Flipswitch

On this episode, we continue analyzing our two teen round tables, this time asking them about their sleep habits. They share their insights with us. In addition, we find out that one of our hosts also hasn’t been sleeping well. We’ll discuss the why and what can be done to help.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (235)

Read Full Post »

Hey everyone,

It’s Emily here. So far I’ve been really happy and that is pretty much because I have been on spring break for the past week, but that is all coming to an end…tomorrow. Unfortunately. However, I’m actually sort of surprised that I had a good spring break this year because for the past three years, I’ve had teachers assign a ton of homework over break. This year, on the other hand, something weird happened and I ended up getting zero homework.

Because I haven’t had any homework, I haven’t really had to follow any type of schedule so that means that, no, I have not been attempting to reach my goal of following a schedule. This week though, I promise things will be different! I’ll make a schedule every day and try to follow it. If I don’t then I will…punish myself somehow. I actually don’t know if I didn’t follow a schedule because I didn’t have to or if that I didn’t follow one because I subconsciously try to push myself to see how much I can survive by doing the bare minimum. It’s an interesting thing to think about, but I’m not really sure if I can go that much into depth on it since I haven’t done any real thinking in the past week.

It’s really strange, though, to not have been stressed lately. I think the most stress I’ve had was possibly being late to a friend’s house to then do nothing once I got there. I have to admit, it will be kind of nice to go back to school because I do think I actually need a certain amount of stress to make sure I still get stuff done. Ah, I don’t know. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Until then, goodbye Emily

Read Full Post »

Hey all, it’s Ryan! I hope all is going well and this week finds you in good cheer. In this edition of my blog I want to expand on the comment I left under Gopi’s blog entitled, “Why We Tend To Avoid Telling Our Parents Things.”

Gopi made the interesting point of referring to her parents as her “social support system” and by opening her feelings up to them it has become easier to talk about her feelings. This is a very good thing, we all need to talk about our feelings good, bad, or ugly because, as we have addressed on our show, feelings affect your stress levels and consequently your health. But the question I want to address is why it has taken so long, and why, as Gopi pointed out, 100% of our High School and College roundtables avoid telling their parents, their friends, or in general their “social support system.”

We have discussed the worry/fear factor that plays into this scenario. We don’t want to let our parents down and we don’t want them to worry about us non-stop, but I want to offer an addition to this idea, and one other factor that I don’t think we have hit on too much.

First the addition, this is only speculation and could probably use some discussion; however what if we are scared to tell the ones we love what is going on in our lives not because we think they will worry too much, but because we fear they won’t have an answer. When you go to someone for help you are expecting some sort of relief, an answer to why something is happening or why you are feeling a certain way, but what feelings will you experience if you go to someone and they can’t provide that. It’s a scary situation to face, but if you think about it letting them know gives you someone in your corner to help you battle through your struggles even if all they can provide is moral support and love.

Secondly, I believe another looming factor for why we are extremely hesitant to express our feelings is trust. Your feelings are at your core, and putting them out in the open allowing someone access to them makes you very vulnerable; can you trust someone to help you and not use the way your feeling to hurt you? This is tough even when it comes to the closet people in our lives. For Gopi and myself that tends to be our parents, for any number of you it might be the same, but for many others it turns out to be their grandparents, friends, etc.

What I have learned though, and it seems to be the same for Gopi, is that the first really personal thing you share with these people is hardest thing to share, because you do not know how they will respond. After that though, it becomes easier because the trust starts to build if they have helped you and not hurt you. And if in your gut, deep down you honestly believe that they love you and care about you, it’s probably a good bet they will help you. It’s not easy, and the words never come out how you want them to. Often times you end up crying your eyes out, but its all for the good.

The hard part is that you have to risk the chance they might hurt you, but like I said if deep down you believe they love you and care about you the risk is probably very minimal and the reward much greater!

Until next time, Ryan

Read Full Post »

Hey you guys, hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this amazing weather. I don’t know about you all, but I am definitely looking forward to spring and its 60 degree weather.

I usually think of interesting questions when I’m “supposed” to be studying and today while studying for Physical Chemistry I thought to myself, “why are teenagers so scared to tell their parents how they feel?” I’m sure I can speak on behalf of all you when I say that I don’t like telling my parents because I do not want them to judge me or worry. I automatically assume that my family will judge me; however, I have improved on this. Lately I have been more open with my mom, I feel like I can tell her a lot of things that I was scared to tell her before. My family is my support system and if I can’t tell them how I feel, then there’s something wrong with that picture.

During the round tables, almost everyone said that they would never tell an adult if they were depressed or sad. I was one of them! Emily, Ryan, Chris, and I tried to think of a solution but unfortunately we could not think of one. One thing I realized is that as young adults we’ve encountered many situations where our parents have cornered us, but think about it. What was there reason for freaking out? It all comes down to, they care! I don’t think there is a simple solution, but my advice is that we all should realize that our family cares. My family is my support system and with time I am beginning to feel more comfortable about expressing my emotions. I think taking time and realizing that people care can help you be more open about your feelings.

Well I hope you guys understand when I say that time helps. Take care and enjoy this awesome weather, I think I will go for a run. =)

Read Full Post »

What’s up, Guys and Gals?

It’s Round 2 of my Blog for Flipswitch!

Once again this is Ryan, I am excited that I get to speak my mind to all of you today. I feel as though I have stumbled upon something that may bring a little more reality into what we at Flipswitch are saying. In this edition of my blog I want to expound on Advocacy, which Gopi brought up in her first blog.

Let me start by asking you about several ways people try to Advocate for what ever it may be that they feel passionate about. First, I know most of us have had to sit through school assemblies. What are your thoughts on those? Mine most often center on the fact that I get to miss at least part of my day at school (Exciting!), and I get to sit in the most uncomfortable gymnasium seating ever (future back problems, but someone has to keep Gopi in business ☺). Or how about those annoying people that stand outside, on every street corner (so there is no way to avoid them) and handout stupid little flyers about whatever it may be? Again, I tend to do whatever I can to get around them, or I politely take the flyer hang on to it for a block and then toss it. Seems like a waste of paper and a waste of time, am I right? Take a moment and think about it.

It is not a waste of time, and it is not a waste of paper! (though I am sure many of you would want to argue about the latter) I guarantee you that reading the above made you think of at least one time when someone made you sit through a speaker, or when someone handed you a flyer. I also would make a solid wager that you remember at least the basics of what was on the cover of the pamphlet, or what the speaker was trying to say. You were exposed to it and on some level you retained a little of that information (even when you did your best to ignore the message)

So what does this mean? Advocacy still works even when people appear not to be caring about what you are saying, because as long as you are saying something to someone in earshot, they are listening. They may not be giving it the respect you think it deserves, but they will keep at least a tiny piece of what you said with them. And the more pieces you throw at them over time, the more clearly they will see your point in the end.

KEEP ON ADVOCATING, EVEN IF YOU THINK NO ONE IS LISTENING!

Until next time, Cheers! Ryan

Read Full Post »

Hey everyone,

It’s Emily here. And unsurprisingly, everything has been pretty much the same lately: school is still kind of rough, I don’t have any time to do the stuff I want to do…Well, actually…I think I just lied to myself. Yes, school is still driving me up the wall, but that’s only because I’m constantly doing what I want to do instead of schoolwork, e.g., procrastinating. Yesterday I needed to look up a cupcake recipe and ended up spending almost an hour doing so just so I wouldn’t have to do homework. It’s pretty ridiculous.

I’m always struggling with the same problem. It’s always that…I know what I have to do and I know what it takes for me to do it, but I never do. (Yes, I realize that was very vague, but hopefully you get what I mean). Like, let’s say I try to eat well simply because I know I should. Eating well is good for me, eating bad food is bad for me. There’s nothing simpler than easy rules to follow, right? Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve realized that it seems as though the easiest rules are the hardest for us to follow (or maybe just hard for me to follow). Because we’re surrounded by all of these simple rules of what to do and what not to do, things become complicated and simplicity turns into what we feel is impossibility. But then again I’ve got this sort of nasty plain Greek yogurt sitting in front of my face, and then I have a donut in the kitchen. Now ask me which of the two I’d prefer.

This is one of the topics we come back to time and again on Flipswitch. And a result of being “unable” to do certain tasks, I get extremely stressed out. I want to fix this. I can’t stand being stressed out anymore, so I’m going to try to set up a small, reachable goal involving schoolwork. I’m going to…create a schedule and try to follow it exactly, just like Gopi does; she definitely knows a thing or two about planning. I’m curious to see how it’ll work, and I’ll let you guys know. Hopefully this inspires you to stop procrastinating too. Until then, have a great week!

–Emily

Read Full Post »

Hey you guys this is Gopi, how is everyone doing? I don’t know about you, but these weather changes are sure talking a toll on me.

I had a really busy week with labs and exams, as usual. At this point I am just really looking forward to my spring break and graduation. I am going to be honest, I feel really stressed most of the time, but I use exercise as a way to relieve my stress. Trust me guys, running and kick boxing really helps clear my mind and keep me fit. Exercising is my “me time,” and it helps me regain focus and control in a way. We’ve pretty much preached about a regimented style of living, but one thing I will stress is exercising.

I’m going to skip all the “crap” and just say it like it is. You want to be healthy now and ten years down the line! Relieving your stress, doing some cardio, weight lifting, or even walking outside is really going to help. Exercising helps eliminate my stress and keeps me in good shape. I don’t eat healthy all the time, there are times where I just want to eat ice cream and potato chips, but I make sure that I am exercising so that it compensates for the “bad” eating. So my tip of the week is to just stay a little active because it really helps relieve the stress and keep you in shape…promise!

Well after a long week and a few more long weeks to go, I am really looking forward to some nice weather…where is the sun!?! Take care guys and I hope you look forward to another “tip of the week” haha.

Read Full Post »

Hey,

It’s Emily here. I hope everyone had a good week/weekend/whatever time period since you have last been on the site. It’s been a stressful week (as always). And every time I think about how much work I have to do I get so angry because I heard that senior year was supposed to be easy. It isn’t; I won’t lie to you. So don’t be fooled by those around you, Juniors! Next year will be hard; I assure you. There are lots of tests and quizzes and annoying teachers to deal with daily. This is when I wish that I could just stop doing all of my homework and I do stop…but then my conscience kicks in. It’s a vicious cycle.

School has not only been extremely stressful this week, it’s been dragging and some really strange occurrences took place. On Thursday afternoon, one of the maintenance mechanic’s at my school committed suicide in the building. No one really knows that much about it, and already a few people “in charge” of the school have been playing the suicide out to be a heart attack in attempt to keep everyone calm. Very sad.

Thinking about what went on is pretty surreal because I know things like that happen and I’ve heard of them happening, but I never think they’re going to happen to me (or around me)…until they do. And this time it has. (Wow. That was a bit vague, but hopefully you understand what I’m getting at.) I’m not really sure how I feel about it either. Chris even asked me, “and Emily, how do you feel about that?” To which I answered that I feel pretty horrible, but I’m not very good dealing with those types of situations. It’s like the war right now…you know there are people dying. You see it on the news, in the papers, everywhere, but something is keeping you from understanding the reality of the entire situation until it becomes personal. Sometimes that isn’t even enough; that’s the really sad part.

What bothers me about the entire situation is that no one really cares about the “why” behind this man’s act. People at my school were more concerned about whether there was school the next day or if there would be news crews coming to report on what took place. Others were self-righteous and yelling at the people who were talking about it openly not to discuss what happened at all. But it needs to be talked about. How else can we move forward from things like this if they aren’t discussed? I talked to one of my friends about it and he told me how terrible he thought it was and that suicide is stupid. And, I agree…I think it stupid (for lack of a better word) to an extent. I’ve never been depressed so I wouldn’t know how it feels to get to that point where I can’t face the world anymore. I can’t really judge the act that far. And I think the important thing is to prevent those from getting to that point of no return than to claim the act stupid and forget about it. Forgetting brings about repetition, and suicide is something that shouldn’t keep repeating itself.

I know that this blog post was pretty heavy (especially for the first one), but writing it helps me think about what I feel is importa nt. I’ll try to keep it lighter in the next one. Until then, have a good week. Hopefully you will be more productive than I was this past week.

Emily

Read Full Post »

Hey you guys, this is Gopi. I hope everyone is doing well and hating this weather just as much as I do. This is my first time writing a blog, so please bear with me.

Recently, my friend Avni and I were having a conversion on medication and mood disorders. She mentioned that people who suffer from mood disorders or depression are to blame for their condition. Her reasoning behind this opinion was that depressed people have the choice of coming out of depression and people choose to be bipolar. However, many of us know from the episode that we did on depression, that being depressed is not a choice. Many people have misconceptions regarding depression and bipolar disorder; so many stereotypes exist that a lot of people do not know the true cause of these disorders.

However, this is just one example of the many misconceptions that exist regarding mood disorders and depression. In one of our episodes, we discussed the importance of advocacy and how it can help eliminate such misconceptions while educated people. I know this may seem a little dull and repetitive, but all of you guys should advocate on behalf of people with mood disorders. Helping others understand is the first step in helping yourself. Soon after, I spoke with my friend again and I explained to her what I have learned about such disorders. I hope I changed her perception on depression and I hope I helped you realize the importance of advocacy.

Well I hope I didn’t bore you guys too much. But enjoy your weekend and stay warm!

~GOPI PATEL~

Read Full Post »

In this episode we continue our review of our two teen round tables: one college, and one high school aged. In this go round, we asked both round tables how they know who to trust when revealing their own problems. Both sets of answers are strikingly revealing and not what you might expect. We also discuss the pervasive fear that seems to be instilled in teens to keep their problems hidden at all costs.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (604)

Read Full Post »

Hey Flipswitch fans!

This is Ryan writing to you all in the first of what will be weekly blog posts. I hope everyone’s previous week went well and the current one is following suit. Mine is going great, I was able to get a few tests out of the way and catch up on some studying, which got me thinking about a major theme that we hear at Flipswitch trying to hammer into you guys: Regimented Living.

For several weeks, after my last round of tests, I definitely slacked off with school. Many days I found myself coming home from class or wherever with my hand in a bag of potato chips watching Cash Cab on Discovery Channel (awesome show by the way). Then before I knew it, it was time for round two of tests and I was severely behind in studying. My mind got overwhelmed, and as many of you well know the first thought that comes into your head is, “I am never going to be able to do this!” Luckily, I made it out in O.K. shape after it was all said and done, but the main thing I learned (and I have come across this epiphany more than once after doing a show and thinking about my own life) is maybe I should pay a little more attention and heed the advice we give you guys and try it out in my own life.

Regimenting my life, which I do at least to a minimal degree already, would have set myself up with a little less stressful of a time before those tests. I would have had more of the work done and the pile wouldn’t have been so high. This example appears to be pretty simple and cliché, to which I agree, but it is something we all face and gives the basic idea of what I am trying to say to you: All the tools we suggest to you will help improve you life.

In fact, these tools will help anyone who uses them. They are not simply for people living with and battling mood disorders, they are very basic (and often times common sense) approaches to handling many of the problems that everyday life throws at us all. What blows my mind though, is how little people draw on these simple ideas to help them out. Perhaps many of those reasons that people don’t use them can be seen coming out of the round table discussions that we have been airing the last several weeks. It seems, as of right now that people in general (especially these teens and college students) don’t want to appear vulnerable; a feeling I know I try to avoid at all costs. Knowing you need any kind of help, whether it is clinical or even a simple regimen can make you feel this vulnerability, and not up to par with what the world expects.

Anyway, I hope this wasn’t too long or boring for the first post. I will try and add a little more spice and humor to the next one.

Until then, Cheers! Ryan

Read Full Post »