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Atomic Habits for Mental Health



Atomic Habits for Mental Health

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Why would I think a vitamin could improve mental health? The short answer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dqXHHCc5lA
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There’s two ways to think about mental health, and I think a lot of people don’t realize they’re stuck in the first one. Most people believe that you either “have depression” or you don’t. That if you get diagnosed with depression or anxiety, it’s like a permanent trait that you have – and that all you can do is learn to cope with it.
I don’t think about depression or anxiety that way. I think of it on a scale- when your symptoms are severe they interfere with your life in a big way, when your symptoms are mild, or when your symptoms go away, it doesn’t interfere with your life anymore. Depression and Anxiety disorders can actually be resolved when we chip away at them. Thinking this way gives us agency, power to change our own lives.

And often when we get really motivated to improve our lives we try some huge change. And while you can willpower yourself to make those changes for a little while, willpower usually just doesn’t work as a long-term strategy. Then the bigger the changes you want to make, the more exhausting and overwhelming they are, which disincentivizes you from continuing them, it gets harder and harder and harder to do them instead of easier. So while you can willpower your way to doing them for a while, the most likely outcome is that you get exhausted and you quit and you’re more discouraged than when you start.

So making these huge changes rarely works- sometimes it does, but it just can’t be your only strategy. I love to give people tons of options to improve their mental health, but I know that this can be overwhelming. So in this video let’s talk about tiny yet powerful strategies that actually reward you for doing them- they make your life easier instead of harder. And then you get feeling better, you get more energy, and they become easier to do because they’re habitual, and with that extra energy you can add another on, and instead of feeling more and more tired, you feel more and more energetic and resilient. So in this video you’ll learn about tiny changes that take a few minutes a day to build atomic habits for mental health.

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Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life’s direction.
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.
Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

View 42 Comments

42 Comments

  2. @Psych101-mb3gp on

    Hey it's Psych101 just wanted to spread some more awareness to put out in the world! I love learning things about people and how we think and why we do the things we do. I will be discussing many topics and many ways to learn and practice mindfulness. Keep your head up there is always tomorrow. https://youtu.be/mPgNLAiibmw

  7. @etc032000 on

    I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you I watch your videos and they've helped me immensely right now my family sort of tight with money and being able to access this is huge thank you for what you do it means more than you will ever know and reaches so many people❤

  9. @rijd2304 on

    I found mindfulness meditation to be super helpful; the workbook called 30 Days to Reduce Stress by Harper Daniels was very cool.

  12. @Kevin1230san on

    YouTube finally pissed me off for the last time as they paused my monetization for payment information on March 23, 2024. When I became monetize on February 1, 2024, I was so happy as I have been trying since I hit 1000 subscribers on September 4, 2022. That is why I started to do live streams again after nearly a year of semi-retirement from YouTube. Not relation to the monetization issues, but all of this happened after that shit show I wanted to call the Copyright Strike War on April 13, 2023. It was started by Galithrania after the fool copyrighted 3 of my videos on behalf of Reds MMD. One of them had nearly 2 million views. After Reds MMD's YouTube channel got terminated the next day for sexual content, I thought that Galithrania would uncopyright the videos. The smart ass still won't back down. I went back and forth insulting and threats towards Galithrania and Reds MMD in the following days of the Copyright Strike War had started. I thought that after April 19 that the heat had died down, but a month later, on May 17, another YouTuber joined the war. That was the main reason why I went into semi-retirement, leading to the end of the bitching. I don't like to brag, when I entered semi-retirement I knew that I had lost this, but it will never be forgotten. I want to spell my guts about something. I created a YouTube channel called John Marston on November 18, 2022. I started to upload videos on the channel on January 5, 2023, when I found an AI tool that has the AI voice of John Marston. I need to talk about a video called YouTube Thiefs that I uploaded on February 24, 2023. I said some not-so nice things in the video stating that two channels, MMV Water and Victoria, were stealing videos of anime girls drowning from my main channel. That March I uploaded a bunch of ranting videos of John saying that I am the King of YouTube and insulting MMV Water, Victoria and MMD UW, the creator of the anime girl drowning videos. The rant videos were just the start of what I know caused the Copyright Strike War. Many of my subscribers don't know that I was diagnosed with autism at the age of 10. Being autistic is another reason why I'm in this world of flaming bag of shit. I feel like the world still has a choke hold on people like me and treats us like third-class citizens from Third World countries. I have enough of being slapped about like some punk that makes other people happy. I won't be treated like some prize ass anymore. I want freedom from the world of flaming bags of shit. I want to talk about the most likely reason why YouTube paused my monetization, because I haven't put my debit card information on yet. I have a debit card, but my parents are the most anti-online purchasing people out there. I can understand that they were both born in the 1960s. For Christ's sake, my grandpa on my mother's side does online banking, and he was born in 1939, just before the start of World War 2. They are such damn chickens to put their information online. After that time, when my mother's computer got hacked by spammers from Kaspersky. I knew that during COVID-19 my mother and I helped my grandpa out with buying something online at Canadian Tire because everywhere was on damn lockdown. I want goddamn freedom in my goddamn online buying goddamn option without my goddamn scrawny nag of parents stopping me. I freaking fear buying something online in case that my mother will curse me out of her house where I have been living for all my life and my father will beat my ass up to the point that I may be killed. I would be a part of the rest of the people who buy things online only if my parents came out of the closet. I know that my mother said that I can do whatever I want to with the money that I made from my job. I still didn't want to buy shit online and she went ape shit. I don't even want to win something for free online and put our address in. I'm a big Sabaton fan and I always do my best to win the 24 Days of Metal Christmas, but always fail. If somehow I won, and I put my information in, I don't know how my parents would act. I don't have a smartphone, as I still use a flip phone. I rarely use an iPad as it's outdated as shit as it is nearly a decade old. I spend all my hours awake on my laptop other than the one day of the week that I work at Sobeys. I can't have a driver's license because my mother said that I have an Ontario Photo Card, and because of that she said that I'm never going to get a driver's license, because she said that I was autistic, but she knew that autistic people could drive. That's a bunch of shit as two-thirds of 15- to 18-year-old autistic adolescents without intellectual disability are currently driving or planning to drive, and 1 in 3 autistic individuals without intellectual disability get licensed by age 21. I don't know if I have an intellectual disability form of autism. Years ago I only drove a real car for 5 feet in a parking lot before my mother freaked the hell out. I thought I drove pretty damn well. As I have played Grand Theft Auto for years, I ain't that crazy ass driver she saw in GTA. I love running over cops in GTA, but I ain't that retarded to run over cops in real life. I so want to drive because I want to go places without my mother driving me everywhere or taking the transit. My father is already an asshole. Every time I vent my rage and smash the house up, he threatens to hit me. Way to make my mental health hit an all-time low. I hate people who think that they can run over their own kids like a flaming bag of shit. He ain't no drunk or crackhead. I ain't some bitch that he can slap about. I don't care who you are, Elon Musk or some homeless guy on the street, I ain't some punk that is going to get ass fucked by his father. I never went on a date or kissed someone in my life. I have a friend called Samantha who was in the special ed class I was in high school. That was around 2017 until I graduated in 2019. I often hang out during lunch with her. She would often hang out with Ben, who moved from Texas, outside of school. She didn't give a fuck about hanging out with me outside of school hours, even after I gave her my house number. I wasn't asking for a goddamn date, I just wanted a freaking casual friendship who I could spend time with. But no, Samantha goes out with Ben all the damn time. I felt a rage that I might put the moves on her, but I might not be here writing this. I don't know how many times she and Ben told me to go ahead when they wanted to talk about some things. My rage bubbled inside me every time they did that. She told me that her boyfriend, from whom I never learned his name, hates my ass. How the hell does he hate me if I never met the guy before? Despite this, we were still good friends. The day I graduated, I gave her my cell number. I realized when I left on my school bus that I might have mixed up the numbers. I was so mad at myself that I just robbed myself of staying in touch with her. I don't have any friends since I finished high school because of this fuck up. The only damn people I deal with beside my family are my coworkers. I often daydream of having a girlfriend. I dream about Mio Sakamoto from Strike Witches and Momo Kawashima from Girls und Panzer. I'm losing my mind about this crap as I'm mad at everything in the world as I can feel a rage building inside of me that I want to turn into the Hulk. I don't know how many times I want to snap at my customers at work. I often jack off to videos of women drowning. I also visit porn chats wanting to fill that missing part inside of me. I feel like sobbing into a lady's chest to release my pent-up pain. I wanted to bury my face in her chest as she rubbed my back. I want her to hold me tightly as I wail at her. I want her to be my damn rock to weather my rage-filled sobbing. I longed for a lady to hold me tender and say sweet nothings to me. I need to listen to her heartbeat to sooth my pure-raged mind. I should get benefits from Canada as I'm a veteran in the Copyright Strike War. I fought well in the Copyright Strike War for the common good. I should have won if Galithrania wasn't an asshole. I don't really want to go on a killing spree or kill myself to make my point clear, but I'm really getting close to losing my damn sanity and lashing out my inner Angry Grandpa and going ape shit in the world. I don't want to be somebody's bitch in prison. I learned on March 24, 2024, that my ID which I sent to YouTube to verify my monetization failed. That is the biggest fuck you in the ass that an autistic person can go through. This made me so mad that I wanted to write a letter to YouTube full of every racial slur out there. I don't care if I use nigga every second word. I also want to make a rant video with pure hate and anger on John Marston's channel. I want to march to YouTube headquarters and bitch slap some common sense into Neal Mohan. I don't know how many goddamn times I wanted to wail into a pillow for days on end or yell at the top of my lungs while at work at Sobeys.

  14. @seba1435 on

    It might be, personally it was my case that after some psychiatric drugs you develop more libido, but there are drugs that decrease it also. So talk to psychiatrist, do not be shy.

  16. @KAUTIONMUZIC on

    I started making music to get thoughts out of my head. Today it plays a huge role in managing my mental health. I hope everyone finds their eacape and remember you got this 💪💪💪

  19. @JohnSmith-ql7qg on

    I think some of the most irrelevant thoughts, I do not even know why I get those thoughts. I think so weird and I'm constantly stressed and overwhelmed all the time. I feel so done. This is an emergency, please help!!!

  20. @glow808 on

    Doctors and NP tend to automatically prescribe medsxmedsxmeds. What's a "polite", non-offensive way to reject the meds of pill-pushers? And, omg the dulling of the brain/body is a pathway to dementia and alzheimers… 😞.
    You tend to focus on Mental HEALTH instead of Mental SEDATING DRUGS. Aloha & Mahalo.

  21. @elkejansevanrensburg4692 on

    0:12 Not permanent! It's on a scale
    0:38 Chip away at them… Little by little. We have power. 0:50 We can do things to decrease it
    1:30 All these changes is hard and can feel overwhelming when you are drowning in anxiety or depression
    1:42 When we do get motivated, the try to make huge changes…
    1:52 Willpower will not last and will not work as a long term strategy
    2:20 Will get exhausted and quit
    2:35 There is tons of tips, but can also overwhelm
    2:39 Try tiny but powerful strategies
    3:02 Do tiny changes a few minutes a day and let that become a habit before adding new strategies
    3:06 Small changes are better than big changes
    3:06 A 1 % change everyday makes you 37 X's better in one year
    5:59 Small changes will snowball and have a huge effect
    6:34 30 ideas for small changes.
    6:45 3 principles
    6:44 Start will the easier stuff. Pick low hanging fruit
    7:30 Create a system to help
    7:55 Use a habit tracker for 30 days
    8:38 lots of ideas!
    13:12 Sets tiny rules….
    13:56 Do not try to implement all at once.

  23. @Safe_Place_MentalHeath on

    Love this perspective! Viewing mental health on a scale gives us the power to improve. Huge changes can be overwhelming, but small, consistent steps lead to lasting results. Thanks for breaking it down so clearly!

  24. @colephelps6202 on

    One extra thought. A lot of people don't realize that they need sunlight. 15 minutes a day. Cheap medicine. Walk for 15 minutes a day. Not suntanning. Just being out where the sun can shine on you. That helps depression.

  25. @iambipolarandbeyond on

    I feel like the universe is really sending me to click on all the videos I needed to hear tonight. Thank you for sharing this knowledge in such an illustrative way. Keeping it in my morning playlist to rewatch as many everyday mornings as I can until the information becomes so engrained. Much appreciation.

  26. @Ash1965.. on

    No vegetables or fruit this has a natural poison that slowly kills you .. eat meat build testosterone or oestrogen if female be your best mentally .. be a machine 💪🦍🦬🐆🐊 lol

  29. @VisitorAlgo on

    Greetings, Earthling! 🌟 Keep up the stellar work! Did you know June is Mental Health Awareness Month on your planet? Remember to take care of your mind. You have these amazing beings called therapists who can help you navigate the vast universe of your thoughts. Stay well, human friend! 🚀🛸

  30. @Srindal4657 on

    I believe mental illness is an evolutionary adaptation, rather than a mental illness. It doesn't mean us as mentally ill people are any less worthy of treatment, but it might explain why we behave the way we do.

  33. @CarlaSophieMar on

    What is your opinion about High Intensity workouts for people who deal or have dealt with long-term stress? Would that only increase the levels of Cortisol? Or is it still recommended for people with CPTSD?

  34. @MrWoods0_0 on

    Followed you for the most part of your journey and I just want to thank you for giving me the inspiration and confidence to do my first video and to show my son that you can fix one’s problems. I’m on my own journey and I can’t help but find the community absolutely brilliant! So much support here. Thank you again! And a huge thanks to the lovely community that goes along with this channel. ❤

  36. @HM-jm2vr on

    Dear Emma,

    This sounds so wonderful, but I have ADHD and creating habits is nearly impossible for me. Do you have any advice for keeping up routines when your head is literally not wired for it?
    Thanks!!

  37. @adilmustic1619 on

    Before my mental health issues started after pandemic lockdowns four years ago it only became far worse after that sometimes I pray for temporary hope only for it to become more hopeless at the end on my really bad things I also can’t seem to be into the same things I used to be into and I see everything in such a different way things used to better before my depression and anxiety

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