EPISODE #144- Creating a Supportive Path to Emotional Wellness

Embark on a transformative journey with me, Tamera Trotter, as we unravel the true power of hope in overcoming anxiety and depression. Imagine waking up each day with a mindset ready to embrace challenges and redefine your narrative. This episode of "Win Over Depression" is your guide to building resilience and dedicating yourself to self-care. Through personal stories and expert insights, we explore practical strategies that empower you to manage mental health symptoms effectively and develop a growth mindset that turns setbacks into stepping stones.

Discover how proactive planning and critical thinking can become your best allies in the fight against depression. Together, we'll delve into the art of bouncing back from life's storms, using tools and techniques to minimize episodes of depression. Even when depression wins some days, equipping yourself with a robust support system, including accountability coaches, can ensure you continue moving forward. Join us as we redefine the battle against depression, encouraging a purposeful life filled with hope, resilience, and an unwavering belief in brighter tomorrows.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hello and welcome. To Win Over Depression, your beacon of hope in the realm of mental health. I am your host, tamara Trotter. I am your companion on the journey to reclaiming joy and resilience, and this podcast will unravel the vital importance of managing your well-being amidst life's challenges. From practical strategies to uplifting stories and expert advice, each episode is a roadmap to cultivating mental wellness and overcoming the grip of depression. Whether you are seeking solace for yourself or supporting a friend, here you will find the tools and inspiration to navigate the complexities of emotional health. Join me as we embark on a transformative quest to prioritize self-care, resilience and the triumph of the human spirit. Let's together redefine the narrative of depression and embrace a life of purpose.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Today, on when Over Depression, we'll be talking about hope as it relates to managing our symptoms of anxiety and depression. So let us first define what is hope. Hope represents the belief that change is possible and that a brighter future is achievable. Hope encourages individuals to envision a life beyond their current struggles, fostering motivation to take steps toward healing. Hope can be a powerful catalyst in overcoming and navigating your mental health symptoms. But guess what? You must be proactive every single day. You must be ready to meet and greet the day once you get up and decide that it is going to be a productive and fulfilling day. It is our mindset that helps us to make a conscious effort to overcome the circumstances and challenges that we face, and remember that we can never give up. Will depression win on some days? Absolutely, but when depression wins, go to sleep, wake up the next day and keep moving forward. By virtue of this disease, it will always have days when it wins. So when we know on days that we feel defeated, that's what it looks like, it gives us the power and the mental capacity to line up the next day for success.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Cultivating resilience is a key attitude in the fight against depression. Discussing strategies for bouncing back from setbacks, the importance of a growth mindset and stories of individuals who have built resilience through challenges is going to be inspiring. It's going to encourage you to realize that every single storm comes to an end. A storm cannot last for always. So maybe you're in a storm right now. Maybe you're not sure what your best next step should be. Sit down, write out a list of pros and cons and figure out how you can get through this storm and be able to bounce back.

Speaker 1: 4:21

There are always going to be setbacks in life. People cause us to have setbacks, circumstances cause us to have setbacks, unfair treatment causes us to have setbacks, but because we know that setbacks are inevitable. Therefore, we must equip ourselves with the tools and techniques that are going to help us not experience an episode of depression when we feel an episode is coming on. When we can utilize these techniques, we will see less and less symptoms on a monthly basis of depression. But we must arm ourselves with an arsenal that we have at our disposal so that when the sadness sets in, when the feel like giving up, when we feel suicidal, we have to think about the cost and all that we will lose if we sink into the quicksand. Now, the truth is, a lot of times, even though we know we're sinking, we cannot help but to fall deeper and deeper, and the smallest or slightest bit of activity seems insurmountable. It's during these times that we have to figure out what to do. One thing you can do is contact your accountability coach and let that person know know that you are experiencing an episode of depression coming on, and talk it through with that person so that you can put a game plan into place, because when we do not plan, the outcome that we're looking for is harder and harder to achieve. Please keep in mind that I still suffer from symptoms of depression myself, and it is, and has always been, a tough pill to swallow. So do not think for a moment that I believe that you can just turn around your circumstances instantly. That would be very difficult, but what I do know is that when we make a decision that we are going to focus on the positives and expect a positive outcome, then we have now set ourselves up to overcome whatever the situation is by 75%. 75% of our mindset and how we view a situation and our outlook is the most important aspect of getting through situations and circumstances. We need to remember how important it is to apply critical thinking. So you may be wondering how critical thinking plays a role in managing anxiety and depression. Well, it absolutely does, because it enables individuals me and you to evaluate our thoughts, beliefs and emotions more objectively.

Speaker 1: 8:19

When we feel negativity or negative thoughts entering our mind, we have to challenge these distorted thinking patterns and question the validity of the thoughts that we're feeling, and when we learn to do that, we can then learn to develop more balanced perspectives. Oftentimes, it is our mind that tells us these untruths. And until we can challenge whether or not something is true, we will start to believe it. Sometimes, when people get into arguments, they say things that they really don't mean. However, when you suffer with depression and anxiety, when you get into an argument, oftentimes you say to the other person beliefs and thoughts that you've had about that person that are not consistent or true. But because your mind has told you it's true, you tend to believe it. You it's true, you tend to believe it.

Speaker 1: 9:44

But that is why it is so important that we question the validity of our thoughts. You know, when we communicate with other people and just ask them the question, rather than making assumptions about their behavior, even if it's not consistent with what we believe to be true, at some point in time, when you are calmer and better thinking prevails, you will go back and think about what the person said and you will realize that you were wrong. But here's the thing so many people cannot admit when they are wrong. We are all flawed individuals. None of us have the answers to everything. None of us do the right thing all the time, but when we have the ability to acknowledge that we are wrong and we make amends with another person. That is how you effectively manage your mental health.

Speaker 1: 10:49

You should also be understanding your triggers. Sometimes there are triggers, sometimes there are not triggers, but when we use critical thinking, we have the opportunity and the ability to self-reflect, to think about what we said and whether or not we meant it, whether or not we believe it. But when we are self-aware, it leads to proactive strategies that help to manage and avoid these triggers. We should be growing every single day. When we are being proactive when it comes to managing our mental health, we should be growing. We shouldn't be having the same triggers and the same thoughts that we had last month. If we are not growing, then we are allowing our mental health to manage us. When we are not proactive and make that conscious effort to recognize when we need to make changes in our lives, we are not doing ourselves anything but a disservice, because we should all be growing every single day.

Speaker 1: 12:20

We are about to end 2024 and we're going to start a new year, and so if you were to look back on 2024 at the beginning of the year, up until now, how have you grown? Did you write down some aspirations or some goals for 2024? Think about it for a moment. Did you achieve the goals that you set for yourself? Even if you didn't reach every single goal, as long as you made some progress, then that is success. We really need to not be so hard on ourselves, because life and the day-to-day grind is not what it used to be. I feel like this world is a much scarier place. People just are not kind, and oftentimes people will see your kindness for weakness, and we have to be aware of how important it is to guard our heart.

Speaker 1: 13:40

My nephew just told me about a situation where he thought that someone represented some of the same ideals and principles that he did. However, unfortunately, he learned the hard way that that wasn't true and that's why he had a major setback. As a matter of fact, he said that the year started off going well and just something happened and it started going downhill. So remember that was a setback that we talked about earlier in this podcast. But when we have a setback and we allow the setback which in his case was another person when we allow another person to throw us off our game, to throw a wrench in the program, to cause us to doubt ourselves, that is where the danger lies, because people who suffer from anxiety and depression, it is much harder for us to make a comeback. So we must remember how important it is to guard our heart, and before we give our heart to someone else, we need to make sure that it is a reciprocal situation or relationship that is going to benefit us as much as the next person. So I don't want you to beat yourself up if you didn't get everything that you were looking for in 2024. You made some progress. You made some steps forward. No matter how small the steps were, it is still progress and it still counts toward a win. So get ready to write down some goals that you have for 2025. To write down some goals that you have for 2025.

Speaker 1: 15:38

And I've been pretty transparent about my new year's resolution, for about the five past years has been the same, and it is two words, and those words are do better. Do better emotionally, financially, socially, all of that. Just do better. Because when we do our best, put our best foot forward. That is all that anyone can ask of us. But we know when we're not putting forth the effort, when we're expecting a certain outcome, but we didn't do the legwork in order for that outcome to be what we expected. If we are trying to increase our finances and we put a plan in place but we don't execute that plan and then we become upset because the outcome wasn't what we expected, that's on us. We have to put in the effort, we have to decide.

Speaker 1: 16:44

I want my life to move to the next level. I know that I can do it. I am going to silence the naysayers who don't have faith in me, because those people aren't your friends anyway. We have to align ourselves with people who have our best interest at heart, and we should know what that looks like. Know what that looks like. So we're talking about hope, and everybody needs hope, because without hope, what do we have? If we don't feel like there's going to be a positive vision for the future, if we don't feel empowered, that we have what it takes to succeed, if we don't feel like, when we get up in the morning, that our life is worth living and that we're valued, then what's the point? We have to always have hope and we can never forget that joy will come in the morning. But you have to be here in the morning in order for joy to come.

Speaker 1: 17:58

So for your homework, I want you to write down Three things that you are hopeful about, and please don't tell me you don't have three things you're hopeful about. I want you to dig deep and figure out three things that you are hopeful about, and please do not take your life. Your life is worth living and it is valuable. If you do that, your friends and family will blame themselves and they won't understand what they could have done to save you. If you need to go back and listen to my other 143 episodes to get you through the night, then do that. If you need to call your accountability coach or partner and tell that person how you're feeling, do that, but do not take your life. Lay down, go to sleep and get up the next day and start again.

Speaker 1: 19:08

I never want to end my podcast without thanking you so very much for listening. You are the best part of win over depression and I appreciate all of you valuable listeners who have been listening to this podcast for the past four years. We will celebrate our fifth year in January, on January the 5th. I cannot thank you enough. Remember you can find me on TikTok and I have a class called the 14 Days to Mental Health Wellness. This class is going to help you get back on track. It is full of podcast episodes, positive affirmations, there's bonus material, there is a mood tracker and so much more.

Speaker 1: 19:57

Go to TikTok and look up 14 days to wellness or Tamara Trotter, t-a-m-e-r-a last name, t-r-o-t-t-e-r, and you will find TikTok. You can also like and subscribe to my YouTube channel, also called Win Over Depression. You can find me on Pinterest at TT Mental Health Expert. You can find me on Twitter. You can find me on Twitter, linkedin at Tamara Trotter. That's T-A-M-E-R-A-T-R-O-T-T-E-R. If you would like to support this podcast, please consider becoming a patron. You can go to wwwpatreoncom that's P-A-T-R-E-O-Ncom backslash Tamara Trotter, and as little as $10 to 15 dollars per month will allow this podcast to continue to grow. We have reached the international market and we are so excited about what 2025 will bring to win over depression. Remember, you are valuable, your life is worth living and we want to see you well, we want to see you prosperous. So just remember, giving up is never an option and we must always stay in the game of life. See you next Friday for another episode of Win Over Depression. Take care.