Hey everybody happy Tuesday and since it's Tuesday
as always I am on Tumblr
So if any of you find Tumblr to be amazing
that's where you hang out, then Tuesday is your day
So you can find me on there and follow my blog
I don't tend to post a ton of stuff, but I do sometimes I reblog fun things
and I answer a lot of your questions
So I've already been on answering questions and unless you
Just for some people who are new
Unless you ask a question
Um... anonymously I don't post it
So I will always answer privately
So if any of you are like I don't want to comment on the blog it makes me really anxious
don't worry because I don't post things publicly unless it's anonymous
Cause then it's automatically forces you to
because who else are you going to send it to because it's anonymous
So I just share it
but the others I answer privately
So I've already been on and answered a lot of questions
And I know it's a little earlier than usual but
I have to go to a clinic meeting this afternoon
And then I am meeting some friends at Lucky Strike for some bowling
So I am very excited about that
So I don't really have time to come home and do it another time
So that's why I told you to just ask your questions the day of
Um.. as early as you can
and then I go through quite a few anyways so.. yeah
Ok are you ready?
I have a journal topic as well and
Oh, I didn't write down the person's name. Dang it! I'm sorry.
But anyway so I have 3 questions today in a journal topic
So let's get going the first question
Hello Kati. Hello!
What is Atypical Depression and how is it different from other types of Depression?
Now I haven't actually talked about Atypical Depression
Mostly because
It's my belief
and this is nothing to do with diagnoses or anything
But it's my belief that everyone's Depression
Everyone's mental illness
Is expressed and felt differently from person to person
We're all very different and unique
in the way that we feel things the way that we deal with things
the way that different things affect us
So...
Atypical Depression. Um... I pulled I made some notes so I don't forget something
cause there are different types of
symptoms that you tend to find more in Atypical Depression
versus regular Depression
Wow that's a mouthful
And so
Often times people with regular Depression
like I've talked about in my Depression video
if you want to know more about Depression
I have a couple of videos on them so check it out
But the symptoms of Atypical Depression
are sleeping to much. when you have what they call hyersomnia
Um increase appetite or weight gain
And having more intense reactions or increase sensitivity to rejection
resulting in problems with social and work relationships
and a lot of people say they feel really weighted down
like they really can't do anything. They're like paralyzed
With maybe fear or with their sadness. Feeling so heavy with everything
So
it's the same
Atypical Depression
They still believe it's the same thing in our brain
that's causing it to happen, if that makes sense
It's a chemical imbalance
And a lot of it can do with
there are some things like I was just commenting to the person that asked this question
Or another question. There are a lot of things we can do to help with the chemical imbalance in our brain.
One being adding certain things into our diets,
another being certain yoga poses or stretches or exercises that will help
And the third, obviously, being medication.
There are tons of SSRIs, SNRIs, um, all sorts of antidepressants, and medications out there to help
with that chemical imbalance that we're feeling.
Um, so that's really the way that Atypical Depression is different from regular Depression
is that regular Depression, people kind of have the opposite of the things I was talking about,
like sleeping too much. A lot of people with Depression have these ruminating thoughts at night
and that they struggle with sleep, even though they're tired all day
they have a hard time actually sleeping through the night.
And the increased appetite or weight gain
In regular, um, Depression or Major Depressive Disorder, we find that people tend to have not as much of an appetite.
Now in my Depression video,
The characteristics of Depression are sleeping too much or sleeping too little, eating too much or eating too little.
Because Major Depressive Disorder is Major Depressive Disorder
Atypical or not, we're all in the same boat, we're all feeling really down
Our symptoms may be just a little different.
So, um
A lot of people feel really blunted when the regular Depression versus feeling really
sensitive to certain things, and feeling really emotional, and struggling in relationships
So you can see how it's almost like the flip of some things, so some of us may feel like we want to
sleep a lot more, some of us may sleep less.
Some of us may want to eat more, some of us may want to eat less.
And it just honestly depends on how depression affects us
cus the end of the day, it's still depression.
We just have a few different symptoms, almost like the flip side of the same coin.
Okay?
And if any of you have gone through with it and you have, um, things that you've been told about that
help you better understand why they call it Atypical Depression or if you have anything you want to input
As always, leave your comments below
But I think overall I just want everyone to know that Depression is Depression
And that we all experience it differently
Um, and that's just technically what they call Atypical Depression
Okay?
Question number two:
Hey Kati, they are thinking of stopping all my medication
to see how my body would react while without them
What do you think? I'm a bit concerned.
Wouldn't I withdraw or something?
Now this really scared me and it's something that I don't talk about -- I don't talk about medication that much
Other than letting you know that is an option, and that's becuase it's out of my standard of care
I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm not a medical doctor
Therefore, I'm not -- I don't prescribe medication
It's not legal. I can't do that. That's wrong.
Sooo, if your therapist is telling you you should get X medication
That's just bullshit. They should just their mouth.
I get really frustrated with that, cus that's not training is.
I understand medication so that if you have a reaction I can let your psychiatrist know, or call your doctor
Whatever, but I don't prescribe it. So why would I tell my patient what to take or not take?
So, sorry, that's my soapbox moment.
But to stop medication all of a sudden, to go all off everything
If we're not monitored -- now I don't know if this person is in the hospital still or not,
I know that she was in the hospital
But if you're being monitored, don't worry
If you're in the hospital, or inpatient, they want to wean you off your medications or stop some medications
That's fine.
Stopping things drastically, without titrating down
Can be really dangerous, because you can go through withdrawal.
Not all medications have withdrawal, but a lot of them do. So you want to ask your doctor
Is there - are there withdrawal symptoms from these medications?
What, uh, side effects, if there is, what can I expect?
Cus some of it might just be like, oh um, hot flashes of some sort, or difficulties sleeping
But others can be like emotion volatility, and if we're suicidal already or if if we're feeling emotionally volatile
It can make things a lot worse, and that's where I get worried
That's why I don't like people to stop medication at all without talking to their doctor, without titrating down
Because withdrawal can be really dangerous
We may even have been suicidal but doing that can make us suicidal and
And I just really worry in general because our body becomes used to having certain kinds of medication
And so we have to titrate down so that our body can compensate
and do what it was doing before we took our medication at all
Um, so if any of you out there are like, I hate my medication, I think it's making me worse
Talk to your doctor, have them titrate you off
Do not stop on your own.
Please, please, please, if you're worried, if you have already, call your doctor now and let them know
Because I just really worry and it makes me stressed out because it could make us worse before we get better
And there's ways we can avoid that. Okay?
And I hope you're being monitored
So let me know how things are going
Okay, question number three
Hey Kati, I was told by my psychiatrist that DBT can actually be harmful to a person with Autism Spectrum Disorder
and make the self harm worse. What do you think about that? Is it true?
They used to say I had Borderline as well as ASD
ASD is Autism Spectrum Disorder -- that's what they're calling it. It's all on a spectrum right now in the, um, DSM-5
And I asked about DBT as a treatment for BPD
If you're wondering what BPD is, I have a video on that as well.
"Borderline Personality Disorder," you can search it on YouTube
But was denied because of the ASD, and then all of a sudden, I no longer have BDP.
So pretty much all she's saying is,
Is DBT actually harmful for someone with Autism Spectrum Disorder? Or is it not?
Because, um, they said that she had Autism as well as Borderline Personality Disorder
And so how do you treat it if one's harmful to the other?
Now, I actually had to do a little research on this. And I've spent a little bit of time
And so I'm going to look here cus I pulled out a couple different research studies
And the abstracts on them -- an abstract is just kind of a summary of what the research study's talking about
And then there's some specifics that I'll get into
But Autism Spectrum Disorder is -- it really causes us, a lot of times, to self-harm
we have difficulty making eye contact, certain, like, social things that go on in our lives
It's really difficult for people. It can be. Everybody's different and everyone falls different on the spectrum
But the most important that DBT can help with
and that's why, um, it sounds to me like a modified DBT helps people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD
So, I don't think DBT makes your ASD worse,
but I do think it's important to have a physician or a clinician, whoever you're seeing,
To understand that it has to be modified
Now in the study that I've read about, they said that the components of DBT:
Mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance
Could be modified to treat older adolescent and adult population people with ASD
Now it says older adolescent and adult population because we can work more on emotion regulation
and stuff like that, which is really difficult for people with ASD, where when they're younger
Because I actually did this. This was one of my first jobs, in grad school, was doing, um, ABA, uh, treatment
with children with Autism. This is when they're young, we do Applied Behavioural Analysis
And, um, because that's best for people that are young.
Is this making sense?
It's kind of difficult to completely answer this in a short video
But you definitely -- you can do DBT if you have Autism Spectrum Disorder
It's not gonna harm you.
Just make sure the person that you see has knowledge of both Autism Spectrum Disorder and BPD
Because it needs to be modified a little bit
There are certain things that will be more difficult to you because of your ASD
And so those are some of the tools that you will skip
And they'll replace with other things to help you regulate your emotion
And work on your interpersonal effectiveness
So you can build relationships helpfully and regulate your emotions
And that really is helpful for all of us and that's really how it works when you have ASD as well as BPD
Okay? I know it's a lot of acronyms and it might be confusing
May have to rewind it and watch it again but you can definitely get help for your BPD
through using DBT therapy. It just has to be modified a little bit.
Okay, journal topic suggestion.
This is a quote from Mitch Albom.
If anybody hasn't read of his books or this particular book, For One More Day
He has great, great books
Okay, this one says, "Have you ever lost someone you love, and wanted one more conversation,
one more chance to make up for the time
when you thought that they would be here forever
If so, then you know that you can go your whole life collecting days
And none would outweigh the one you wish you had back
If you could have one more conversation with someone, dead or alive
Who would it be and what would you say?
I think this is really powerful. Oftentimes we forget how fleeting life is.
And how important it is to touch base with people and make amends
And to reach out and have those conversations that may be a little uncomfortable
Or maybe we wish we had spoken up and told them how much we love them
Um, it's important to remember while we can do something about it.
So get out and let's do something about it
Yeah, and Mitch Albom, he wrote, um, I think it's called, Weekends with Morrie?
Or Tuesdays with Morrie, that's what it is
That's a really good book too
But anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Tomorrow I'll be on the website and YouTube, so ask your questions below
Today's video as well as on Katimorton.com
And I'll see you all tomorrow! Love you, bye!