The Link Between PCOS, Depression, and Anxiety!

Up to 64% of women with PCOS have depression and up to 57% have anxiety! If you struggle with this, you are not alone!

On this episode, we discuss the science behind why women with PCOS can have depression and/or anxiety, the different options available for mental health improvement, and why it’s important to incorporate self-care practices!

We explain why Cysters tend to have higher outputs of cortisol, adrenaline, DHEA, and other symptoms that adversely affect mood and contribute to other symptoms like hirsutism.

You’ll also learn helpful tips about foods, supplements, and methods that can help with depression and/or anxiety! Tune in to the episode to hear the details!

With support, every woman with PCOS can achieve mental, emotional, and spiritual health!

DISCLAIMER: We are not, nor are we holding ourselves out to be a doctor or mental health therapist. If you are suffering from mental health issues such as depression and/or anxiety, please consult with a doctor or therapist who can further evaluate your mental health.

Call our PCOS Weight Loss Hotline at 1-833-ASK-PCOS (1-833-275-7267). You can leave a question or tell us how we’ve helped you! We might just play your message on the podcast to inspire other Cysters!

Join us in The Cysterhood, a community of women learning how to manage PCOS & lose weight, Gluten and Dairy Free! (bit.ly/The-Cysterhood)

Philosophie Protein powder (http://bit.ly/2C5MXrv)

PCOS Friendly CBD: 10% OFF code TheCysterhood (bit.ly/CBDpcos)

Ovasitol Packets: 15% OFF prc code 292660 (bit.ly/Ovasitol)

Full Episode transcript:

Well, we, we don’t drink that. Why it has, Oh my God. What’s going to happen to me. Nothing. It’s a supplement for women with PCOS. I mix it with water and it doesn’t taste like anything. Oh, that Ovasitol a special blend of Insitol and it helps heal. My cravings, regulate my period and improve my mood.

So don’t actually drink it. Oh my God. I’m getting a period. No, it just helps with blood sugar control for many women with PCOS, like me, insulin resistance is one of the root issues underneath all these awful symptoms. Here’s how it works. Babe. When we eat, it’s broken down into sugar and the lovely insulin hormone takes that and gives it to ourselves to get burned up.

But when our cells are resistant, insulin is left, floating around in the bloodstream, making us think we’re still hungry, leading to awful cravings, not just that insulin triggers high testosterone, which affects my period and my mood. So I’m not getting my period. No, babe. You’re not. But I am. This episode is brought to you by pure spectrum CBD SeaTac.

And I have been taking CBD and we are loving it. I’m holding the tincture right now. Pauline, can you open your mouth please? Yeah, I’m going to give you a dosage now. Keep it there for 60 seconds while she does that. Let me tell you the great benefits of CBD for PCO is studies show it reduces cortisol, improves insulin sensitivity,

reduces inflammation. You can go to pure spectrum cbd.com now to order and use the code. This sisterhood one word at checkout for 20% of not telling hold it for 30 seconds longer. While the sisters enjoy the show. Welcome to a sister and her mr. A podcast where we show you the real behind the scenes of how we balance the PCRs lifestyle in our marriage,

gluten and dairy free. I’m tallene your fellow sister and registered dietician And I’m sirak husband, engineer, and PCOS personal trainer. We’re going to make PCOS as a little less overwhelming and a lot more fun. Woo. All right, sister and Mister back in the studio, back at it for episode number 36, I think I said it wrong. On the last episode,

I said the wrong episode number in the beginning and I am No, everyone’s confused. You have to regroup. We have to redo the whole thing, the whole podcast from scratch, but hello sisters, we are back for another episode of the podcast. And honestly, we’re a little bit sore because we just recently went paddle boarding. It was my first,

my first time. It was telling’s first time in maybe years. It’s been so long. I only went like a few times, like five years ago. So I wouldn’t say I’m a pro. It was definitely kneeling the whole time. Yeah. Like when we first started, well, first we got these inflatable ones. We don’t want to get the hard ones because you know,

the hard ones are really hard to store. And then it’s like, there’s difficulty in the storing it making it’s okay. Transporting it on top of a car. You have to get that radius. Really. You want let’s get the inflatable ones. They’re like really good. And they fit in a backpack once you deflate them. So we took those, we went to the beach,

we pumped them for 20 minutes. Each, each, when I say 20 minutes each I pumped them 20 minutes. It was really something pumping them up. It was a workout. Celiac was dripping. He was not only, it was a sun beating down right by the beach. I’m just like pumping this thing. The guy walked by and was like,

Oh, I bought one of these. I returned it. It was too much of a hassle Of a bitch. How about you? Take your pain somewhere else? No, but we, we decided to keep it. It was great. So much fun. We didn’t even fall. Yeah. So we, so we went down to the water, we put the pedal boards there we’re a little bit dumb at first we put it like by the shallow area.

And then the guy, the same guy was driving. He was like, don’t put it by the shallow area that could hit the sand and break your fin, push it off from the deeper area. I was like, okay, You were trying to stand on it in the shallow area. He’s like, that’s not cute. Do it, Start on your knees.

And then stand up once you’re comfortable. So I, once I got comfortable on my knees, then I stood up. I had that thing pretty much under control. A couple of times I, I fell almost, but then I, like, I fell on the paddleboard, like spreading my legs and falling it like a horse. I can’t wait to go again.

That was so relaxing this weekend. I felt like, you know, when you go out in nature, you’re like mood kind of change. Yeah. That’s exactly how I felt. When I came back, I was so relaxed. Every time I go to the beach or something just like, makes me feel relaxed when I come home. I mean, it’s self care.

It’s part of that. Um, you know, taking care of yourself, it’s part of rejuvenating your brain. You got to get out of your house, get out of your normal habitat and just like put your mind somewhere else. Because once, if you’re at the beach, your minds are going to think about work. Your mind is not going to think about what’s next.

It’s going to think about being at the beach, taking any music. Yeah. Honestly your mind is only at like, Oh my God, I don’t want to fall. I don’t know. Yeah, that’s good. I didn’t think of that. I wasn’t thinking about anything else except for this paddleboard. And I don’t want to fall in this water cause it’s going to be so cold.

We’re by a bunch of boats, it’s windy boats. It’s over, let’s see.com about the wind or so on the way back on the way back to the, to the base that we took off from the dock as they call it in the biz. And um, but the way back it was against the current. Not only that it was the wind picked up.

So the wind was like 20, 30 miles per hour. And it was against the current. So we’re like paddling our asses off. I’m talking about like Tallinn is going in circles. Cause the paddle is like rotating. I’m trying to avoid her. Hitting me. Us Boats are coming. Both are looking at us. Like they waving. They’re like looking at us,

struggle and laughing. Yeah. And I’m like, can you please Uber us back, call us back, throw a rope, please throw a rope. But yeah, I was like determined. I was like, we’re going to make it back. I’m not going to cause we could have easily just got off anywhere and walked back on land, but I’m not going to do that.

I am a Maritain animal now, Mary, Tim maritime. I don’t know. You know that scene in Pocahontas. Have you watched it? See that? Have it’s been awhile. Okay. Where like she’s going through the river, just across the river bed. She’s like canoeing as hard as she can through the treacherous water. Like that’s how I felt at the end.

Well, we were trying to get to shore. Okay. I’m sure sisters are laughing. Yeah. You just don’t know. I don’t remember this scene, but I guess so that’s what it was talking about. Self care rejuvenation today’s episode, if you haven’t seen the title is about depression and anxiety with PSUs. I think a very important topic. A lot of sisters feel this way when going through the different symptoms.

Um, unfortunately it, you know, it can impact your happiness, your mood, anxiety and more. Yeah. Yeah. It’s definitely something we, um, we have to maintain some control over as best as we can through lifestyle changes. Yeah. Um, and, and sometimes, you know, we feel like it’s frivolous to do certain things like yoga,

meditation, whatever. And we, we kind of like leave it for less, but it’s actually really a priority for women with PCOS. Um, and we, before we launch into this, we want to give a little disclaimer, if you’re struggling with anxiety or depression, be sure to go to somebody who can help with helping you, maybe a therapist,

um, someone who can give you an assessment of your mental health, um, and can really guide you because these are just lifestyle tips that we implement, but we’re not therapist sources. Yeah. If you’re having any issues with anxiety, depression, or anything else, please talk to a doctor first, like a therapist, a psychologist who can talk you through your feelings and help you feel better.

So this podcast is just to inform you and to, to kind of help you. But I think the best step is to talk with a therapist or with a doctor about these issues. That’s right. Okay. So one of the first talk about the research and, um, the research behind depression and anxiety and peace, U S so a research shows that the prevalence of depression in a woman with PCs is high and it varies from 28 to 64%.

And the prevalence of anxiety in women with PCs ranges from 34 to 54%. So what does that mean? That means that a woman with peace us 28 to 64% have depression and, and a woman with PCs 34 to 57% have anxiety. So that’s very large numbers is almost half or basically have, uh, for each, uh, depression, anxiety. I mean,

I definitely think that women with PCOS, I mean, including myself are like hyper sensitive to things. I mean, how do you explain it? Like if something happens, my reaction to it would, would have been, well, actually I think I kind of trained myself after having, you know, life experiences and stuff. I feel like I’m more aware of myself and my anxiety,

so I don’t handle things the same way I used to, but I used to have like a more extreme reaction to something that would give me anxiety or trigger me, like just way more sensitive, way more, um, hurts by a situation than anyone else would be. Yeah. I mean, as we get older, not only are we smarter like,

like street smarter or we’re also smarter with our emotion, like our emotional intelligence gets better because we’re able to kind of take things in better and kind of evaluated before we have a reaction. Unfortunately, when we’re younger, like in our teens or early twenties and stuff, we’re still not that emotionally intelligent, but you know, even when you get older, like you’re,

you’re still, we still struggle with certain reactions and, and moods. Yeah, definitely. And it just helps to be, to do certain things that like ground you and get you to focus. And, you know, therapy’s really helpful if that’s what, um, can help, you know, bring to your attention, your emotional issues that you’re happy having and like how to cope with them.

Cause everyone’s different. But some of the things that can affect our mood with PCO S and I’m sure sisters out there listening can relate it’s physical symptoms like infertility and here’s statism like, you know, hair on your face or, um, weight gain and acne and things like this that are physical can make us feel really depressed. And self-conscious, and just like everyone is looking at you and thinking of you some type of way.

And you know, you, you convince yourself that that’s the case, even though it’s probably not the case, you know? Yeah. And then not just that, but there’s like hormonal issues, hormonal pathways that are triggering depressive feelings and like a tendency towards depression, like having higher outfits of cortisol, adrenaline, DGA, stress, hormones, things like this,

um, that can cause like melatonin, dysfunction, then you don’t sleep as well. And when you don’t sleep as well, your fatigue depressed, more inflammation, more inflammation, exactly. Or even having low progesterone because when you have irregular periods or you’re not ovulating, you’re having progesterone issues and that can affect your mood. Or if you have high testosterone that can affect your mood,

all of these things that, um, you know, it’s not just physical, it’s also a hormonal thing. Absolutely. I mean, even a dr. Phyllis Gersh, she wrote, and we have a quote here, the maintenance of the emotional wellbeing of women with PSUs needs more nurturing than what is needed for the average woman. But with such support,

every woman with PCO is, can achieve mental, emotional, and spiritual. Right. Absolutely. There is hopefully, Yeah, there is hope even, you know, with these like hormonal issues, you know, like we talked about cortisol, adrenaline, DHA, although this is happening, we can reverse these through natural diet and lifestyle change, as well as maintaining,

you know, we talked about rejuvenating herself, taking care of yourself that we’re talking about us paddle boarding. I’m sure you can find your own version of paddle boarding. That’s all part of, you know, achieving mental, emotional, spiritual health. So in this episode, we’re going to go over all that. We already talked about. Some of we’re going to talk about how to we’ll go over,

we’ll go over cultivating coping mechanisms as there are many. That’s true. Yeah. So I read something really interesting about managing anxiety while I was doing my little research about this. Yeah. And, um, it was about like, you know, if you’re struggling with an anxiety issue, one thing you can do to get yourself, um, to get through this situation is pretty much,

you know, let’s say something’s triggering you. Someone said something you’re really upset, kind of slow down, pause, stop trying to fix the situation in the moment. Stop trying stop, like playing it through your head, stop thinking about as best as you can kind of step back to it, step back away from it so that you can come back to it when you feel a little more grounded.

And I feel like that’s helped me in a lot of situations. Um, when I, when I feel myself almost like overreacting to something, I kind of like stop and like, think, you know, is this worth this much of a reaction? Maybe I’m just having a bad day. And I kind of like step back from it. And I find some aware self awareness within that moment,

take a few deep breaths. Do some of the things we’re going to talk about that get me to feel more grounded and then revisit the situation so I can handle it like in a more sensible way. Yeah. Cause at the moment you don’t realize that you’re already going through something. So like for example, you might be in a bad mood just because like something happened earlier in the day or something has bothered bothering you from earlier in the week.

And then something happens, right. Maybe, uh, your mom calls her and she tells you something that’s annoying or anything. Right. Anything could happen, but you are having this like maybe like a bigger reaction than you should. Well, maybe it’s, that’s the time to step back, like and set to ground yourself. Why am I in this mode?

Oh, because so-and-so happened two days ago, this is causing me to feel like this. You know what, I shouldn’t really react to my mom like this or whoever, because I’m already in this mode Heightened sense of emotion because of something else. Exactly. And at that moment, if you, if you do that, maybe you may just be able to just stop,

put it all down, just not react and go back to it an hour or two later in with a much more, you know, controlled, um, controlled way. Yeah. I really like that. I feel like I’ve practiced that in my life. I feel like you’ve practiced that in your life In some ways. Yeah. No, you’re, you’re I feel like you do a great job of calming yourself.

I don’t really see you ever having like these adverse reactions. Yeah. I think I used to be like that because when I w when I first was like eating gluten and dairy, and I got diagnosed with PCOS and I didn’t know what to do about it, I was like really inflamed. You know, my body like hurts and, um, the hormonal issues and everything,

and it was just like a really extreme situation. Very scary. I’d had no idea what to do and everything. And even my sister and like, best friends can say, like, I was a completely different person with a completely different attitude. Back then. I was like a lot more aggressive. I feel like my testosterone was too high and yeah.

And everything like that before you had like your PCs on there before it was under control. And now I’m like, because that happened to me, it has made me become way more of a self aware person. And then now I can manage it better. I mean, it could be that I’m, you know, gluten, dairy, free, all of these things and it can like,

see, but yeah, see the benefits now. But yeah, I don’t know. It’s a process. We all know. We all get emotionally intelligent some way or another. Like, we go through our process, we learn, we see our mistakes. A lot of times it takes longer for others. Honestly took me longer than that. And it probably Tallinn.

And then you eventually you get to where you want to be, but like, it doesn’t stop there. You just still, like, you always grow up. It’s always like self care, uh, mental strength and like happiness. That’s like, that never stops. You always have to keep growing that you always have to keep working on it because that’s what it is.

Happiness just doesn’t stay there forever. You have to help build out. Yeah. And I also think that you can’t grow out of it unless you do something about it. Some people don’t grow out of it. I’m not saying like women with PCs, just in general, people who have these like issues, if they don’t see a therapist, if they don’t address it within themselves and read some books about it,

really be self aware, then they won’t grow. And like, you don’t want to do that. Like, you want to be a self aware person and, um, you know, know yourself and be better. So I feel like that’s really important. That’s what this episode is about. We’re going to talk about some of the ways that we make ourselves emotionally better.

Yeah. Um, I kind of want to speak on something since we’re on this topic. Uh, I’ll give you guys my own personal story. I mean, I wasn’t planning on really about this, but now that we’re getting into it, I feel like I should give the sisters a glimpse of my past. And like some of the things that I went through,

um, like I used to have, um, I mean, I don’t know about used to, but I used to have severe depression and anxiety. It’s something that I was diagnosed with when I was about 21, 22 years old and a psychiatrist at the time said that I had this since I was like 15 and 16. And, you know, I had,

you know, something’s happened to me in my late teens and things like that that may have caused it. But basically it took me a long time to heal myself. And it wasn’t something that was easy for me. Uh, personally, I went, I went to a lot of therapy sessions. I was, I was diagnosed antidepressants and I did take one.

And eventually I was able to get off of it. It was a process. And that doesn’t mean, I, I I’m like saying you should take antidepressants or that you shouldn’t, it’s totally up to you and what you want to do. Don’t like take my, uh, experience as like what to do or what not to do. But I personally,

I took down antidepressants after a couple of years with it. I wasn’t really happy about it. Cause it was like changing my moods. And um, through time, what really helped me was like going to therapy, talking with someone, one-on-one getting my feelings out, getting my emotions out. And honestly, like I can say now that after maybe like,

well, that was 22. So after about seven, eight years, I would say, now I’m very happy. Like day to day, I don’t have the depression. I don’t have the anxiety. You know, it may come up here. They’re like naturally, like it does to everybody else. But I feel like I have it on the control,

but I never take it for granted. Like, I’m never like I’m healed. I don’t have to ever worry about what happened to me 10 years ago. You know, it’s not like that for me. I take it very serious. That’s why I meditate all the time. I try to think of, you know, how can I be happier? What am I doing wrong?

So I just want to give kind of like that little story to use scissors to kind of just let you know that if you do, if you are suffering from depression, anxiety, that you can reverse it, it just takes some work. And you know, don’t feel like it’s like to you, you have no solution for yourself. Cause you do.

I felt like at the time I didn’t have any solutions that I was going to feel like this forever, but you know, through searching through looking for what I thought would be right for me, I was able to versa. And you know, hopefully it stays like that forever, but if not, I’m ready to always tackle it, head on, try new things,

you know, meditate, therapy, anything that I feel is like necessary for me to be happy. Well, thanks for sharing that, babe. I’m sure people who are listening can totally relate. Yeah, I wish it was. I hope that was Helpful. Encouraging. Like I didn’t practice this. What I just said to you. Like I honestly,

I just, everything I told you was from the heart right now, so I hope it was clear and helpful if you have ever, if you ever have any questions about depressions, I didn’t feel to ask us like questions, like feel free to like, um, uh, reach us and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. But always consult a professional, always consult a therapist,

like a psychologist who can really help you talk about your feelings and get to the root of the issue. Um, yeah. So That’s my story. Yeah. I’m sure many women who are stuck in this, like mental space will feel encouraged by hearing this story that you can get out of it and you can totally see the light and, um, manage it through any way that keeps you grounded.

Yeah. Yeah. So what are some of the, okay, wait, what? Yeah. We asked each other. So we asked, uh, each of us has to say three things that helps us get more grounded, you know, help us kind of Talk about this earlier. Cause I didn’t want to steal, I don’t want you to steal mine.

So babe, what are your three things? And then I’ll say my three after that. Okay. My first one is talking on the phone while I go on a walk. I love to call my sister, my mom, my dad, my best friends, someone, and just like talk, put my ear pods in like going a little strong. Um,

maybe get my Avast tall pops like a walk around the community. Just watching you walk with a pop screen. Really do. It’s really funny. Like one of our neighbors is like, you know, I, I did a few labs and then I finished the Popsicle. He’s like, are you done with your Popsicle? Like I’m a little girl. Okay.

And then my next one is, um, when my creative, my creative juices feel suppressed, you know, I get, I just like suffer. Like if I can’t find time to be creative, my soul just shrivels up into a dark dark. So like school, for example, I did not thrive in school. Like there was no Avenue for me to be creative.

It was all like science and it was all like tests and pressure and like stress. And like I wanted to take an art class and I literally didn’t have time to take an art class because it was, it just seemed so frivolous because I had so many other things to like study and do I always want to take a ceramics class? I never did because I always had to,

you know, study science so I can be a dietician. And I really like the difference between my mental health then, and now is so different because now I’m creative, we’re producing content where, you know, making this like beautiful, like production out of PCOS and we’re passionate about it. And yeah. You know, and I, I even feel like different if I ha we have this like wall hanging that I’m weaving,

you know, after doing that for like half an hour, I feel like a different person or like reading a book or cooking something, all of these things just like change me completely. Um, so I know I like really suffer if I’m not creative. So, and then the other thing that helps me stay grounded is, um, being by the beach.

So just like being in nature for paddle boarding, if I’m tanning, just like anything where I’m, you know, under the sun or something that makes me completely a different person. That’s why I’m like thriving on vacation. Cause we’re all we do is like a lounge at the beach, Like zapping tooth two times or three times already. But during our wedding,

it was very stressful. As you can imagine, I’m telling like got her period late. Yeah. Right. It was like 35, 40 days or something. But it, the period of hit right when the art airplane honeymoon took off, No, it didn’t even take off because if you say take off, they’ll be like, Oh, it’s cause the pressure of the airplane I’m telling you,

I sat in that chair on the airplane. And that is when it started. And not just that before our honeymoon, I went to Turkey with my mom for like girls trip getaway to, you know, to get some stuff for the wedding. And it started on the airplane there before it took off. And then, um, I went to France for my bachelorette party.

It started when I landed in France. It’s just, it’s a really important mental thing for me to like be, um, outside of whatever the stressful situation is, whether it’s going to the beach traveling. Yeah. I need to go to Europe every month. Every time, Try the sisters with your periods. If you’re not getting it, just buy a ticket to Europe and see where of course it’s true.

Okay. What’s your three things. Well, those are some cool three things. I feel like mine are better. Uh, number one for me is for me is meditation. As I mentioned earlier, like meditation is my go to, and I’m talking about like 10 minutes, not like one hour meditation. I like to use either Headspace app or Wim Hoff,

which is like a breathing technique. But the reason I like meditation is because like, let’s say if you’re in a bad mood or something, honestly, if you just like get out of it, like, as we were talking earlier, grounding your soul, separating yourself from their emotions. That’s what meditation does. So if you’re in a bad mood, you basically go in a room,

close the door, get quiet and just do like these breathing techniques for 10 minutes, fall follow an app. Your brain forgets what it was just thinking about. Your brain will forget what it was angry about or sad about or anything. And then once you’re out of that meditation session, you leave. And then now you look at that thing. You’re like,

Oh, why was I so thinking about this? Why was I mad? What was I said, now you’re looking at it from a new perspective. You’re looking at it from an emotional perspective. So to me, meditation is like my number one go to a second is a, some of you may have guessed it working out. Um, to me like working out is almost like an addiction.

Like I have to do it five times a week. Of course it doesn’t mean that I’m saying the sisters, all you have to do, you have to five times a week, we recommend three to four times. But anyways, Really, since the day I met you, you have never missed a workout. Yeah. I, I don’t. And it’s like,

literally it’s my, the reason I don’t miss a workout. Isn’t because I want the muscles where I want to results. It’s to me, it’s like my self care time. It’s my time where I go into that gym or at home I start and nothing matters. Just these weights. I’m going to pick them up. I’m going to do these numbers.

I’m going to do that. Focus on my breathing, focus on my heart rate, watch TV, or whatever’s on listen. And that’s all it is. You know, nothing else matters, no phone call, no text messages. None of that. It can wait maybe some Instagram stories for the sisters, but that’s like really it. And like that separates me from everything else.

So maybe for you, that’s something else maybe for you, that’s going on a bicycle ride. Maybe it’s paddleboard, paddle board, maybe it’s walking, you know anything. So try to find that one thing that you can kind of do, that’s going to separate yourself from what’s going on. And the third thing for me is talking to Talia. Now I’m not saying this cause you’re hearing you’re my wife and yada yada,

but not really. Like for me is talking to Tallinn. Cause a lot of times where like, I’ll be in an emotion where I’ll be like, man, this guy did this and now we can’t like, you know, I’ll be in this like circle of thought that I’m sure many people get into. And then if I just step outside of that and just talk to my wife,

talk to Tallinn for five, 10 minutes about my feelings specifically about what I’m feeling about this situation. That like, man, you know, he did this now I’m feeling like this. I’m going to kick his ass. And I’m like, Oh yeah. I talked to her about it. I get it out. And that gets the energy, the bad energy out of my body.

It literally throws it up. Yeah. It throws it up. And then I’m like, Oh, like relieved. Like almost like I don’t have this bad feeling anymore. I don’t have this, like this annoyance anymore. And I, I highly recommend like finding a person that’s like that for you. Maybe it’s one of your friend’s best friend. Maybe it’s your boyfriend,

your girlfriend, maybe it’s a mom, a dad, a sibling. Anyone that you feel so comfortable with or you can just talk, get your feelings out. Like, like, and I would try like whatever you’re annoyed about. Talk about that situation. Like let it out, tell them why you’re annoyed. What’s making you annoyed about it. And what you wished would have happened if you just do those like steps,

your mind does the rest. It’s so crazy how your mind realizes it’s okay. Yeah. If you don’t say it out loud, the circle of thought keeps going and going and going and you keep thinking that thought and, and even like manipulating the situation to make yourself more mad and more and justify yourself. And then now, and then it’s like a whole different thing at the end of the day.

And you ruined your day. Cause you’re like pissed about something all day when you could have just said it, thrown it up. Yeah. And like you have friends, you have siblings, Jeff family that love talking to you. Yeah. Therapist, you have, people are willing to listen. They love you. You love them. Like this is why we have friends.

Like, this is why we love, this is our passion to help all the sisters in the world. Like when we respond to comments and DMS, we’re always like, we’re there for you. We’re listening to your issues because we want you to be heard. We want you to be, to know that you’re being listened to. So the same thing with your friends and family.

Cool. Yeah. Let’s, let’s do some examples of ways to get grounded. I just want to say that my three were also just as good as you. I know, but I feel like I explained my better. Let’s just leave it there. Mine, mine is like a thesis statement. It was just like a hypothesis. I’m like, just kidding.

Everybody has their ways. Tallinn. His ways are just as good as mine and my ways are better than them. Just as good as ours. And it’s all. Yeah. Whatever works for you. So some examples of things that could work for you. Um, okay. So changing your diet super important. Like if you eat a lot of carbs,

you get this temporary rush of serotonin, but then it crashes and um, you feel like depleted of serotonin after your blood sugar crashes. So focus on eating healthy fats, like omega-3 rich fats, fish, avocado, hummus, things like this, this like gets your serotonin stabilized along with keeping your blood sugar balanced and having lots of proteins. Yeah. And not to mention gluten studies show that depression is a health issue that can be caused or aggravated by gluten inflammation,

which can lead to further issues down the road. Yeah. Yeah. Inflammation leads to depressive feelings too. Yeah. Um, because it triggers like physical prob pains and problems. And also just, I remember when I had a lot of inflammation, I just like felt mad all the time just cause I felt like bursting out of my body. Yeah. And then exercise.

Oh yeah. This is a big one Because ice helps boost serotonin in the brain. So like a, like a walk in the morning, afternoon, maybe a little bit like what we talked about so way to workouts, even a yoga session really helps you boost that serotonin, you know, look getting the sun vitamin D just really does wonders Getting out in nature.

Yeah. There’s so much, um, green tea has AlphaNine in it and it’s a calming agent that increases alpha brainwaves, which are linked to relaxation. So, you know, it’s no joke when people like have some tea and calm down, there’s like actually properties in the green tea. So we recommend decaf. Cause you know, the caffeine will get you all cortisol up.

Yeah. But um, yeah. Decaf green tea three times a day. Lowers testosterone. Anti-inflammatory calming agent. Yes. Yes. Oh yeah. A B vitamins, B vitamins are essential for stress, energy production, neurotransmitter balance. So B vitamins are really important like for, especially for like energy, if you’re low in B vitamins, you’re going to feel fatigue throughout the day.

Yeah. Oh, Vasa tall is made up of B vitamins and actually I’ve read that in high doses in ASA, talls can help with depression. Not, I’m not telling you like take a bunch of basketball. I don’t know what that would do for your blood sugar, but I tend to read that that does help with depression. Um, acupuncture. You love this.

I loved acupuncture, But yeah, you can’t go right now because of Corona seriously. Okay. I don’t want to complain, but everything’s fine. I think that they’re open. I think I could go. I just don’t want to go. Um, but anyways, it, it really helped during a wedding planning during college, things like this, like gets you out of that fight or flight mode and just really calms you down helps with blood insulin control,

blood sugar control. Um, it really releases calming fuel, good neurotransmitter neurotransmitters like endorphins and reduces cortisol. It’s just so good for you. Acupuncture. Yeah. That’s great. Yep. Uh, sugar and caffeine. So sugar is known to increase heart rate, which can cause anxious feelings. Same thing with caffeine. Caffeine increases your heart rate makes you feel jittery.

As you mentioned and can increase your stress hormones like cortisol levels. And it just makes you feel more stressed. I’ve had this feeling myself, whenever I took cups of coffee back to back, I’m like anxious. I’m like jittery. I’m jumping from wall to wall like Spiderman, you know? I mean, it’s like a very like up and down like emotional roller coaster with caffeine.

Yeah. Honestly, all of these things that we just stated, I mean, there’s more, we’re going to go over, but all of these things, we do gluten dairy free exercise. Yeah. The tea at night, the decaf green tea. Oh Vasa Tobi vitamins acupuncture. I used to do it low sugar, caffeine, this and that for me,

I do all of that except for the piece of us. And I don’t think I do. I haven’t really tried acupuncture. Um, and the Vasto, but the sugar and caffeine, like I don’t have sugar and the caffeine I’ve limited my consumption. I don’t have peace it so I can drink it. But I limit it to maximum two cups a day.

That’s right. Okay. There’s like man blowing leaves outside and the clothes you continue, babe. Okay. So some other things that I was looking up different ways to get yourself, to relax, getting a massage is great. I know my friend, she always gets a massage around the time of her period because you know, the stress comes up in your body and everything hurts.

So that’s great. Like scheduling a regular massage, um, baths, you know, getting in a bathtub, that’s relaxing. Get your essential oils going that citrus smells essential. Citrus essential oils are really uplifting. Um, I’ve read that herbs like ashwagandha. I really that’s why I take the philosophy protein powder that right? Yep. It has like a bunch of adaptogens in it and I just instantly feel calmer.

Like after drinking my protein shake, it’s literally like perfect for PCOS. I have been drinking this for years. Yeah. Um, vitamin D supplement is great. Doing guided imagery. I’ve heard is good. I haven’t tried that. Have you? I’ve I’ve heard about it. They talk about on the Headspace app, like just imagining, like looking at thinking of an image in your head,

like a sky and imagine the clouds going away becoming clear represents is that’s what it is. Right? Guided imagery. I thought it was like, you know, you look up on YouTube. It’s like beautiful scene. It takes you through it like describing the beauty of like the nature of the forest. Isn’t that? I mean, I don’t know. It’s cool.

And we have to look into this one. Wim Hoff though. Oh, you got to try it. Wim Hoff. W I M and then H O F F towards Wim Hoff. He’s like, that’s the guy’s name, but he kind of started this whole method of like the breathing technique for meditation. I love it. So one of my favorite things to do,

so it’s an app to completely free check it out. So good and therapy. Of course I don’t delay for one second. If you feel like you need therapy or you have any tendencies towards self harm, things like this. See a therapist, Please. If you’re like, we, we did this whole podcast to give you information and like to get,

to get you more resources. But please, if you’re feeling depressed and anxious, please see a therapist, please see a psychologist. And if you’re feeling any, any inkling of like self harm or anything that please immediately talk to a therapist, a doctor, a loved one, let them know what you’re feeling. You’re not, you’re not alone in this.

We are, everybody’s there to support you. Nobody is going to look down on you. Like we’re all there for you. Yeah. It’s really important with PCLs to have a strong self care system, whether it’s therapy or some of the things that we mentioned. Yeah. And I’m sure you’ve seen on our stories. We show you guys like at night when we’re relaxing and doing these things,

like it’s no joke, like these are all necessary for us to function in our work. And also just like as emotionally, you know, healthy people. So it’s not frivolous. It’s very necessary. Colin is like the, one of the like happiest, like most, um, I would say like she really balances herself and keeps like her emotions at Bay.

And she does self care every single night because that’s how you maintain that. If you go days by like burning herself out, you’re eventually going to wake up pissed off. Oh yeah. I’m against burnout. We’ll sleep in. I don’t care about anything. Like I can not, I’m done with the burnout that was college Dan. So don’t let yourself get to that point.

Like it’s hard to kind of like stop and like stop everything. But you know, self care is very important. Yeah. So yes, we hope you really enjoy the episode about the depression and anxiety. And again, as we mentioned, we just want to say one more time. If you’re feeling any sign of depression and anxiety, please talk to a therapist,

doctor psychologist. If you’re feeling any inkling of hurting herself, please, please. We really implore you to please talk to a doctor to a loved one to a therapist. They’re all there for you to support you. Like we all love you. You know, don’t feel like you’re alone in this and now we’re gonna, um, uh, go into,

uh, one of our new favorite segments, which is answering questions from the PCLs hotline. So let’s see who’s calling in this week. Hi. I just wanted to, first of all, say thank you so much for all of your help going gluten and dairy free has helped me lose 15 pounds of PCLs. And now I’m at the point in my weight loss journey where I’m really struggling to get rid of that stubborn fat.

So I’ve been looking to increase my protein intake. So my question to you is I’ve read a lot about whey protein, spiking, insulin resistance in women who are a bit overweight. So I was wondering if on a future podcast episode, if you could break down what types of protein women with PCLs should be using. Thank you so much again, for all of your help.

I love that you have, you keep the posts and content coming by. Oh my gosh. What a nice message. Always welcome and congrats on yours. Yes. Well, that’s a great question. How do you choose a good protein powder? How do you select protein? Yeah. So we’ll link the protein powder that I use in the description here.

Oh yeah. But I love to use philosophy protein matter because you know, it’s made of hemp, which is gluten and dairy free and it, um, it has like adaptogens in it and no artificial sweeteners like Stevia. Um, I know it’s natural, but it’s still a sweeter, like no sweeteners in it, because that can also trigger your body to release lots of insulin because you think that you’re eating sugar and then you crave more.

And I’ve seen this with a lot of patients and I’ve read about it in studies too, that they’re inconclusive studies, but they’re like suggesting that this is the case. So oftentimes this is the case. And so that’s why I don’t recommend any sweeteners in your protein powder. And also I’m choosing dairy free of course like way is dairy. And if you don’t like that sweet,

that unflavored flavor where it’s like not sweet at all. Just add like half a banana or some berries to your smoothie and then that’ll give it some sweetness. Yeah. So it sounds like from tying suggestion to two, three things to look at is one, obviously make sure it’s gluten dairy free. Many times a hemp, hemp protein is always gluten dairy free,

cause it’s made from a plant. So you can look for a plant based option. And then the other thing to look at it that is very important time mentioned is artificial sweeteners. As she mentioned, artificial sweeteners can impact your instant resistance. Even things like Stevia can trick your body into producing insulin. So TVA, Stevia. Um, so yeah, those are the two things to look at when,

when getting your protein. Yes. Love it. Alright. So now we’re gonna move on to the last portion of the podcast, which is the win of the week of the week, which is a sister who has been managing her piece, us like a boss. That’s right. I want you read the sisters. Okay. Sandy, Sandy on Instagram says just wanted to share.

I started trying to avoid gluten and dairy. It was hard because I’m Peruvian and reducing my fruit, sugar and making high protein foods. After just a couple of days, I noticed my fatigue was significantly reduced and sugar cravings were non-existent. It was amazing. Also I started with strength training rather than pushing the cardio. And since I’m not killing myself every time I don’t dread going back to the gym the next day,

two weeks. Now I know I am not following the recommendations perfectly, but this small, these small changes have really helped me with my energy levels and with my anxiety, I will definitely continue trying to go completely gluten and dairy free. Thank you so much for the work you do tell him. I felt understood for the first time. That’s wonderful, Sandy.

That’s true. Those are a name, but congrats. I mean, yeah. It takes time. And even if you’re not doing, you don’t have to do everything perfectly at once. You know, like you can start slow, incorporate the, what you’re comfortable with at first. And then that just goes into this like avalanche shows results and success. Like you add more,

you add more. Yeah. You know, you cut out sugar, you do this, you do that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s great. Taking it one step at a time, one bite at a time. Great job on your results. And always here to support you along the way. So Go for it. You go girl. Yeah. Alrighty.

Well, Is the end of this episode? It’s a pretty good one. You know, we talked about a very important topic in the PCs, community, depression, anxiety. We hope you enjoy that. And you know, answer some questions. We hope you feel uplifted. Yeah. And feel free to always, you know, send us DMS of questions that you have or podcast topics you want us to talk about.

And you know, please leave us a review on Apple podcasts or anywhere, subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode, Chat with you next week. Bye. Bye. Bye. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you have to come check out the sisterhood. It’s my monthly membership site, where sisters just like you are learning how to move through the stages of S from Sage one cold and alone at the doctor’s office to stage five,

nailing the PSUs lifestyle, gluten and dairy free. Get ready to finally feel in control of your body. Again,

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