Note from Hannah: This the first in a series of guest posts with the goal of providing new perspectives to mental health, wellness, and being a human. This piece is written by Aaron Bilodeau, co-founder of Exist Anew.

My brain is broken, I thought to myself, as I sat in a plush, brown leather chair in my psychiatrist’s office; the perfect cliché- in an old brick building in downtown Portland, Maine. I stared, vacantly, through a large bay window, the sun’s rays cast upon my face, warming my skin through the white sheer curtains. Being a few stories up, I gazed at a slightly veiled view of  the modest skyline of the city I grew up in, amidst the backdrop of sparkling ocean and blue sky. The view made it easy to transport myself elsewhere, in avoidance of what I was being told: “You have a mental illness and you need stronger medication.”

This visit was the culmination of many other painstaking appointments, over years, with therapists and other doctors abound in which I was prescribed different anti-depressants and other drugs for a variety of health issues. From the time I was a teenager, chronic insomnia, panic attacks and mood disturbances led me to a multitude of diagnoses: Depression, Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Cyclothymia… call it whatever; I just wanted to feel better, even “normal.” At the time, in my late twenties, I experienced an air of skepticism and frankly, hopelessness, that I would ever feel well.

So, there I found myself, contemplating treatment with more and stronger medications with potentially serious, frightening and lifelong side effects. My general detachment from this conversation quickly turned to fear, then anger, at this prospect. I felt deeply that this path was not for me and I became incensed with a renewed passion, even desperation, to move as far away from this path as I possibly could.

It was around this time that I encountered a truly unsuspecting catalyst for this journey; I found the novel, Ishmael, written by Daniel Quinn. It’s a story of fiction that incorporates factual events about how human life has changed since the Agricultural Revolution, around 10,000 years ago. I know what you’re saying, what the heck does this have to do with mental illness? Allow me to explain…

As homo sapiens, our species have been around for about 200,000 years (and other species recognizable as humans for much longer.) For the vast majority of that time, humans have been hunter-gatherers- living outside, eating wild foods. Around 10,000 years ago, some humans decided to make some big changes, namely, growing and raising their own food through agriculture. This change led to surpluses of food that became “locked up,” which then led to the creation of different means of work, in order to get money to buy that locked up food. This occurred along with tremendous and rapid rise in population and development of hierarchies within civilizations.

Thanks for the history lesson right…so why does this matter?

Well, it matters because over millions of years of evolution, nature has made some requirements for our health through food and lifestyle that literally affect us on a genetic level. They are nature’s non-negotiables, and human life, which changed dramatically following the agricultural revolution, has progressively neglected this.

Here is a very abbreviated way to look at it:

Food-Before agriculture, our food was wild, full of nutrition and medicinal properties and free from pesticides and pollution. Today, almost all of our food is genetically modified and low in nutrients and medicinal properties, high in calories and full of pesticides.

Work Stress- Before agriculture, humans worked modest hours to secure their survival needs, in nature, breathing in fresh air and absorbing sunlight. Today, most humans work stressful and seemingly endless hours inside buildings, under florescent lights.

Movement- Before agriculture, humans used to move and lift objects frequently as part of survival. Today, we are often docile because our lives require little movement. We move from seated position to seated position with little regular movement (with the exception of some gym workouts-if we can manage that- thrown in.)

Support and Nurturing- Before agriculture, humans enjoyed the safety of tribes, social connections and ways of upbringing that worked for them over eons. Today, many of us do not experience the necessary familial and social connections and support necessary to create healthy people.

The previous examples briefly highlight what most of us know we need to make us healthy:  Healthy food, lowered stress levels, movement, exposure to the outdoors and support and nurturing. But rather than have this be just some generic health advice, it’s crucial to remember that through millions of years of evolution, they all affect our health on a genetic level. Yet, they are all disappearing from human life at a rapid pace and we have poor health and a change in our genetic expression of disease to show for it.

We are now living completely out of context. Our very environment is becoming completely toxic and malnourishing, from the food we eat and water we drink to the relationships we experience to the way we live our lives-our basic needs are no longer being met.

Diseases of modern times, like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and even mental illness, which have become an epidemic today, did not exist in any prominence, if at all, in our ancestors. Nor do they exist in modern wild human populations.

This realization changed everything for me, because I realized that the symptoms I had been suffering from were not indicative of an isolated or personal flaw. They were, at least to a significant extent, a sign of the times; a product of the modern human’s dilemma of illness from living out of context with our evolutionary requirements for health.

Now, I don’t want to simplify mental illness because having dealt with it personally and working professionally with people with mental illness, I realize its extreme complexity. It will require a lot of support from many areas to help most of us experience a consistent level of mental and physical health. But, shouldn’t we begin by understanding our evolutionary requirements for health as a new perspective upon which to look at mental illness, and disease in general? The level of illness we see today is not the natural state of humanity.

Think about it like this- what if you took a wild animal and placed it almost entirely indoors and made it reliant on others for food very different from what it had always eaten in the wild? Food that was full of sugar, low in nutrients and, in many cases, full of toxins. What if this wild animal spent the rest of its life, alienated from its natural environment, moving far less than it ever had because it was encaged in a small area. What if this animal was forced to do stressful tricks for eight hours a day or more , five days a week, for fear of losing its food and shelter (and often alongside other animals it didn’t like?) What would you expect this wild animal’s health to look like? Aren’t we kind of like this wild animal? If so, then it becomes no wonder so many of us are ill.

We certainly cannot create all of the same wild conditions that our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived in, nor am I suggesting we wish to go back in time. However, we should feel assured that we can make dramatic changes given what we know about how the human animal evolved to be healthy.

For me, the biggest changes occurred when I altered my diet. While this would require a much more in-depth conversation, my diet gradually became based in food much closer to what our ancestors ate, and modern wild humans eat. We can’t always eat truly wild foods but we can use them as a guideline:

• While a wild turkey might be best, an organic, free range chicken is a lot better than chicken mcnuggets.

• While harvesting your own wild grains might be best, store bought wild rice is a lot better than a loaf of white bread or pasta.

• While foraging wild plants might be best, organic salad mix is a lot better than iceberg lettuce.

• While catching your own wild fish might be best, choosing wild fish at the market is better than frozen fish sticks.

Gradually eliminating sugar and most modern, processed foods really made the biggest difference for me. However, other lifestyle changes were critical as well, and involved me changing the entire framework of my life. This included changing how and what I do for work, altering social relationships and reconnecting with movement and nature. All of these changes were made upon the foundational knowledge of what is required to become a healthy, human animal.

So have all of these changes “cured” me? Heck no. But it has been years since I have required any type of medication and virtually every marker of my health has improved. The fear, anger and sometimes hopelessness I felt at my previous prognosis has been replaced by the calm that comes with increased knowledge and steady changes. This was not an overnight, dramatic change, but rather a gradual process over years that I am still very much taking part in. I’m confident that anyone could take similar steps to enjoy the increased health and freedom that goes along with recognizing our deeply rooted requirements for health.

Aaron Bilodeau is the co-creator of www.existanew.com, a project that challenges conventional notions on how to foster health, live and be happy. If you have questions for Aaron please contact him at existanew@gmail.com.

I’m always a little surprised when I’m asked, “Can people really change?” Yes, people can really change. And if you’ll excuse the double negative, I’d say people can’t not change.

While I’m not an expert on too many things, my humble observation is that everything changes. All the time. I don’t know about you, but I wake up older everyday. I know about homeostasis but I think it’s to keep us on some even keel as we experience change around us at every moment.

Change happens, whether you believe you are in charge of it or not. If you don’t believe you are driving your own life, then change happens, you just didn’t give it much intention or direction. That’s a waste, because I really think we know what’s best for our own lives.

So it bums me out when people believe that they can’t change. I believe that a lot of distress in the world comes from a fundamental belief that we are primarily victims with little to no ownership of our lives. Here are some problems that I think come from, at least in part, this worldview: hopelessness, feeling stuck, over-focusing on aspects of life that are beyond our control (death, what others choose to do, what might happen in the future), getting overwhelmed by these uncontrollable aspects of life, feeling insignificant, numbing out, and blaming and raging at others.

On the other hand, people who bring intention and awareness to how they want to live feel happier and cope better with what’s out of their control. When we realize what we can control, and make our decisions accordingly, then life feels a whole lot different. We absolutely have a lot of control over our words, our thoughts, our behaviors, our reactions, our emotions, our choices, our preferences, and our priorities. Using our time and resources to learn how to be a skilled operator of these aspects of our being is a worthy investment.

People who are empowered to change, who own their choices, are a happier lot. They don’t look for others to provide the answer, they consult with others in a quest for their own truth. They don’t wait for circumstances to be different, they look for a path to where they want to go no matter what the terrain. They don’t make excuses, they make opportunities.

Our lives will be different in 2013 than in 2012. The question is: Do you want to shape the direction of your life or not?

I hope so. I know it can be daunting, so I hope you’ll check back here for some support and encouragement. You can do this life thing, I know it.

If life has been difficult, the holidays can be especially trying. For people who have been laid off of work, are struggling financially, dealing with a loss, or struggling with life changes, trying to find cheer during the holiday season is tough.

The truth is that not every holiday season can be completely joyous. Grief, stress, anxiety and depression do not stop for the Christmas season. If anything, these feelings tend to intensify.

We tend to compare the current holiday season with ones from the past. Much unhappiness comes from making these types of comparisons. Things change year to year. We will never re-create the exact same memories or situations. This does not represent a failure or a sign that things will never feel better. It is just a natural process of change.

Most of us will not have abundance, harmonious relationships, and a year untouched by loss every holiday season. It is important to remember that some holidays will be less cheery than others. Acceptance of this fact can help reduce unhelpful guilt and dissatisfaction.

Struggling emotionally around the holidays is common. It may be helpful to know that you are not alone. I’m renaming the Monday after Thanksgiving “Therapy Monday.” It may be helpful to realize that not everyone is happy and joyous at this time of year, despite what you see on TV.

I encourage people who are having a hard time to seek support, talk about your feelings with understanding friends and family members, and to keep in mind that it is normal to have periods of time when holidays just aren’t that much fun.

When that doesn’t feel like enough, therapy is a very good option. I can assure you that there are many great people working on this issue in therapy right now.

It has been dreary here in Maine this October. It’s easy to feel down when the darkness, cold and rain are present, especially after a bright and beautiful summer. Naturally, we all want to find some comfort and warmth to ease the damp chill outside.

I’ve noticed that many people think comfort is about numbing out or becoming detached. Activities that could promote mindlessness include watching TV, eating, drinking, getting lost in the internet, and looking at things to buy. I’m not saying that these activities are bad. They just aren’t likely to have a lasting positive impact on mood. In other words, they may not provide true comfort.

Comfort really comes from tuning in: being connected to ourselves, our environment, and to others. There is comfort in providing a pleasant experience to our senses, that makes us keenly aware, not checked out. You can feel comforted and connected bundling up to take a walk, where you notice the warmth of your body compared to the cool fall air, all while taking in the scenery around you.

I like to have pleasant smells and warm, hearty foods in the house. Making squash, pumpkins, or apple sauce provides an aroma and healthy, seasonal foods that can be enjoyed.

Great comfort comes from connecting with others. Fall is a great time to hike, have a cup of coffee or tea, pick apples, cook, can, or just sit and talk with friends and family. I personally like to snuggle in and read Brown Bear, Brown Bear with my munchkin.

We all need a plan for weathering the emotional changes that come with the darker, colder seasons. Intentionally find activities that allow you to be mindful, tuned-in and connected with yourself and others. Have a plan ready for the short days ahead. For more ideas, check out my thoughts on SAD Prevention and Depression.

Where do you find comfort?

I try not to take offense, but it seems that scientists are obsessed with eliminating my job. Some want to see machines replace trained therapists to help you with your emotional problems. That seems a little weird, since emotions are the only thing a computer cannot do at this point. At any rate, I’m a pragmatic person and I’ll support anything that helps people.

The New York Times is reporting that apps may in fact help people with anxiety and depression. A recent article explains how a video game-like app helps people overcome ways of thinking that lead to anxiety and depression. So, today I’m setting up all of my clients with my iPhone and taking off for a hike. Okay, no, wait a minute… if you read the full article, you realize that they are less than sure about the overall results. It seems that in one large study, whether people used the real app or a placebo app, the results were the same. Perhaps just thinking you are doing something helpful helps.

Bottom line: you can use an app and that might help. However, you should also keep in mind a lot of different things help. Talking with friends, getting outside, exercising, doing a hobby. It all works. However, sometimes we need the guidance of a friendly and skilled professional. One thing we know for sure is that it is the relationship between the therapist and the client that best predicts outcome. So when other attempts to get better fall short, please consider finding a therapist that you think is supportive and helpful.

Still, I think gadget are fun and I’m looking for a good excuse to buy an iPad. Know of a helpful app? Please share!

It’s dreary today here in Maine. The cold and dark is beginning to wear on everyone. It is especially hard for those diagnosed with depression. Depression is a serious diagnosis that requires treatment. For more information on depression, check out the National Institute of Mental Health. I also urge you to talk with a health care provider if you believe you may be depressed.

The trick with depression is that it cons you into doing things that make you feel worse. It says, “stay inside and isolate yourself from the world until you feel better.” It says, “eating junk food is the key to getting better.” Or “just sleep all day, it will help.” Or (my least favorite) “this is the way you are, nobody can help you.” In short, depression makes you think that doing less, eating poorly, being still, sleeping too much or too little, and not seeking help will (somehow) help you out. It always makes it worse. Depression is a big fat liar.

When you have depression you must make small steps to do things even if you do not have the energy. Leave the house, meet up with a friend, go for a walk, make a doctors appointment, look for a therapist, take a shower- every little step gets you going in the right direction. Then you add another challenge the next day. Each day needs to contain an activity aimed at outsmarting depression. Depression is treatable. Doing positive, social, healthy activities are depression’s kryptonite. Don’t trust my word- please try it.

Once you gain some skills to outsmart depression, you need to do prevention. It takes staying up on taking good care of your body and having fun in your life. For ideas on how to keep your depression in check take a look here and here for helpful posts.

If you are thinking about counseling, you are not alone. It’s been a busy few weeks with lots of folks starting therapy. I hope that you will consider that depression can get better. A lot better. For some encouragement about starting therapy, take a look at my recent blog on this topic.

How do you outsmart depression?

I spend a lot of my day talking with people about the foundations of good mental and physical health: quality food, exercise, and sleep. Yes, we all know about these things, but we dismiss them as too obvious or too difficult. So I’m the broken record reminding everyone (including myself) that these are the unavoidable essentials. Starting with sleep is always helpful because if that’s in line, the other things are more easily addressed. It’s the foundation. You must sleep to have good mental health.

The good news is that some fairly simple changes are clinically proven to help promote sleep: fall asleep and wake up the same time each day, avoid light when trying to sleep, get into the light when waking, avoid caffeine after noontime, do restful activities 1 hour before bed. These recommendations work, but only if you take them seriously and use them consistently.

I know you have a million excuses for why this is hard to do. However, there is no single activity that promotes health more than quality, regular sleep. If you make only one change for your health, I propose making sleep your top priority. Sweet dreams!

Thanksgiving sneaks up fast, at least it always does for me. This year I’m determined to give it more attention. That’s because I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of gratitude and how it can be vitally important in promoting wellness and fighting both anxiety and depression. Thanksgiving is a perfect holiday for exploring the idea of gratitude and how it can improve our lives.

How we perceive the world has a dramatic impact on our mood. This is the foundation of many types of therapy, most famously Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The philosophy is: change how you think and you’ll change how you feel. One of the big challenges is that most Americans live very deficit-focused lives. I would assert that we have been trained to over-focus on information that is critical and negative. We see what we don’t have, where we don’t measure up, and what’s wrong with us. We also tend to look for these flaws in others. Sadly, this kind of lens for seeing the world promotes serious problems like anxiety and depression. We worry about failure, of not being “good enough.” We get down about all the ways in which we just aren’t measuring up.

Think I’m exaggerating? Try a little test. Find a timer. Time yourself for each of the next two tasks. First, list 5 things you would change about yourself. Ready, go! Okay, write that time down. Now, list 5 things you feel are satisfactory about yourself. Go! Now, let’s compare the difference in how long it took to write the two lists. I’d be curious to collect some data on this, so if you do my test, send me a message. I’m guessing 98% of people take at least twice as long to complete the second task as the first, but don’t hold me to that. To quote Steven Wright, “42.7 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.”

So far this post has been a bummer, but let me share some good news: you are in charge of your thinking. Also a bonus: Thanksgiving is about recognizing what we do have and really giving this attention and appreciation. As difficult as life is for many people right now, I think it’s very important to take stock of what’s going well. It’s time to recognize the strengths of ourselves and our loved ones. In short, it’s time to develop a practice of gratitude.

Gratitude is when we inventory our emotional, social, and material riches. It’s the practice of seeing and expressing the honor of being someone with gifts. It can be the gifts of big and little things: friendship, love, support, good fortune, health, family, good values, rewarding work, a sufficient income, engaging hobbies, cool party tricks, nice hair, mad cooking skills, a winning pub trivia record or whatever. We don’t have all of these, but surely we can find a few.

Practicing gratitude is not “positive thinking,” it’s balanced thinking. It’s not denying our pain or difficulty, it’s simply also noticing and celebrating our joy and triumph. I hope that you can find gratitude in your life this season. It’s okay if it takes a while to identify. Build a gratitude mindset and it gets easier over time. Practice gratitude by:

• telling others what you appreciate about them
• reminding  yourself of small daily accomplishments
• taking time to write actual thank you letters
• stopping to acknowledge someone who’s said something helpful to you
• Compiling a list of the gifts you enjoy each and every day

What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving? How can you practice gratitude?

Attention Mainers and other cold-weather dwellers- it’s now officially mid-November! This is the time to develop your SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) prevention plan. Let’s face it, SAD is a real problem for us living in the dark and cold for months out of the year. Yes, you can always move south, but for those of us who prefer this way of life- I recommend a few tips for keeping up your SAD resistance:

1. Sun. Find it. Sit in your car or under the atrium window at the mall. Take cues from the felines in your life- they’ll show you where all the sunny places are.
2. Talk to your doctor about supplements. Vitamin D can be a particular problem for Northerners.
3. Exercise. I know you won’t feel like it, but you really need to in order to feel okay. I just don’t think you can make it through the winter without physical movement. Walking, yoga, Zumba…get out of your comfort zone and find something you like.
4. Socialize. Isolating yourself will be an open invitation for SAD. You must reach out to others, social networking online is not the same thing! Talk to people face to face. Bonus points for walking and talking.
5. Embrace the season. People spend good money to come experience New England in winter. Find something to love about living here in winter. It can be an outdoor activity or an indoor one that just feels more special in the winter.

How do you keep SAD at bay?