PODCAST EPISODE THREE

Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore there may be some minor grammatical errors.

Andy Griffiths
Mental Health recovery is about small steps. And actually when we’re working on our mental health, the smallest of changes lead to the biggest progress.

Dougie Jackson
Hi there, and welcome along to tickety boo, the podcast that aims to be very candid about the anxieties and traumas. We all experience, the podcast that says it’s okay, not to feel okay. As you heard, we started today’s show with some very reassuring words from therapist Andy Griffiths. So small steps lead to big progress. But where do we start that journey? And what exactly is it that we should be changing? Well, over the next two episodes, we’ll be taking a closer look at how exercise, diet mindset, sleep, and routine can impact our mental health. But don’t worry, you don’t have to jog 50 miles a week, meditate for four hours a day or indeed go vegan overnight. As Andy said, small changes one step at a time.

Andy Griffiths
These are simple strategies that I use myself. And I’m not saying they’re going to work for everyone, but you could look at it and go I wouldn’t do this, but I would maybe do that. But what they did was they kept me on track. There are no quick fixes here. So if that’s what you’re looking for wrong podcast. is one of these things, you will see differences. So let’s just talk about exercise. You know, do we get enough of it? We don’t. We all know what we should do. I’m pretty sure that some of you are listening to this have got a gym membership that was never used, or a treadmill in the bedroom thats now a clothes horse.

Dougie Jackson
Okay, we’re feeling the guilt might let’s be realistic. Some people listening today won’t have done any regular exercise for years.

Andy Griffiths
start with something really simple, you know, making the agreement to say I’m going to go for a walk for five minutes every day, walk to the local shop, walk around the block, don’t go ahead, tomorrow’s I’m going to run a 5k let’s get real here. If you’re not into walking, you know, jump on YouTube, there’s some great yoga videos on there. Some light exercise, you don’t have to have fancy equipment, you don’t need to join a gym. And if you’re already doing some form of exercise, just up your game a bit, do a bit more of it. You’ve got to get into the routine of doing it. You’ve got to say I’m going to do it on a Monday and a Wednesday on a Friday for argument’s sake. But just start doing that and through consistency it will pay off.

Dougie Jackson
All right, spell it out for us explain how the pain turns into gain.

Andy Griffiths
The first thing that exercise is very good at is getting you outside of your own head. For me when I was battling my anxiety going for a run was one of the best things that I could do. Because suddenly my body went from focusing on all the things out there that were trying to kill me to running down the road trying to stay up right and breathe. Yeah, so my brain is dealing with a different set of problems. And that directs your mind towards what you’re doing at the moment. And exercise gets our brain firing off feel good chemicals. Yeah. And for somebody who has been struggling with mental health, those chemicals have been missing for a while they’re literally smashing their way through the day on cortisol and adrenaline. High cortisol levels will lead to fatigue you feel tired. Weirdly if you feel tired, get up and move exercise on actually create energy and we’ve all heard about the you know the runner’s high and the high that you get after doing some form of exercise. But that doesn’t have to be you know, smashing over a 60 minute Joe wick session. It can be go for a walk, just enjoy going outside and taking in the scenery and breathing again walking, you will have a profound effect on you

Dougie Jackson
and closely connected to exercise.We’ve got diet. As the saying goes, You are what you eat.

Andy Griffiths
I know when I tidyed in my diet, my mental health improved massively. If your diet is not right, then nothing is it’s not as simple either. Nutrition is a key factor in improving your overall health. Start to focus on the kind of stuff you’re eating. You know, high fat and processed foods, super sugary content, weaken our body’s ability to deal with stress. There’s a massive gut brain connection and you will sustain your anxiety and your depression by the food that you eat,

Dougie Jackson
but it’s not just about what you eat. It’s also about what you drink as well.

Andy Griffiths
Alcohol is a classic mental health, you know, temporary relief is not a good coping mechanism at all. The cycle of consuming alcohol to manage your emotions may only make your feelings of sadness and fatigue and hopelessness, worse, because you’re kind of on this yo yo, you’re up and down and up and down. So there’s never any kind of balance. And what you tend to find is, the worse you feel, the more you drink, and overconsumption balances the sugar triggers in the brain, and they can lead to more depression. So basically, what I’m saying is you create this vicious cycle where the relief creates more of what you’re trying to escape.

Dougie Jackson
And then there’s the role played by the world favorite beverage

Andy Griffiths
I worked with someone a number of years ago and they were a caffeine addict. But that was a way of them dealing with their constant anxiety, and they were drinking espressos. But they would drink them like it was juice, you know, just drinking like they’re going out of fashion. And they ended up in chronic pain and in A&E, and their spleen had enlarged that much, the body was basically shutting down. And that was because they were loading themselves up that much caffeine to deal with other anxiety that their spleen could not handle it. Today, if you want to take action, reduce your caffeine, reduce your sugar, reduce your processed foods.

Dougie Jackson
And my friends, whilst you’re musing on that, grab your mobile.

Andy Griffiths
there’s a great free app called My Fitness Pal. And this not a good fit. But what this will do is it will make you very aware of what you’re eating. So what you do you download the app, you tell it your age, your height, your weight, and then it makes it super easy for you because you can actually scan the barcodes of what you’re eating. It will give you your calorie intake tell you how much fat you’re consuming how much sugar you’re consuming. If you want to do an interesting experiment, just spend the day eating what you normally eat and import it into My Fitness Pal. It’s an eye opener.

Dougie Jackson
So from calories to questions. Do you have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Do you worry about how you’re being judged? And fear you might not live up to the expectations of others? Or do you embrace new experiences, enjoy challenges and see mistakes as being a necessary part of lifelong learning?

Andy Griffiths
mindset is absolutely everything. Without the correct mindset, everything is just harder. diet, exercise is not going to happen. you’re unable to get clear on the things that you need to change. You’re not going to be able to learn new things. You know, mindset is something that’s developed over a period of time it’s something that you work on. It’s something that you create by taking action.

Dougie Jackson
Now, earlier on in today’s podcast, we discussed the phrase you are what you eat. Did you realise also though you are what you think

Andy Griffiths
Our thoughts become things, you start thinking about something you gravitate towards it if you focused on what you don’t want, guess what happens? Yeah, whole load more of it. If you want to work on your mindset, first of all, get clear on what is not working in your life. Be honest with yourself, just do an audit, what’s making me unhappy? what needs to change?

Dougie Jackson
Okay, I have my pen and paper at the ready for this audit this internal assessment. But what exactly am I looking for?

Andy Griffiths
you recognize you’re not exercising, you’re not dieting, your environments toxic, maybe you’re hanging around with people that aren’t good for your mental health, maybe you’re in a job that makes you really stressed or overwhelmed or unappreciated. You know, I’m not saying you should quit your job tomorrow, but recognising where the areas are that need work, and then accept that you might not have the answers today, but they will present themselves when you decide to do something about it.

Dougie Jackson
And after identifying and hopefully eliminating some of our negative issues. It’s time to recognise and accentuate the positive ones.

Andy Griffiths
You’ve got to get in the habit of learning new things, doing new things, having experiences and opening your mind up and spend times of rejuvenation in clearing your mind. One of the best ways to reduce stress and stay balanced is by unwinding, but not unwinding by consuming half a bar of dairy milk, or half a bottle of red. Some people you know come in from a really stressful week at work and their like, right where’s the wine? Yeah, that’s going to de stress me. There’s nothing in alcohol or chocolate. That reduces stress.

Dougie Jackson
Now, I know for many people listening today, that last comment is going to be quite a blow. I mean, it’s up there alongside the truth about Santa and the tooth fairy. Sad but true. However, instead of self medicating with chocolate and alcohol to cope with your stress, how about eliminating it completely.

Andy Griffiths
The less stressed you are, the better your life is going to be. So this is about creating balance in arears of your life. Simplify your life just get rid of stuff that’s not necessary. You know, declutter your space is give yourself less to do take things off. our calanedar stopped rushing around 100 mile an hour, stay focused on the thing that you’re doing in the moment. Don’t get me wrong, there are times in life where you’ve got to go for it. Maybe there’s a big project on a work or you’re trying to get something done in the house, I get it. But if you’re smashing your way through every week on sheer adrenaline and cortisol, that long term is going to create havoc is not good. It’s going to disrupt your sleep, you’re going to put on weight, you’re gonna get stressed, you’re going to get fatigued. And if you burn out, that’s a really difficult place to come back from.

Dougie Jackson
And that’s where we have to leave things in this episode of tickety boo next time around

Andy Griffiths
There’s this expectation they’ll not get to sleep around not a good night’s sleep. Without routine, we have chaos.

Dougie Jackson
If you have any questions, suggestions, stories or helpful information. Or if you have a media request, please contact us via email on [email protected]

If you’ve been affected by any of the topics in this episode of tickety boo, and you’d like to access mental health support, please in the first instance call your GP. Remember, if it’s out with have normal office hours, you should contact NHS 24 on 111 the Samaritans on 116 123 alternatively, head over to the tickety boo website for a full list of the resources available to you