Mental Health America (MHA) is the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and to promoting the overall mental health of all Americans. I love MHA because it founded Mental Health Awareness Month back in 1949 which is recognized every May!
I can’t believe I am just now finding out that Mental Health America has podcasts on mental health! Anyway, I want to spread and share the positive impact that these Mental Health Podcasts have given me. They’ve also helped me feel less alone on my mental health journey as a struggling college student.
Mental Health America’s In the Open Podcast is a resource that I highly value. I value it because, in a sense, I am able to build community through listening to different discussions on topics of mental health that are led by America and Theresa. I’ve listened to one of their podcasts titled, “My Brain Doesn’t Work Anymore.” My feelings were validated immediately and throughout the entire podcast. Some of the key points I took from this podcast are highlighted below, followed by some of my own personal experiences.
“We get to a place where we feel like our brains and energies are completely spent.”
Indeed this is true. Think about our social battery or energy, it drains eventually and needs to be recharged one way or another. There are such things as stages of burnout as well, which can further lead to detrimental states of exhaustion. It’s important to ask ourselves: How am I doing mentally? Am I emotionally, physically, and mentally spent? Where can I go from here? After getting to a place where my brain and energy were completely spent, I realized that when I pour too much out of my cup, I’m left with one little droplet of water. To put that into the bigger picture, that’s like me being dehydrated in general. I also tend to get headaches and bad migraines that eventually require me to take pain killers just to get rid of the overbearing feeling.
“My brain overworked itself so much that it kind of just shut down.” “When I get overloaded my body starts to react.”
About two weeks ago, I hit a point where my brain and body kind of just gave out due to some unusual headache. It was almost as if something was blocking my brain and my head had felt so heavy that I just couldn’t concentrate, so I took a break from schoolwork completely and decided to rest instead. This resting period helped me in the long run, I definitely needed it.
“It’s more than overwhelmed, it’s my brain’s capacity to process, think, remember, take in information, a process that information, make a cohesive sounding sentence…is too much.”
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had brain fog this semester, it’s bad. It’s not something to be proud of and I’m realizing I may have been overworking myself to the maximum. There were points where I was even speaking and it didn’t make sense at all.
“The brain is like, ‘You literally cannot force me to exercise anymore, it’s like the version of a muscle spasm.’”
I can literally attest to this because I’ve experienced muscle spasms before, not in my brain, but this is how I would best describe my brain’s inability to work any longer after working for long periods of time.
“You got to do something to get your brain moving, thinking, and processing.”
When my brain gives up on any mental work, I always declutter or clean my room little by little. Since this is a task that I can actually do effortlessly, my brain loves to think of it as a small accomplishment and I feel so much better afterward.
“So I think the first thing everybody needs and what your brain needs is sleep. You need rest, your brain is a muscle, it can only work so hard and that’s why sleep is so essential.”
Sleep is a life savior, literally!!! Any chance I get to sleep, I take it.
“I just want silence because that helps me just kind of center my thoughts enough that I can 1) get to a place where I am resting my brain from having to process information and then 2) maybe it gets me relaxed enough where I can fall asleep cause it’s tied together.”
I absolutely love silence when I’m stressed. I realized that when I’m going through a mix of emotions that silence helps me stay grounded because I tend to get irritated easily when in a noisy environment. Silence can do wonders when feeling overwhelmed. It’s a part of mindfulness!
“One of the things that I take away from this is also an ability to tell people, ‘I can’t. I can’t do this today. Not today, maybe tomorrow.’”
We all reach a limit where we can’t be there for others and must save ourselves. So, make sure to express that with others and be assertive about it. I know I have been.
“Yes, you need to say no. After taking enough sleep, you basically wake up from this space and you have a choice. You could go back to what you have to do and make your brain keep working hard or enjoy life and have a drink.” “I call those bad coping skills or ruminating is a bad coping skill. So it’s like, oh my brain works enough where I get to make these choices to go back to some old bad behaviors?”
When you’re in a detrimental state of mind, do not go back to any unhealthy coping skills, please. There are always healthier alternatives available and the unhealthy ones can only get you so far. Also, learn to forgive yourself with grace every day.
“The awareness piece is very important in this process. When you have the capacity to do it and really think about what led you to this space.”
Being aware of what added to the situation is really helpful when figuring out what you need. Monitoring our feelings can be used to stay aware because we are able to find stressors that way. When I monitor my feelings I write something down like an event or cause that was associated with the emotions at the time.
“If your brain breaks, it’s the ultimate red flag. You really have to pay attention. This is the point where your brain is telling you, you need to make some kind of change, you cannot keep scheduling the meetings, you cannot keep looking at this project and think that you’re somehow going to see it differently or finish it. You have to take that step back and help fix your brain and fix your whole body enough that you’re not going to be in a brain-breaking stage.” “It’s just too much every day, so you have to recognize that you’re not the only one and if need be, give yourself and give your people an opportunity to just be like ‘Yo, I can’t today. I can’t human today.”
This was the best thing I heard. When it comes to mental health, no one can really have the authority to say no to you when taking time off. So, if you ever find yourself in an alarming state of mind, tell people that YOU, as a person, matter too. It’s okay to be selfish. You can only do so much and only you know your limit. Try not to give people access to you every minute of each day as well. You have every right to take your time in interacting with others until you are better.
“So, take it easy. Do what you can to help yourself. That’s all we can say.”
I echo America and Theresa when they say this. You must take it easy if your brain breaks and you are your best advocate and resource so make sure you speak up about it. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for taking time off. Do what YOU need to do in order to strive in YOUR mental health journey!