Many people struggle with depression and anxiety, and we don’t know how to help them. We don’t know how to help because depression and anxiety don’t have a characteristic “look.” Sadly, people who seem to “have it all together” and are “full of fun” are sometimes in a deep, dark pit on the inside. It takes courage to acknowledge the depression and ask for help, and their story can be beautiful, honest, and candid as they share their journey. Today’s guest has been in the darkness, and she’s opening up with the hope of bringing help to others. Join us.
Kadi Baker is a marketing strategist who lives in Riverside, CA, with her husband and eight children. She’s a grandmother of one, with another soon making her debut. Kadi and I go way back as mom bloggers together, and I’m excited to share her story. Kadi says that being a mom and grandma come first in her life, and everything else just follows after that.
Show Highlights:
- How Kadi’s social image wasn’t genuine about what was really going on because people couldn’t handle the raw, ugly truth
- How people are open to the truth of anxiety and depression now more than in the past when the fishbowl of social media only wanted to recognize the extreme highs and lows of live
- How Kadi found herself in a pit about six weeks ago because of past trauma building up over time and culminating with the perfect storm of COVID, a sudden move, and work stress
- Along with the other issues, smoking and drinking to excess led Kadi to realize she was failing at her job and as a wife and mother; she reached out to her husband and mother for help
- How lying to herself and others about the truth came to a breaking point when she found the honesty to say, “That’s enough!”
- Why we need to realize that anxiety and depression don’t have a “look” because they look very normal and put-together
- Why Kadi resigned from her job because it was causing stress, perfectionism, sleeplessness, and other dysfunctions
- How “hustle culture” deceives women into thinking we don’t have a choice but to keep going, no matter how a job affects us
- How Kadi identified her job as a major stressor during intensive outpatient therapy in which she had to “sit” with her depression
- How Kadi is staying in touch with how she feels since the end of four weeks of intensive therapy
- Helpful tools for Kadi include the Calm app, medication, allowing bad days/finding forgiveness, creating/enforcing boundaries, radical acceptance tools, and using a list of “if this/then that” triggers
- How people can help in the best ways vs. the worst ways that don’t help
- How Kadi had to find out what works for her and learn coping strategies from others
- How medications can help quiet the anxiety but should be re-evaluated periodically
- What Kadi wants others to know: “Someone else’s pain doesn’t diminish your pain. Your pain matters. Don’t compare yourself to others.”
- How feeling the pain allows the healing to come
Resources:
Connect with Cristie:
Parenting Courses: http://www.wonderincwellness.com
