00:00So I loved what you said, Lori, about watching the condition of your room and the things around you, right?
00:09But that's important because when your normal routines are disrupted or your space starts to fall apart or you start to withdraw from friendships or communication, that is a red flag.
00:29I mean, I think Lori described it perfectly. That is your mind sending up a red flag to you that something is not right.
00:38And the key thing really is that we don't have to wait until we are at rock bottom in the same way we go for checkups for our physical health.
00:49Right. So we don't always wait till we have to go to the emergency room and be hospitalized.
00:54When something feels wrong, we go to the doctor to get our physical health checked.
00:58I hope we start to see people reach out for mental health and support before they're at a level of being in crisis.
01:10Right. When they're just, hey, I'm not really interested in the things that used to make me excited.
01:17Right. My room is my home is falling apart. I'm much more sleepy.
01:21My eating patterns have changed. All those things are your mind saying, I need a checkup.
01:28Right. I need some assistance here. And to think of it that way, the mind and the body are connected.
01:34And it's so important to have that mental health checkup like we have a physical health checkup and to not think that we have to wait until we are at our deepest, darkest periods of time to seek assistance.
01:48Yes, it's it's hard. I mean, it's so heavy, especially given these times when we are isolated by the pandemic and the, you know, the public health implications around that.
02:04But in as many ways as you can come together as a community, even if it's through video, to be able to to commune and to share feelings, whatever those feelings are, and to create a safe space for those feelings.
02:24Because when people realize that the pain is shared amongst others, there's an ability to comfort, right?
02:35So if we stay alone in our grief and our sadness, it becomes this kind of echo chamber within us.
02:42But when we're able to come together and speak and cry and emote and acknowledge, that's when the healing can start.
02:51And it's a slow process, obviously. But when we're together, oftentimes it allows for some comfort and the comfortable the comfort around knowing that the situation is shared.
03:05The grief is shared and the burden can be shared and the burden can be shared and then the solutions can be found, sought and found together.
03:14When people come for help, it's so important that they not feel alone, right?
03:20So when someone kind of takes that step towards you, it's to say, I need help, be with me.
03:28And oftentimes just the act of saying, I'm here, I'm listening, I'm with you, whatever you need me to do to help you in this situation, I will do it non-judgmentally.
03:41Because to be with someone in a moment of crisis, there's nothing like that.
03:50There's nothing like that for you as the support person.
03:52And there's nothing like that for the person who's asking.
03:56So in those moments, just let the person who comes to you, your friend, your family member, know that they're not alone.
04:03And sometimes helping them to seek the professional support, to find a therapist, to reach out to Crisis Text Lyme, can be that very important first step.
04:15That's an excellent question.
04:17So I think physiologically, stress affects us all.
04:21So our cortisol access, our cortisol access in our body, the hormone that's released when we are stressed, affects all of our organs.
04:33So our brain, our heart, our kidneys.
04:38I think the difference between men and women in situations of stress is how it presents.
04:44So we may see differences in how men actualize their stress, whether it comes out in anger versus sadness versus anxiety, right?
05:01So women may present with anxiety, depression related to stress.
05:08And men may come through in kind of anger or more physical forms, but everyone's body internalizes the stress.
05:18How it comes out can be very unique.
05:21The key is to really figure out when we're stressed, what are the triggers that make us feel stressed?
05:28And then how does it manifest within our bodies?
05:31Women get angry, too.
05:33Men get depressed.
05:35It really, it's very unique.
05:37But the key is to figure out what makes us stressed, acknowledge it, look at it, and then reach into that toolkit and figure out what we can use to help, what support we can find to help alleviate the stress.
Comments