Rocking Mental Health: The Podcast - With Jason Kehl

I lay out my story as it unfolded over the past year and some change. You get some raw me as far as emotions go. I'm feeling good! I'm not numb. The emotions have come back, kinda in my face, as far as intensity and control at times. I give you every bit of me. The good, yeah there is good! The bad, I sunk low at times. Did I mention the good? It feels great feeling good and I want to share this hope with you in the realest real way I can. Let's Go!

Where have I been? Number one, I'm OK. Number two, break time is over. This podcast started off as a video and this is the audio to the video.  It wasn't meant to be a podcast episode, but I couldn't help myself hence the fact this is Episode 0. I'm here! I'm also excited for the rest of this year and 2024. I plan on taking Mental Health Awareness to a new level! Let's Go!

Mental Health and Mental Illness. We must talk about both. Society's view of mental health and the ability to ask for help needs a serious overall. We do it by talking. The more we talk the more chances we have of it becoming an accepted topic. It Is OK To Not Be OK. It Is OK To Need Help. It Is OK To Ask For Help. These phrases need to be repeated over and over and then we have a chance at some serious life saving changes. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode. Have a great day!

It has been a while since we talked! It's been a crazy winter. Not the best on record for yours truly. And then the winds start to blow again. We decide it's time to make some changes. No matter how we feel about the effort, sometimes we have to follow the wind. For me right now, those winds are the winds of medication changes and they are blowing! Thank you for listening and please enjoy!

We are stronger together! The ways I was using, before I asked for help, were no longer working for me. I was trying to do everything myself and this method was no longer benefitting me. I realized I needed help. I made the huge step of reaching out of myself and asking for help from others around me.We need to come together. So much division exists these days. Our mental health deserves the best we can get/give and this is where we have to come together and help each other during our times of need. During our times of darkness that can creep in. We have to knock down the walls of stigma surrounding mental health and take control. We have to do this together! We Are Stronger Together! You Matter!I hope you enjoy and thank you so much for listening!

I felt this episode was necessary after the events which led to Simone Biles, U.S. gymnast, withdrawing from the competition due to her mental health. Admitting that you are not OK is not easy. She was able to admit she was not OK and that her mind was not allowing her to focus the way she needed too to safely continue competing in the event, and she did this in front of the world. So powerful! She was able to conjure up the strength to put herself and her mental health above all else at that moment.We have to make our mental health a priority...PERIOD. It Is OK To Not Be OK. It Is OK To Admit You Are Not OK. It Is OK To Ask For Help. You matter and you are worth all of the effort!Please, enjoy

Two years ago I was in a hole. A dark hole. The darkness had long consumed me and I was overlooking a cliff. Thankfully, I decided to ask for help. I decided to Choose Life! Today, I celebrate. I would love nothing more than to celebrate with you. It Is OK To Not Be OK. Ask for help. Begin the transition to a life that you can be happy seeing yourself living again. You are worth it!

We experience different occurrences in our lives. Some good and some bad. We need to allow ourselves to step back and evaluate what has occurred and evaluate how it fits into our lives and our mental health. We gain and can even alter our perspective of our plan for better mental health. Also, some of these occurrences happen for a reason. Have you accepted the plan and the road you are on? I know through some recent occurrences in my life, and it wasn't awesome, but it did allow me to more fully accept the plan I am following for improving my mental health and how I deal with my mental issue.I hope you enjoy! Feel free to share and like/review.Please check out: rockingmentalhealth.com             This is my website promoting mental health awareness through the telling of my dealings with depression and anxiety. I advocate for our mental health through a variety of creative expression which I have been messing around with.

Yes, the title basically describes a lot of this episode and I never claim to have all the answers. My wife and I, along with our dog Ben, set off for the coast of North Carolina for a much needed get away. I describe how it felt to be away from home, my comfort zone, for a week and everything that ensued. I also come clean about stopping one of my antidepressants the week before leaving, hence the bonehead reference, and how it affected the trip. Never stop your medication without the consent of your doctor! I hope you enjoy. We got this and we are worth every effort we put into ourselves all of the time whether we are in our comfort zones or we take ourselves out of them.

We have been talking about some of the changes that go on after asking for help. We have gone through and/or are going through a lot. With as many changes as we are working on to strengthen our mental health, thankfully not everything has to change. We have a lot of good things about us as well. We seem to push these to the back of the room as we work on the immediate changes that need to be worked on initially. We need to focus on the good things about ourselves, as well, as they help to provide a good foundation to grow on.

We have to fight! Our mental health deserves it. You deserve it. I deserve it. We need to be active in improving and strengthening our mental health. No longer can we be passive. We have to admit we are not OK when we are not OK and prepare ourselves to fight for the life we want to live. We have to fight to become and be the person we see ourselves as being. The road ahead has some bumps, but the fight we put forth is worth it in the end!

We are plugging right along. Our mental health is strengthening. We are on the road to recovery from our mental illness and then WHAM...something happens and we fall backwards. Sometimes so far backwards we may fall back into a dark hole. Thankfully, we don't just get one chance at improving ourselves and our mental health. We get unlimited chances! Keep your head up and keep moving forward. You will be better prepared for when you fall back and you will pick yourself back up quicker. You always get another chance...so please take it and keep going at making yourself the best person you can possibly see yourself being.

The stigma surrounding mental health has to improve. It really needs to just go away, really. We need to do what we can to bust down this stigma. We can tell our story or we can tell a story through other creative ways. Mostly we can listen to someone who needs to talk. We also can share our story with them in order for them to see they are not alone and It Is OK To Not Be OK. We have to talk. We have to be able to ask for help when we don't feel well. We have to know we will be listened to when we do reach out.  

Our mind loves to bring us down. Some of these attacks can lead us to think less of ourselves. Self-esteem can drop along with self image. We can become afraid to let people see the real us. So we put on an act. I fell fault in trying to blend into the crowd I would be around. I also resorted to alcohol to deal with the ongoing battle inside me. And then I asked for help. At that point I made a decision to go find the real me. To be someone I didn't feel I needed to hide behind. Someone I would be happy to look at in the mirror. It takes a lot of work, but it is an extremely attainable goal and I feel like I'm getting there...finally.And you can too!  We owe it to ourselves to be the best we can be. An we deserve to be the real me or or the real you or the real us.Thank you for listening!  Jason

The road to improved mental health isn't always flat and easy. Hey, you over there? Here's a mountain for you to climb. And we climb them. We will have different experiences along the way, even set backs, but no matter what happens...we have to keep climbing!

We feel different emotions depending on the situation. A lot of the times, we display the proper emotion at the proper time. When feeling depressed and/or anxious we may display a different emotion than what the situation calls for. Sometimes display no emotion at all. We can become mentally exhausted from battling our minds. We may then show different emotions or no emotion during these times. It's Ok to not be OK. It is Ok to need and ask for help during these times. It's also a time we need our loved ones by our sides. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy.

Getting to the point were you can allow yourself to ask for help when you need it is incredibly difficult. Especially when you feel hopeless and you feel you have nowhere else to go except for going down the road of thinking about ending your life as the only way out. Our mind likes to tell us either we don't need help, keep doing things the way you've always done them, or you are not worth the effort. We have to ask for help. Nothing about the decision to get help and putting in the effort is easy, but it's worth  the effort when you see where you can get too. Please enjoy. Please share with others who may benefit from this episode. Thank you for checking out The Basement Of Jams!

Throughout our mental health journey, we seem to focus so much on the down moments of our lives. The more negative aspects. Where does the times we feel good fit into this journey? Do we give the good as much "air time" as we give the bad moments. Let's talk about the good more when we are feeling good and see what happens. I hope you enjoy!

What makes you tick? What do you like to do? It can be a hobby, an interest, an activity...it can be anything...as long as it is something that lifts you up. For me, that thing is music. Music makes me tick. It is some of the best medicine I have found for any mood I'm having. Please enjoy and share.

You've asked for help...so now what?  Today, we get into some of the initial steps and possibilities you have as you begin your journey of strengthening your mental health.  I lay out some of the different options you have available. I know I went one route, but you may choose a different route. The key is you have now taken the steps to begin changing your life!

There are walls built up around mental health. There is a stigma that has surrounded mental health and mental illness. We are not supposed to talk about how we feel mentally. We are programmed to suck it up. It has begun to get better and some of the stigma has lessened, but the walls need to be torn down. We have to be able to talk about our mental health. Talking about it needs to become as normal as going to the doctor for an injury or when we physically don't feel well. We all need to stand up and fight and tear down the walls surrounding mental health!

Patience is required when undergoing treatment for your mental health.  Some aspects of treatment can move quickly, but most of it takes time.  It's easy to get frustrated through this time.  We need to remember to be patient through the process.  Also, we need to step back and acknowledge how far we have come through our journey.  Guns N Roses said it best "All We Need Is Just A Little Patience".

I've now told my story as it pertains to my mental health and mental illness journey.  We've talked about what happened and also what I felt like when I got out of the hospital. In this Episode, I will talk about one of the keys to building our mental health having a strong core group or circle of trust around us.  We need people we can lean on when we are not at our best.  A group of people you know will drop everything to be there for you whether it be in person or on the phone.I hope you enjoy the latest episode of Jason Kehl's Basement Of Jams: Rocking Mental Health.Please "like" and "share" my Podcast.  I feel so many more people can benefit from what we have going on here.  Our stories are not the same, but they can be relatable and we need to get the message out regarding mental health awareness.

In this episode, I go into what I felt like when I got out of the hospital. The super high and the fall back to earth. The Honeymoon Phase, as I call it, to feeling normal again which felt like a huge drop compared to the Honeymoon Phase energy I felt after I got out of the hospital. I hope you enjoy!

Today, I lay out my story.  What led me to seek out help for depression and anxiety.  What led me to stop doing it on my own.  My story isn't the same as yours and your story isn't the same as mine, mine is no better or worse, but this is the story I know.  I feel that by throwing my story out there, we can then get to other aspects, down the road, that can help each of us get to stronger mental health.  Please take a listen and thank you!

I am about mental health awareness.  I am not a professional in the space, but more of a client. The Basement of Jams came about as an idea I had for a Facebook Group (Feel free to join-it goes by the same name).  I wanted it to be a place that was similar to when musicians get together and jam.  They each bring their individual talents and instruments to the jam session.  When these are put together the real magic is made.  I have started a group on Facebook where everyone can share.  I've started a blog as well.  I share music that I have made in the Basement Of Jams there as well.  All of these together form the jam session that I hope creates the magic.  The jam session that I hope to continue here.  The goal is mental health awareness.  The goal is to knock down the stigmas that surround mental health and talking about it openly.  It is OK to not be OK. I hope you enjoy!