Latest / Voices for Voices® / Reclaiming Life While Battling Depression with Author Natalie Anne Brooks | Episode 419

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Reclaiming Life While Battling Depression with Author Natalie Anne Brooks | Episode 419 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:02
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Hey everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices.
• 0:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the show.
• 0:10
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We're grateful to have you with us, whether you're watching or listening, whether you're here in the United States or uh somewhere abroad, we are reaching over a hundred countries, thousand plus cities.
• 0:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, we have big goals to uh reach 3,000 cities and 300 countries, all to kind of turn into reaching and helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond.
• 0:41
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh again, uh I'm Justin Alan Hayes.
• 0:45
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: For those just tuning in the very first time, we're glad that you're you're with us.
• 0:50
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we do, we have uh a lot of episodes in our catalog.
• 0:55
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, so feel free after you watch and listen and uh purchase uh Natalie's book uh to go ahead and uh look look at some uh other episodes.
• 1:07
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And if you don't mind hitting the subscribe button, you know, the thumbs up, like, follow, share, all that great stuff would be helpful.
• 1:17
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So our guests are very excited uh to have with us uh on this episode.
• 1:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh she is a a mom, she is an author, she is a survivor uh of depression like myself, uh, where we are taking it day by day.
• 1:40
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And she uh was very brave and courageous and inspiring by putting all that together in a book that is titled Reclaim Your Life While Battling Depression.
• 1:56
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And I'm just gonna pull it up real quick before we get kind of into into things here.
• 2:04
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh this is where, as far as how it would look on you know Amazon where you can purchase.
• 2:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So here's the here's the cover.
• 2:15
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh reclaim your life while battling depression.
• 2:20
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, then there's a couple, a couple other views.
• 2:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And I just want to hone in on this very, very short uh paragraph here.
• 2:32
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: The in the quote, uh, the battle with depression can be painful, lonely, and confusing.
• 2:38
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Reclaim your life while battling depression provides the insight needed to better understand how to break free from its grasp and begin a healing journey.
• 2:51
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: End quote.
• 2:52
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, and I I couldn't agree more, uh, but I am going to stop doing most of the talking and welcome Natalie Ann Brooks to the show.
• 3:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 3:07
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, thank you.
• 3:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I'm so happy to be here.
• 3:10
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it is pretty crazy to be able to have or to be able to say now that I'm a published author and have a book that I can hold in my hands.
• 3:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Hello.
• 3:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Because I was able to turn a really difficult experience into something that will hopefully help lots of people because I know I know how painful and how difficult it can be to live with depression.
• 3:32
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I have seen so many other people really struggle.
• 3:36
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so I just really wanted to help help someone, to help someone not go through that same pain and be able to learn from the things that I learned.
• 3:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so I just dove into research and I had a big interest in psychology.
• 3:51
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I got my bachelor's degree in marriage and family studies, and there was a lot of psychology along with that, and I just put everything that I could into a book to try to help as many people as I can.
• 4:04
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Oh, that's awesome.
• 4:06
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, you know, helping people is really one of the most noble things that anybody can really do because a lot of the time, or not say a lot of the time, some of the time it can be kind of like a selfless uh gig for a while.
• 4:22
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: You know, we're we're we're helping people, some of that we know that we're helping, some we don't know who we're helping.
• 4:30
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And just by uh having a resource that is available worldwide is just amazing in itself.
• 4:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna ask a question from because your your book is much much uh much bigger than the little pamphlet that I wrote on my mental health story.
• 4:55
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um how did the thought process go of wanting to write a book?
• 5:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I and I guess what I'm asking is uh like did your whole family know?
• 5:11
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Like, did like you know, your your people that surround you in your orbit, did they know before you put the book together?
• 5:21
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Or was it something that was brand new?
• 5:23
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Because for me, a lot of it was brand new for a lot of my family.
• 5:29
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um, so it was one of those, even though as small as of those 85 pages or so, uh and as you know, you get into intimate details and it's like, oh my gosh, like literally the the world's gonna know you know, certain certain things.
• 5:46
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um, so I'm I'm just curious on on that uh aspect.
• 5:52
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, it was honestly, it is a little intimidating that even though this isn't about me, the the book, it's not for me, it's for other people, but I do share, like I can empathize.
• 6:04
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So I do share things from my life, but to help other people learn from it.
• 6:09
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, and it does feel a little intimidating to know that by putting this book out there, that means that people know things about me way more than I will know about them.
• 6:19
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, and to be honest, originally I did not want to write a book, actually.
• 6:25
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It felt more like a calling, like something that I needed to do.
• 6:29
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I needed to turn this experience into something good.
• 6:33
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so I didn't actually want to at first.
• 6:36
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it just felt like something that was really important for me to do.
• 6:41
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And uh yeah, a lot of people didn't know uh about it until after the fact, but that's okay.
• 6:51
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah.
• 6:52
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh do you have any like teaching in your background?
• 6:56
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh is uh is that something uh I'm just trying to imagine going through you know the the writing process and uh how you go about explaining the topics and how you go through that.
• 7:14
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: There's uh probably you know some uh you know, you're trying to educate people.
• 7:21
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh it's not you know talking down per se, but you're trying to educate people.
• 7:27
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um, is yeah, did you feel anything like that?
• 7:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Like, okay, I need to really lower like the understanding because there's gonna be a maybe a wide variety of people that are gonna be reading, you know, different age groups and such.
• 7:49
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, I I honestly feel like my book is unique in that it combines different things because when I was looking for resources myself before I wrote this book, I would find either books that were all just completely personal experience, which there's nothing wrong with that, but that's not what I was looking for.
• 8:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It wasn't giving me answers of how to actually manage the symptoms in my own life.
• 8:13
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, and then I'd also find books that were from people with a ton of like medical and psychological background, but then it was too much to digest because there were lots of words that I didn't understand.
• 8:28
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It was very science heavy.
• 8:30
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so I wanted something that was gonna be in between that would be reason easy for anyone to read.
• 8:37
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Because another thing too is that when you're really depressed, the last thing that you want to do is put in a ton of mental energy into reading a book.
• 8:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I got that.
• 8:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I I understand that.
• 8:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so I wanted to make it something that would be really relatable.
• 8:51
  Natalie Anne Brooks: People would be able to feel like I was I can validate their emotions, their experience, what they're going through, and empathize with them, but also not stay down there at that level, you know, like empathize, but then okay, you can do something about it.
• 9:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's not your fault that you have depression, it's not your fault that you're here, but it is up to you to do something about it and to get out of it.
• 9:16
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And here is what you can do.
• 9:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Here's what you can do to improve your situation and where you're at and to start to feel better and actually heal and manage the symptoms that you're experiencing, but in a really easy conversational way.
• 9:32
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But I also did tons of research, and so I do think it's really important to understand where things are coming from and why things may be happening, what can contribute to it.
• 9:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so there is a lot of education in there as well, but it's very understandable, I feel like it's um it's really good information and that it's important to know, but it's not gonna be so complicated that you're like, okay, never mind.
• 9:58
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I don't want to read this anymore, it's too hard to understand, you know.
• 10:02
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So, and another unique thing about this is that I actually started writing it as a teenager when I was in the thick of my depression.
• 10:11
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so this book kind of came along with me on my healing journey because when I started the book, I was I was in the depths of depression, so hopeless and so much pain and that crazy combination of being so numb, empty, and hollow, yet somehow feeling so much emotional and physical pain at the same time.
• 10:35
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so that's where I started when I started researching for this book, and then I was able to do a lot of research and writing.
• 10:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And over the journey of writing this book, I was excuse me, I was figuring out things that work for me, things that didn't work for me, a lot of trial and error.
• 10:55
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So by the time that I got to finishing this book, I felt like I had done so much healing.
• 11:02
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I had grown so much by the time I finished this.
• 11:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then I went back and I looked at everything again, and you know, through the whole editing process, I was adding more insights from things that I had learned throughout the whole journey and really just looking back and thinking, wow, yeah, okay, these things worked.
• 11:20
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Like I started at rock bottom, and this is where I'm at now.
• 11:25
  Natalie Anne Brooks: This is amazing.
• 11:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so then I added, I added some reassurance of like, hey, I I started where you are now.
• 11:33
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I get it.
• 11:34
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It is dark, it hurts, it's so hard.
• 11:37
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's something that you really can't understand unless you experience it yourself.
• 11:41
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But hey, I have made it through the to the other side.
• 11:44
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So now I can actually tell you that it does get better and that it is worth it to keep going and to try and just keep trying more things.
• 11:54
  Natalie Anne Brooks: If something doesn't work, try something else.
• 11:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But you really have to decide that you want to give hope a chance, that you want things to be better, even if there's just a tiny possibility that things can be better.
• 12:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You got to cling on to that.
• 12:09
  Natalie Anne Brooks: If hope is too big, you just cling on to the idea, the tiny possibility.
• 12:16
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Oh yeah, that that's so true.
• 12:18
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I remember my lowest in 2017.
• 12:21
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That that was the whole deal.
• 12:23
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Is like, okay, well, I can give up and just give up on life, and or I I can cling on and uh understand that I'm not the smartest person in the room, that Google can't tell me what's going on with me, and three ER visits and two weeks, uh and a myriad of regular doctor's appointments, and I didn't want to believe it was in my head, basically.
• 12:54
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, and and so that was it was huge.
• 12:58
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And I was like, all right, uh I I need a team, I need I need somebody to help, and and just for me, like swallowing my pride and my ego was hard enough uh to to to start at.
• 13:16
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, but yeah, exactly what you're saying.
• 13:19
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: To uh just you know, life is is worth living, and and what what you're doing and what others are are doing, that might not be what a person reading it uh or watching or listening is exactly like they might not be an author, they might that might not be their uh kind of how they want to share their their story, but just the mere fact of having some inspiration of a real person that went through it and is given real information because you know there are there's a ton of how-to books, and well, if you just do this, go for a walk and and and do these things, and you know, magically, not magically, but things are gonna get get better, and uh and and I I totally wanted to own all the the whole process, and so for me giving up kind of ownership of I guess my life psychologically was a huge thing, and and so I echo what what you're you're saying, uh Natalie, that just having a little bit to cling on to, and it might not seem like much at all, might not seem how we're gonna get to the next day, the week, next week, next month, uh, but uh there is hope on on the the other side.
• 14:55
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So over the course of uh how many years did you know when from when you like started and and the book kind of grew as you uh grew grew up, uh about how many years just uh like ballpark?
• 15:13
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, well, I think I started it in about 2019 and then it was finished on April 18th, 2023.
• 15:28
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I remember because it was right as I was going into labor with my son.
• 15:31
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That's the only reason I remember the exact timing.
• 15:34
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yes.
• 15:34
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um so yeah, it was it was a few years and it was a long process.
• 15:40
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I mean, I was finishing high school and then I was in college while I was writing it.
• 15:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so it it was a process.
• 15:48
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, but I just I also wanted to add that similarly, I did get to that point too where I thought I kind of gave myself an ultimatum and said, okay, either I'm giving up, like literally giving up on life, or I'm going to really, really turn things around.
• 16:09
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Like I have to, there's no, there's no other choice.
• 16:12
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Either I'm gone or things have to get better.
• 16:16
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so I was like, okay, this is my one last final shot.
• 16:19
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I'm gonna give it all I've got, even though I felt like okay, I had nothing left.
• 16:24
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I just I did, I gave it all I had, and I did start.
• 16:29
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It took a while, but you know, I I started to see healing.
• 16:32
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I think too that um, like you said, not everyone's gonna become an author from their depression or something, but so many people suffer in silence, and I think that there are way more people that are struggling than we realize.
• 16:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I think it's so important to make connections and to be honest, not you know, go divulge everything to everyone, but you know, make those connections so that people know that they're not alone.
• 16:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So many people think that they are alone in their challenges and they just suffer in silence.
• 17:03
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I think we really need to be able to support the other people around us.
• 17:09
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Absolutely.
• 17:10
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, it's kind of gone from the like we always need help, um but we we kind of go from that to being yeah, uh helper or teacher or an inspirer, uh an author, uh going on you know media tours to share and let people know that because uh if if you don't do that, it it might be missing uh you know some key demographics and key areas, key people that could really could really use it and and could be, they could be at that that point where you know they have a plan drawn up and it's like I I don't I don't know what else to do.
• 18:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh I mean I even for me coming from a demographic that somebody would say, Oh, you have no problems and uh and even having insurance, uh and I had a five-day inpatient stay, and even with insurance, it was a lot of money.
• 18:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And as I try to share just the people because they're like, oh yeah, you know, the you know, they like I'm sure he has you know all kinds of you know first world problems that you know he's gone through.
• 18:44
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And uh and I even with all that that I felt pressure with that of like I'm a guy, I'm supposed to get through this.
• 18:56
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'm don't I'm not supposed to cry, I'm not supposed to have emotions, I'm I'm supposed to just you know get through it on my own.
• 19:09
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And uh it was uh it was so hard because it was I mean, I was living a lot of my lifestyle, which was a lot of partying and and all that, and I was like, all right, Justin, uh if if you have to take medication, or you know, you might not be able to, I mean, you can consume alcohol, uh, but you're not gonna be able to do it.
• 19:36
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Obviously, how how you have been doing that, and it was, it was that just that moment of like, I'm either all out or I'm all in.
• 19:47
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And if I'm all in, I I I can't just I can't go back on that and say, Oh, sorry, like uh, you know, one.
• 19:59
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'll that that I can do that and I can uh come back from that.
• 20:06
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And I think that uh I think people are stronger than they give themselves credit for, and I'm sure you can attest to that from your experience and and the research that you you did and you you've done.
• 20:22
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh that people really are they're they're they're stronger than what they they think.
• 20:29
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And uh it's just getting to that place of believing that.
• 20:35
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, because that's I mean, one of the big things that depression attacks is hope.
• 20:41
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You like you feel hopeless and you feel helpless, like you're not capable of getting through it.
• 20:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You're just so exhausted from the whole experience because it affects so much and it really drags you down.
• 20:54
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's it's interesting too because it it does affect everyone differently.
• 20:58
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Everyone's experience with depression is different, it does vary, and the things that are gonna help people will vary as well.
• 21:07
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So, you know, the things that might work for you and might have helped you are different than the things that have helped me and worked for me.
• 21:14
  Natalie Anne Brooks: The only consistent thing that I've noticed is that it's not one magic fix.
• 21:19
  Natalie Anne Brooks: There are a lot of things.
• 21:21
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You have to have several tools in your toolbox that you go to when you're struggling to help you get through a depressive state.
• 21:29
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And you, it's just though that buildup of the little things.
• 21:32
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And again, it's different for everyone.
• 21:34
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, but again, also, like you said, there are a lot of unfortunately unhealthy messages that we internalize that make it so much harder on ourselves.
• 21:44
  Natalie Anne Brooks: A lot of negative self-talk, a lot of rumination, and the lack or the inability to emotionally regulate and be able to address and work through our emotions in a healthy way and not get stuck in that deep pit of just, oh, I'm not supposed to feel these feelings, but I feel these feelings and it's just horrible and ah so yeah, I there's a lot of that that I go over in my book because I there are so many skills that I feel like we should all have.
• 22:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It would be great for us to all have, but we don't.
• 22:21
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's something that we need to purposefully learn, and that's an important part of growth and healing too.
• 22:29
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, and kind of preparation uh for our conversation.
• 22:34
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I uh is also struck by how you mention trial and error, and I even just like right now, I'm looking for words to say, but like I can't say you can kind of spit them out sometimes.
• 22:53
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um trial and error is something that I've been thinking about.
• 22:58
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I just haven't been able to kind of I couldn't think of the the words, but it's so true that what works for one person may or may not work for another, but it's just trial and error.
• 23:14
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Like it's more of you just have the tools in your tool belt, and and then you you try it in one situation and maybe it works, or maybe it doesn't, and then maybe you try it in a different situation, and then it has an opposite effect.
• 23:31
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Can you just talk a little bit about that trial and error?
• 23:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I know we touched a little bit on that, um, but just how important that that is to continue on and not be like, Oh, I tried everything.
• 23:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, I I remember getting to that point where I felt like I had tried everything and nothing was working.
• 23:50
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's also really hard when you're in that state to think of things that you can do.
• 23:55
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You're just you just throw your hands up.
• 23:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I've tried it all, there's nothing more I can do.
• 23:59
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But really, there are there are lots of things.
• 24:01
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so that's why I actually give a ton of ideas in my book.
• 24:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I um specify things that worked well for me, the things that I really like.
• 24:11
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I also include a ton of things that didn't work for me, but maybe super helpful for other people.
• 24:17
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I think it's really important, really useful to have all those resources.
• 24:23
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so, yeah, just giving them a try because that's that's what I did.
• 24:27
  Natalie Anne Brooks: If I was trying to stop self-harming, or if I was trying to stop ruminating or get out of a depressive state or whatever I was doing, I'd kind of go down this mental list of, okay, I did this, that didn't work.
• 24:40
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I did this, that didn't work.
• 24:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I keep trying little, they're really little things, though.
• 24:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's not like a huge assignment or you know, it's just little things.
• 24:50
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, but they do build up.
• 24:52
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So even if one thing doesn't work on its own, they kind of build up on each other.
• 24:58
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, and then after you do a few things, maybe you'll notice a difference.
• 25:03
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so there are a ton of those.
• 25:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, but like for me, my my biggest thing through high school was journaling.
• 25:14
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And just, I mean, by the time I finished high school, I'd finished 42 journals.
• 25:20
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I wrote so much.
• 25:21
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So before I was an author, I was always a writer.
• 25:24
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I just I wrote all the time.
• 25:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That's how I got through a lot.
• 25:28
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That's how I came up with my plans to uh improve my life.
• 25:33
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And that was a big thing that I did.
• 25:36
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I I also just like write out a whole list, uh toolbox um of resources of things that you can try, and uh just a lot of encouragement that goes along with it.
• 25:50
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um because and and that I feel like there's also there's certain steps to take.
• 25:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's a process.
• 25:58
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I think first you need to understand the causes and types of depression, where it where it comes from, what it is, because if you don't even know what it is that you're experiencing and what you're going through, you're just gonna go in circles trying to overcome it because you don't understand it first.
• 26:17
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And um understanding symptoms and treatment options too.
• 26:21
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And that's that's an important start.
• 26:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then after that, I I go into all the steps after that and uh creating a new normal and the negative patterns and emotional responses and all sorts of things.
• 26:41
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, and I and I also saw another area talking about validation.
• 26:47
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh I know growing up that was something that I I mean, I think I even still struggled to it, uh insecurity at times, even today, regular regular days and in my 40s, um and feeling like I had a I mean I have it still have a sister, she's still older, but growing up, yeah, she was like, you know, the straight A's and and everything.
• 27:19
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And uh she had never said like, oh, I'm so much better than you, and my family never said that to me, that oh, your sister's so much better, and and and so when I would have like a good test score, which wasn't very often, uh, I would like come home and be like, want to show like you know, my family, and and say, look what I did, and and it's almost even some of that nowadays where it's like look look what we look what we did, look what I did, and uh and I it's it's it's just amazing to to to think how something that I literally basically created in my head because nobody told me.
• 28:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um I just kind of felt that way.
• 28:14
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'm like, okay, well, here you know, four job offers out of college, and here I am, you know, barely getting through.
• 28:22
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And um and and can you can you just talk about how how your book, like you mentioned at at the outset, how it really is for for everyone, that it is uh you don't have to be some uh you know PhD scholar to pick it up, to order it, to to read through it, that you will find actionable resources and tips and and real world tried and tested uh situations and events that you went through.
• 28:59
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Some you went through and some that you research.
• 29:02
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'm sorry.
• 29:03
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, no worries.
• 29:04
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I can go through a little bit to be more specific about what I actually walk the readers through.
• 29:10
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, but what you just said reminded me of something that I do talk about in here, which is really common cognitive distortions, like you were just mentioning, you know, are our ways of thinking that we get stuck in.
• 29:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So the cognitive distortions and common self-defeating beliefs, the negative self-talk that we get stuck in.
• 29:32
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I explain all of it in here in a way that's really easy to understand.
• 29:37
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And there's also um and some exercises that you can do to kind of work on that and to improve it.
• 29:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I don't know if you're familiar with cognitive behavioral therapy.
• 29:50
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um basically just taking just taking one of those ideas, like I'm I'm vulnerable or flawed, and people will not love and accept me.
• 30:02
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You take that idea and then you change it, you correct it and make a true statement out of it, and you just you work that around in your head instead.
• 30:13
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And over time you change these beliefs, and it also changes your nervous system and the way that you respond to your surroundings, which is pretty amazing.
• 30:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's it's crazy and fascinating how impressive and confusing the mind is, and so much goes back to childhood and things that you may think are just little stressors, but can actually traumatize the brain and our connections, and it can damage the way that our our brain processes and the connections that we make.
• 30:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And unfortunately, the brain looks for things to confirm messages that it has created.
• 30:54
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So, like for example, your um your story with your sister, I don't exactly know how to put that into words, but your brain had this one experience, maybe.
• 31:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then over time, it was looking for more experiences to reinforce that belief, even though it was a negative belief.
• 31:12
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so then over time it became stronger.
• 31:15
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so we have to kind of go backwards and undo or retrace our steps and correct that belief to something true and positive.
• 31:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so um, I I'll just kind of walk you through what I address in this book because I feel like there's so much, there's so much information out there, it's overwhelming the number of things that you can do or what people talk about.
• 31:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's it's too much.
• 31:43
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So I just I broke it down into what I felt like was the most important.
• 31:48
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so to start, you need to ignite your desire to improve.
• 31:53
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You have to decide you don't want to live like this anymore, which actually can be harder than you'd think.
• 31:59
  Natalie Anne Brooks: For me, it was tough because I was so used to being depressed that the idea of not feeling depressed almost scared me, even though I wanted that so bad.
• 32:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I didn't want to be depressed anymore.
• 32:09
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I wanted to be happy, but it was almost my comfort zone now to be depressed.
• 32:14
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I didn't know what it was like to not be in pain.
• 32:17
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so it was hard for me to accept that I could get myself out of that because I felt stuck in what I was used to.
• 32:27
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So first you have to decide that you're willing to get out of that, whether you think it's a comfort zone, whether it's it feels hard to leave that pain behind.
• 32:36
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Maybe you identify yourself with that pain and you think, well, you don't know who you are now without that.
• 32:43
  Natalie Anne Brooks: If you give that up, then who are you?
• 32:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I definitely got stuck in that for a while.
• 32:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I had to recreate who I was as a person because I define myself by my depression.
• 32:54
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So anyway, that there's a lot more that we can go into with that that's in the book as well.
• 32:59
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But first is igniting your desire to improve.
• 33:02
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Second is having a change of heart and giving hope a fighting chance.
• 33:07
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so that's kind of what we talked about before is that even it's really hard to have hope when you're really depressed.
• 33:14
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's so difficult.
• 33:16
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But you can at least give it a chance.
• 33:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Even if you don't really have hope, if you've felt like you've already given up, if you can doubt yourself just a tiny bit, like, okay, what if I'm wrong?
• 33:28
  Natalie Anne Brooks: What if there is a chance that things could be better?
• 33:31
  Natalie Anne Brooks: What if I actually could have a really amazing future, even if there's just the slightest possibility of that happening, I can't give up on it.
• 33:40
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So kind of that idea.
• 33:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then um, I talk a bit about resilience and how I used to hear people say that resilience was almost the opposite of depression, and that bugged me because I thought, well, no, but but people with depression are probably the most resilient people I know.
• 34:01
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it seemed like it was um at odds almost, but you can have depression and you can be really resilient.
• 34:09
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then I talk about some just background information that's important to have, like the causes and types of depression, and then symptoms and treatment options, which are different for everybody.
• 34:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then I go into um how having depression and healing from depression is actually a lot like grief.
• 34:31
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And that was something that I I hadn't always realized or thought about before, but you go through kind of the same stages of grief when you have depression because you have lost your old self, you have lost your old life in a way, and you have to grieve that, you have to grieve the person that you used to know and the life that you wish you had in order to regain a sense of self to move forward.
• 34:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So I talk about that, and then also finding new meaning and purpose in order to let go of that pain.
• 35:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Because as I mentioned before, it's kind of hard to get out of that comfort zone, let go of the pain that you've been with so for so long, it's almost like a companion.
• 35:15
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So you have to fill it with something else, you have to fill it with new meaning that you found, a new purpose.
• 35:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So for me, part of that was writing this book.
• 35:25
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That was something that had meaning and purpose for me.
• 35:28
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Another thing is um learning a lot about uh this is a little bit more about psychology, schemas and unmet emotional needs.
• 35:39
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And this can go back to childhood, but basically all the needs that you've had as a child and throughout your life that went unmet, and how that reinforced your symptoms of depression and made life harder, and what you can do to actually make sure that your emotional needs are met, how to communicate that with people, how to set boundaries for yourself and learn about what you need and what's been missing.
• 36:13
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So that's an important step that I feel like I was missing before, and I think a lot of people are missing too.
• 36:20
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Then kind of connected to that is identifying and regulating your emotions.
• 36:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And right when I say regulating, I do not mean getting rid of or pushing aside or anything.
• 36:34
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It means being honest about how you're feeling and addressing those feelings and really facing them head on and accepting them, but not not staying with them, if that makes sense.
• 36:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Like you can you can identify, wow, I am feeling this really strongly, really intensely.
• 36:53
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Like this is really hard.
• 36:55
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It is okay for me to be mad about it.
• 36:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's okay for me to cry about it, and I'm going to express that emotion, but then I'm going to channel it into something that is not going to be a destructive behavior.
• 37:07
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I'm going to identify where it came from.
• 37:12
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then if I know where it came from, I can decide what to do about it.
• 37:17
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So not staying in the helpless, like, oh, just victim mentality, life is awful because someone did this thing to me or whatever it may be.
• 37:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You you give yourself that validation of yes, it is fair for me to feel this way.
• 37:31
  Natalie Anne Brooks: My feelings came from somewhere, they are real, they are valid, and I accept them.
• 37:37
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I accept myself for feeling them, but I don't want to keep them.
• 37:41
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I want to, I want to be able to let them go.
• 37:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So we we talk about that.
• 37:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then also another thing that was really hard for me to come to terms with um with my depression and other challenges is my limitations.
• 37:58
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so next I go into expectations and limitations, especially in our fast-paced world.
• 38:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: There's so much comparison comparison.
• 38:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: There are a lot of things going on, and it can be so easy to get into this trap of having expectations for yourself where you're comparing your worst to someone's best, or you are just really hard on yourself for the limitations that you have.
• 38:27
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it is okay to have those limitations.
• 38:31
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You still need to, you know, not give up.
• 38:33
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You still need to push yourself to grow as a person and be outside your comfort zone.
• 38:38
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But it's okay if you need more support than other people, or if you need more breaks than other people, or you know, especially if you're going through healing from depression, you need a lot more sleep than other people, probably.
• 38:52
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Your brain needs a lot of rest to be able to work through these kinds of things.
• 38:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: When you're putting in emotional work, you probably need more rest because the mental, emotional, and physical are way more tied together than you would think.
• 39:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And this is a whole nother story, but my mental health challenges have caused lots of physical pain for me and migraines and all sorts of things.
• 39:19
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It affects so much in your life.
• 39:21
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So, anyways, just keep that in mind.
• 39:24
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then uh it's also important to learn about negative patterns and emotional responses now that we have a better background in emotion.
• 39:34
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Uh, so that includes rumination, distraction, and dissociation.
• 39:40
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And dissociating and distracting are really common things that people do just to kind of survive, just to get through the day, whether it's just being glued to your phone, you're watching something, you're just trying to think of anything but what you're experiencing.
• 39:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You just don't want to, you just don't want to sit with.
• 39:59
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It which is uns understandable.
• 40:02
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then uh crying has its own chapter because it is kind of weird.
• 40:10
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I went through a phase where I cried so much all the time, and I hated it, but I just cried all the time.
• 40:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then I went through another phase where I could not cry.
• 40:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I couldn't even make myself cry.
• 40:24
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It was like I had cried so much, all the tears were gone, I was dried up.
• 40:28
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I just couldn't cry anymore.
• 40:31
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's very interesting.
• 40:33
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It talks about the importance and what I guess what role it plays in depression and what effect depression can have on that way of exhibiting emotion.
• 40:44
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then exhaustion, because oh my goodness, depression is exhausting.
• 40:50
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And some people may end up having insomnia.
• 40:54
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Some people may end up having, uh, I think it's called hypersomnia.
• 40:58
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, so either you are sleeping way more than the average person, or you have a really difficult time sleeping.
• 41:05
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And this can also be affected by um what we talk about at the beginning, that the different causes of depression, which um for me, one of those causes was trauma with CPTSD.
• 41:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so I think that also contributed to my insomnia, the combination, just a wonderful mix.
• 41:25
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, and then these are the toughest chapters, but it's also important to address dangerous coping mechanisms like self-harm and suicidal ideation.
• 41:38
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And that was also just overall, this book was tough for me to write because it hits very close to home.
• 41:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: This is my experience, but it's also so many other people's experience.
• 41:51
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's not an easy subject.
• 41:56
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's kind of emotional, it's kind of tough, but I I tried to write it in a way that would be the the easiest to read as possible, considering the subject.
• 42:07
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So um, then navigating relationships, depression has a big big impact on your relationships with other people, whether that's family or peers out and about, strangers and uh romantic relationships, your relationships with kids, whatever we go into that.
• 42:29
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And um another thing is how to open up to family and friends and peers, because again, so many people just suffer on their own, and that makes it so much harder.
• 42:41
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And depression makes you want to isolate, whether it's out of shame or just you're scared that you'll you'll push people away, or you think no one can understand, no one can help me.
• 42:52
  Natalie Anne Brooks: There's so many reasons to not open up to people and to push people away.
• 42:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But it is so important to not be alone, to not isolate.
• 43:01
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You really, really need support system.
• 43:05
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And there are many places that you can get that if you do not have close familiar relationships or friends, and I mean, even a therapist can be the connection that you need for the time being.
• 43:17
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Or there's a whole variety of places, but you need to find good support.
• 43:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And one of the things that I think people tend to do is they they gravitate towards people who are also struggling deeply, but then they both kind of pull each other down because they just talk about how awful things are instead of validating each other's experiences, but encouraging each other that you we can get through this, you know, we'll be we'll be get get better.
• 43:45
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, whereas, like I had a friend who was also depressed, and this is an example of what you don't want.
• 43:52
  Natalie Anne Brooks: He was depressed and suicidal enough that he was like, Well, let's both just give up together.
• 43:56
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That's not that's not the kind of connection that I'm talking about.
• 43:59
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You need a good connection that's going to encourage you, motivate you, help you feel loved and like you matter and that your life is worth fighting for and living.
• 44:10
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then, um, so personally, well, so one of the really important things with depression is to find an anchor.
• 44:20
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You need an anchor, and that can be something that is worth living for.
• 44:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, if you're at that point where you just need to cling on to something to stay for, you need to have an anchor.
• 44:33
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Or if you're just having a really tough time getting through depressive episodes, something, something to look forward to, something to, you know, just have there as your constant.
• 44:44
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And that's different from ever for everyone.
• 44:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: For me personally, that's my spiritual beliefs.
• 44:50
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That is my my faith in in God.
• 44:53
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so for me, that was my anchor, is I had this belief in someone who was looking out for me and was there for me, even though I didn't feel like it for a while.
• 45:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And that that was my personal anchor.
• 45:09
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So I do write this somewhat from a Christian standpoint, but it's also it's it's for anyone.
• 45:15
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You don't have to be Christian like I am for this book to apply and to be meaningful for you.
• 45:20
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And um, there's also lots of scholarly resources and encouraging quotes.
• 45:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And um, at the end, I do talk about the trial of my faith or the trial of our faith and um the the tender mercies that I that I have seen through this challenge, which again, that may not be everyone's anchor.
• 45:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That's totally fine.
• 45:43
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But for me, that was where I found meaning to get me through this challenge.
• 45:49
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And so even if it's not that, you need to have some sort of some sort of hired spiritual drive, something that motivates your spirit, your soul, just you know, who you are as a person is really important.
• 46:06
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And that could be the family.
• 46:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You care deeply about family, your friends.
• 46:11
  Natalie Anne Brooks: If you have a goal, you really want to travel, and that is your thing, and you just go into it like the world is wide open, and I want to see it, I want to be a part of it.
• 46:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That's a great thing.
• 46:23
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It could be all sorts of things, whatever you choose it to be.
• 46:29
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And um, one of the things that is the loss, sorry, I'm talking a lot, but one of the things that is kind of losing sight of who you are, but also the things that make you you and who you used to be, the things that you enjoy doing.
• 46:43
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So this is also a time for rediscovery of maybe you won't like the same things that you used to, but you can give some new things a try.
• 46:51
  Natalie Anne Brooks: The hobbies that I have now are not are not the same as they were before I really struggled with depression, but that's fine.
• 46:59
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I've kind of you know rediscovered myself and I'm still, you know, a version of the person I was before, but I've changed, I've learned, and I've grown a lot now.
• 47:09
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I just I want people to know that as as awful and challenging and painful as depression is and can be, it is honestly, I can say, worth it to get to the other side to keep fighting and to not give up.
• 47:27
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it's so hard to believe that.
• 47:30
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's so hard to believe that when you're really in it and you're really struggling.
• 47:34
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But you can take it from someone who has been there.
• 47:38
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I won't go into details, but it bad depression, okay.
• 47:44
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I can say that it is worth it to get through it.
• 47:48
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And my life is far from perfect now.
• 47:51
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's I still have healing to do, but it is so much better.
• 47:56
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I'm so far, I've learned, I've grown so much, and I'm so much further than I used to be.
• 48:03
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I can also say that depression probably won't, I mean, and maybe it does for some people, but at least for me, it's probably never going to completely go away.
• 48:14
  Natalie Anne Brooks: But it's not something that I have to be at war with and feel like I'm fighting my mind anymore.
• 48:21
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I can accept that it's there and I almost work with it in a way where if I have a depressive state, which still happens sometimes, I am so much more gentle with myself.
• 48:35
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I see, I see it happening and I say, okay, today is one of those days.
• 48:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's I'm just kind of struggling with a depressive state today.
• 48:46
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And you know what?
• 48:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I'm gonna get through this day, and tomorrow we'll be better.
• 48:49
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I just let myself have a day where I give myself the grace that I need, the extra rest that I need.
• 48:59
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And at the point that I'm at now, usually by the next day, I feel okay, like I've gotten through the depressive state because I know I've gotten through it so many times before that I can get through it again.
• 49:11
  Natalie Anne Brooks: You just have to keep telling yourself that again and again.
• 49:14
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And over time, as you practice, the depressive states will be shorter, you'll get through them faster, and they will be less intense.
• 49:22
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So the depressive states that I have now are not as life-altering as they used to be.
• 49:28
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It's still there, but it is it's kind of like getting an emotional cold almost, where you're you're taking down a notch, but you just give yourself a little time to recover and then you're back up again.
• 49:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And you know, you can keep going.
• 49:44
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So, and I just want people to know that they you are not alone.
• 49:49
  Natalie Anne Brooks: There are so many people who are in the same boat, and it is worth it to keep trying, to keep fighting.
• 49:56
  Natalie Anne Brooks: There is hope, even if you don't believe it, you gotta give room for that possibility.
• 50:02
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It can get better.
• 50:04
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I just I really hope that people that people give that a chance and know that they are not alone.
• 50:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Wow.
• 50:13
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So so powerful.
• 50:15
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Oh my gosh.
• 50:16
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: The the fate part I I remember when I was feeling like I was getting back on my bearings, I guess, and uh I still felt something was missing.
• 50:32
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: The that I'm a psychiatrist, I'm a counselor, I had medication and and and all all these, and and I still just felt like like I'm not like I'm maxed out, but like, okay, well, like I'm pretty well towards the top of a full tank, is uh analogy weird, but um uh but then there was like there's like a part of me that wasn't, and it was like what's going on, and that's what it was for me, and so yeah, we're we're in the same boat that you don't have to be Christian to read the book to learn to uh to to go through it.
• 51:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That's just kind of the uh the that's just kind of just like where we're coming from when what we're sharing, and so somebody else may have an another higher power, or maybe they don't.
• 51:40
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um, but just to know that regardless uh that there are people that still care for them, even if they don't realize it or not.
• 51:53
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So the faith part, uh, when he said that, I was just like, yeah, that's so incredible.
• 52:01
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Like that I meet somebody that has that was like a a part, and it was missing for many, many, many years, and then uh and then and now I'm the same same boat.
• 52:17
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Like, I don't think I'm ever gonna completely get through depression, it's not something it's like, oh, this one's fixed, you know.
• 52:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Like, oh, I did have surgery on my leg or uh what um and I've just gotten better to be okay with that, and uh and then what I didn't know there's a lot I don't know, but when you were saying that uh that the mind, even in a depressive state, needs more time to heal, uh I didn't I didn't even correlate that together because I I love to sleep, I guess.
• 53:00
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, you know, um, but I didn't even correlate that that might be part of the reason.
• 53:07
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: The other part might just be being selfish and wanting to just uh you know get get a few extra minutes or hours.
• 53:15
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh if it's a weekend, it's a little more easier to have more more uh more rest with with children and stuff.
• 53:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um yeah, it's uh I uh yeah.
• 53:30
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um I'm definitely gonna copy.
• 53:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I don't know why I didn't get a copy yet, but uh this this is fantastic.
• 53:38
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I love how easy it was for you to kind of go through like very heavy topics.
• 53:48
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I mean these are like very heavy and and hard to uh hard to talk about and like like you said what you know they were you and then and another person were were in a uh you know depressive state and it was just like hey yeah let's let's do this like why not just give up and I've been uh close there uh mostly high school and um but it's uh oh my gosh.
• 54:31
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh I wish we could just continue on the conversation, uh, but we gotta kind of cap it somewhere.
• 54:39
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So can you please share how people can uh find your book where they can get it, hold it up so then people can uh remember like what the code looks like.
• 54:55
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yep, this is it again.
• 54:57
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Reclaim your life while battling depression.
• 55:01
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And it is it is possible to have depression and to be happy, and I did not I did not write this book for myself or to be known or anything.
• 55:14
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I I wrote this genuinely just because I know how hard it is and because I want to help people, and that is that is why that's why this book exists.
• 55:26
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So I don't know if you can share links in the description or something, but you can find it on Amazon as you already shared.
• 55:33
  Natalie Anne Brooks: There's also an ebook option, or my publisher is Cedar Fort, so it can be found on the Cedarfort.com website, and that's where you can order paper book copies for that.
• 55:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And the um audiobook is currently in progress, that's not available yet, but it will be at some point, so um, I'm excited for that.
• 55:58
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, and I I've gone through that process even with those uh not as in an in-depth uh as uh yours is and it it takes time, like it it it's like you try to put a schedule again there, and it's like this is all the further I've gotten, like two pages or something.
• 56:19
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yep, well, that's why it took years, and especially with the the subject being so heavy, there was definitely a lot of crying through the writing process, and all but a lot of it was just looking back on what I had already written and thinking of all the people out there that are in that situation and thinking, oh my gosh, I I was you, I am you, I just want to show you like what you can do to get out of that and to feel better.
• 56:47
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So yeah, and I know how hard it is to read or do anything like that while depressed again.
• 56:52
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So this is something that is easy to digest and will help you feel validated because I can empathize.
• 57:03
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um, but it's not it's not supposed to be a super, super heavy read.
• 57:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: It addresses the heavy things, but it is it is very encouraging and focused on on what you can do to make things better.
• 57:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So and do you do you share like social accounts like if people want to follow you or um yes, I I'm on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook and YouTube, and they're all author Natalie Brooks.
• 57:35
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So that's where you can find me if you just look up author Natalie Brooks.
• 57:39
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Um then you should be able to find me.
• 57:42
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah.
• 57:43
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And I I'm putting out content to help people that's it connected to my book, but it's I'm I'm just gonna be sharing resources and really easy clips of what you can do for this thing and what to look for with this, or different ways that depression can show up, and a bunch of just easy little things that you can follow along to learn about.
• 58:08
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Wow, thank you so much for spending so much of your time with with us.
• 58:13
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It was just it really was.
• 58:15
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's amazing, and as persons going through some similar things, even uh the the learnings, and uh it's it's it's incredible.
• 58:29
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, the work that you put in, the time and the attention to detail, it's uh just nothing short of as amazing.
• 58:39
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So thank you for for doing that.
• 58:41
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Just for like we said, you know, just we can help one person, then that's one less person that has to go through it.
• 58:48
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: But I pretty sure we're gonna help.
• 58:51
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Oh, yeah, I'm not saying you're gonna help.
• 58:54
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh you're you're gonna help more than more than one person.
• 58:59
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so I wanted to have you on because people people need help from time to time, and it's okay.
• 59:08
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, well, and writing this book was difficult, but that's what I told myself.
• 59:12
  Natalie Anne Brooks: If I can just help one person, then it will be worth it.
• 59:16
  Natalie Anne Brooks: That's that's all I am hoping for.
• 59:18
  Natalie Anne Brooks: So yeah, thank you.
• 59:19
  Natalie Anne Brooks: I'm so happy that I got to join you on the show today.
• 59:22
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: You're welcome.
• 59:23
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We're gonna get this turned around quick, so it'll be out tomorrow.
• 59:27
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'll get you all the links and all that great stuff that uh you can share it and however you want to uh share it.
• 59:35
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we are again so grateful to we had Natalie Ann Brooks, uh author of Reclaim Your Life while battling depression uh with us on this episode of the show.
• 59:51
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh again, go go pick up a copy, check out Amazon, and then what was the before?
• 59:59
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's Cedar Fort.
• 1:00:01
  Natalie Anne Brooks: Yeah, so there's a website, Cedarfort.com.
• 1:00:04
  Natalie Anne Brooks: And then if you live next to if any local Desert Bookstores, it's also in Desert Bookstores.
• 1:00:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Okay.
• 1:00:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, definitely go pick up a copy.
• 1:00:15
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And uh I I would I would actually recommend picking up more than more than one because there's uh you know, as we we have families and people we care and love.
• 1:00:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh it uh this is a type of book that's literally like life-changing.
• 1:00:32
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh the you know, the more knowledge that we can have, the uh the better chance we have to go after the things that we want and have goals that we want and still be somewhat like the the same person.
• 1:00:52
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So I'm like the same, same way of that I I I loved how you said you rediscover, like you're rediscovering things that you like as a as a as a person, and I feel that that's the same for me.
• 1:01:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's like yeah, like I'm the same person, but I'm rediscovering, and like instead of doing this, we just modified a little bit, and instead of doing this, we well, and and those things by itself are are truly priceless.
• 1:01:20
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So thank you for uh joining our show, Natalie, and thank you, our viewers, our listeners.
• 1:01:28
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: If you can hit the subscribe button, follow, uh, share, give us a thumbs up, go buy a couple copies of Natalie's book, follow her on socials.
• 1:01:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That's how we got in contact uh to have her on the show.
• 1:01:48
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh so awesome to uh have her for the amount of time that we we did.
• 1:01:55
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Luckily, Zoom didn't kick us off.
• 1:01:57
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Sometimes it decides to kick us off.
• 1:02:00
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So we actually got some bonus time, which we're very grateful for.
• 1:02:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And then until next time, Justin Alan Hayes with Voices for Voices, and please be a voice for you or somebody in need.
• 1:02:14
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We'll see you next time.
• 1:02:16
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Talk to you later.