all.
I truly believe that all of us can benefit from therapy.
I personally have been in therapy
off and on since I was probably 15 years old.
And that's really just because it's helpful for me
to get another perspective.
Sometimes I want to cry.
Sometimes I want to scream.
Sometimes I want to cuss about something that's going on,
like I'm so mad.
And I just need someone to not judge me.
And to know that they can't tell anybody.
That can be really powerful too.
And so know that we can all benefit from therapy
and seeing a mental health professional at any time.
If you're ever just feeling overwhelmed, feeling maxed out,
see someone.
I promise, we're nice people.
We're not weird.
We're normal people just like you, so don't be scared.
But I know that most of you aren't really worried
about that.
We all know it's good to see somebody.
But how bad does it have to be?
Because I know some of us are just like white knuckling life,
just trying to get through.
And you guys work really hard here.
I know you do.
So how bad does it have to be?
Back to what I said about mental health and mental illness.
If you're not able to function in your life in some capacity--
because we have a lot of different hats we wear.
There's the hat we wear at work when we're professional.
Then we get home and there's this other hat we wear.
That could be roommate, spouse, mom, dad, brother, sister.
It could be all sorts of things.
So are any of these parts of your life
just not what they used to be?
Maybe I can't show up for my friends
the way I used to when we go to dinner.
I just can't focus.
I'm not even listening to them.
I'm thinking about this stuff I have do.
I'm stressing about this thing at work or something else.
If we're not able to show up for people
and participate in relationships,
that could be a sign.
We might need to see a professional.
AUDIENCE: So my question is around the method of therapy.
There's so many options now, like Talkspace
with text, video call, in person.
Is there any difference between the effectiveness
of any of these methods?
KATI MORTON: I haven't looked at--
I don't know if there's any post hoc analysis.
Do you know, Jessica?
I mean personally for me--
I'll give you my opinion but I haven't read research on this.
In person is best.
Because there's so much--
we all know we can fake it.
Trust me.
I film videos on YouTube and 99.9% of the time,
I'm wearing pajama pants.
You have no idea.
You only see me from here up.
So I think of that in relation to therapy,
where I'm going to notice if a patient is fidgeting a lot.
Because I have patients who sit on the very edge of the couch.
And I'm like, relax.
But those things will be lost over Skype, let's say, or text,
or email.
I think it's better than nothing.
Like, if people are in rural parts of the country,
or your work schedule's so chaotic
that you just don't have time, I think it's better than nothing.
And I do appreciate the Talkspace, and the Better Help,
and stuff in the world.
But I think that in person is best
if you can make that happen.
AUDIENCE: So I have some friends that
really don't feel as if therapy would be helpful to them
at all.
And they just feel like they would have a really hard time
opening up to someone else.
What are your thoughts on if there are actually people who
wouldn't benefit from therapy?
Just truly because they couldn't communicate with a stranger
about their problems.
Do you think there are any other methods that
could be effective?
KATI MORTON: I mean, I always, I think it can help everybody.
And I think people will be surprised
when you find the right fit.
I talked about what to look for in a therapist.
If you take the time to find someone you connect with,
you'd be surprised what you'll share
and how quickly you can open up.
And it's normal to feel really nervous at first
and be like, I don't want to--
I remember even my dad would be like,
I don't need to cry to a stranger and pay them money.
And I get that.
But if you find the right person, you can feel connected.
But if someone is really adverse to therapy in general,
I do think there's a lot of benefit in shared group
activity with other people, where
you have group camaraderie and you can communicate
with other people.
One of the saving graces for one of my viewers was to join,
it was like a dog hiking club because she had a dog
and that was like her pride and joy.
And so she found a lot of help and support from those people.
Because then she had like a group of people
where she could talk about what was going on.
I think friends and family are a great support.
But if you don't find yourself feeling like the weight
that you're carrying is lessened by that,
then I mean therapy is the best.
But group activities can be helpful too.
And you can do workbooks on your own too.
I think those are really helpful.
There's a ton of great workbooks out there.
I even have them, if you just wanted to peruse,
through my website KatiMorton.com,
I have an Amazon book list that I keep of books
that I use with my patients for different issues.
Workbooks that I've even created myself that are free.
Or you can download them in the iBookstore
if you want to pay for it, just to have it in that format.
I think it's like $1.
So workbooks can be helpful too.
And that's a way you can work on it on your own
until maybe you're ready to go to therapy.
Thanks for coming.
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