This episode is dedicated to my dear friend Tunisia. Tiny. You are extremely important to me and you are a really big inspiration in my life. Thank you for starting your amazing company protect your mental. It is an amazing company which brings a witness to the mental health state of our country. And thank you to nature for putting your story out there and putting yourself out there to bring more awareness to the subject urge you to continue to get the help that you need and thank you for being on the front line. We will also like to thank our friend at the soap has don't podcast ever cut Perez Erica. Thank you so much for really bringing joy to me this week. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you so much for the love and thank you for Ring in mental health awareness to the for for me and it may be you know, your story made me think about my story and I really felt compelled to start this series. So I like to thank both of you ladies for your hard work and for your amazing testimonies. I also would like to thank site to go because a lot of the information is podcast came from Psych to go and the clip that you were here later on as from site to go lastly. I would like to say a special. Thank to Roy I mean Rich Wilkerson jr. He's the pastor that's really given the impassion intro that you're about to hear. Dr. Tracy marks. Thank you and Katie Moore and thank you. You can find. Dr. Tracey marks like to go Rich Wilkerson jr. And Katie Moore and all on YouTube and they give a lot of information that can help us on our mental health Journeys you listening to the sopa is though podcast. Let's go. Have some fun you life is short. It's too short to live depressed. It's too short to live anxious and it's too short to struggle every day with thinking about taking your life. I want to challenge you tonight to get up that you're not quitting tonight that one day. It is appointed unto all men to die. But that is God's responsibility not mine. And so I don't know who I'm preaching to the night, but I want to say to you get up future is brighter than your past. I say to you with a balcony get up. Your ladder is greater than your phone or I want to say to every person in this room get because the best is still yet to come miracles. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified Health provider with any questions. You may have regarding a medical condition never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Welcome to soba is dough soap is dope is not affiliated with a Or any 12 step program. We support people's right to drink and have fun. We believe in a Live and Let Live approach to sobriety. This show is intended to highlight the benefits of a sober life. We want to encourage healing and transformation. This show is for anyone that is struggling with alcohol drugs or addiction of any kind. I am pop you Cannon. I am a recovering alcoholic. I am proud to share my story welcome to soba is dope. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sobers doe podcast with your host pop. You can in today's episode is about depression and what we consider persistent depressive disorder or high-functioning depression also known as the sty Mia and I just wanted to cover on this topic because you know mice I myself believe that a lot of my substance abuse issues stem from depression and not dealing with certain things in my life like the death of my father separation from people that I love maybe relationship separation or a combination of factors that led to Maybe a long-term form of depression and the outcome of that may have led to my substance abuse issues and having a developing a chronic issue there. So I wanted to touch on this and I also wanted to note that, you know, we're dealing with the just we're in mental health awareness month and we're dealing with the issues of Mental Health. On a national level is really a topic that's been coming up in my life a lot in the life of my friends family people that are part of the substance abuse Community when you're online. This is a major thing. So there's many forms of mental health disorders according to the DSM-5 which is the diagnostic statistical model and the DSM is Categorises all the different forms of mental health issues from depression to anxiety and so forth. So ladies and gentlemen, I really wanted to touch base today and just I have some information for you. I have a cool clip we can listen to but I definitely want to say to anyone out there. If you're suffering from any form of depression any form of anxiety any form of abnormal stress, please seek medical advice priests looking to counseling and Therapy, it helped me and before I get into anything. I just want to state that I'm an advocate for seeking professional medical advice. I'm an advocate for seeking some form of therapy checking don't not don't do not be afraid to see a psychiatrist or psychologist. I mean I saw both I had to deal with I had a counselor. I had a psychiatrist and my psychiatrist referred me to a site psychologist who is able to prescribe me to specific medications on. Did at the moment to bring my emotional levels back up to normal. I didn't have to stay on any meds for a long period but it did help it was a combination of things that helped me in my recovery. So I'm a real proponent for doing whatever it takes to get to the next level and to protect yourself. I'm also extremely I think it's extremely important to talk about lifestyle factors such as diet nutrition. I think too many people are not they don't make the connection between the foods that they eat and the lifestyle choices that they're making their mental health. If you're eating, you know, Doritos and Pepsi all day and eating candy and not eating a proper diet. Then your body's not going to have the necessary building blocks to keep you. Fee and your brain is not going to have the necessary building Brock blocks to operate at optimal in an optimal way. So I'm definitely big on health and nutrition for everyone that knows me for my monk healing page on Instagram. We you know, I reverse my pre-diabetes and part of my recovery. Was it with my mental health issues and my substance abuse issues with changing my diet my mindset my attitude towards nutrition making Sure, I was educated in that area. I was also making sure that my sleep patterns were I respected my sleep because I think that in many ways if we're not getting the right amount of sleep eating the right foods and without exercise and maintain care of ourselves. It can increase the likelihood that we can suffer more from a mental disorder. I'm not saying these things also always lead to mental health disorders, but they Exasperated and they can make it more chronic. If you're not Elise addressing the basic life style Behavior patterns that can be considered very important to our overall health. So today I want to talk about high-functioning depression and they you know, they categorize this as the sty Mia and the DSM re-categorized this As persistent depressive disorder and I think for many of us, we if you know we are able to go to work we're able to still go to school where able to still function in society and and sometimes in a really impressive way, you know, a lot of CEOs. You could still run a Fortune 500 company you could be the president United States and still suffer from this this form of depression and I think that there's too many of us that's going around and we don't we suffer in secrecy. We don't know how to really express ourselves. We don't really know how to really identify the fact that we may be suffering from long-term depression and according to the DSM-5. This low-grade depression has to be for a period of two years or more. So for many of us we suffer for long periods of time. I swear we made like be feeling down we may we may not get excited the same way we used to about things that used to excite us, you know, we may not really have a positive outlook or the time sometime we could be more negative than positive and very lethargic and very unmotivated even though we've actually made on the surface we may seem to be very positive and proactive but it's inside I'd we're really suffering from these forms of depression. So I was one of those people who was able to really smile jump around then speed of light for the party. Even if I was depressed. You know, I will put my feelings aside to make someone else feel happy because I wanted them. I didn't want my depression to make someone else uncomfortable so I could be sad but I'll still jump around and I'll still try to make someone else happy and I used to say, I'm finally Lat, it's all good. I'm straight. I'm straight. You know, I'm from Brooklyn will say like I'm straight son. I'm straight. But most people may say I'm fine or I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm good. I'm good, but you're really suffering and my advice to you is don't ever put on a front for another human being if you're suffering. I mean really be vocal and honest about your emotions because that could be the difference between use getting the help that you need faster, you know, and there's many days. I look back and I just I don't regret too much but I have compassion on my younger self because I remember I could go back in my mind and say, you know, I was really struggling. I was really sad at that moment and I was probably entertaining A bunch of people at the time, you know, being a musician being, you know to being younger and always being this kind of party guy. I would have people around me all the time and I will always try to make everyone happy and feel comfortable and it eventually it just was Too much and I should have just loved myself more to just get the help that I needed then and maybe I could have saved myself a lot of trauma and issues back then but the good news is at some point. I did put myself first. I did forgive myself and I chose myself and I got all of the work that I needed to get done and I took a very long time. I took the amount of time needed. So to December 15 2000 19 makes I'm seven years. It's my seven year anniversary for my sobriety, but it's also a seven year anniversary for my mental health and my physical health and my emotional health because six and a half years ago. I made a decision to choose myself and I made a decision to put my mental health first and I just made that priority. Number one. I didn't care about anything else in my life that my career I put my career on hold I put my family my girlfriend. Girlfriend everything on hold and I went to skip the treatment that I needed and I made it my life's my life's Mission. So I said for the next year or two, I'ma go to the doctor every day. I'm a see my psychiatrist. I'm a see my therapist. I'm going to take the medication. I'm going to take my vitamins. I'm gonna change my diet. I'm gonna exercise I'm gonna go I'm going to go to AA I'm going to go back to my groups. I'm gonna stay in group. I'm staying rehab him stay in counseling and I did these things all day every day. About a year until I started to see a lot of Hope in addition to that. I use prayer as a form of healing I use meditation as a form of healing. I did a lot of this with help of God because I believe in God as I know him and that helped me everyone's story is a little bit different and I did everything in my power to heal and get myself to a safe place today and recently just to be totally honest with you guys. I went through I think of mild depression because I took on a lot of new Ventures, you know, I got new, you know, I develop new business partners. I did. You know II just was my hands were was into too many things and I had to shut down a lot of things out this at the pull back right before my birthday, which was September 29th. I was dealing with this lower back injury. That's cool. It made me a little I'm about to turn 40 years old. Now. My back is bothering me. I have this lower back injury. I was work-related. Now. I got to go to physical therapy. You know, I gained a little bit of weight. I kind of lost my way on my diet. I started to get a little bit nervous and sad because I'm turning 40 and I wasn't sure if you know my light, you know, I just wasn't sure you know, you get that little the little stat little period of time where you're uncertain about your entire life, right and I was a little afraid Because I'm human and I just have to go all the way back to the basics. And then I started to pay attention to the things in my life that gave me anxiety, like if a certain if I got a certain call from a specific business partner and that phone ringing I saw their name and my anxiety levels went up. I I said to myself I'm no longer doing business with this person. I rather you know, I'm no longer doing business in this way with these group with this group of people. People because for some reason when that phone rings my anxiety levels go up and that was an indicator to me that that particular Venture wasn't part of my alignment and it wasn't meant for me. So now I judge my relationships the decisions I make based on my stress levels and I think that's an internal indicator of if we're making the right decision for our lives, you know, sometimes we may reach a fork in the road, right and we Have to make a decision whether we're going to go left or we're gonna go right are we gonna go with this business partner of this business partner, we going to choose this job or this other job or we're going to make this lifestyle change or this lifestyle change and some time your anxiety or that fair or that that initial onset of caution may be the indicator that we need to make the decision. So now I'm like look, I'm not going to do anything in my life that Was me undue stress because that's going to eventually affect my mental health and then that's going to affect my overall health and then the my chances of dying from heart attacks or anything like that or you know, any help for later risk is going to increase due to these this increased stress level. So I just I just don't do it no more. I take my time, you know, I don't commit to things as fast. I really sit with myself and I really I really do really take a Fearless moral inventory not just on my recovery or my addiction but also on a decisions that I'm making and I'm saying all of this to say ladies and gentlemen, you know take the time that you need, you know, really sit down with yourself. And if you're feeling really down and you really feeling sad on the inside and you're not sure why and you getting up every day and you're going through the motions and you have this repetitive. Every day you get up you may do this you go to work you do this you come home you do that. Then you go to Spade then you wake up and if you're utterly unhappy and deep that you just feel like bursting out in tears and you feel totally alone. And you don't have anyone you feel like you can speak to about it. Then you may want to look at yourself in the accountability mirror exercise a little radical honesty for yourself because you have to love yourself and if then like develop a plan reach out to someone safe that you can talk to a third party go, you know, you know, most of our insurance will pay for us to go see a therapist or psychiatrist psychologist. Maybe your work will pay for it. Take some time off take a medical leave figure out what what things in your life. You may have to change to feel better but long-term depression or persistent depressive disorder or how its As high-functioning depression and labeled the sty Mia. I think a lot of us made a deal with this. So ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted to touch base with you. Today. We're gonna we have this wonderful clip that gives us some more perspective on the called the seven signs of high functioning depression depression, and I just want to say to everyone out there. I love you all. You all everyone that's been part of the soap is dope Journey. I'm very thankful for you. A lot of us in the sopa is dope Universe. We all suffer from many different things and we're all fighting the good fight together and where one gigantic Community that's healing together. So all about healing and life. We are in a constant state of healing and repair and that's the purpose of this podcast, you know to promote the highlights of sobriety but to also, Really continuously research dig and educate ourselves on how we could be better. We can live more optimal lives and it's all about our overall happiness because I wasn't I was not happy when I was drinking every day and I was doing that to deal with depression and that and that just led to just order sadness and destruction and just like complete disaster because I was running from the problem instead of being honest about the problem and the problem was I was not happy. I wasn't happy in my relationship at the time when I was younger. I wasn't happy mainly with myself. It wasn't even my relationship. I was just disappointed with myself because I was young. I was ambitious. I graduated from college. I had a great job. I had all of these things going for me and drinking just kept messing. And in a way and it kept making my my lifestyle quality was just totally diminish and I kept hurting people that I love and I was just sad because I had this thing that kept setting me back and I ain't know how to get help. I didn't know how to express myself and I was really a good guy that just was kind of sad for whatever reason it was but until I was courageous enough to take those first steps. Nothing change. So like they say in group if nothing. Age has nothing changes. I think that goes with everything from your diet if you're unhealthy and you want to get in shape, you're not unless you change something if it's your addiction if it's substance abuse if you're going to if if nothing changes nothing is going to change you have to stop you have to stop the drugs. We have to stop the alcohol and you have to get the help and as far as our mental health don't spend another day in your depression or sadness or anxiety without Can some step towards getting your self help and you need to love yourself. I love you. I love myself and I'm doing this podcast because I love you guys and I don't think any one of us was born to suffer. We wasn't put him meant to suffer and especially suffering secrecy as suffer by ourselves. So I'm putting my business out there. So, you know now I shared it with you. So if you're suffering and secrecy take this message say, you know, Papi Ian is shit his depression and his issues with the world so that maybe I can have the courage to go and share it with someone else so I can start to heal and sometimes it's just about talking to someone, you know, you don't telling someone else of a second person or a third-party exactly how you feel exactly what you're going through and that's the beginning steps to Healing. So I'm a ladies and gentlemen, I'm a cut to a message. Ma sponsor and then we're going to come back with some more technical information on the on dysthymia and the characteristics and then we're going to go into our clip and we're going to continue to bring mental health awareness. I love you all. I'll catch you soon. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank everyone in the Showbiz dope Community for helping us reach 26 thousand downloads. We're very excited. I encourage all of you guys to start a podcast yourself and spread the message of recovery. I use an app called anchor and anchors free anchor has creation tools that allow you to record and edit your own podcast right from your phone to computer and anchor will also distribute your podcast to Apple and Spotify and Major platforms you can make money from your podcast and it's everything you need in one place download the free anchor app or go to Anka dot f m-- the get started. Thank you. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the so bestow podcast. Today's episode is part of a series. We're doing on Mental Health. I really think that there's a really big connection between mental health and substance abuse addiction. And mental health and overall health and mental health and the quality of life. And I just if it's the worst thing to suffer with depression sadness anxiety and mental health disorders are really tough and painful for the person that's experiencing these issues. So you have my compassion my heart's open. I suffered from mental health issues and I was really skilled that masking my sadness and depression my depression. Was more of a form of sadness. Like I was sad that I lost my girlfriend when I lost my girlfriend's I was sad when I may be lost a big a lot of money from a real estate deal. I was pissed off as a young man and a growth and an older gentleman when I because I lost my dad when I was young I was perpetually pissed at that because he was my best friend and I never talked about that to anyone my family and I we will always celebrate my dad dance light candles. We all missed him. We all love him. We still deal with it today and I was just particularly just pissed off and that was part of my sadness. It was just many different things that led me on my road to of addiction and literally if I didn't start to just make changes and love myself. I would have never been here today and I would not have been alive today. So, you know, I just am very thankful to God. I'm very thankful to my family and friends. I'm very thankful to the state of New York because the human resource Administration in New York really did a great job at helping us helping me and a lot of my friends that I knew in recovery really put the pieces of our lives back together from the ground up. So my addiction took me for you know out of college. I was making a lot of money. I had a really good job. And I was really doing well and I you know, my addiction took me from just a high place to a low Place really fast and at the end of that tunnel the only promise that alcohol gave me was poor health poor mental health a bad liver and bankruptcy and no money and no options. So I literally can say from a first-hand experience that there's no promise that alcohol or drugs to ever give Stats real and my spiritual world. We look at that as a thing from the devil. We look at it as something that's evil. We don't look at it as something that's promising. And anyway, I don't want I don't Advocate any positive benefits of doing drugs and alcohol and my personal experience. I just would say this if you're a person that could drink without any issues and you don't have any addiction issues than that. That's fine. This is this message is not particularly for you. Because it's not fair we deserve as don't podcast. We do promote a Live and Let Live wife. So I'm not trying to not anyone's lifestyle choices, but for the ones for us that's really have struggled with addiction issues and we need to drink every day to feel better and we self-medicate and we do drugs and alcohol to self-medicate because we're sad depressed and we're dealing with some form of mental health issue in the background. I think that that's just a recipe for disaster. I'm definitely sharing my story and I just definitely want to encourage anyone out there to definitely you know, don't go It Alone don't suffer alone. So today we're talking ladies and gentlemen about the sty Mia which is classified as a mood disorder and DSM-5 re-categorized this re-categorized the name from the sty Mia to persistent depressive. Order and it's part of a mood disorder. Also consider a depressive disorder it until it constitutes a depressed mood for most of the day four more days than not as indicated by subjective account or observation by others for at least two years. So if you're someone that has been really in the dumps and really depressed and down for a minimum of two years or more and this me. Things like you literally could go to work you literally, you know seem normal, but you really, you know, met someone may have witnessed this, you know, you may be extremely irritable or seem a lot different than you used to be. You know, you know, sometimes people may you know ask you how are you or are you sure you're okay just seemed a little bit down and we tend to say I'm fine. I'm good. Just a little stressed out life is you know a lot. I'm very busy a lot going on. We're all very good at kind of deflecting but the truth is if you're really if you're really suffering for a long period of time this particular disorder can be something you're dealing with and for me, I literally know for a fact it was a it was a year after year thing where I really wasn't happy and I wasn't living the life that I wanted to live the life that I really wanted to live was a life of spiritual alignment optimal. Health monetary abundance and and and happiness and being in alignment with my spiritual spirituality feeling like I was in a good place with God and feeling like I was contributed contributing properly to society my family and my friends and I feel like I was living up to beat a man that I my father expected me to be my Earthly father heavenly father and just living up to who I was supposed to be And when I was depressed and sad and constantly drinking I was totally not living up to that and that led to chronic depression for me because I was upset with myself and I had to stop the pity party and really start to do the work and address the issues that needed to be addressed in order to get to the next level. So that's for me but for you and maybe something different. So let's really on this episode while you're listening today. If you know someone that may be struggling with long-term sadness or depression. No, this episode could be for them. If you are someone that struggling with sadness and depression and you don't know how it where to put this these feelings and you know, this episode is for you and maybe you know, the intention of this episode is to really start the dialogue and maybe to have some form of a breakthrough even if that means that today is the first day that you call someone up that you love and say Hey, you know, I'm not sure but lately I've been a little Bit sad and I just want to talk to someone about it, you know because depression and mental health is a real issue and we should not suffer alone presence while depressed of two or more of the following if you're suffering from a poor appetite or overeating this could this may be a symptom of the sty Mia insomnia meaning that you cannot sleep at all you tend to stay up all night or hypersomnia. Meaning that Um you tend to lay in bed all day or you want to do is sleep past eight hours. You can sleep for 8 hours get up and you just want to go back to bed for me. My depression was was crazy because I used to drink at when it really got bad. I would I knew I was so depressing disappointed with myself that I used to drink a lot of hard liquor in the fastest amount of time as possible to knock me out again, so I would get up Up and within another within two hours. I will be knocked out again and I will be sleeping for another five or six hours and I would get up drink two hour and a half two hours knocked out again. I did that consistently because I was hypersomnia. I was hypersomnia. Like I didn't really want to I just need I just literally needed to sleep. I didn't want to be awake. I just wanted to drink until I couldn't do anything and that was it and then I was all I would always. Cup and I will always feel bad and but I was always in the back of my mind trying to figure out a way out and I figured if I was sleeping I wasn't hurting anyone and it was just a sad cycle man. I don't think anyone need none of us need to go through that and that's why it's very important that we talk about this we deal with mental health. I mean, there's people out there who suffer from insomnia or hypersomnia and they deal with that differently a lot of us self-medicate a lot. And it's all unhealthy and it leads to a really bad place and for me it almost led to Suicidal Tendencies. And that was kind of when I got to the point where I said, no, you know, this is way too far removed from my comfort zone. This is not me and I started to try to get the help. I don't want anyone to go too far off the deep end where you're hurting yourself. So let's keep that in mind. Another symptom may be low self-esteem like you really feel down about yourself. You really feel bad, you know, no matter how Pretty you get dressed or how nice you look if you're a guy you tend to just feel down. You know, you don't feel like a hundred percent. You don't feel hot anymore. This could this could you know, low self-esteem is really a powerful issue Paul concentration or difficulty making decisions. All right, if you struggle from concentrating or your very indecisive this can be a symptom of the sty Mia which is low. Address long-term depressive disorder feelings of hopelessness. Like there's no way out. There's no there's no way I can really get through this. There's no way I could turn my life around. There's no hope why if you're suffering with that and you're on that level, you know, this can be an issue that you may be dealing with during the two-year period of the disturbance. The person has never been without symptoms from the above two. Areas, for more than two months at a time. So within the last two years action self, you know have I've been dealing with you know have I had issues with overeating a poor eating where insomnia or hypersomnia was have I experienced lower energy of fatigue, you know that my dealing with low self-esteem and poor concentration difficulty making decisions or feelings of hopelessness. During the two-year period of that of dealing with your depression, you know, you want to make sure you never been without these symptoms for more than two months at a time. So it's possible that you know, you may have a period of two months with things may feel normal, but then you know you make you can't get back to a place where oh you start experiencing these issues again. So sometimes we need feel like it's not long-term. Sighs it may be short periods where you feel better, but if you find yourself gravitating back into these moods than you may be suffering from this time Mia. Okay. They also say that in this case there has never been a manic episode of mixed episode or hypomanic episode in a criteria is cyclothymia has never been met. Well address cyclothymia later. The disturbance is not due to the direct. Rex physiological effects of a substance example giving a drug or a drug or abuse or medication or general medical condition. So meaning that if you're in most cases this issue wouldn't be caused by an addiction, you know, it can lead to an addiction that's different. But you know, generally you being in, you know, this would be like something that you just naturally dealing with, you know, because you're naturally sad and depressed for some So keep that in mind the symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment and important areas of functioning. All right, so ladies and gentlemen, this disorder is extremely serious and I just want to I just want to really, you know, I have to urge again to I have to say this to you guys. I really want to make sure Sure, you guys are really safe. I don't want anyone, you know self diagnosing them as their selves and not seek medical advice. This is just to give us kind of a blueprint in the shed light on the many different forms of mental illness out there. Like, you know, you have many forms of mental illness. So also I want to say this people report that nothing will get you excited with this type of disorder like you you like if you Things they like for example, if you used to get excited about watching a specific sport, like you're a football person and you love football and out of nowhere you just lose interest and you don't care no more. You just like I don't want to do it. I don't care. I don't care about anything screw my team. I don't want to watch football or if you're a person that used to love ballet and you just fall out of it. This can be another indication because people report that that you know, they would just fall out of love for things and they won't get excited about things that they really used to love and really used to like and for me that was the case when I was struggling, you know, I love martial arts. I love health. I love God, I love spirituality. I love food, you know, I love health and none of those things used to get me excited. The only thing that got me excited was Brandy hard liquor and beer and the problem with that was that wasn't me. So people who knew me was like it has to be something off with pop because you know, he was always a jubilant good guy, but he was always his into health and all of the stuff and this stuff excites him. And as you as I recovered ladies and gentlemen, and as you all know part of the monkey Alan Community to serve as though Community, I'm really excited about how if I love it. You know, I'm reading the book by Dave asprey now superhuman the bulletproof diet. I got I have my book from dr. Michael Greger how not to die, you know from my plant based Community. I'm just like really like studying health and nutrition. I'm into meditation. I'm into a you know, I'm losing weight. I'm finding all this energy. So I'm back to my original Self and now could be, you know, really honest to myself and I can really get back to a safe place, but it's important to state that most high functioning people. That's dealing with this form of high-functioning depression. You know, you really feel down for long periods of time. So just ask yourself. Am I someone who hasn't been myself for the last two years, you know for the last two years and my really down because the only person I can really answer. These questions properly is you and you have to be honest. Alright, another thing about most psychologists and most people in the medical community to get frustrated. They say that the sty Mia or persistent depressive disorder goes undiagnosed for years. And I think that's because most people who suffer from long term depression, especially long-term low-grade depression. Meaning that it's not categorized as a major form of depression depression. It kind of you know, you're you're able to hide function, you know, most people was really depressed. In other categories can't go to work. They can't go to school. They can't function. Function, you know, but a high-functioning depressive person, you know you go Regal you could be the president United States and you know be suffering and secrecy and really not really know that you need to get a diagnosis. So kind of like be honest with yourselves and go get Percy professional help and it's also hard to recognize the let when was the last time you felt good. So it was hard to recognize the last period of time you felt good. So most people who suffer from this time Iya you ask them. When was the last time you felt good, and honestly, they could say I don't remember someone else who's dealing with another form of depression could say well. I remember feeling good at a period of time, maybe two years ago three years ago, maybe two years ago when I was at that other job. I remember that was a happy moment for someone who may be dealing with this low-grade long-term persistent depressive disorder. They may say I can't remember when the last time I was really happy. See, I can't remember the last time I wasn't sad or depressed. So keep that in mind. You may contact they may be some issues with recollection with this type of disorder. Ladies and gentlemen, so I'm going to leave you there. That's all my notes. All right, if you're out there and you're someone that feels like you have a low-hanging Cloud over your head and lately. You've been very negative. You feel like, you know, you can't function. You just upset with life and you kind of angry and frustrated. This disorder could definitely be something that you're suffering with. If you notice these symptoms are present in someone like that. You love definitely try to get them the help that they need or maybe make a kind suggestion at they see a mental health professional some real quick real quick. I want to go over a few more notes another I won again if you have a loss. Loss of Interest which they call anhedonia that's a term anhedonia loss of interest for things you used to like this could be something that you're suffering with like we spoke about loss of appetite loss of sleep or want to sleep all day. And now this is important for kids the stymie or persistent depressive disorder or high-functioning depression. It may manifest a little bit differently. So for adults and made manifest as loss of Interest Is loss of appetite lack of sleep and stuff but in children it manifests as chronic irritability and symptoms that may mimic or look like ADHD and the child which anyone under 18 is considered a child. They may say things like I'm just frustrated. I'm just frustrated and they may be having really symptoms of irritability anger at school. They may be getting into fights. They may be a lot more disruptive and aggressive and they may use the term. I'm frustrated. I'm angry and I don't know why you're just leave me alone, or I'm fine and they met your sofa parents out there and family who has young teenagers and kids and maybe younger, you know to a kid people in the Adolescent age for 18 years and under you know, the you made you can't also suffer from persistent depressive disorder you made you can also be a high-functioning. Then depress it that the you may be suffering from high function and depression and you can be suffering from dysthymia. So ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to cut to a few motivational clips and then we're going to go to seven signs of high functioning depression and we're going to wrap this episode. I love you guys. I'm your host pop. You can and you listening to the soap is dope podcast. Remember we do not have to go It Alone. In dealing with recovery or addiction we don't have to go it alone when dealing with mental health and depression and sadness and we can ladies and gentlemen kill we can't get the help that we need. All right, if you're suffering from depression start it starts with you being honest with yourself communicating it to someone you love seeking medical attention looking into medication as an In looking into other forms of therapy. All right, I'm gonna die. We all here at the so bestow Community. We have many members who suffer with mental health issues including myself and this is mental health awareness month. I want to I want to wreak at a garage that as mental health awareness year. Let's close out 2019. We're doing everything we can to bring as much like to mental health awareness as possible because too many people I love are suffering from this and it makes me sad. To see other people sad and I think it's a stigma there and I think it's not enough realistic people talking about this and I think a lot of people are trying now and this book is getting into the popular audience and it's good, you know, people are starting to really talk about this but I really want to be I want to join the fight. I'm on the front lines with you guys and I just literally like if you're out there and you're sad man, do not suffer by yourself because you're not alone and that's the one thing I didn't. Yet you're not alone as millions of us your human being we're on the planet Earth. We're in the middle of the Milky Way floating at the speed of light things happen. We lose friends friends died loved ones die people may break up with you. You know, you may not understand how you you know, what's going on with you chemically, you know where biological creatures we change we have hormones, you know, environmental factors can lead to depression, you know, the things that we use the it's that we inhale the products that we put on our skin of foods that we eat. You know GMOs, there's links between GMOs glice of Faith or to pesticide that's on our vegetables leading to some form of depression. There's this this information out there the the your environment can dictate your epigenetic expression. So your thoughts the thoughts that you use how you think about yourself how you perceive the world, you know, you're Relationships to people around you, you know are you know what you're smoking what you're drinking what you're thinking the inputs and outputs. It all goes in cohesively together. It comes together and it leads us to either be happy and not healthy or not and we can't adjust the make radical changes in the now to get to the next level. So you're not alone. Right? So if you're suffering from depression, this is a good start now another thing I want to say before I go you can find me on Instagram. At popu Cannon at sobers dope and at monk healing that's the same thing for Twitter, right? You could go to pop you can't and.net find out more information about me personally. All right, and you could go you can find me on iTunes Spotify any place that Park I just Google soap is dope. I'm everywhere reach out to me if you're suffering from mental illness depression or sadness because I listened to you and we can start They're right. So if you don't know anyone else that you can really express your emotions to try Pop, you know, just say hey Pop. I heard your podcast and I think I'm suffering and I just want to tell you what I'm going through. I'll listen. I read I read whatever you send me and then maybe we could work on a plan together. Maybe we could, you know, figure out a course of action, but don't suffer alone. All right, ladies and gentlemen again. I love you all. I'll catch you soon. Many psychologists associate high-functioning depression with persistent depressive disorder, which is a prolonged state of depression those with high functioning depression may not feel as helpless as those with clinical depression. But their depression does affect tremendously their quality of life. It minimizes their interest in everything including social events with friends and family high functioning depressives will go to school or work and socialize when necessary but once they're done with their responsibilities, they'll withdraw themselves. Here are seven signs. You may have high functioning. depression number one you're concerned with time. Although you're achieving your goals and completing all your tasks. You feel like you're wasting your time. Even if you find a new hobby or job. It still feels like a Fool's errand and you wonder if all the time you're investing into such activities are worth it. Number two, you constantly criticize yourself because you feel like you're not achieving much you criticize yourself. Your expectations are too high. So you push yourself to the Limit affecting your state of mind. Number three you overthink. It doesn't matter if a situation is big or small will find yourself overthinking it and eventually breaking down. Number four you feel misunderstood since most high functioning depressives can maintain a job a house and the responsibilities people underestimate how much anguish they're going through minimizing their feelings simply because they don't act like the typical depressed person. Number five you feel saddened. It's normal to feel sad from time to time. But if you're sad or numb most of the time even while participating in fun activities, you may be suffering from high functioning depression. Number six you have unhealthy coping strategies since you overwork yourself, you may lean towards drugs or alcohol to deal with stressful situations many high-functioning depressives turn to self-destructive habits to clear their minds. Number 7 you have excessive pastimes along with any unhealthy coping habits. You have you may also find yourself constantly gaming or binge watching TV series among other things. Although these activities seem normal. The problem is you're actually using them to escape reality. Hi functioning. Depression is difficult to notice because those who suffer from it are still able to continue with their responsibilities, since they don't act like the typical depressive person. They believe that they're truly okay, but in reality, it's not okay to live life feeling numb sad and constantly criticizing yourself. If you do have high functioning depression try to find the root of it only by doing. So can you truly live happily? Hello ladies? Gentlemen, welcome back. I want to thank site to go for that. Excellent summary of seven signs that you may be dealing with high-functioning depression. So before I let you guys go, I just want to thank you all for your patience. I want to thank everyone in the soap is dope Universe. I want to send a special shout-out to my friend taneja and her company protect your mental and once I get a link from harm upon Put a Time added to the show notes. This is a young lady who has been very vocal about her mental health and she's put herself out there and she put herself on the front line as she's bringing a witness to mental health in a very creative way and she's using herself as an example. So, you know, she's like family to us. We call her tiny, but to the world a noise to Nation to Nation. Thank you for your work. In the mental health field and we wish you luck or your mental health journey, and I love your company protect. Your mental I think is very clever and ladies and gentlemen, I urge you to protect your men to and I will add her company so you can pick up some of her shirts to the show notes. I would like to also thank my friend Erica Erica. We recently met on Instagram you reached out to me. So if you're listening to this, I know you overcame a lot of mental health issues and your story is very very very very important to me and it gave me inspiration. So I just wanted to thank you. Like I tell you online you a goddess keep it to go work up and I can't wait to share your story on this mental health series and we're good. We got a lot of work to do. Shout out to everyone in the soap is dope Universe. Thank you for everyone who recently left the really beautiful. Reviews on iTunes. I love every one of you guys so if you have an iPhone out there ladies and Gentlemen, please leave a review for the soap as though podcast. It helps us get in front of more people. It helps our visibility so we can help more people. So moving along his some creative ways ladies and gentlemen, you could cope with hot being having high function no depression. So if you are suffering, And any of these things in this podcast remind you of yourself, please, you know, here we go. First thing I want to say is don't sleep on getting medical help and I want you all if you are struggling to seek proper medical advice don't use anything that I'm saying here as a replacement for actual expert advice. So try to find go to your look. Position your local physician whoever your doctor is and try to have them prescribed prescribed and recommend actual hit and psychotherapist or someone that can actually help you. All right, so that that being said that's very very important. Secondly, I would like to say that medication is extremely important. Okay pharmacotherapy is extremely important because sometimes we can use for Michael therapy and medication and conjunction with behavioral-based Psychotherapy at cognitive behavioral therapy. So, you know therapists are very important, you know in my case being able to go to group having a therapist having a psychiatrist being able to take medication for that little six months really got me back on track. So I recommend that you look into those Avenues. Also another thing that can help me. Ladies and gentlemen is get organized. Okay. So for people like us who are high functional who get depressed we tend to be very forgetful and we tend to not to be able to remember dates and sometime appointments and you know that can be an issue for us. So getting organized kind of helped us structure our lives. So I urge you guys to write everything down write everything down making a gender for yourself write down important days. When's your appointment? When's your next? Oil change when you have to go back to the dentist, when's your next doctor's appointment weekly agendas, you know monthly agendas agendas, you know when specific bills need to be paid, you know get organized. So write and write everything down make yourself an agenda that can really help you get ahead of, you know, the forgetfulness and stuff like that. Also home organization is very important extra clutter interfere. Fears with you know, our general organization goals. So put things in this prospective place, you know, really organize your bedrooms, you know, make sure your shoes are in the proper place put your t-shirts in the t-shirts drawers, you know your underwear with a supposed to be hang up all your jackets your colds. Make sure it's no extra clutter give away things that you don't need declutter your space because there's a correlation between the clutter in your mind and the Clutter Our environment so by clearing out a lot of junk you will feel more free and more exposure more energized to be able to express yourself. So get rid of a lot of a clutter cleanup give away your jump start over, you know and get organized. All right, another way that another thing that can help is socialization and hobbies. Okay being high functionally depressed we tend to isolate ourselves. So it is a real issue one way to get over. This is find something that you're passionate about and take a class in it. So let's say you're interested in boxing take a box and class. You're gonna be learning something new while you're meeting new people and that's for anything. I mean if it's martial arts take a martial arts class if it's painting drawing singing dancing anything that may Peak your interest and may bring curiosity and creativity back in your life. Try to take a class. Socialize more, you know call up your friends and my case. I'm naturally isolated. I'm naturally reclusive that's my nature, but I have to really force myself to be so sure. I really do and I have to work on it. So I'm gonna take my own advice and call up some of my best friends have so many best friends. I've so many people that love me and I love them, but I have to stop being a little hermit and start going out and seeing people more and I urge you to self-care. All right. Dealing with high functional depression. We tend to have zero energy at times or be very drained. All right. So I would say self-care is really Paramount for me. Okay, believe it or not getting sleep. I say it again. And again, I'm a high proponent for optimal sleep habits. Get sleep. All right, ladies and gentlemen, drink a lot of water studies show that high proper hydration can help with brain health. Okay one advice I would have is you know, Hi looking into a high-fat diet. All right, look into the book bulletproof diet by Dave asprey that book will give you a lot of real bang for your buck as far as mental health and diet and nutrition because there are a lot of reports that a high-fat diet can help with brain help because our brain is mostly fat and it and you know, so a lot of hydration a lot of healthy fats can help. With our brain power in our brain health array reducing sugar also and glucose can also help with reduce symptoms of depression. This is also something you guys could go online and research. All right, so by minimizing your sugar and getting healthier and drinking more water and increasing healthy fats, you kind of reverse some of the negative effects of poor eating habits and you can kind of bring back, you know, can you give some energy to your mitochondria and your cellular environment or right? So we are in mitochondria gives ATP power and ATP is what powers our mitochondria or in fat helps the energy and blah blah blah. So ladies and gentlemen, you know, I'm not going to turn this into a nutrition course, but this help me, you know, I have my Bulletproof Coffee. I have a lot of avocado. I'll eat a lot of coconut oil. I exercise I drink a lot of water. I'm mainly plant-based. I eat a lot of beans and green vegetables and my move Overnight changes. Okay then so that's my thing. Also using a lawn clock so you could get into a regular sleep pattern. So you want to aim the go to sleep at the same time every night and the and the wake up at the same time every morning and you want to kind of stick to a consistent schedule of sleep and that will help your overall move. Okay, watch out for distractions because we tend to you know, No, I don't mean watch forgive me. I'm sorry I'm saying watch out for over thinking. Okay. So how we counter overthinking is by finding creative ways to create distractions. So what does that mean? Sometimes we have to get out of our heads ladies and gentlemen, so I urge you to take long walks, you know find a bunch of different Hobbies, you know, find a bunch of things. You could do start a podcast about anything. It could be a subject that you love start a blog, you know. Something start a side business if there's a term that we used to be that we use in our sobriety that busy tames the Beast busy tames the Beast busy tames the Beast so idle mind is the Devil's Playground, right? So busy tames to be so, you know, if you stay busy and you stay distracted from your own mind and overthinking it can help it can help create another dimension in your health and your mental health and make your life a little bit more easy. Okay. My lastly exercise ladies and gentlemen, we all know this. Okay. So I will you know lift a little bit of weight walk every day after you eat, you know, do a little light Jog and a little crunches if you if you if you want to do something less less intense, but still beneficial study some Thai Chief study some chi gong study some yoga get into meditation get into breathing practices. Just create Different things I would say use all of these tools as one big form of therapy in conjunction with seeing your doctor and getting the proper medication that you may need also smart supplementation. Ladies and gentlemen, this is very important. We all should be taken our daily requirement of vitamins and supplements that help with our overall mental health. So everyone should be taken a good healthy a good high quality multivitamin. Okay the company pure PU. Ure pure encapsulations they have a very good one day multivitamin. Okay. So look into that me I find that if I take a certain level of vitamin D and Omega 3 fish oil with EPA and DHA that tends to help me out a lot to also take a zinc tends to help it helps with my nervous system and rebuilding our nervous system and making me stronger on the inside and just being mindful of your base vitamins the B vitamins because Plagues making sure you have enough iron. So look get a blood test. Ask the doctor to give you a full battery and see where you may be deficient some time where deficient in some vital minerals and nutrients that may be the X Factor in our mental health or right but also always consult with a physician before making any drastic help changes to your life and diet you also we urge you to have a good rapport with your doctor. Okay, because Has your doctor if he understands your diet, he understands your health needs. He understands your blood. He your blood work, you know, he could recommend you with the right psychotherapist. So you want a good rapport with your doctor yet that doctors have a good rapport with your psychotherapist. So they could communicate effectively back and forth so you can have a real good chance of having a better diagnosis, right? Lastly and I always say lastly. So forgive me. I'm long-winded greater self awareness self understanding and flexibility of thinking is very important. All right statistics show that grabbing greater self awareness of yourself your likes your dislikes. What makes you tick what doesn't it helps goes along and help go a long way, right? And so definitely keep that in mind and ladies and gentlemen, because this is very important. And some other things proactively manage your stress we talked about that practice yoga meditation counseling and therapy. We know that's Paramount. That's at the top of our list stay socially engaged eat to support your mental health a correct diet can make all the difference on your mental health find what works for you and live a balanced lifestyle, um using aromatherapy. So what I've been using lately because there is a study for high-end. Brain activity if you use the essential oil Cyprus, it smells like Pine-Sol. If you not around a lot of pine trees and you can't spend more time in nature this kind of tricks your brain and makes you and put you in nature. So when I'm in my car spray the essential oil Cypress and it reminds me of walking in a Pine Forest and we know walking in the pine forests or walking outside and nature and being a lot around a lot of trees helps our mental health and our oxygenation and stuff like that. So that's a little bio. Peppermint lavender Cypress, these essential oils are has been known to decrease depression in a lot of ways. Okay neutral nutrients and herbs, you know, check your local physician. Check your home local Homeopathy. You don't get Nate. Yeah medicine doctor and try to get herbs and stuff that helps support your overall health ladies and gentlemen, and last but not least make sure you get a good. Behavioral-based psychotherapist a cognitive behavior psychotherapist don't sleep on talk the talk therapy groups farmer pharmacotherapy. If you put use all of these in conjunction, they can help they can help Target symptoms of depression and high-functioning depression. So ladies and gentlemen, that's my take and these are the tools that I think we could use to cope. These are the tools that I use and I hope they can work. You I love you. All right. This is mental health awareness month mental health awareness years or the soba is don't podcast is making meth mental health awareness of thing for the rest of the year going all the way to the end of 2020. This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna work on this subject together. Anyone that comes across as podcast. We are gonna work on this together. I don't care what it takes. I put some links in the show notes to her. Hot lines that you could call check out our episode about suicide prevention and suicide prevention awareness. We have a bunch of hum resources in there. If you're suffering from depression and possible suicide. We want everyone to live. We want everyone to make it. I'm your host pop. You can and you're listening to the soap as though podcast. I love you all less Hill together and let's put our Mental Health First. I love you so much. I catch you on the other side. Will you hold the line and every one of them is giving up and giving in town in this house of mine. Nothing ever comes out a consequence of cost helmet. Well the stars align whatever step B. Will it save us from us? It has a mind since wrong. That's the price you pay. The edge face up cos you right now? Will somebody let me see the light of day in the dark trees shadowing what's happening look through the glass found the wrong with in the past knowing we are without the piece facing a bitter truth the truth. Deep sigh me I'm faded. Like I'm fading to connote by the blood of my head won't break E. I can taste it e in his bonus ass, we're gonna make it.
Welcome to the “Sober is Dope” Podcast with your host, POP Buchanan. This episode is part of our Mental Health series. In this episode we cover Persistent Depressive Disorder, commonly known as “Dysthymia”. Dysthymia is described as “High Functioning Depression.” According to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Statistical Manual), Dysthymia is known as chronic depression, because the primary feature of persistent depressive disorder is a depressed mood that doesn’t go away over a long period of time. The essential feature of persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia) is a depressed mood that occurs for most of the day, for more days than not, for at least 2 years (at least 1 year for children and adolescents). Symptoms of Chronic Depression This disorder represents a consolidation of DSM-IV-defined chronic major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder. Major depression may precede persistent depressive disorder, and major depressive episodes may occur during persistent depressive disorder. Individuals whose symptoms meet major depressive disorder criteria for 2 years should be given a diagnosis of persistent depressive disorder as well as major depressive disorder. Individuals with persistent depressive disorder describe their mood as sad or “down in the dumps.” During periods of depressed mood, at least two of the following six symptoms from are present:  * Poor appetite or overeating * Insomnia or hypersomnia * Low energy or fatigue * Low self-esteem * Poor concentration or difficulty making decisions * Feelings of hopelessness  Because these symptoms have become a part of the individual’s day-to-day experience, particularly in the case of early onset (e.g., “I’ve always been this way”), they may not be reported unless the individual is directly prompted. During the 2-year period (1 year for children or adolescents), any symptom-free intervals last no longer than two months. In children and adolescents, their mood may also be marked by increased and significant irritability for a year or longer. Free National Helpline  SAMHSA’s National Helpline – 1-800-662-HELP (4357)  SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. 7 signs you may have high functioning depression by Psych2GO Video- https://youtu.be/vbEL_zQH46w  6 ways to cope with high functioning depression by Psych2Go  Video- https://youtu.be/c_gqTkwiGys  Intro by Rich Wilkerson Jr - Are you Ok? Video - https://youtu.be/c_gqTkwiGys  ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 