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The Holiday Special! Music, poetry, and Nerd Alerts · Millennial Mental Health Channel

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  Merry Christmas everyone. We hear at MMHC like to take a break around Christmas
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  so we can focus on being with family and enjoying the end of the year.
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  We've got a lot of really exciting guests booked for next year, so
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  please stay with us and keep on listening. We're also releasing our collaboration with
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  the Discover More podcast in which Eddie and I are interviewed by the fantastic Benja
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  Kim, so please check that out. We also want to take some time
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  and thank the listeners. This year has brought about a lot of change for
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  us. The show is kind of blown up this year. At the end
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  of twenty twenty two, we're getting about ten times the downloads we were getting
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  at the beginning of the year, So big shout outs to Apple Music,
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  Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, and iHeartMedia, who's been a major part of that
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  growth. But mostly for today, we want to thank you the listeners.
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  Spotify rapt has told us that our show is in the top five percent of
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  the most shared podcasts globally. That tells us that word of mouth and personal
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  recommendations are a huge source of listeners for us. So if you've ever listened,
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  shared with a friend, shared our posts, or helped us in any
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  way. Thank you. We truly appreciate your support. So if you're new
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  to the show, welcome. Every year at Christmas I like to get out
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  my creative urges by doing a little Christmas concert. Although this year is not
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  all Christmas music, and I'm doing something a little bit different. I'm going
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  to try and do this all in one recorded take, so bear with me
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  here. Music for me has always been an important release. I remember when
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  I was about twelve years old, I had a conflict with the peer,
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  and to be quite honest with you, I really wanted to kick that kid
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  in the balls. But instead of acting on that energy, I wrote a
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  song about it that was aptly titled I Just want to kick him in the
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  balls. I think it went something like this, I just want to kick
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  him in the balls something like that. I can't remember the whole thing.
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  This is the first time I can remember using music as an outlet to process
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  strong emotions. Now, at the end of my rotations for residency, I
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  like to play for my patients. I like to start out with something they
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  know to draw them in, and then I like to switch to the songs
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  that I've written to show what's worked for me. I always emphasize that mental
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  health is so much more than just meds and therapy. It's about growth,
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  self exploration, crisis management, processing difficult memories, and so much more.
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  Music is how I have processed the difficulties that I've been through in my life.
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  My guitar has been like my therapist since I was fifteen years old,
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  over half my life. Now. I like to use music to get out
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  my sad emotions so I don't have to carry them around with me every day.
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  You might notice there's a hint of sadness in my music, and believe
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  me, I'm fine. This is just how I like to heal, and
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  I can't help but gravitate towards sad music. So everyone out they're listening,
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  I would encourage you to use your creative outlets. As people get older,
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  they tend to give up on those things that help them through when they were
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  young. They say, oh, that's kids stuff. Music, poetry,
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  drawing, painting, making, models, reading, writing. These are the
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  tools that help us better understand ourselves and the world around us, and help
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  us cope with that which we cannot understand. So in honor of Christmas.
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  I want to start off with my favorite Christmas song. Nothing helps me feel
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  warm and safe like Silent Night, Solent nightly night, Ohles Calm and less
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  bride radyngch move the ranchildly and so ten to ranby sleeping head and leapy he
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  sleepping head, the leaping sidelent nine oly nine Shamet's Queen and the side glowy
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  stream fromven a farm hevenly hort sing hard they Luisa cry the same, your
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  is bore horn cry the same, your is bore sideiding mind oly nine.
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  So a God and love pure life, wading and bea from bye Holy face.
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  We dawn the place geeesous love at my boo, geeesous love at thy
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  bo For me, Christmas has always been a happy time of the year.
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  Both my parents were able to take the day off. We woke up to
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  our favorite foods, presents under the tree, a roof over our heads,
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  music playing movies on in the background. My training in child psychiatry has taught
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  me that our experiences as kids shapes our perceptions of the world as adults.
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  I love Christmas because there are neural connections in my brain tying Christmas to family,
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  food, love, warmth, lights, gifts, music, and fun.
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  There are lots of people in the world that do not share the same
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  experience. For some, Christmas is tied to neural connections of fear, loneliness,
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  emptiness, disappointment, trauma, and cold. The holidays can be especially
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  hard, as oftentimes were reminded of those we have lost who can't be here
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  to celebrate with us. It's important to acknowledge that and to acknowledge them.
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  So even though this is not a Christmas song, it's a song about being
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  alone, missing the ones you love, feeling empty. Here's pink Floyds wish
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  you were here? So so you think you can tell heaven from he blue
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  skies from pain? Can you tell a green field, cold steal rail,
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  a smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell? Did they
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  get you to train your heros for ghosts, hot ashes for trees, hard
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  as for cool breaths, cold comfort? Change you exchange? Walk on part
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  in the ward lead bone cake, How how I wish you here? We're
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  just to our souls living in a fish fowl, year after year, running
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  over the same grounds. Have we fired? Shame o, fear, wish
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  you here. I always encourage people to surround themselves with friends and family during
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  the holidays. If that's not possible, consider volunteering somewhere or going to an
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  event that can stave off some of that loneliness. But some people just prefer
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  to be alone, and that's okay too, if that's what you truly want.
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  On the show a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I wrote
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  a song about needing some space and time alone. Every once in a while,
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  the job gets heavy and I find myself needing to take a break.
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  This happened the other day when a patient told me about some pretty immense trauma
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  that she'd been through. I was able to take a moment, or I
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  was able to be in the moment with her and help her heal. But
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  I needed time and space to heal after two so I stayed home and I
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  stayed in and I wrote this song. I hope you enjoy. I don't
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  want to speak today. Voices tired, pray, words for my mouth aren't
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  mine anyway. I just don't want to speak today. I don't want to
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  go nowhere to day. Feet are tired and my legs are in pain.
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  Everywhere I go, I seem to stay in the same place. I just
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  don't want to go nowhere to day. I will lift you up, my
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  friend, and I won't let you stop me. And every little piece I
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  give takes away my will to get myself, and I get lost. Never
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  thought to ask the cause getting down to skin and bone and I just need
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  some time aloholoholone. I just need some time alone. I'm not likely saw
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  the time about let up, and I let it out and run. Sometimes
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  it just leaks out. It's tears from my eyes. But I promise some
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  I'd like this so all the time. And I know I'm just a man,
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  and I got these plays make the world a loving place. I know
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  that I can, But I also know that I am just a man.
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  I will lift you up, my friend. I won't let your story in.
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  Every little piece I get takes away my will to get myself. When
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  I get lost, I never thought to ask because getting down skinham bone and
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  I just need some time lo loo. I just me sometime I'm a lone
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  and I can't explain just th aways been this way. I got to get
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  away, to get away, and I will lift you up, my friend,
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  and I won't let your story in every little piece I give takes away
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  my will to give myself when I get lost. Never thought to ask the
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  cart getting down the skin and bone. I just need some time a love,
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  oh love bo I just need Oh why Hi kneed? Oh why?
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  Just need some time alone. I think my introverts out there can identify with
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  that one. So music is definitely one of my outlets, But another one
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  is poetry. It feels like people don't think poetry is very cool these days.
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  Using words to paint pictures and describe feelings can be such a powerful way
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  to process the things that we've been through. I like including poetry in the
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  Christmas Special because there's a lot of really good Christmas poetry, more than just
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  towards the Night before Christmas, which I actually did do last year. From
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  a psychological perspective, I find Christmas kind of fascinating. It seems to me
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  like we've developed specific traditions to try and stave off seasonal depression during the darkest
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  part of the year. I don't think we develop these intentionally. I just
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  think these things have been have stuck because these are the things that help us
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  with our call active mental health. For example, we tend to eat a
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  lot of poultry during Christmas, like turkey and chicken, which is high and
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  tripped to fan, which is what our bodies used to make serotonin, one
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  of the neural hormones that repels depression. We surround ourselves with friends and family
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  during the coldest part of the year, when people tend to isolate and stay
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  in their homes. We sing joyful songs to put us in a good mood.
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  We bring Christmas trees indoors. There's been some evidence that shows that plants
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  being in nature, being around nature has Plants specifically have pheromones and sense that
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  can change our mood and reduce our stress levels. So I think it's interesting
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  that we bring Christmas trees indoors. We open gifts that give us a big
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  dose of dopamine release, and most importantly, we put lights on everything during
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  Christmas. When the earth becomes its darkest, humanity shines through little nerd alert
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  here. When we like to talk about brains. Light has a huge impact
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  on our mental health, and there's a lot of research currently going on about
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  this subject. But light alters the release of melatonin and serotonin in your brain,
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  actually changes our brain chemistry that's why light boxes have been specifically proven to
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  be a treatment for seasonal affective disorder. Here is a poem by Angela Wybrow
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  entitled Christmas Lights and I'm going to do it in an English accent because the
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  rhyme at the end of this poem doesn't really make sense unless you have an
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  English accents. I'm doing it just for the poem's sake. Houses are decked
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  with Christmas lights which brighten up the long winter nights. The colorful lights flicker
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  and flash, They fizz and whiz, They dance and they dash. Some
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  light up section by section, while others run in old directions, round and
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  round. Some of them race, seemingly hot in an endless chase. In
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  all directions, the colored lights flow. They brighten my mood with their gleeful
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  glow. There's red, blue, purple, yellow, and green. There
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  are different designs and different themes. Houses and gardens are beautifully beaming with Christmas
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  lights, so joyfully gleaming. The lights they give a welcome, so warm
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  they light the night from dusk until dawn. Merry Christmas from MMHC. Thank
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  you so much for listening, and a quick shout out to my family and
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  my wife, who are always the best parts of Christmas every single year.