- Hey everybody, it is Thursday and that means
that I'm on Twitter answering your questions.
If you used the hashtag #KatiFAQ, I found them
and I'm answering them.
So I have four questions today as well as a journal topic,
so without further ado, and if you're not following me
on Twitter, you can find me at @katimorton, okay?
Oh and if you want to comment, don't forget to add
me on Google+ and add me to your circles, they call it,
'cause then I can approve your comments and I can
actually respond, because sometimes I can't,
and then I get frustrated.
Okay, question number one, Kati, what are your thoughts
on EMDR?
My therapist has recommended it and I'm kind of scared.
I've received a couple of these all within the same
kind of thing, what are my thoughts on EMDR,
because my therapist has recommended it.
Some people's therapists don't do it.
I personally don't do it, so I'll give you my opinion
on it, but since I don't do it, I feel like I don't want to
I don't know, it's not something that I've learned.
I know what it's about.
I'm just not a huge fan of it.
Okay, so that's like roughly my thoughts.
What EMDR stands for is, and I always forget,
so it's Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
Now it's a therapy treatment where a clinician,
a therapist like myself, who's been properly trained
will have you kind of do some, so like say I'm watching
my fingers go, we do these kind of eye movements
while we go through the trauma.
Now the belief behind EMDR is that our brains,
much like our body when they get injured and they
have like a trauma that as we relive it, we have nightmares,
we get triggered, we think about it, it continues to fester.
It gets upset and that injury, that trauma continues
to live in our brain.
If we do EMDR, they believe that we can kind of clear out
that blockage or that, the trauma that's festering
and kind of clean out the wound and let it heal properly.
It has helped many of my clients.
Just 'cause I'm not a huge fan doesn't mean that
it's not working 'cause it definitely is something
that works for many people.
If your therapist has recommended it for you,
I would encourage you to give it a try, 'cause we can't
knock it 'til we try it, right?
And I promise you that if you don't like it,
you'll know right away and if you find it really helpful,
you'll also know right away.
Hopefully your therapist does it themselves
if they're recommending it, 'cause it can be kind
of tricky to tell another person, but if you're having
a lot of trouble talking about your trauma and you
find every time you bring it up, you get overwhelmed
and you get triggered, it's definitely something
that can really help with that, okay?
And if anybody else has tried it, like it or not like it,
let us know what you think, okay?
'Cause I'm just one opinion, right?
It's just me.
I don't, I've had clients do really well, like I said,
and I've had clients that didn't really like it,
so I'm just kind of on the fence.
I find it a little bizarre feeling.
I've gone through some trainings for it.
I didn't complete it, 'cause it wasn't something
I wanted to do, okay?
Question number two, is it possible to relapse
with depression?
I've been good and making a lot of progress
but all of a sudden, my depression is coming
back really strong.
I don't understand it.
I don't want to go backwards.
I have too much going on for that to happen.
I've heard from a lot of you different versions of this.
Another question that I got about this was,
I'm doing really well on my antidepressants.
Can't I go off of them?
Now, the question about going off antidepressants.
No, talk to your doctor first, please, please, please.
Often times we're doing well because we're
on the medication, okay?
As far as this question about can you relapse?
Technically, yes.
Our brain is very driven by hormones and chemicals
and keeping that all in balance keeps us happy and healthy
and going about our day.
Sometimes things can happen, it could be dietary,
it could be our bodies getting too used to the medication
and we can kind of poop out, they call it,
on our antidepressant.
I would definitely talk to your doctor, especially if you
have a lot going on and you don't have time to kind of
have a relapse of this depression.
Along with doing things that make you happy,
making time for yourself.
If you're really busy and you're finding yourself
really overwhelmed and stressed out, that can also
lead to an increase in our depression or our anxiety.
Things can kind of flare up because we don't have
any extra energy left for ourselves, you know what I mean?
I would talk to your doctor and I would see
about your medications, make sure everything's in line
with that if you're on any.
If not, take some extra time for yourself.
Do some things to make you happy.
If it's getting dark out, a lot of us will find we kind
of go into Seasonal Affective Disorder,
like a little depression when it gets dark.
Maybe put a bright light on your face for a little bit.
I know that sounds really silly but
it can really, really help, okay?
Question number three, why do we need attachments?
I find them scary and painful, but my counselor
says that I need them.
I just don't get why.
So, attachments, I've talked about this before
on other videos and you can actually search on My Channel
for, I think it's just called attachment.
It'll render the result for the video I did on this,
but attachments are important because it's what helps
us feel secure
and safe.
It gives us a place and a purpose.
It gives us people in our lives that we can depend on,
and as much as we all like to think,
oh I can do it on my own.
I'm independent.
I don't need anybody.
Honestly, that's just our defensive, we're responding
and we're acting like we don't want anybody
and we don't need anyone, when in fact, we're actually hurt
and it's like a protection and we're doing it
because someone we were attached to at one point
really harmed us and now we keep everyone
at arm's length, right?
But the reason that we need people close to us
is so that we can live a happy, healthy life
because the interesting thing about humans is
that we're really social creatures.
That doesn't mean that we don't have anxiety
or things like that around that, but we like to have
other people.
Not everybody likes big groups but we like to have people
in our lives, whether it's family, friends, a husband,
a wife, a girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever.
We like to have that and it actually, we find that people
in healthy relationships are happier and they live longer.
Whether it's chemically in our brain or physiological
what we'll feel in our body, that's why we need attachments,
'cause it actually keeps us healthier and happier longer.
I know it's easier to be like a puffer fish,
stick out your spines and not let anybody near you,
but I promise you, in the end, it's really worth it.
You're someone that's worth getting to know and people
will love to get to know you and it's important
to have people in your life, 'cause when we create
our little safety plans and stuff, we're relying
on those people, right?
And you all have them, so I think it's okay to let
a couple people in and see how it goes, okay?
Question number four, my family doesn't seem to understand
my chronic illnesses.
How do I better explain it?
And there's a second part to this question, but as far
as that goes, I find some--
There's two things.
I find with families, either they find the like,
I don't know the verbiage and the words that doctors
and physicians will use to be really tricky and it's
almost like such a high level of description,
descriptive words, that's like a medical term
and they kind of glaze over.
They don't even pay attention, so they don't actually
understand it.
So sometimes putting it in layman's terms and just talking
to them about how it affects you daily and what it means
for you can really be beneficial.
If we've already tried to do that and they still
don't understand, I think the best way is just to focus
on you and just say, you know, my body does not
do this, this, this.
I'm not sure for this person's specific chronic illnesses
but I find that, let's say we have chronic fatigue
syndrome, right?
You can say to someone who is like,
you're always so tired.
I don't understand what's wrong with you.
Why can't you do this and you can just say, you know,
my body wears out really quickly because it's lacking
in, it could be adrenaline or it could be anything,
whatever your doctor has told you the reason being
or what's happened to your body.
I find just describing it that way and letting them know
what you're feeling personally can help them kind
of get out of the medical terminology.
But also on the flip side of that, some people just don't
want to hear it and those people may be kind of toxic
and I know for this particular person,
you're talking about your family, so it's hard to get
away from that but I might just mention to them,
you know, just 'cause you don't understand it
doesn't mean it's not real for me.
And so if you can at least pretend to get it
while I'm here and like understand what's going on,
that would be really,really helpful and it'd make me feel
a lot better.
Is that something you can do for me?
And I know it's hard for us to ask things of others,
but sometimes we have to because if we don't ask,
we don't know if we'll get it, right?
And it's definitely worth it.
Also, there are helpful brochures you can give.
You can also Google it with them and talk them through it
and say, this is how it is expressed in my body,
in my experience.
That can help sometimes too.
Or have your doctor or therapist talk to them.
I'm just giving you all the options of things that I've
done in the past.
Okay, last question, also, and this is from the same thing,
also I find myself feeling lazy when my symptoms flare up.
How do I fight back?
Honestly, whatever you can do within the restrictions
of your chronic illness can help.
Finding things that can help keep your mind
and your hands busy so that they don't
have time to ruminate, talking back to that voice
is really helpful, calling someone, getting online
and chatting.
I find the busier our hands are, the busier our mind is,
the less time it has to ruminate on this so called laziness
when really it's a chronic illness and there's nothing
we can do about it.
So I would definitely do things like that, put together
little survival kits and things like that with people
to call and things to do, night or day, rain or shine,
so that we're never stuck without something to do.
And if any of you have any tips and things that you like
to do that help, let us know, 'cause I'm always
looking for new ideas and new things to offer
to my clients as well.
Now the journal topic of the day is a great quote
and I actually swapped this out from a previous
journal topic because someone just sent it to me
on Twitter and it's amazing.
It says, "I'm not afraid of storms, for I am learning
to sail my ship" by Louisa May Alcott.
I just love this because life is stormy, right?
It never is predictable, it never goes exactly the way
that we hope it goes.
We try so hard to do things just a certain way
to get the right result and it just never pans out.
What storms are you working through right now
as you learn to sail your ship?
What have we learned?
Just share, or even if you don't want to share,
you can write about what you're learning now,
through the storm you're in and I think
that's really helpful.
Or if you've had a storm and you're through it,
what did you learn?
How did you get through it?
What tools did you use?
This can be really helpful 'cause we can come back
to this later if we're struggling again and be like,
oh yeah, I did get through it and this is what I did
and that's why it's so helpful and just ready to do again.
'Cause if it worked once, chances are it'll work again.
Let me know how that goes.
Tomorrow is Friday and before I go, this might be
a little longer video, sorry.
I am leaving.
I'm going back home for Thanksgiving, so I may not
do the videos next week like I normally do, you know,
my Tuesday through Friday Vlogs.
I'll try to do some Vlogging, but just so you know,
I'll be visiting my family for Thanksgiving and I will try
to keep you all updated, at least Tweet out
or do little Vlogs here and there, but I just wanted
to let you know what's going on.
But I'll see you tomorrow.
I'll be on Facebook, so ask your questions, okay?
Bye!