How to Stay Politically Engaged While Protecting Your Mental Health

It's a difficult, scary time in American politics. You may be feeling worried for the safety and well-being of yourself and your loved ones while also feeling anxious about the future of democracy. The policies being enacted by the current administration may have a direct impact on you and your community, whether it's the threat of deportations, being targeted for your gender identity, or the possibility of losing your job. Balancing your mental health and daily life while staying informed and active may feel impossible even if you feel relatively privileged and unlikely to experience direct harm from current political policies. This blog outlines some healthy coping strategies for staying engaged and creating sustainability even when political news and events are causing you stress and anxiety. 

First, Your Feelings Are Valid

If you're feeling anxious, stressed, or scared right now, it's because you're a human being with empathy. It's important to take a moment to feel your feelings rather than ignoring them or getting frustrated with yourself when you find it hard to focus at work, stay mentally present with loved ones, or feel joy. Your feelings are a sign that your humanity is still intact.

That being said, it’s all too easy to get burnt out by doom-scrolling, obsessing over the news, or giving too much of yourself without making time to rest and care for your own needs. If we want to stay in touch with our humanity in this challenging time, we have to be strategic about our time and attention so that we have the energy to care for ourselves and our communities and stand up for our values. 

Six Therapy Tips on How to Stay Politically Engaged without Getting Burnt Out: 

1. Schedule Your Exposure to the News (And Your Feelings About It) 

If you find that you’re struggling to disengage with your worry, schedule it. Pick 30 minutes or an hour once or twice a day when you can read articles, check in on groups you’re active in, and feel your feelings about current events. Setting time aside allows you to be more present in the moment while knowing you will also make space for the parts of you that are activated due to fear, anger, and grief.

2. Evaluate & Adjust Your Social Media Use

Examine what purpose social media is serving you and what your limitations are:

• If it’s for political updates and interaction, engage with it in a more structured way. Some social media websites have a time limit feature – use that, or set an alarm so you don’t get lost doom scrolling.

• If it’s for socializing, community engagement, and watching cute cat videos, hide individuals who post political rhetoric, double-check the settings that allow you to only see accounts you follow, and curate your algorithm the best you can so that your social feeds are the reprieve you need. This might mean avoiding certain social media platforms temporarily or leaving them entirely, and that’s okay. 

3. Check In with Your Own Needs

With politics so overwhelming right now (and much of it out of our control), it’s important to check in with yourself on what you need and what might be adding to the overwhelm. Maybe you need more or less time with friends and family; maybe you need to engage in activities that are less likely to overstimulate you due to noise or bright screens; maybe you need a cozy game moment rather than video games that are stressful or competitive. Maybe your body and mind need you to carve out time for a nap so you can get some literal rest. Whatever your needs may be, the most important thing is to honor them by gauging your overwhelm often and finding healthy ways to decompress.

4. Don’t Forgo Self Care 

Drink water, eat regularly, take your meds, and get enough sleep. These acts are essential to maintaining your energy, perspective, and emotional resilience. Because times of continued stress and trauma often require us to take care of ourselves differently, take some time to also check in with yourself about your normal self care routine – does any of it need to change? What do you need to add in or take away? 

5. Engage with the things that bring you joy. 

Many activists have said it before, and that’s because it’s true: joy is resistance. Engaging in joy intentionally is a great way to affirm your humanity, remember what matters to you, and be reminded that it can exist even when the world feels scary and unsafe. 

6. Find Sustainable Ways to Engage with Your Values & Support Your Communities 

Be upfront with yourself about what you have the capacity for so you can set realistic expectations. Know your capacity might change day to day or week to week; it’s okay to take breaks if it means you won’t burn out. Remember that you’re not an island; you’re part of a bigger community working together through daily acts to create meaningful change. Here are some practical ways to engage with your values without getting burnt out:

• Write your representatives: your alderpeople, senators, congresspeople, attorney generals, etc. 

• Donate to mutual aid groups and causes that align with your values

• Support local businesses and be aware of boycotts happening for large corporations that may be supporting harmful initiatives

• Volunteer with community organizations 

• Check in on friends, family, and community members who might be affected by the actions of the current administration

7. Seek Support From a Therapist If You Need It 

If you’re struggling to cope with political stress and anxiety on your own, you’re not alone. It’s okay to bring this up in therapy or to seek a therapist to discuss your feelings. 

ABOUT ECC: 

Empowered Connections Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing quality, multidisciplinary counseling for adults, children & teens, relationships, and families in Chicago and across Illinois. Whether by in-person session or via telehealth, we work with clients to find the therapist and treatment methods that best suit their needs. Connect meaningfully with your life by booking an appointment today.

Managing Loneliness During the Holidays: Four Tips from a Therapist

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? The holidays are meant to be a time of connection and joy, but sometimes they can be a time of disconnection, grief, and isolation, especially if you have recently suffered a loss such as death of a loved one, divorce or estrangement, job loss, or a move away from your community. Perhaps the holidays are a reminder of past trauma. Even when everything in your life seems normal, the social expectations around holiday celebrations can be overwhelming. It’s all too easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to others who seem to have it all together, especially through social media. All of these things can not only increase loneliness, but anxiety and depression as well.

If any of this feels familiar, know that you aren’t alone. In the last year, over half of Americans have reported feeling sadness and loneliness during the holidays. Loneliness at the holidays is incredibly common, despite the sparkly veneer of lights and gifts and sweet treats.

Mental Health Struggles During the Holidays

An increased sense of loneliness can lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms, especially ones we may have turned to in the past: substance abuse, disordered eating, and other addictive behaviors like mindless shopping. It’s also common to experience increased relationship conflict with family members and partners, given the social pressure to conform to old traditions that may not be comforting anymore.

Another mental health struggle that many experience during the holidays is meta-emotional cycles: in other words, having feelings about your feelings that exacerbate your despair. For example, you might feel loneliness, and then sadness or self-doubt in response to the loneliness: Why am I so isolated? Is there something wrong with me? Another example might be jealousy that others have partners and big families to celebrate with, followed by shame for being jealous: Why can’t I just be happy for others and content with my life? These meta-emotions often lead to greater distress and dysregulation. All the while the original, primary emotion is unattended to, making matters worse.

Therapy Tips For Managing Your Loneliness During the Holidays

The good news is that there are ways you can reorient yourself during the holiday season to protect and improve your mental health. These strategies may not fix your loss or erase past trauma, but rather, can serve as a touchstone for reminding yourself that you are not alone in the world, and joy is still possible.

1. Mindfulness practices – Take time to slow down and connect with your thoughts and feelings. A simple practice of journaling, writing down things you’re struggling with and things that you’re thankful for, can have the effect of reducing how overwhelmed you feel and stopping those meta-emotional cycles from spiraling out of control. Or you might try going outside for a winter walk and focusing on your senses to get out of your head and back into your body: enjoy the crunch of snow beneath your boots, the fog in the air, the wind on your cheeks, or a favorite song in your earbuds (even if it’s a sad one).

2. Make new traditions – Whether it’s because the old traditions don’t feel comforting anymore, or because doing them simply isn’t possible this year due to financial issues or travel constraints, it is okay to try new ways of celebrating. This is possible whether you have people to celebrate with or not. If the thought of trying to celebrate holidays alone makes you feel even more sad or self-conscious, consider an activity that will connect you with others in need, like helping out at a center for unhoused people or underprivileged groups.

3. Adjust expectations and boundaries – We all go into the holiday season with hopeful expectations that we will be surrounded by loved ones and everyone will have a merry time together, full of joy and delicious food and fun gifts. But some years, that’s just not how it works out, for a variety of disappointing reasons. In these times, adjusting our expectations – and communicating clearly with others to help them adjust their own expectations – can make room for other opportunities to find joy. So maybe this year, gathering together with loved ones just isn’t possible; talking about it early on and making other plans to connect over FaceTime or in-person at a later date can help ease the disappointment and reassure each other that you care. (Read this post for more tips on setting boundaries and expectations with loved ones during the holidays.)

4. Support through therapy – No matter how lonely you feel this holiday, remember that you don’t have to cope alone. Therapy can help you process your feelings, prepare for the hard moments, and find joy and comfort.

Get Extra Support This Holiday Season

There’s no better time to seek support from a therapist than during the holiday season. You don’t have to wait until the new year to get the support you need. At ECC, our diverse group of licensed therapists can help you process the loneliness of the season and offer new strategies for coping and connecting with others. Book an appointment with us today to get started.

About ECC:

Empowered Connections Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing quality, multidisciplinary counseling for adults, children & teens, relationships, and families in Chicago and across Illinois. Whether by in-person session or via telehealth, we work with clients to find the therapist and treatment methods that best suit their needs. Connect meaningfully with your life by booking an appointment today.

New Year, New Regrets? How Examining Regret Can Propel You Forward

As we settle into 2023, for some of us it is time to wonder:  Will we or won’t we follow through on our resolutions? Or are we already regretting the goals we made for ourselves?   

Before we review new resolutions,  I want to suggest a moment to look back.  Instead of looking up the mountain for all you want to accomplish or change in the new year, take a minute to look down your mountain and acknowledge how far you have come in the last year.  

Write down some of your accomplishments from last year.  No paper?  Say them out loud.  

I encourage you to call someone and tell them what you are proud of – better yet – start the  conversation–ask the person on the other end of the call to “look down their mountain”.  Have them tell you something they are proud of from the past year. 

It isn’t bragging, it is empowering.  

Along with accomplishments, I confess, I have a lot of regrets from the past year.  I have been taught my entire life from bad bumper stickers “NO REGRETS!” to religious acts (Confession?!) that regrets are something to avoid.  And although we are bound to make some mistakes, the act of embracing regret certainly has been frowned upon.  

Instead of avoiding these mistakes or missed opportunities, what about examining our regrets?  Daniel Pink, in his nonfiction book: The Power or Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, compiles quantitative data to support the importance of reflecting on those things we regret the most.  Pink not only uses science to support his claim, but he gives us permission to embrace our regrets!  

Pink breaks regret into four types:

1. Foundation Regrets

2. Moral Regrets

3. Connection Regrets

4. Boldness Regrets 

Pink explains each type has something to teach humans about what they value: “foundation regrets” reveal a need for stability, “connection regrets”, the need for love, “moral regret”, the need for goodness and “boldness regrets” suggest a need for growth.   If so many of us are living with regret, how do we maximize our regrets to live a more fulfilling life?   Pink goes on to describe a three step strategy: inward, outward, forward.  He also suggests a number of exercises to support these ideas.  

A month into the new year and already I have a few regrets. Instead of punishing myself, I am going to review Pink’s exercises and remember that looking backward can move me forward.  

Read or listen more about Pink’s theory on regret:  How examining our regrets can make for a more meaningful life

Your Brain and Booze

Have you ever had a night out where everyone consumed so much alcohol that everyone was drunk? Maybe it was fun and elating at the start of the night, then quickly turned to drama?  One of your friends said something hurtful, and your other friends tried to comfort you by saying, “they didn’t mean that, they are drunk” or “their personality changes after they’ve had alcohol”. These are common statements you might hear when alcohol is involved, the personality of the person changes. In reality, our brain chemistry is being impacted by alcohol, and there is still much to be learned about how.

Alcohol is known as a depressant, however research shows that as you begin to consume alcohol, your BAC (blood alcohol content) is rising. As the night progresses and the drinking starts to slow down, the alcohol acts more as a sedative. This can explain the behaviors at the start of the night where we might be feeling a burst of energy and rowdy, then as the night progresses we feel more fatigue and confusion. 

Although there are years of research, there’s still much to be learned in terms of neuroscience impact. One study looked at the brain chemistry and possible linkage between norepinephrine and a major neurotransmitter inhibitor called gamma-Aminobutyric acid, also known as GABA (Banerjee. 2014).  Due to alcohol acting as a depressant with similar chemical qualities such as valium, norepinephrine production increases. Norepinephrine affects the GABA receptors, which is responsible for regulating the nervous system (Georgetown Behavioral Hospital, 2021). 

The nervous system communicates with our body and controls important functions such as our balance/walking ability, breathing, thinking, our 5 senses, and more (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2018). When this is impaired, our ability to control our motor function slows down and reduces our ability to think and respond to situations quickly, causing those “drunk nights” out. 

Another study found through a PET scan that the prefrontal cortex and temporal cortex in the brain showed the greatest decrease in activity. This could conclude an impairment in decision making and rational thought, as the prefrontal cortex is responsible for these processes. Inside the temporal cortex, the hippocampus is responsible for developing new memories. However, with the decrease in activity to this region of the brain as well, this could explain the reason for people not remembering their activities from the night before (Gowin, 2010).

We still have much to learn regarding neuroscience and its correlation with alcohol and GABA. Knowledge is power when consuming alcohol. Knowing its impact on brain activity can bring clarity to a lot of the confusion that might come with a long night of it.

Sources:

Banerjee N. (2014). Neurotransmitters in alcoholism: A review of neurobiological and genetic studies. Indian journal of human genetics, 20(1), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.4103/0971-6866.132750

Georgetown Behavioral Hospital. (2021). GABA and alcohol: How drinking leads to anxiety. Retrieved from: https://www.gbhoh.com/gaba-and-alcohol-how-drinking-leads-to-anxiety/ 

Gowin, J. (2010) Your Brain on Alcohol: Is the conventional wisdom wrong about booze? Psychology Today. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/you-illuminated/201006/your-brain-alcohol#:~:text=Elevated%20levels%20of%20norepinephrine%20increase,ups%20happen%20after%20happy%20hour

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2018). What are the parts of the nervous system. Retrieved from: https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/neuro/conditioninfo/parts#:~:text=The%20nervous%20system%20has%20two,all%20parts%20of%20the%20body.

5 Tips to Manage Seasonal Depression

Winter is upon us, and for those that live far north of the equator, it can be a time of year we brace ourselves for. It is the season that bridges the end of year to the new, and a time to truly rest and reset. Along with that, there are naturally fewer sunnier days, shorter days, and less movement. These changes can impact our circadian rhythm, as well as our serotonin and melatonin levels. For some this causes symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

What are the signs that you may be experiencing SAD? The following are symptoms to look out for: feelings of sadness, drops in energy levels, increase in sleep, change in appetite, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, lack of interest in socialization, and irritability. During this time of year, make sure you are checking in with yourself to see if you are noticing subtle shifts. Below are some tips to put in your back pocket, and help you manage your symptoms.

Tip #1- The first tip is a small, but easy one. Consult with your doctor to get your vitamin levels checked, and consider a vitamin D supplement. Less sun exposure means less vitamin D which can have a huge impact on your mood.

Tip #2- Let there be light! On the days that there is sunshine, bundle up and take a quick walk around the block. Natural sun exposure and movement are a win-win. For days where there isn't as much sunlight, consider purchasing a SAD Lamp like this one. Light therapy usage can help simulate sunlight, and trigger a release of serotonin. 

Tip #3- Plan ahead, and create rituals to look forward to. Before your week begins, see what subtle shifts you can make to break up your day. Consider waking up 5 minutes earlier to open your shades, do a quick stretch, and journal. Take a walk with a friend on your lunch break, have a doodle pad by your desk, or a puzzle you can tend to during breaks. These little rituals can help fight fatigue!

Tip #4- Pull out your social calendar. Lack of interest in socialization is a symptom of SAD and admitting that is okay. Some nights allow yourself to lie back on the couch and stream your favorite show. On days where you are feeling a bit more inspired, plan for events to schedule to connect with loved ones. It may feel like pulling boots out of the mud on the day of, but you likely won’t regret it afterward.

Tip #5- Remember that you are not alone. SAD can feel like more than just the “winter blues”, and it impacts thousands of people each year. It is okay to not be okay, and it is okay to ask for help. There are many skilled therapists, including those at Empowered Connections Counseling, that are here to support you. Interventions like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help address negative thinking. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can help with emotional regulation, or even discussing seasonal medication with a therapist are just a few options.