- Hey everybody, today we're gonna talk about
mental illnesses and whether they're curable or not.
But before we jump into that, are you new to my channel?
Welcome! I am a licensed therapist
making mental health videos
and I release them on Monday's and on Thursday's.
So make sure you have your notifications turned on
so that you don't miss out.
But now, let's hop into today's topic.
Many people with mental health issues of any kind
want to know if they're struggle is curable.
And for good reason.
If we feel terrible week after week, we're gonna wanna know
that there is an end to what we feel
and that it won't come back, ever.
Now, in order to answer this question,
I first have to describe to you
the difference between mental health and mental illness
because it's in that differentiation
that we will find the answer to our question.
Now, mental health is something that we all have.
Just like we all have a physical health, right?
We can have days where we feel on top of the world,
you know, checking so many things off of our to-do list,
meeting with friends, feeling fulfilled
and just really good.
And overall, just know, that mental health is defined,
'cause I always like to define terms first, right?
Mental health is defined as a persons condition with regard
to their psychological and emotional wellbeing.
If we are taking care of ourselves best we can,
you know, we're taking breaks when we need them,
making time for the things that we enjoy, et cetera,
et cetera, we should have a pretty good mental health.
We should feel pretty good, be able to manage all we need to
each and every day and overall feel happy.
Mental illness, on the other hand, is like,
when we catch a cold.
You know, first you can start to feel a little extra tired,
then maybe our nose starts to run
and then maybe we get a cough and before you know it,
you're laid up in bed wishing you had taken advantage
of all the time you had when you were well.
That's not just me, right?
I'm constantly feeling like that,
where when I finally am sick
and I just have to lay on the couch,
I'm like, man, I should have got so much done
when I was feeling good.
Maybe it's just me though.
Well, anyways, you have caught an illness.
It is taking over your body and you aren't able to do
all that you need to do.
You have to rest, you have to take your medicine
and you have to take care of yourself
until you feel better, right?
Mental illness is just the same.
I mean, no, you aren't gonna catch it from someone else,
don't get any ideas, but it does creep in slowly,
make us feel a little different than we normally do,
and finally make it impossible for us to do
all that we need to each and every day.
And mental illness impairs our ability
to function in our daily life
but with proper treatment we can manage the symptoms
so that we can go back to living our life.
And again, just like a cold,
if we don't take care of ourselves, you know,
when you aren't sleeping enough, you're working too much,
you're more susceptible to catching a cold
and the same goes for our mental health.
If we don't take care of ourselves,
do the things that we need to do
in order for us to feel good,
our mental health can become a mental illness.
Does that make sense?
If not, in short, mental illnesses aren't curable
but we can take steps to keep our mental health in check
so that the bad way we feel doesn't come back.
Or at least won't stay as long as it did last time.
Just like if we're physically sick
and we take some days off, we sleep a lot, we drink water,
and give our body time to heal, we won't stay sick as long
as we would if we kept pushing our body to do more and more.
And if you wanna know more about this difference
and how you can care for your mental health,
pick up my book, it's called,
Are U Ok?: A Guide to Caring for Your Mental Health
and it's available now through the link in the description.
I talk all about this.
Now, the last thing that I want to do
is I wanna address neuroplasticity.
Now, if you don't know, neuroplasticity is
the ability of the brain to form
and reorganize synaptic connections,
especially in response to learning
or experience or following an injury.
Which really just means that, yes,
you can teach an old dog new tricks.
And yes, our brains can heal and change.
And it's really the whole reason that therapy works.
And I wanted to end by talking about neuroplasticity
because it can offer some hope
when we can feel like it's never gonna get better.
Research on many different mental illnesses
from Borderline Personality Disorder to Depression
show that if we take care of our mental health,
like, we're taking medication
if it's part of our treatment plan,
and we're working to use all the tools
that we're learning in therapy,
our brain can rearrange the connections
so that we no longer have the mental illness we had before.
Like it slowly moves things over
to accommodate all the new behaviors
and communication skills you're tying out.
Sure, it's hard at first because it's new,
it's not comfortable but it does get easier.
And if you've been watching me for a long time,
you may remember how I talked about the brain
as if it was a balloon filled with sand.
And when our brain sends a signal to have us react
or act in a certain way, it rolls a marble over that sand
and makes a little divot or rut, right?
And if we keep doing that same thing over and over,
that divot's gonna get deeper and deeper and deeper
but if we decide that we want to do something new,
that marble is gonna have to work extra hard
to get itself out of that rut that it's created
into a more new and healthy path.
Does that make sense?
And so if it keeps doing that new and healthy thing
then that new divot is gonna get deeper and deeper
and that old rut that we used to have
will get more and more shallow.
Remember, our brain is moving things around
so that it can assist us with what we need.
And as a result, all that healthier stuff
is gonna get easier and easier to do
and the bad unhealthy hard stuff,
it's gonna be easy to stay out of it.
So, overall what I'm really saying is
just stick with it.
Even when it's hard because trust me,
it can and will get better.
I hope you found that helpful
and most importantly, hopeful.
Have a wonderful week and I will see you next time, bye.