Get up or stay down?
German, 2022, Kirsten Riesselmann, Julie Smith
What boosts your mental health? Proven strategies from the psychologist
4.7.2024
Translation: machine translated
How do you explain complex feelings simply? Psychologist Julie Smith has found the answer and has inspired millions on social media. Now her approaches to mental health are available in detailed form as a book with practical tips on how to better understand your psyche.
This text and the book presented offer suggestions for a better understanding of feelings and emotions. However, it is not a substitute for professional psychological or psychiatric treatment. In the case of serious mental illness or persistent complaints, it is essential to seek specialist medical help.
Two million followers on Instagram, Youtube shorts with views in the tens of millions, enthusiastic press reports about her books: British psychologist Julie Smith has obviously hit a nerve with her employees. Dr Julie, as she calls herself, gets to the heart of the emotional world, explains difficult topics with ease and, above all, encourages people.
Tools for mental health
The special thing about her postings: she illustrates the psychological mechanisms behind problems that affect many people. With a great deal of empathy, she inspires confidence without trivialising or glossing over things. She does not suggest that anyone can cure mental illness on their own with a little self-care. Instead, she uses her expertise and experience from her employees as a psychologist to explain where certain feelings come from - using visual examples. Like in this video about the "trauma basket":
Of dark places, mental pain and a meaningful life
As a clinical psychologist, she knows that prolonged, in-depth therapy for mental health issues and illnesses can be life-changing and is definitely more appropriate for some. But she also sees many who can benefit from education about how their mind and body work. In her book "Get up or stay down? Tools for your mental health", she aims to provide guidance on how to manage your own mental health in everyday life.
All the knowledge I have accumulated in my profession as a psychologist is put into simple words in this book.
She talks about the big feelings of sadness, self-doubt, anxiety and emotional stress; explains how motivation works and how you can manage to do something even though you don't feel like it. She explains how good stress turns into bad stress and why avoiding stress is not the only right answer. Finally, she addresses the question of how to create a meaningful life and when it's time to get help. The individual chapters each contain a paragraph with specific application tips and a summary at the end.
Thoughts are not facts
As in a lengthy therapy programme, certain cornerstones come up again and again in the book. For example, internalising the fact that thoughts are not facts, but rather speculations, assumptions, stories or theories.
Thoughts are a construct that our brain offers us as a possible explanation for the sensations we are experiencing in the present moment.
For example, if those affected by anxious thoughts practise not perceiving them as a reflection of reality, this can be a first step towards distancing themselves from them. Dr Julie describes a number of ways in which this can be achieved. Because when we are afraid, distortions occur in our thoughts. For example, we catastrophise, i.e. we assume the worst possible scenario. We personalise when we relate everything to ourselves without knowing the facts. And we generalise and label negative experiences.
A fact check can help: what evidence is there that the thought is a fact? It can also be helpful to specifically redirect the focus, for example by asking the question: What would I advise a good friend to do? And how would I tell them?
Smith describes a whole range of other approaches, going into great detail without boring us with technical terms, illustrating the content with anecdotal examples and giving concrete recommendations for action.
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Header image: Zenzazione/Pexels
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