Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of the More Than You See podcast. I gotta say, I am a little nervous. But I'm also really excited to be here.
If you've never met me before, Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Deborah Lee Smith, and I am an actor, a filmmaker and a mental health advocate. I'm also the founder of More Than You See, which is an organization dedicated to bringing non-traditional resources into the mental health space, so that you can build your own emotional wellness toolkit. What that means is that I love to share books, podcasts, Ted Talks, films, music, all sorts of different things with the community because you never know what is going to be the thing that's going to pull you out of a dark point in your life.
And really, what is the reason behind this podcast is you listener, I've had an incredible community that's grown over the past couple years. And I'm in communication with many of you, and you have really pleaded with me to create something like this. So this podcast is for all of you. Every week, every Monday I'm going to be doing these short little podcasts, they'll be about 10 minutes long. Basically what they're going to be is little snippets of resources, information, stories, the knowledge that I am collecting around my own mental health journey, and I'm going to share it with you right here.
If you're listening to this at home, welcome, so wonderful to be in your ears. And if you're watching this on either Instagram or YouTube, thank you so much, I am just so honored to be a part of your own journey into mental wellness. So thank you. Again, I just want to say, first off, I mean, number one, I am not a therapist, I'm not a licensed practitioner. I'm going to tell you a little bit about why I created More Than You See, but it really, this is just me. This is unfiltered, unedited, I'm not planning on, you know, crafting a specific storyline for you guys, I'm just going to be speaking from my heart and speaking about things that I learned that are important to me and that have offered me some guidance and some strength. And I hope that it can maybe do the same thing for you. So please excuse any messiness, um, any "ums". This is just gonna be me, as I am.
So what is More Than You See about? More Than You See is a nonprofit organization that I founded two years ago, when I was going through a really difficult time myself, I like to explain it, that I wasn't necessarily suicidal, in that I wasn't making plans. But I was standing on the precipice of making difficult decisions like that. And I realized how scary that is to be in that space. I was in such a dark place in my in my life, and in my time, and one of my really good friends said to me at that point, can you just do one thing every day that brings you happiness, just do one thing that gets you out of bed that gives you some reason to, like continue to have purpose and continue to live in some way. And I started to hike every day in LA which is where I live with my dog. And when I was hiking, I was listening to podcasts. And one such podcast I listened to was an interview with an actor that I hugely admire. And he was talking about his own experience with mental illness with depression with suicide. And I remember thinking, wow, if someone like him, who in my opinion seems to have it all everything all together, if he's suffering through depression and suicidal thoughts, then it completely makes like, it's okay that I feel that way too. It really - listening to that podcast made me feel so much less alone.
And I realized how special it was that it wasn't, you know, a diagnosis. It wasn't anything specific that that really, you know, pulled me out of the darkness. It was that podcast episode, listening to that person's story. And I realized the importance of stories and the importance of being vulnerable and open and sharing our experiences. And I decided right then and there that I wanted to create an organization, a platform for people to share their own resources, their own story about what are the things that help them, what are the things that pull them out of the darkness. And that is how More Than You See was born.
More Than You See, I have an incredible community that has grown throughout the years. And with this community I share, you know, books, podcasts, Ted Talks, articles, any sort of non traditional resource that has helped me or has helped a member of the community, I just love to be able to share it with you all. So I, if you want to be part of that community, I would love to have you. You can follow us, find us on Facebook and on Instagram, just search More Than You See. And all of that information, all of those handles will be in the show notes if you'd like to check those out.
So let's let's dive into what I actually want this episode to be about. And this is what the format of these podcast episodes are going to be is basically I'm going to come on, I'm going to do a quick little check in about, you know how I'm doing what's going on in the world. To be honest, this week has been you know, this week that I'm recording it is the week where we had the atrocities happen at the Capitol Building yesterday. And it was really difficult for me to actually want to come on and I mean, share this podcast coming out and also share, even record this episode, but I felt that this podcast is giving something special to the mental health community. And so I pushed through and came on to record and so basically, the the podcast is going to be, you know, little, little tiny little check in very, very short.
And then I want to share either a resource or some piece of knowledge, something that helped me that really has been something that is catalyzed something in my brain, and I want to share it with you guys, because that's exactly what this organization and what this podcast is going to be. It's just going to be stream of consciousness from me that I hope will help you feel a little bit less alone.
So today, I want to talk about the idea that mental health is actually a multi pronged approach, or there's a multi pronged approach to dealing with mental illness and mental health and, and working through things.
I think a lot of times we often, you know, consider mental health to be just one prong, you know, like, oh, you're feeling depressed, so you should take some medication or, you know, go for a run or talk to a therapist, or I feel like it's all - it's often like there's always, you know, just one thing that's suggested. And when I was I was listening to an episode of Armchair Expert, which is an incredible podcast that I love. A Nina Vasan was on it, who is a professor at Stanford, and she was talking about this bio - psycho- social approach to mental health, and how it's so important to look at all three aspects of mental health in order to really, you know, deal with, with what's going on. And I really wanted to share that with you guys today, because this is something that I share pretty much every week in The Mighty talks that I do, and they always seem to resonate with people in the community there.
And it's interesting, because I actually was talking to my therapist, because I have an incredible therapist that I see. And I was talking to my therapist about it. And she said, "Yeah, you know, I actually think that there's another additional element of that". And she said, spirituality, that it's really important, especially in these times, to consider, you know, biological, psychological, social and spirituality as all of the different elements that you need to look at, and that you need to address in order to have a holistic approach to mental health. So let's just break those down really, really quick.
So your biology are the things that make make up who you are as a person. So obviously your genes, your DNA. That also includes your the neuro chemicals in your brain, your hormones. And that of course, you know, if you are given a prescription - if you're prescribed a specific medication to help with depression or anxiety or some other form of, you know, mental illness - that is specifically designed to help with that aspect of mental health, to help your brain chemicals even out in a way that will be more helpful for you specifically.
And that's why it's so important for no one to ever say, you know, like, "Oh, this is what, you know, this is what you should take" (I mean, except for unless you're a doctor, of course), but like that you shouldn't, you shouldn't talk to your friend and be like, oh, they're on this one medication, I should be on that medication too. Because, again, your biology is who you are on a chemical level. And, that is what those prescriptive medications are for is to help with that specific aspect of your mental health.
Then we've got our psychology, the psychological aspect of mental health, and that has to do with how we talk to ourselves, and also how we relate to others in the world. But that specifically is often a part of our nature versus nurture aspect of ourselves, so who we are and how we've been taught, to speak to ourselves. I know that I certainly have my own personal things that I've worked through with my therapist, and that I'm continuing to work through, that have to do with this - that has to do with being hypercritical of myself - with not being able to feel like I'm enough or to feel like what I'm offering the world is is gonna be you know, helpful. Anything like that has to do with your psychology, and that really has to do with again, how you're speaking to yourself. And so that is certainly an element that has to be, you know, worked through and addressed with a therapist, or through some other tools that I'll be sharing on, you know, concurrent episodes in the future.
And then, of course, we've got our social aspect to mental health. And that has to do with our environment, which I think especially right now is so so, so important, because our social environment has to do with our physical environment. So that could be influenced by our, by the weather, like if you are, you know, in a area of the world right now, where your days are really, really short. That, of course, has a huge impact on your mental health, because you're inside all day, you aren't seeing sunshine, it might be rainy, or dreary, that certainly impacts your mental health. And that has to do with your environmental, the impact that the environment has on you, that also has to do with you know, your physical environment, everything that you are, you know, seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling your your physical environment around you.
And then also the people that you surround yourself with, I'm sure that you've heard before that you are the sum of the five people that you hang out with most. And that of course has to do with you know, who you are, socially and how you interact with other people and how other people interact with you. Because of course, that makes a huge impact on how you feel about yourself.
And then of course, your spirituality and that has to do with whether you're spiritual or not. I think that right now we're all searching for meaning and things, because things are just, I mean, the anxiety and the stress and the just ichiness. I honestly don't have another word than the just gross ichiness that's going on in the world right now, in so many different ways. That of course, also, you know, impacts us and sometimes, whether you have a spiritual, you know, practice to connect to or not, that, of course, also impacts your mental health.
So again, we'll just just quickly break that down. So we've got biology or genes or DNA, who you are also has to do with your historical genes. So if your parents were preconditionde to depression or anxiety, you might have that as well. Things like that. Psychological how you talk to yourself, about yourself, that's very important. And then your social, so how you interact with the world, how you're feeling, because of your current environment, all those sorts of things. And then again, your spirituality, whether or not you have a spiritual practice or not, that certainly, you know, can leave you feeling one way or the other. The main reason I wanted to dive into these different aspects of mental health today, is to remind you that it's never just one thing that influences our feelings, our mental health, the way that we relate to the world. There's so many different elements and aspects to our mental health. And I would implore you that you take care of all of those elements, your environment, your psychology, how you speak to yourself, your biology, and your spirituality if you have one, and if you don't, totally fine. That's, you know, I would really say that my spirituality for the most part has to do with my love of nature, and being outside and connecting to the universe in that way. So whatever spirituality means to you.
Again, I just wanted to say that I am so honored that I was asked to do this, that so many people in the community wanted me to come to you guys every week. I'm really hope that I can continue to provide value and provide resources, and provide the reminder of grace and self love and the importance of who you are. Because the key thing here, and this is why I named this organization More Than You See, is that we really are all More Than You See. We really are all more than the faces that we put on the masks that we wear in front of other people.
I think it's just so important to remember that it's okay to be vulnerable. It's okay to share who you are with people that you love and with people that love you. I am here for you. I love connecting with others. And I really hope that every Monday I can come to you in your ears or visually through Instagram or YouTube and remind you that you're not alone that we are all More Than You See. Thank you so much for listening. See you next Monday.
