Hey everyone.
This week's video is something that you have all been asking for:
chronic illness and how does that relate to our mental health.
So, stay tuned.
[intro music]
So like I said, this week's topic is chronic illness.
And I've heard from many of you that you're concerned about how it relates to
your eating disorder behaviors, your self-harm behaviors
and your overall mental health. And I've done a lot of thinking about it
and I would also welcome all of your comments
because this is a topic that I can definitely revisit and I can go over again.
But I just want to make sure that the couple points that I think
are important to make are made. So like I said, let me know
if there's other topics or other portions of this that you want more information.
Okay? And give it a thumbs up if you want me to do more.
So, chronic illness and mental health. How are they related?
Well, when someone is diagnosed with a chronic illness
-- the term chronic obviously means it's a long time.
It doesn't mean lifelong potentially, but it can mean lifelong--
And for someone who has a chronic illness let's say it starts when we're a child,
We may miss out on those "normal" activities. We may not learn how to swim.
We may not go to the prom. We may not have our first boyfriend or our first kiss.
And we may not play sports with our friends.
We may not be able to do a lot of the things that other people are doing.
And that can feel really bad, and we can also get bullied at school.
Because we're, you know, "different" from other people,
or are doing something "different" than other people.
And that can make us feel really shitty. Right? Feel really bad.
And what do we do with all that emotion, right?
If we're not seeing a therapist, and we're not in a group
for others with chronic illness, we can kind of feel alone. Right?
And we feel kind of isolated. And I'm here to tell you that you're not.
Because even if you can't get out of your house and its really a struggle
to get about your daily life, we're all here for you.
Hello! Welcome to my channel! Welcome to our community!
We're all helping one another.
So I would encourage you to utilize the comments section
as kind of a self-help and a "group" that we can help one another.
My website is available for you to post and to share because
my community is about love and support and letting everyone know we're not alone.
We're in this together, right?
And so chronic illness can really lead to a slew of different mental health issues.
Because let's say we've had it since we were a child, now we're into adulthood.
And we feel like it's kind of hindered us.
We may not have been able to finish college like we thought we would.
We may not be able to have a full time job because we can't stand for too long,
or we have trouble getting around, mobility is an issue. Or focus.
You can see how there's a bunch of different things.
And all of those potential milestones that we think we're gonna hit,
we might not be able to hit.
And so, along with other people maybe bullying us and talking mean
and just being nasty, because people can be nasty!
Along with that, we feel it inside, and we are nasty to ourselves.
It's just like that eating disorder voice and that self-harm voice.
Do you see now how they're connected?
So if something is happening to us physically, and a lot of times
people can't see what's happening inside and they might not know
that we're actually sick, and they could call us a fake or a liar,
or tell us: "It could be worse, you could have blah blah blah."
without even knowing what's actually going on.
So all this stuff is happening, all these things are happening or not happening
and we're feeling just so overwhelmed and we don't know who to talk to
and we have no outlet, right? So what in the world are we supposed to do with it?
And that's kind of where the chronic illness runs into our mental health.
It can make us depressed, because like I said, we have
that nasty voice going all the time that you're not okay and you're not normal
and blah blah blah -- ugh! It can make us depressed.
And we can have suicidal thoughts because that's where depression takes us
and that's where that nasty voice will take us.
And we can have anxiety because getting out and about in front of people
can be a lot of stress, can be a lot of pressure.
And it's just really crappy, right?
And so if we don't have an outlet, that can lead also to eating disorder behavior
and self-harm behavior.
Because like I talked about in my older videos, like my video from
almost over a year and a half ago: "What is an eating disorder?"
I'm wearing a red shirt I think. Wow, good memory.
But in "What is an eating disorder?" I talk about how it is an emotional attachment.
It's something that's happening emotional in our life, it's an emotional response
and we don't have an outlet for it that is "healthy", so instead we use food
and we focus on food because it gives us something to give all of that energy to.
And it's the same with self-harm, it's the same with anxiety,
it's the same with depression. And so what do we do about it?
Like I said, welcome to my channel! Welcome to my community!
We can help one another, right?
That's really why I've created all of this.
And I would love to see all the comments and the likes and things going on below
where you're helping one another and you're sharing what's worked for you
and I would also extremely extremely encourage you-- find a therapist.
Find someone who works with chronic illness, works with a hospital.
A lot of clinics, hospitals, doctors, surgeons, nurses have great referrals.
And it's okay to ask. There is no shame in saying,
"Hey, do you have any therapists in the area that you've recommended?"
"That other people have said are good?"
Or, "Do you have any people that you've worked with in the past that were great?"
I get questions like that all the time when I have to tell somebody I'm full.
You know, they call and ask, "Well who else would you recommend?"
They have lists. So don't be afraid to ask.
And while you're asking for a therapist, ask for the local group.
There are always groups. Almost every hospital I've ever been to,
personally or professionally, has groups for this.
They have chronic illness groups and they also have groups for caretakers.
So if you yourself are watching this and you don't have the chronic illness,
but maybe your spouse or your loved one does,
they have groups for you as well.
So make sure you get help. Make sure you have a safe place
to vent and to know that you're not alone.
And all of these feelings are warranted. You have them for a reason.
We just have to find a healthy outlet for all of that, okay?
And you can always journal. I know you hate it-- some of you like it.
Or you could vlog! A lot of my members have been vloging lately
and that can give a nice outlet if you don't like to type or write
or you don't like to journal the "traditional" way.
I'm doing a lot of air-quotes today. I don't know why. But anyway!
So I hope that that's helpful.
And like I said, leave your comments and your helpful hints below.
Help one another. Love on one another. We're here to support, right?
And if you wanna see more videos about this topic, give me the thumbs up
and let me know what more information you'd like.
What topics do you want me to dive deeper into.
Because you request and I respond.
And we'll keep working together, as you subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Because I put out videos every Monday and sometimes I vlog a lot lately!
So you don't wanna miss out.
And we'll keep working towards a healthy mind and a healthy body.
"Extra quotes" "healthy mind" "healthy body"...
I don't know why I did that so much. [Laughs]
"I'm so warm. This house. All these lights." Okay!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community