I'm Not O.KK
Welcome to I'm Not O.KK, a fresh and engaging podcast where we dive deep into the world of mental health with authenticity, empathy, and a dash of humor. Hosted by two dynamic voices Kimberly Jahns and Kelly Kranz, each episode brings to light aspects of mental health history through storytelling and today's personal stories and triumphs that remind us we're not alone in our struggles.
Every other week we tell a story related to mental health and wellness. With candid conversations we want to dismantle the stigmas surrounding mental health, offering our listeners a safe space to reflect on their own experiences and find comfort in shared stories.
Each episode ends with engaging discussions during the book club portion of our podcast where we dive deep into mental health themes.
As your hosts, we don't just navigate these conversations from a distance; we're right there with you, sharing our battles and breakthroughs. Our goal? To infuse each discussion with laughter and levity, proving that even in our darkest moments, a spark of joy can be found.
I'm Not O.KK is more than just a podcast; it's a community. Whether you're seeking solace, understanding, or just a good laugh amidst the chaos of mental health challenges.
Because when you're here, you're never alone.
I'm Not O.KK
Food, Mood and Mental Health
Can your diet really influence your mood? We explore the fascinating connection between food, mood, and mental health, digging into how essential nutrients and gut microbiomes can impact emotions. Personal anecdotes about diet choices, the surprising realities of malnutrition, and a humorous story about relying on Soylent.
Email us at notokkpodcast@gmail.com
We appreciate you!
Are we recording? Yeah, I hit record. Oh, okay, hi, welcome to our podcast. We're not okay, kay, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:It's called. I'm not okay, Kay Kelly.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, well, we are not okay, kay, but yeah, I'm not okay Kay, but I'm trying to include you in it too.
Speaker 2:Why is it called?
Speaker 1:we are not okay, kay, I don't know why do we do that? I think probably because the person listening they're not going to say we, they're going to say I.
Speaker 2:Do you listen to? We're Not OKK. Do you listen to I'm Not OKK? Yeah, I guess I makes it more personal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. It's also like, really very much like the my Chemical Romance song.
Speaker 2:I'm that Okay. Oh my God, it's epic, it's amazing. You should watch the video. I just thought my Chemical Romance was for more emo people, but I do like some of their songs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, I was an emo in high school I was an emo chick, so, yes, I liked all of them. I still listen to them to this day day, in fact, just a little sidebar tangent they used to. They sing this song teenagers, you know, teenagers scare yes, yes yes, I like that song.
Speaker 1:I do too, and it was funny. I was having a conversation the other day and I was talking and we were talking about how teenagers scare us and I was like when did that happen that I started to get like frightened, Like when a group of teenagers enters a room and it's like not like oh my God, I'm so scared, but like this like uneasy feeling of just like I don't know Like why why is it?
Speaker 1:like that and I'm like, oh, this is what the song was about. I was like I was like 16 years old and just like blasting it out of my mouth and now it's real yeah.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's because of all the unknown of the teens. Like they're just like they're going through a lot like you know, figuring out what they want to be as adults you know, school, whatever, driving. Like they're getting all these privileges even though their brain isn't fully developed and on top of that, their hormones are going crazy and it's just like, oh gosh, like it just it feels like a walking Teens are like a walking red flag and you're just like, please stay out of my life. Like you are going to mess something up.
Speaker 1:I could totally now picture like so many humans in my life when I was a teenager that probably thought that way I miss being a walking red flag. Oh wait, I still am.
Speaker 2:This flag still flies.
Speaker 1:I hoist that shit up every fucking morning.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, that is sad but true. Yeah, yeah, Wow, that just got real. But how are you doing, kelly?
Speaker 1:I'm decent in life. In life, yeah Well, I'm decent. Life is. Life is good. Life is really good. Whoa A good? What is happening? Well, no, life is good.
Speaker 1:I am I showing up to it, though? Am I showing up to participate in this good life that is created around me? No, I'm not. I actually am falling very behind in my training to be a Pilates instructor, and it is infuriating me, it is causing me anxiety, it's ruminating in my non-stop because I have to do my test out in like two weeks. All I have to do is really just do the work, but I'm like have this notion in my head that I I know enough from years of practice that just memorizing and like going through the workout like once or twice should be enough for going into that weekend. But yeah, that's basically top of mind. So when you asked how I'm doing, I say I'm not showing up, but life is good. I got a lot of things in. The. Got a lot of what do they say? Friars, no Ovens, no Pans in the oven, burners on. Got a lot of things. I got a lot going on in the fire what the fuck is that?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, it's something with the fire I got a lot of not, not pokers in the fire. I got a lot of no, it's not sticks in the fire. Poker sounded okay, we're going to google. Yeah, I got a lot of something in the fire irons, irons in the fire.
Speaker 1:Oh, I got a lot of irons in the fire. Okay, that makes sense. Like blacksmiths, yeah, yeah, yeah. Meanwhile, your pots in the oven, yeah, my pots in the oven, my pans are in the fryer. So that's that's.
Speaker 2:That's that's me and that is why her boyfriend doesn't let her cook. What about you? But how are things on your end? This was a little concerning. I was like transplanting one of my plants in my house. There was a worm in it and I was like, how did this earthworm get in here? Like what is happening? So that was a little scary. But I'm like, well, at least my plant's probably healthier because of it. But I bought myself a new cutting of a plant. I'm thriving, just like my plants.
Speaker 1:What kind of plant? What kind of plant?
Speaker 2:Except for the ones I killed, because one is dying, but we won't talk about that. It's a pothos plant, sometimes called a Swiss cheese plant. I already have one pothos and another pothos, but this would be my third one because it's a different like strain. Like I have one that's just green, one that's white and green, and this one is green with holes in it. I need to get out more, but it's very exciting in my life because I love plants and I think I read I was going to say I read an article, I literally just read the headline. So I read a headline somewhere that said just being around plants is like makes you happy or helps your mental health, and I'm like, wow, I am a champion and I don't even know it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I've heard that too. I just looked up pothos plants. These are the trailing ones, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, and, oh my gosh, Kelly. So my pothos have been cruising so I transplanted them so you can have them drop down. But I read somewhere they're like oh well, sometimes when they drop down they become lankier. When you have them grow up, like they potentially will have more leaves, more roots, whatever. So I got a moss pole, I like tucked the little roots in so it grows into the moss pole and it is cranking. This is cranking, and I have two of them. They're like identical. Look, I just went off on plants. This isn't a plant podcast but very excited about it, Very, my face is hurting from smiling. So much about these plants you are like incredibly happy about it.
Speaker 1:It's adorable.
Speaker 2:They bring me such joy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel the same way about plants.
Speaker 2:I think I was telling you earlier yeah, you garden.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was telling you earlier, it's been raining here like thunderstorm every single day, like one or two thunderstorms, sometimes three, for the past three weeks. So I haven't been out there to water any of them because it just keeps watering on them. And then I'm not weeding because every time it fucking rains, more weeds pop up. So my whole garden bed of mulch out there there's just weeds all in it. I've never seen so many weeds in my life. I'm mad at it because I've been here for two years and I de-weeded the whole fucking front before I put down the mulch and the mulch said it was like a weed, like you know, keeps the weeds down and when after that, like I come back, like a week later, there is just like clovers which I've never had clover weeds before they're growing all up out of the mulch like just weed grass coming out of the mulch. So fuck that.
Speaker 2:I don't consider those weeds.
Speaker 1:Well, they're like on top of the mulch and they're just all over the place. I'll send you a picture, but essentially I haven't gone out there because it's been raining for three weeks and I do need to like, deadhead some plants so they could grow again. But it is what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a pumpkin plant that is taking over my backyard. I should send you a picture of that.
Speaker 1:Like the vine and everything like it's coming up. I have so funny.
Speaker 2:So I thought I told you this story. So we have squirrels that last year my partner and I were like we don't remember planting a tomato plant over there. Well, the squirrels were stealing our tomatoes and then like burying them places. So a tomato plant just started growing. Oh, that's hilarious. Well, this year, because I left a pumpkin plant or pumpkin from Halloween outside and they stole the seeds and planted them. So there was one pumpkin plant that my partner and I decided we're like let's let it grow, like let's just see what happens.
Speaker 2:This thing is half my patio right now and this is one plant like half my patio. And I kept seeing all these flowers, like finally seeing flowers. I'm like I'm going to get so many pumpkins and then I wasn't seeing any pumpkins. Yeah, because they need to be pollinated. There's male flowers and there's female flowers and you have to get them to pollinate. Well, these freaking flowers are alive for like a day and a half. So I'm like out there, kelly, I'm like like I am in this. I'm like plucking the male plants because there's a million male flowers. I'm like rip off the petals, I jam it into the female. That sounds very violent. This is all consensual. Put it into the female. That sounds very violent. This is all consensual. Put it into the female plants. I'm just like okay, give me a pumpkin, I want something from this. So right now I have three pumpkins that are beginning to grow. It's exciting in my life. These better turn out and the squirrels better not eat them. They better not Because I've worked hard for this.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, you have to send me a picture of that.
Speaker 2:If you want, I can send you a picture, because I just am sending you a picture that I sent my parents of the plant.
Speaker 1:I like that. That makes me feel safe. What the picture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man, yeah, we just went on a huge plant, whoa yeah, that's one plant okay, we're gonna put this some wow yeah, if you put it anywhere, make sure to crop walter out in the back. He's doing his business, he doesn't want that publicized.
Speaker 1:I love Look at him go.
Speaker 2:But yeah, oh man, I should take a picture with all the flowers open because it's really pretty, but you're just like oh, so many pumpkins.
Speaker 1:No, no, kelly, just three in there, not so many pumpkins, all of this, and if I only get three and the squirrels eat them?
Speaker 2:oh, kelly, oh. Kelly, I'm going to be livid if I have to buy a pumpkin this Halloween.
Speaker 1:Livid, you grow your own pumpkins right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh, you know what? This is actually a great segue into my story. Can we just go?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, we want to do two degrees real quick beforehand Fudge.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, completely Look at you Begrudgingly.
Speaker 1:you want to talk about your work, your mental health, just as most of us are.
Speaker 2:I get jacked up on plants. Let me tell you.
Speaker 1:I do too. That was fun. I could keep talking about that. Yeah, so my two degrees last week was that I was going to show up more in my relationship and cook dinner twice a week. My relationship and cook dinner twice a week.
Speaker 2:So I can happily report that I have cooked dinner twice in a week, so not two times, just twice, or two times a day. Yeah, no, not twice. Yeah, yeah, actually, yes, okay, I was giving you crap and you actually did it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I did do it. I did do it. Was it, like you know, from scratch dinners? No, I mean easy steps, baby steps. First, you know, take stuff out of the freezer. But now I'm a cook so I should be cooking. Sad days when I don't cook, every day is a sad day. It's been a sad day for years now. So, yeah, my two degrees going forward would be to order groceries. So I said order because I don't like to go grocery shopping. I have like some weird association with the grocery store so I don't like to do it. And yeah, so I'd order groceries and then cook with those groceries. If I could do that just once, that would be like a further step in like going two degrees. And when I say order, like order, but then go and pick them up, not have them delivered, oh, like I'm fine with ordering them. And then there's like a spot like a parking spot for it, and they bring, bring it out to your car, like and that's free and I'm fine with that. But yeah, I can't, I can't grocery shop.
Speaker 2:I just no, not enough for me I used to go grocery shopping with my mom, like when I was little, I loved it so much. And then I'd pretend to like, scan the items. When I came home and like the receipt, it was like, oh, I loved it so much. I still love to grocery shop.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sorry that my childhood was amazing. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:No, it was actually quite. It's the same thing for me. My mom would drag us on all of her errands and she'd always say that she was done, but then need to do one last stop at the grocery store. She would sneak in and we'd have to go in with her and then when we got older, we were like allowed to stay in the car. So it just became like this this, I think like it stems from there Like why I don't like grocery shopping is because, like I was always forced into it as a child. It was always like a trick.
Speaker 1:It was like a trick Like oh I just need to stay with the post office and be like, oh yeah, no, I just need to do something at the post office real quick. I don't know what's your two degrees. What was it last week?
Speaker 2:Less caffeine. So this week was rough for me sleep-wise. I was very tired, so I wasn't able to do that. So I'm kind of going to cheat a little and make that my two degrees this upcoming week and really hope to start drinking less caffeine, just because it's not sustainable for me, like because I'll I'll keep on the upward trajectory and like my body gets used to the caffeine and then I have to drink more and I'm just like I can't do this. So my drink right now is like it's basically it's from a machine, but it's a hot chocolate with, like I think, a shot of espresso. So eventually I'd like to get to the point where it's just a hot chocolate, because then I'm hoping my brain it will be like the placebo effect, where my brain will be like oh, this is still coffee, even though it's not so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's a good way to get into it Smart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I'm going to try and do, at least Try, try, try. You know.
Speaker 1:I support that. I support you Thanks so much Means the world. Before hopping into the story, we do have an email from a listener about their two degrees. Awesome, yeah, it opens up. Okay, okay, what's up? Your podcast has been my secret weapon against the chaos and my fucked up head.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. I used to think I needed some grand life-changing plan to fix my mental health. Spoiler alert that approach fucking tanked hard. Hard is like big caps going long. I heard you chatting about two degrees and taking baby steps to fix larger problems, so I went ahead and tried it. I started with something stupidly simple a two minute dance party every morning. In parentheses she says I know might be fucking weird, but it works for me. Just me jamming out to one song. It felt really stupid and silly at first, but now it's kind of the highlight of my day because I can get all of my anxious energy out first thing in the morning while screaming and yes, I do this in my garage. I was going to say I hope you don't have neighbors.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, I know I like that. You threw that in there. It's really good. So I'm learning that it's cool to take it slow, you know. Thanks for keeping it real and making mental health stuff feel less scary. Zoe from Portland. Well, thanks, zoe, that's cool. Thanks, zoe, that was fun, I like your brain's not fucked up, you're fucked up head and it's not. Don't worry, we're all there with you. Yeah, we're all dealing with something, yeah, yeah, well, get into it, girl, I'm excited to listen.
Speaker 2:I'm a listener this week, oh okay, so let's go back to pumpkins. What are pumpkins? Pumpkins are food. Food and mental health, oh so this, this kind of goes. We've talked about, like, the gut biome. I know you, like, are really jacked up about that Like, ooh, gut biome.
Speaker 1:You know, whatever we read about it, you're just like oh yeah, that.
Speaker 2:What is it? Brain gut connection or whatever it's called.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I was about to say. Yeah, something along those lines. It's different every time, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that I feel like I've always known you. You've probably known as well where, like food is somehow connected to how we think, or you know our mental health. For me, I'm like, okay, I get it, but I also absolutely love like sugar and cake and all the unhealthy stuff.
Speaker 2:So I was originally going to just specifically look at sugar, but there's, I feel like there's just so much more to it than that. So I kind of broadened it a little and my sources are that the American Psychological Association, nutritionorg and mcleanhospitalorg. What this article says is the food-mood connection, which I kind of love. I love that alliteration, yeah, that rhyming. That's not alliteration, that rhyming. So why do we like food? We eat it. Why do we like it? Beyond just tasting good, serotonin is released in our brain.
Speaker 1:So serotonin helps.
Speaker 2:What did you say I?
Speaker 1:said yes. I said oh, it so is, I can continue. Big release Love eating by myself is like I. I can, yeah, continue like okay. Okay, release love. You're like love that serotonin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so serotonin helps regulate mood, sleep, appetite and I our tolerance for pain, which I wasn't aware of so in order for this uh neurotransmitter to be produced. There's like some steps that are, you know, our brain body has to take and it requires certain nutrients, Like this article says vitamin B1, copper, riboflavin and calcium. Not going to lie, I thought riboflavin was like an added flavoring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I used to think the same. That's why I'm nodding my head. I knew you were going to say that I used to think the same thing until I was like doing like a supplemental, like treatment for my health and I was taking riboflavin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just learned that right now because I'm like why would they tell me to take something that's like a fake flavoring, fake flavoring Anyway. So when we don't have those nutrients or those necessary things to like make this serotonin go, it doesn't go. So, jumping to the gut microbiome, so kind of what we've talked about before where in our gut there's a lot of microbiomes and that's like the good bacteria that's just kind of chilling, just partying in our gut, it produces vitamins that we might not get in our diet and it can create, like help create that serotonin. So because that gut communicates with the brain, the body tells the gut, tells the gut what it needs to produce more of for the functions. So in our brain-gut connection it's almost like which you think it's all connected anyway because it's one body, but it's like the gut is telling our body like hey, we need more of this to make that serotonin, and then the body's kind of doing it which affects the brain. So it is obviously all still connected.
Speaker 2:But just recently the researchers are beginning to understand the importance of that gut health to mental health. So this was kind of interesting. A study at Deakin University looked at diets of 213 pregnant women in their third trimester and they used gut microbiome samples from them. They followed the new mothers and their children until the age of two. They found that the women who had like the most diverse microbiomes during pregnancy their kids had fewer depressive, anxious or withdrawn characteristics. So like the mother's gut health affects the child's actual health.
Speaker 2:Fuck, it starts all the way back there. Yeah, in utero.
Speaker 1:You're not even in control of it. I mean, it makes sense. No, in utero, you're not even in control of it. I mean, it makes sense. No it totally does, totally does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. But it's crazy because it's like okay, so if you had anxiety when you were really young, could have been due to your parents' lack of diverse microbiome, which is just crazy. So this doesn't necessarily like show that direct cause and effect, because you know there's so many other factors and this was only 213. Like were they all in the same city? You know, like I feel like there could be other things, but there are continuing to be more and more studies that look at this gut health, to kind of look at it just from the gut health to the mood disorders.
Speaker 2:I think the children thing is interesting, but I'm not sure that's a full, like fully backed position quite yet. So another study looked at the gut to see how it would improve the outcome of patients with mood disorders, and I I'm not sure if it was this 2019 study, but there was one where it looked at the Mediterranean diet and had people like they were taught the Mediterranean diet, like help them plan the meals and whatever, and their level on like the depressive episode scale went down significantly, where people who are on normal only went down slightly, which is probably because of the study. But yeah, it's just there's more and more studies coming out about how food is interactive with mental health. Gosh couldn't even think of the word. Now I'm just thinking about dinner.
Speaker 1:Why are we here Dinner?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like I really want fried chicken. I was like Mediterranean diet fried chicken.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll be great. The fried food would be wonderful yeah.
Speaker 2:That'd be so good for you. My microbiome is probably garbage right now.
Speaker 1:My microbiome is a fucking McDonald's. Yes, really.
Speaker 2:It's just a drive-thru Well, you know what over by bacteria becoming inflamed and doesn't have all those good bacteria to send to your brain and make you happy. So I was like that's upsetting, but I still love fried chicken.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I feel that, I bet all of us feel that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, except for the vegetarians or the people who are actually healthy.
Speaker 1:but they're probably not listening to this podcast, but at one point maybe they had to get on that track. And most of the times when someone starts a new health kick, they can really get into it and that becomes a full-blown lifestyle. That is fair. Yeah, yeah, I've been there, but then I get depressed and everything falls apart. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've done the same thing where, like, I get on the treadmill and I'm like I'm a champion and I'll have a healthy dinner, I'll go to bed on time we have the next morning. I'll be like, no, no, that was a one and done situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know what that was. I don't know, yeah. So then let's go into the immune system function. So inflammation is used to like fight threats. Well, inflammation can be increased if we keep eating the saturated fat, the sugar, food additives, all this stuff, because the body's like what is this? Let's protect you and then you're just like, constantly inflamed and your body's just like what is happening? There's also current research that says this increase in the inflammation in your body because we eat a lot of this super processed food. There's cognitive decline, dysfunctional areas of the brain like the hippocampus and amygdala. This bad food is affecting us a lot and I do not think we realize it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Thank you, we all needed that. We all needed to hear it.
Speaker 2:After this one, you're going to be more anxious, you're going to be like crap, I need a salad, yeah. So now let's go to the nervous system, take me. So the nervous system is your brain, your spinal cord, the neural pathways that have the neural network and the neural pathways that communicate throughout your body. That pathway depends on the nutrients to maintain these connections. So those good amino acids, minerals, fatty acids, carbs this is kind of what it depends on.
Speaker 2:So when we're not eating these things, our nervous system functions poorly, which could worsen our mental health, like, specifically, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ocd, adhd, but just to name a few, all these things are impacted by the food we consume.
Speaker 2:So I just wanted to kind of go over those where it's different chunks of the body that you're like oh, how would my spine get affected by this? And it's like okay, because I think the basis is your body needs certain healthy things in order to build and maintain the health of your system, and if you're putting in garbage, it really only has garbage to go off of. One thing I did find interesting, though, is this article I was reading mentioned malnutrition, and I think of people who are starving with malnutrition, but there's two types of malnutrition undernutrition due to insufficient nutrient intake and overnutrition due to excessive nutrient intake. It's interesting that malnutrition isn't necessarily necessarily oh, I don't have food to eat. It's like, no, I ate Cheetos for three months and now my body isn't doing what it should Like. I don't have the nutrients for this. So in hospitals across the US, malnutrition affects over 30% of patients and that is linked to higher risk of death and illness, functional decline, and this article mentions increased medical expenses. I'm like well, yeah.
Speaker 1:If the article was written in America, then yeah they'll do. Anything, they'll do anything to increase your medical expense? Yes, okay, real quick, real quick. So you're talking about, like you know, when you said like I eat a diet of Cheetos for a week.
Speaker 1:Yes, it sounds delicious, we have all known that person who literally puts garbage into their body and seems to be functioning on all goddamn cylinders. We either watch people like that, we know people in person like that. I'm pretty sure we all can identify one of those people, and I've been noticing that forever. Even when my cousin was younger, all she ate was French fries and spaghetti and certain things I just nonstop ate it, ate it, ate it, ate it, ate it. She's a grown ass adult now. She did that for probably 10 years. She is completely fine, completely fine.
Speaker 2:But we all know that person.
Speaker 1:They must have some good pregnancy. They were good in their first home, in the womb, I guess that's one way to say it. Yeah yeah. That's just my little snippet there. It's just damn those people. I'm jealous of them.
Speaker 2:I'm fucking jealous. That's interesting, though, because it's like, okay, then what is up with that? But I feel like, even as unfortunate as it is, cheetos still have like carbs, like that's still beneficial. I feel like if we were eating I don't even know, like paper or something that had, or corn simply corn, which has no benefit to you, your body would be like I got nothing to go off of here, so at least it's something. But I just wonder how there isn't more of a breakdown of the system, maybe food, because it changes so much that it's like the buildup effect, like if you ate Cheetos for, you know, 15 years.
Speaker 2:Then your body, then you'd be dead Like I don't know. This is all just. You know Kimberly science, which is not science at all, but it's just. It's. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know, and it's weird thinking about like okay, so when you were first born, all you did was drink breast milk or formula and that gave you everything you needed and you grew like a weed. It's like back to me later. But I dated a guy and he didn't want to do dishes. Soylent. That is the drink that you can have.
Speaker 1:That is essentially give you everything you need. So it claims, just like baby formula did Soylent. I did not learn about this until I was dating this guy and he moved in with me. And you know what? There's just a PSA out there. Just don't fucking move in with people unless you have a ring on your finger. I know that is so old school to say, but just from my experience it's just absolutely terrible.
Speaker 2:Hey Kelly, real quick question your partner and you that you guys live together. Are you engaged?
Speaker 1:I am not. Don't do what I do, okay. Okay, I just wanted to check. Part of the PSA is don't do what I do. Just give it a second thought, especially if it's like the third person you've moved in with. Maybe you should think about that.
Speaker 1:But this guy did not want to do dishes. That was his one chore in the apartment and so he didn't want to do dishes. So he decided that I wouldn't need to cook for him anymore, so they wouldn't be any of his dishes in the sink. What he did was stocked up on a fuck ton of Soylent and that's what he was prepared to drink for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so he didn't have to do anything. Okay, that was like maybe like the 50th warning flag that I probably shouldn't have been in that situation. It was a little. That's a big extreme reaction to doing the fucking dishes. It's like fine, I won't eat food, but soylent, yeah, that's rough. Yeah, yeah, the life is crazy. I mean, move in with whoever you want. Honestly, you don't need a fucking ring on your finger. I sound like a grandma when I said that, but at the same point in time, fucking think it through.
Speaker 2:That is also fair.
Speaker 1:It's not always a happy ending. Sometimes it's a soylent ending. Ew yeah, Back to you.
Speaker 2:Kimberly. Yeah, thanks for that fun story, kelly. That really adds to my story. I'm here for the anecdotes. Yeah, I'll say oh. So now, in current day, the like psychology of nutrition is growing. I I think it's a psychology or psychiatry the nutrition, the rise of nutritional psychiatry.
Speaker 2:So, there's been traditional medicinal practices in other countries like our continents in India, Asian countries that have long promoted like what you eat affects your physical and mental health, where in, like Western nations, we haven't made that connection, which is kind of insane. But they're beginning to study it a ton more, learn about it a lot more. I think it's good. It's about time, Like how is this not? I mean, why wasn't this more of a thing we're putting medicine in our bodies like and that's affecting us? You'd think other things we put in our bodies, like everything you put in your body, will affect your body.
Speaker 1:It's so silly that we never made that connection until this day and age. I guess people have made that connection before, but just not us.
Speaker 2:They have, but I don't know. It's almost like one of those things where it's like oh duh, like duh. Of course the food you eat affects your head, like because, oh, I have coffee, I have energy, you know, I feel more focused, or whatever. Or one thing, because I was looking at sugar, where you know a sugar high and I guess a sugar high isn't a real thing, which it's not. What do you mean? I mean, I didn't really research it too much, but I don't think a sugar high is like an actual thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've always think my niece is hiked up on sugar. She doesn't sleep, or I mean nap or just get tired ever. She just runs on candy. Yeah, a lot of kids do.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I guess it's been debunked. There is no such thing as a sugar high, but you can crash. There's a sugar crash, right? No, that's been debunked too. So, okay, I'm doing a Google search right now. This is goodrxcom. Give it to us, baby. So for most people, blood sugar returns to normal shortly after a meal. It's rare to reach high levels of blood sugar. Okay, and in a recent meta-analysis looking at over 31 studies concluded that carbohydrate consumption didn't have any effect on mood and didn't lead to an energy boost. So what's actually happening? It says the feeling you get may have less to do with blood sugar and more to do with the fact that sugar causes the brain to release dopamine and opioids. Huh, okay, chemicals that give you a feeling of pleasure. Sugar causes the brain to release dopamine and opioids.
Speaker 1:Huh, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Chemicals that give you a feeling of pleasure. The jolt of energy is from that jolt of dopamine. So they're thinking that sugar affects the brain in a similar way, with like addictive substances as well, like lighting up the pleasure centers and stuff. So that's what they're thinking. Okay, which is interesting, where it's almost like we've labeled these things because we feel them and we think we know how these things happen, but we actually don't. I feel like that's a lot of science. It's like, oh crap.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, definitely. I mean, science can only go as far as the day and age goes, you know yeah, I, I am realizing that I am realizing that it's slow burn.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, slow burn, but yeah, that's just the food for me. That's what I'm talking about. That was my story, the end. I still want fried chicken.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say, and now we go, after learning all that, to get fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy. Maybe, like cornbread. Are you down with the cornbread?
Speaker 2:I love cornbread with some honey.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, girl, I was just going to say put honey on that shit. Oh my gosh, have you ever had-. I was actually going to say put honey on that shit, oh my gosh, have you ever had I was actually going to say honey butter.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say. I was like have you ever tried whipped honey butter?
Speaker 1:Oh my God, we're so hungry right now.
Speaker 2:It's ridiculous, yeah, we are, this is not good. And my partner's like, hey, do you want me to pick something up for dinner? And I'm like, so desperately want to be like, but I know I'll regret it.
Speaker 1:so I'm not going to Mine already ran out to grab something for dinner.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, Are we so lucky.
Speaker 1:I mean your partner offered. I'm just saying same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we have leftovers we have to eat. I can't waste this food, anyway. Anyway, the end.
Speaker 1:I don't want to talk about it anymore all right, because otherwise, yeah. So if you don't want to talk about that, then let's talk about on fuck your brain. Using science to get over anxiety, depression, anger, freakouts and triggers. Written by dr G Harper. We're on chapter six. Chapter six is anxiety. Yeah, I think everybody in the world can relate to this Anxiety.
Speaker 2:Yes, do you want to read the first two sentences, because I know how much you like that.
Speaker 1:It does make me happy, don't you just love dictionary definitions? Anxiety is the state of being anxious. Well, no shit, that's the first two sentences, right? I did a good job.
Speaker 2:I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, but yeah, no, this is good In the beginning she talks a lot just about the general word anxiety, where it comes from 19th century talks about Italians all these things. History Italians whatever.
Speaker 1:But the thing that I highlighted under that portion is that anxiety covers a lot of ground, and the way she explains it is it can be the experience of unease at its most chill, distress at medium heat or straight up panic at a full boil. So, yeah, it covers a landscape. Anxiety isn't just, oh, I'm having a panic attack, the alarms are going off. It could also be like I'm having anxiety because I don't want to, any other reason. It doesn't have to be that extreme. It doesn't have to be that extreme. Yeah, it all honestly feels extreme at the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, when you're in it it's all full boil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then she says I highlighted this other sentence right here. She says anxiety demands every ounce of attention we have to give it, no matter how inconvenient the time or how unnecessarily the anxiety actually was to begin with. So it just shows up. It doesn't fucking give a fuck. Yeah, we all know that we can't control it. It's terrible. I mean, she's going to give it, there's tools to control it, but that's about that. Did you want to talk about some of the symptoms of anxiety?
Speaker 2:Sure, I mean, I well, I was just going to say because this, this chapter, kind of went over anxiety and as I was reading this I was like I know what anxiety is like. I have it. So like when she went through some of these symptoms and she even says of course there are tons more symptoms. So, like thoughts and feelings, symptoms are excessive, worrying, rumination, feelings of fear, self-doubt, flashbacks, physical symptoms, inability to rest, neck tension, racing heart weakness, dizziness, chest pain. There's so many things.
Speaker 2:I still remember I was getting hot flashes. This was when I still lived at home with my parents. I think this was shortly after I graduated college and I was getting hot flashes. It was so weird. I'd be sitting on the sofa, watching TV, whatever, and I would just feel like suddenly get so hot. I was like what is happening? And it was funny because I went to my doctor. I was like what is happening here?
Speaker 2:I think I had another symptom, but I forgot what it was. And I remember looking at my chart and it said menopausal symptoms. What? Yeah, because like hot flashes. So like it's a menopausal symptom. And it's funny because obviously they weren't like, oh, you're going through menopause. But that was a symptom of menopause, not necessarily a symptom of anxiety, but I experienced that in my anxiety so I don't experience that really much anymore. But it's funny how these things like you're like oh that's not anxiety, it could be anxiety. I mean, some of these things like get stuff checked out, but also it might be anxiety. So I just when I was like reading that part, like the symptoms it's, there are, I think, basic ones, but I think there's also the gamut of symptoms Like it can be a lot of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause it always ends up being like you'd go and you get tested and be like well, why can I find a solution? It's like, well, anxiety is your underlining cause, like it's manifesting itself in different areas of your body, even if you're not necessarily like feeling it or having full blown feelings about it, like that's why your neck tension is there, like that's what that is. Yeah, all the fun stuff. Yeah, all the fun stuff. What else does she go on in here? She goes into a bit of each anxiety symptoms, just touches on them a bit Well, not all of them, but a few but then she asks this question do I have anxiety or am I just anxious?
Speaker 1:Sometimes which I was going to say earlier you have anxiety for a test, but I was like, well, do you just get anxious before a test? Like, is that, like what? What is the difference necessarily? Well, there's a way to self-check whether it's anxiety or you're just anxious, and that is by taking an anxiety assessment test, and the one that you can take that's used most often is called OASIS, and that stands for overall anxiety severityairment Scale. It's backed up by research and it's free to use, since it was developed by the National Institutes of Health. So that is one way of clarifying whether it's anxiety or you're just anxious. I like.
Speaker 2:Like in the first paragraph she says like any other mental health issue, the answer lies in whether or not anxiety is controlling your life. So if you have a test and you're like, oh, I'm kind of anxious for this, but you still sit down, you're still feeling pretty good, you know there's that slight edge of anxiousness, but you sit down, you take the test, you turn it in and you can walk away. Fantastic, not controlling your life. I feel like it becomes anxiety when you can't stop worrying about it and you're sitting there and you're like what if I fail this? What if I forget my pencil? What if, like all those things and you turn it in, you keep thinking about it. You have like a breakdown in your car about it. That might be teetering on something.
Speaker 2:And I know I've said this before. My therapist just told me she's like Kimberly, anxiety will be in your life, like that's part of the human existence and it's there to tell you something. Like if you have that anxiety, like maybe you're nervous, you know, maybe this is an uneasy situation, so like you use it as that tool, but it's not meant for you to sit in it, and that's where anxiety is just like. Where you sit in that. It's like use it as a tool but it's not meant for you to sit in it, and that's where anxiety is just where you sit. In that it's like use it as a tool but keep moving forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that was a really good definition of it Nice job, nice job Can we get a standing. O for my girl, kimberly. Thank you, I'm a genius, just kidding, I'm not. Adults ages 18 and older, that's 18.1% of people in a given year, meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder. So 40 million American adults meet the criteria for anxiety disorder every single year and 75% of individuals with an anxiety disorder had their first episode before the age of 21.
Speaker 1:Had their first episode before the age of 21. Wow, yeah, I read that and I felt like, oh, this is home, I'm in a safe space, for some reason.
Speaker 2:I'm not alone.
Speaker 1:You're not alone like that and that number is so fucking huge and that I had my first panic attack when I was 17 or something like that, and I did not know what it was and I was telling you earlier. I will remember it to the day I die, Like it will always be stuck with me, Like the, everything that where I was, the room who I was, with the smells all of it, Like I was fucking petrified. I was so scared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of like trauma.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean she says that anxiety and trauma go together. Obviously, trauma produces anxiety. I would see that they go hand in hand. Moments, those are things you remember because your body's like on alert.
Speaker 2:It's at like it's functioning on all cylinders like let's go. So I don't know. That's Kimberly science.
Speaker 1:I like Kimberly science she talks about. She makes the connection about stress in the book. You did just say something about stress, right?
Speaker 2:I'm like anxiety and anxiousness, and stress, like if you're stressed for a test.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, like stress for a test, so like, so in in. I knew you said something, so in, but that was like two times ago. That was like two times ago I said something.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Kelly, for listening to the words I'm saying. Like what the heck I'm so sporadic right now?
Speaker 1:Please, what the heck I'm so sporadic right now, Please, why am I even speaking? So yeah, a lot of everything that we're talking about can be it's just so much can be anything. It's like such umbrella symptoms that you have to figure out. Is that anxiety? But a lot of it kind of sounds like oh, you have neck tension, oh, that's from stress, but in this it could also be from anxiety. So what the fuck is the difference? And she tells us stress can produce anxiety. But it can also produce a ton of other emotional responses. Depression is probably the biggest. And then she says anxiety is an internal response to stressors.
Speaker 2:So where does this anxiety stuff come from? Cortisol is the stress hormone. It's, like I said, suppresses the immune system. This is what does it, it increases blood sugar. Many people with chronic stress also gain weight, specifically as belly fat, which is something I did not know Is that what's happening to me, I don't know. See your doctor. You think we're trained professionals. Here we read a book.
Speaker 1:I did see my doctor. We thought it was my medication. But what if it's just stress? That's what's doing it.
Speaker 2:I don't. Why are you looking at me? Because you look so smart.
Speaker 1:today you look so smart. I know my hair is pulled back.
Speaker 2:It's like, wow, she's got it together. So this works with norepinephrine to make strong memory associations with certain moods, to create warning signals of what you should avoid in the future, which it's like great and helpful, but if it's used over time it's not increasing anxiety. Norepinephrine I guess I was hoping you'd jump in there, Kelly, but I got it.
Speaker 2:Norepinephrine is released through your central nervous system to prep your body for action. You got to go I mean maybe to the bathroom, but also, just in general, got to go, you know not, I mean maybe to the bathroom but also, just in general, got to go right now. So it increases your focus as well as your blood flow, blood pressure and heart rate. This is kind of like fight or flight, yeah, and anxiety just keeps your body fighting and flying.
Speaker 1:Fight flight or freeze Because I have a cortisol problem. They literally told me what my levels were for my last checkup problem. They literally told me what my levels were for my last checkup, and so I have a cortisol issue, which makes sense, because all of my hormones are going to one direction, or whatever. Those hormones, whatever they're called, I don't know, but they're going in one direction and they're not going in the other. So everything's piling up over there. Yeah, take it away from me, kimberly.
Speaker 2:Honestly gladly. Okay. Well, that was Chapter 6, Anxiety Love it, Hate it. Love the book, Hate anxiety. And we'll be doing Chapter 7 next week, which is Anger.
Speaker 1:My favorite. Oh, I love it. I'm going to show up mad, please, don't I. Honestly, it doesn't take much, so depending on the day. It doesn't take much. That is real healthy.
Speaker 2:Okay, anyway, it's been great talking. Hopefully somebody was listening to me. Since Kelly obviously was not, I'm sorry. What did you say? Please like rate, subscribe, send in your two degrees follow us on. Instagram and Facebook and just or whatever you know what. Also, live your life.
Speaker 1:Don't spend too much time on social media and touch grass and drink water and just live your best life, think twice before you eat fried chicken, or don't think at all and just eat the fried chicken. We're not here to tell you what to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not trained doctors, we just spew advice.
Speaker 1:And the fried chicken smells fucking good.
Speaker 2:And it's so good. We can't keep talking about this. I'm going to go and get fried chicken, you're right.
Speaker 1:Anyway, remember when you're here you're never alone. Bye, bye.
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