Digital Social Hour - The Anhedonia Epidemic: Are You Secretly Suffering? | Dr. Judith Joseph DSH #1037

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

Are you going through life feeling numb and disconnected, even while appearing successful on the outside? You might be experiencing anhedonia - a hidden epidemic that's silently affecting millions. ���   Dr. Judith Joseph, renowned psychiatrist and author, reveals the shocking truth about high-functioning depression and why feeling "meh" could be a warning sign of something more serious. Discover how our modern digital lifestyle is creating a perfect storm for mental health challenges and learn practical strategies to reconnect with joy.   In this eye-opening conversation, we explore: • Why successful people often mask their depression • The surprising link between screen time and emotional numbness • How cultural differences impact mental health treatment • The powerful "5 V's" system for emotional wellness • Why your relationships matter more than diet for longevity   Dr. Joseph shares groundbreaking insights from her research across 30 countries, offering hope and practical solutions for anyone struggling with emotional disconnection in our digital age. Whether you're dealing with burnout, feeling stuck, or just trying to understand modern mental health challenges, this conversation is a must-watch.   Join the Digital Social Hour for an authentic, unfiltered discussion about the mental health crisis hiding in plain sight. Your journey to understanding and healing starts here. 🌟   #selfimprovement #transformingmentalhealth #mindfulnessfacts #anhedonia #wellnessstrategies   CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:54 - Discovering High Functioning Depression 02:58 - Understanding Anhedonia 05:47 - Phone Withdrawal Symptoms 08:29 - Attention Span Comparison 12:45 - Understanding Trauma 14:37 - Healing from Trauma 15:39 - Exploring Energy Healing 19:50 - Global Mental Health Perspectives 23:01 - Autism and ADHD Trends 26:30 - Community Importance in Mental Health 28:19 - Understanding Scarcity Trauma 30:40 - Impact of Cyberbullying 32:54 - Finding Dr. Judith 33:58 - Dr. Nicole’s Book Availability   APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]   GUEST: Dr. Judith Joseph https://www.instagram.com/drjudithjoseph   LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/

BetMGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has your back all season long. From puck drop to the final shot, you're always taken care of with the sportsbook Born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM and no matter your team, your favorite skater or your style, there's something every NHL fan is going to love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why Bet MGM is your hockey home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with Bet MGM, a

sportsbook worth a celly, and an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. When you hear depression and you hear high functioning, they're like opposites. Correct. You've been able to see in people that they could pull off both? Yes.

When people think of depression, they think of someone in bed, like crying, like not doing things. I've seen in my practice the opposite. Walk around feeling numb, which is something called anhedonia. So these people who are high functioning but have all these other symptoms, they don't get the help they need and then eventually something's going to give. All right guys, here today on the digital social hour with Dr. Judith Joseph, author of The High Functioning. Thanks for coming on today.

No, the, just high functioning. Oh, just high functioning? Yeah. So no the, okay. Sorry. Take two. All right guys, digital social hour here today with Dr. Judith Joseph, author of High Functioning.

Thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I didn't know a lot of these terms before. So we got high functioning depression, high functioning anxiety. How did you stumble across this? So I have a research lab in Midtown Manhattan and every time I do an assessment I have to pull out this big book called the DSM-5 which is basically the Bible for psychiatry. I have to go through it and check boxes and at the end of every condition there is a question. Does it impact your functioning?

If it's a no, then you move on, you don't have it. Well, I thought there was something about that. Like, why are we seeing people who have all these symptoms, but it doesn't impact their functioning, so we don't do anything about it. And I thought that system was broken because as physicians, as healers, we should try to prevent disease,

not wait until things are broken and then fix it. So I started looking at people who have these symptoms of certain conditions, as healers, we should try to prevent disease, not wait until things are broken and then fix it. So I started looking at people who have these symptoms of certain conditions, but don't check that box and are still just pushing through, getting through. Eventually, they break down, or eventually they develop a substance use issue or some other type of coping that's unhealthy,

or their body gives. So I felt like I had to study this to prevent it and like create a content on it, and it just resonated with so many people, went viral, and here I am today. So I felt like I had to study this to prevent it and like create a content on it and it just resonated with so many people, went viral and here I am today. Wow, because when you hear depression and you hear high functioning, they're like opposites. Correct. You've been able to see in people that they could pull off both?

Yes, when people think of depression, they think of someone in bed like crying, like not doing things. But I've seen in my practice the opposite. I see people who walk around feeling numb, which is something called anhedonia, where things that used to light them up and give them pleasure just, it doesn't do it for them anymore. People who have poor concentration, feeling guilty, feeling not good enough, feeling like they don't want to burden others by sharing how they're feeling, don't want to let people down, you know, feeling as if they are burnt out. So they have these symptoms of depression, but they can't give up because they have a

small kid at home. They have their entrepreneurs like you and I, they have people depending on them. They have partners, friends that depend on them. They're the rock of the family. Bet MGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has your back all season long. From puck drop to the final shot, you're always taken care of with the sportsbook born in Vegas That's a feeling you can only get with bet MGM and no matter your team your favorite skater or your style

There's something every NHL fan is going to love about bet MGM Download the app today and discover why bet MGM is your hockey home for the season Raise your game to the next level this year with Bet MGM, a sportsbook worth a celly, and an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. So these people who are high functioning but have all these other symptoms, they don't get the help they need because the doctor will be like, well, your functioning is great, come back next year, and then eventually something's going to give. So you mentioned anhedonia earlier. 99% of people watching this probably haven't heard of that. So what exactly is that and what causes it? It's so interesting because in medical literature, if you ask any nurse, any like, you know, doctor, they'll know what it is. But there's a disconnect between the research, the medicine, and the people, right? So you have people who are just like

scrolling on their phone every day, drinking, doing things, just going through the research, the medicine, and the people, right? But it's in the medical literature. It's like all over psychiatry literature. But people don't know about it because if you go into your doctor and you're not crying, if you don't have something glaring, if you're just like, they're going to be like, oh, you're fine. No one's like worried about you. Get out the door. But it is an insidious, sneaky symptom that could lead to other things.

Anedonia is correlated with depression. It's correlated with substance abuse. it's correlated with schizophrenia, dementia. So it's something that we really need to pay attention to because 30 years ago, 40 years ago, our brains didn't have so much exposure to social media, we didn't have so much exposure to tech, we didn't have so much exposure to bad news in the world. So we're all kind of just numb, we're just going through it, we're not processing it. And I think that anhedonia is going to be an epidemic across continents, not just the US. Sounds like it's almost a gateway into bad things.

It is because when people feel numb, like, okay, so we're in Vegas right now and this is Sin City, right? There's just an overwhelming amount of dopamine. It's like, you know, you want this, get it. You want that, you can get it at 5 a.m., you know? So when your brain gets all of this pleasure, all these hits, eventually you're gonna get depleted. You're gonna go numb.

So we're seeing this with children, children who are like toddlers in front of these screens who are just getting hit after hit of the video that they love, the song that they love, and they're just like staring at it like this, right? They're becoming numb. That is anhedonia. So I do think, you know, it's going to be this word

that people will start to use regularly. I'm trying to make that happen because I think people are experiencing it, but they just don't have a word for it. And when you give people a word for what they're experiencing, it calms them down. It's called affect labeling. So if you imagine walking into a dark room

and, you know, lights are out, something falls, you're going to start swinging because you don't know what it is. It could be a person. It could be something dangerous. You turn the light on, you see it's a book that fell. You're like, oh, that's fine. So knowing what you're dealing with,

affect labeling, is in itself therapeutic. It decreases the amount of stress and allows you to think clearly so you can make is in itself therapeutic. It decreases the amount of stress and allows you to think clearly so you can make a plan. Right, it's the unknown that's scary. That's why people are scared of ghosts. Uncertainty. Yeah, they don't know what's going on. Have you seen this dopamine fasting stuff?

Yes, I have, the dopamine detox. Yeah, some people are raw dogging flights, they call it. Right. They don't look at their phone the whole flight. Yes, yes. I don't know if I could do that. I would not recommend that. So the way that these apps are developed,

these phones are developed, you know this, they have figured it out. It's a gaming, it's like gambling. Because you don't know what you're gonna get, your brain just gets addicted to that type of algorithm. So what people have seen, researchers specifically in this field have seen what looks like withdrawal

when people go cold turkey from their devices. I see this in my practice. I treat children and adults. And when I work with families to try to set limits around screen time, I see this kid that is usually sweet, just acting like sometimes like an animal. So I think that if you know that this is actually what looks like for someone who's withdrawing, then you're not going to be cold turkey. You're going to be like, okay, let me set realistic expectations. Let me work with someone to support me through this.

Let me slowly and gradually decrease the amount of time I spend on a screen. You're not going to go cold turkey. That's crazy. So people can have withdrawal from phone time. Absolutely. I never thought of that. From video games, you know. The DSM-5, the Bible of psychiatry that I told you about, only started like adding these addictive behaviors recently. Things like gaming disorder, things like gambling disorder, things like social media addiction.

These are things that are new phenomenon, right? Because we can't use the same old medicine from 50 years ago to apply to today. It's just not going to happen and that's why the world needs people like me, researchers who are like not waiting for something to be broken, like hey let's recognize this, let's do something about it, let's educate people so that they know. If people know they're gonna make better decisions. Right, so you're researching it now because by the time it's in a textbook it's too late. It's too late. Yeah, I agree with that. A lot of the stuff they teach in general in textbooks,

I feel like is outdated. Well, you know, doctors are very conservative. You know, we, like myself, I know, like when I was a pre-med student, I was a complete dork, and in the library studied, didn't go out. You know, we play it safe, and we wait for like things to finally be validated,

then we do something. The world is so fast, we can't wait anymore. It's the same with information. If you tell a parent and a child, okay, go to the so-and-so association of blah, blah, blah, they're gonna say, okay, yeah, doc, and leave, and then they're gonna go on social media and they're gonna get all their information

from their favorite influencer, right? So we have to keep up with the people. We can't pretend that the people aren't experiencing, you know, this overwhelming amount of pleasure, this overwhelming amount of technology, social media. We have to keep up with the times or else we're gonna lose people. Absolutely.

Speaking of losing people, there's some insane studies on attention span coming out. They're saying we have shorter attention spans than Goldfish now. I mean, it's true. I think I was in a meeting recently at this major social media company and they were saying that people check their phones on average like 200 times a day or something like that and I believe it and in that room as I looked around people were checking their phones

right we just were so connected to our phones you know I think like I saw recently this person was on a plane and they left their phone and they start, there was a big ruckus on the plane because they wanted to turn the plane around and get their phone. Like people are so connected to their phones. That's crazy.

I mean, I can relate. I spent eight hours a day online. I mean, I try. Reading about this stuff, I try to really limit my time. Like I'll give myself a break, I try to really limit my time. I'll give myself a break, I'll put it in another room, but it's really hard, especially as an entrepreneur. For some people it's not. They spend eight hours of just leisure, which is pretty dangerous in my opinion.

It's that anhedonia. It's like, okay, I don't want to go outside. I don't want to touch grass. I just want to sit in my comfy bed and watch this phone. I've been there. I went through anime phases, watching whole seasons of anime in a day. Netflix, whatever it is. Netflix is addicting too. It is, the binge watching, there are great studies that look at binge watching

to tell you why it's a habit forming. So notice at the end of every episode, there's a cliffhanger. Well, people are addicted to cliffhangers. They're afraid of the uncertainty, but at the same time there's a thin line between excitement and fear. And that uncertainty is what keeps people coming back. So they end up watching something in a whole night. 100%. I'm watching Lost right now, which is an older show.

But every night I'm like, all right, this is the last episode I'm gonna watch. I gotta get some sleep. And then it's a cliffhanger. So I gotta keep watching it and it doesn't end. Then I'm up till 2 a.m. Well, yeah, you're gonna be, loss is really long. So. Yeah, I'm on season two. You watched it?

I purposely did not. So like, I'm the same way, right? Like I love things, I get attached. I was that way with Game of Thrones. Oh, I watched all that too. And I told myself I couldn't watch the dragon one because I'm like I was gonna ruin my life I watched Game of Thrones in like two weeks. Yeah, I've been to the whole thing. That's a good one Yeah, it's hard to beat that one other than the ending but right. I don't have to spoil that Yeah, but these days honestly, it's hard to watch a movie without going on my phone. Very hard.

It's hard to be present. And one of the actual tips that I give people for anhedonia is to try to be present. I say use the basics. It sounds really granola and cheesy, but five, four, three, two, one. It's a grounding method where you pay attention to five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, one thing you can taste. And it sounds like a lot of things,

but what it does, it gets you back into your body because many times, many of us aren't aware of unprocessed trauma. And that's why we're on the phone. That's why we're drinking a lot. That's why we're doing things excessively, like shopping online, because we're trying to cope with pain that we haven't yet processed. we all went through pain in 2020 like I don't

know about you in Vegas but in New York there's still no like COVID-19 memorial right like we haven't really acknowledged it it's like okay that's in the past let's move on but then there were like political uprisings then there were like you know other variants and there were all you know financial stress people have student loans they can't pay off. There's just so much going on. So we're just numbing ourselves. And the phone is so easy. It's right there. Right? We can all do it. Kids can do it. Adults can do it. So we escape. But we're numbing. We're not processing. So the 54321 allows us to process. And what studies have found is that when you have trauma, you go through

something called depersonalization and derealization. Those are just fancy ways of saying that sometimes it feels like you're not connected to your body. Sometimes it feels like you're not connected to your situation. We've all been there where we're like, wait, what was I just doing? Like five minutes just passed, but what was I doing, right?

So that's a coping mechanism. So five, four, 3, 2, 1 gets us back into our bodies. We start to feel again, we start to process again and then we're more present. Yeah, yeah. Traumas, I'm all about dealing with that. I was so distracted that I didn't even know I had trauma. I got a brain scan done at Dr. Amon clinics and I had a lot of trauma. I was so busy distracting myself with work, with other stuff that I never took time to process it. Well, that's an actual symptom of trauma. So like, if you look at that Bible of psychiatry, one of the criteria is forgetting.

So I have people who are like, there are huge chunks of 2020 and 2021 I just don't even remember. Like they're going through the phone, they're like, I don't remember that. That's your brain's way of protecting you. So when you have these gaps in your memory, start writing it down, start putting yourself back there because as you start to pinpoint those gaps in time, you'll realize that it's likely due to trauma. Your body was just trying to protect you from feeling that. Crazy, so you could go through an incident and just your brain will forget about it?

Your brain will forget about it. And that's why a lot of people who are victims of violent crimes, when they take the stand and they're like, I just don't remember, then the cross examiner takes advantage of that. And they say, well, you know, this is an unreliable witness, right? Wow. But it's because it's a trauma response. Many times people who go through trauma don't remember it because the body and the brain is trying to protect them from that pain. So they don't remember.

And it's not because they're unreliable. It's not because they're lying. It's because the body was protecting you and that's a trauma response. And that could probably go the other way around if someone's accusing someone of something. Maybe their brain messed up too, right? Well, that's why a lot of people accuse victims, you know, it works on the stand. But if people were more trauma informed and they understood that forgetting is actually a symptom of trauma,

then we would have more compassion. We'd be more patient in the process. We'd try to help them to, you know, ground themselves, use EMDR or other type of tools to reprocess the trauma because, you know, what we end up doing is victim blaming. Do you believe all trauma can be healed, even if it's really traumatic? Well, it depends on your definition of healing, right?

So if your definition of healing is, I just want to get through a day without a flashback, yes, I think that that is possible. If your definition of healing is, I just want to be completely back to who I was before the incident, I don't know about that. Because I think that things can be so painful to who I was before the incident. I don't know about that. Because I think that things can be so painful that there's no turning back time.

And it's also invalidating to say, well, you can get back to that way, but something happened to you and your brain changed and your body changed. I love the honesty. Not for real. That's really honest. It's important to be honest with people. We can't promise you. Sometimes I scroll through social and it's like, I can self-heal you.

I can, you know, and it's like, well, you know, let's be realistic. Let's first define healing, right? Because you don't want to give people an unrealistic expectation because if they try it and they don't get better, then they feel hopeless. They feel like, okay, I guess there's nothing for me, you know? But we have to redefine it and make it realistic. Now as someone that's evidence-based, I just got Reiki healing yesterday.

What do you think of that energy healing stuff? I studied cultural psychiatry in over 30 countries. I'm a believer. I've been to countries where a doctor will sit with a patient and instead of going through the labs first, they'll be like, so, you know, what are you doing in terms of your prayer routine? Like, you know, what have you doing in terms of your prayer routine?

Like, you know, what have you done this week to help you with purpose and meaning? And it's like, where am I? Why is this missing from our... That doesn't sound like the doctors. Well, no, because we have insurance companies making doctors like, okay, check the box and get them out of your office to see the next patient in like a line of 30 patients. So you have these broken healers, right?

These doctors who are burnt out, overwhelmed, who just need to check the box and not get sued, trying to heal people who actually need help. It's a messed up system. So I'm a firm believer in alternative methods, in cultural methods of healing, because that stuff was around way before this modern medicine. And that allowed people to get through wars, famine, you know, earthquakes, because once you're connected, right, once you have the basics, I call them the five V's, you can thrive. And it doesn't matter how that's packaged, right? The five V's are number one, validate how you feel. Well, a lot of these healers from other

countries, they spend a lot of time helping you to identify emotions and how you feel. The second is venting. So they hear you out, you talk and they listen. The third is values. They tend to talk about what brings you purpose and meaning, not money, not cars. Like the things that if you had five seconds left in this life, you'd be like, I wanna do this, right? And tends to be family, right?

And then vitals, they really spend a lot of time with breath work. Breathing is the only physiological mechanism that we can control that we need for life, right? I can't tell my heart to stop beating. I can't tell my liver to stop detoxing, but I can hold my breath. There's a reason we were adapted and evolved to hold our breath because it is something that we can control to allow you know a coming of the fight or flight to be centered. So a lot of these cultural doctors they'll spend a lot of time on breath work,

they'll spend a lot of time on tensing and relaxing and body work. So the vitals are important also because like I mentioned a lot of doctors don't ask you about your screen time but we need to be connected to others. So being off of our devices, spending time in nature. And the last V is vision. Are you celebrating your wins? Are you making time for joy? Are you scheduling pleasure? Right? Many times we look at our calendars, we have a lot of busy stuff, but we don't make time to celebrate our wins. Absolutely. Wow. I love all of that. Thank you. How'd you come up with that? That's such a cool system. Well, it was actually, I was in 2020, I was sitting at my desk in my lab, giving a talk to hundreds of healthcare workers.

It was April and it was a major healthcare system in New York City. And I was tasked to help them through this tough time because we didn't know what this was that was going on. Everybody was freaking out. There were doctors who hadn't seen their families for weeks because they didn't know what this was. So they were just working and then staying in a hotel. People were desperate. And I'm on this call and I'm

like trying to give people advice. And I'm like, wait a second. I'm scared. My marriage is falling apart. My child is at home. I'm running a business. I just felt like a hypocrite. So I had to dig deeper and look beyond modern medicine. So I started, you know, going back to my roots and looking at all the studies from the 30 countries. When I was a medical student, I traveled a lot. When I was an undergrad, I traveled a lot. When I was in training, this is when I was learning

all the cultural psychiatry stuff. And then I pulled from all of these elements to develop the five Vs. And I tell you, every time I give the talk, people walk away with, I want to practice one of those V's. Like, it resonates because it's all within what we have already. You don't have to go out and get something fancy for it. We just need to be guided.

I love that because a lot of doctors in America are only exposed to Western philosophy, right? They are. Like, they don't leave the country to learn from other countries. They don't, yeah. So that probably gave you different perspectives and you could kind of pick what you feel is the best from each one, right? Absolutely.

And it resonates with people. And it's fun, it's creative, it's relatable, and everyone has access. Absolutely. Now this mental health stuff, is it just a US thing? Did you see that when you were in other countries? So I haven't been to other countries recently to look at the anhedonia. Well, actually I've been in other countries? So I haven't been to other countries recently to look at the anhedonia.

Well, actually, I've been to other countries to talk on podcasts about this. And the people that I speak with will say, yes, this is happening here too. But the cultural elements, the purpose, you know, the using what's within your circle, I've really picked that up in other countries because other countries are a lot slower.

What I found is that they take the time to spend time with their family. They have longer family leave. In some countries, they have like four months off a year and that's okay. So, and there are other capitalist countries, you know, in like the UK and so forth. But in most countries, you know, there is that time to go to the market and look at your food before you eat it. Um, I talk heavily about something called the biopsychosocial model, so biology, psychology, and social.

In the biology part of the model, we eat so much processed food. You and I were talking about like our water today. Yeah. But a lot of what we actually eat and consume is so processed. You can't even like, you know, I can't pronounce

half the stuff on these labels and that impacts our bodies and our brains. There's this huge field called nutritional psychiatry where they look at people who eat certain types of food that are low in preservatives, low in sugar, you know, not like all of these things that you can't pronounce versus people who eat this highly processed food. And they're finding higher rates of anxiety and depression

in the people who are eating the processed food. So the biology is really important. And we have all these autoimmune conditions. If we really took the time to think about what we're putting in our bodies, that would help us a great deal. Again, we have access to that, right? It's not fancy.

The psychology part is the trauma that I was talking about. So a lot of us haven't processed our past trauma. And we all have attachment styles, how we connect to others, examining that and thinking about the toxic people in our lives and limiting them because the number one predictor of longevity is the quality of your relationships. And many of us don't have very good relationships, right? Wow, that's the number one predictor of longevity is the quality of your relationships

and many of us don't have very good relationships, right? Wow, that's a number one predictor. Number one for longevity. That's more important than the food you eat. More important, believe it or not. That's crazy. Yeah. So look around you.

If people are draining you, you got to do something about that. But when was the last time your doctor said, are you in any toxic relationships? They never say that. Never. No. Wow. I never even thought that could be a link to that and physical health problems. I mean, no one does. Yeah. But if you go to other countries,

they'll ask you about your family. They'll ask you about the last time you saw your grandma. Right? Wow. We don't do that in many of these capitalist countries. And then the last part of the biopsychosocial is the social aspect. Like, what are you doing in your day-to-day lives? We talked about excessive social media. We talked about excessive spending and all these things. part of the biopsychosocial is the social aspect, like what are you doing in your day-to-day lives?

We talked about excessive social media, we talked about excessive spending and all these things that we are doing that are not necessarily healthy for us. So that's where you can actually have some control. The biology sometimes you can't control because if you have a medical condition, you're born certain ways, you have genetics, but the foods you can control, right? So there are some parts of each bucket that you can control and start there. Do the rising rates in autism, ADHD concern you at all?

They do concern me. I mean, I'm someone who treats children, adolescents and adults. And, you know, some people will say that there's maybe over diagnosis because people are online and they're learning and they're self-diagnosing. And that's probably true.

But I do think that there's probably an element of nutrition involved, like I mentioned, the toxic nutrition. I do think that because kids are on screens, you're seeing a lot of neurodiversions that we didn't see years ago because they're not, you know, they're really not getting the stimulation that they need.

Children need to, excuse me, if you ever walk into a room into a daycare, you'll see all these kids like rolling around, putting things in their mouth, you know, exploring. Yeah. Children need that sensory stimulation. But if they're on an iPad, if they're on a screen, they're only getting that two-dimensional stimulation. So I think that we're seeing neurodivergence. Some of it is autism, some of it isn't,

but it's hard to really put it in a box because it's so new. And I do think that eventually there's gonna be a whole field in the DSM-5 dedicated to mental health conditions tied to digital exposure, excessive digital exposure. Yeah, there's something there. I had another brain doctor on, he said 90% of the brain is formed ages 0 to 6.

Yes. And I'm wondering if the introduction of electronics at such young ages is impacting kids heavily. Yeah, studies are showing that it's causing them to have delays and having problems with attention. So, again, we really weren't born for this. We were born to be in nature. We were supposed to be exploring, talking to each other,

looking at our parents. But if your mom is this, then you're going to be like this, and you're not talking to each other. That's how you're going to develop. And it's hard to undo that. Wow. No electronics for my kids until they're seven. Well, they really recommend wait until eighth. There's an organization called Wait Until Eighth. Eighth is the eighth grade. So they're really recommending that you try to stay away from social media until you're 13 for screens, nothing from zero to two years old.

I mean, well, that's really difficult if you have a single parent at home and they don't have the funds to have a babysitter or a fancy daycare. The iPad is the babysitter, right? Distracts them. Yeah. Yeah. So you got to play that game in your head. Like, am I going to be hands-on or just use this to distract them? We really need to do it as a community. I grew up in Trinidad for the first couple years of my life.

And my mom has four kids, and we're like one year apart. Wow. She couldn't do it if there wasn't a community. And my dad and mom are closely tied to the church. So people from the church would take care of us. You don't have the sense of community. I think that we have to bring that back in order to address this problem because parents can't do it alone.

I don't get that community aspect in the US. Well, I think what happens is that when you're in capitalist societies, it's every man or woman for themselves, right? And again, like, if you are constantly working, if you're paying off your student loan debt, if you're trying to afford a mortgage, you just don't have the time, right? And if you only get like what, two, three weeks of vacation a year, when are you gonna build community?

So it's really a problem that I think we have to face together. There's gotta be some modifications. And I think people are starting to talk about it when they talk about like, okay, hybrid models, like partially at home, partially at work. But then when you are at home, you really have to be mindful and intentional

about creating community. But what are we doing instead? We're on our phones. Yeah, as soon as you get home, pull up the latest YouTube video or podcast. But you know what? The phone isn't going away. We can't get rid of it.

But so use the phone, You know, create groups online where you you meet up online, you connect with people online, but you also put a date in the calendar to meet up in person. Love it. Yeah, I'm gonna start doing that. When you study all the Blue Zones, you're right, though, they all have community aspect, huge aspect of their lives. And I went to Bolivia to visit my fiance's family. Oh my gosh, community was everything out there. Yep, and the Blue Zones also talk about the way that they move their bodies. If you are going to meet someone,

you're going to move your body, right? But if you're staying home, that's two things you're not doing. You're not communicating with others, you're not connecting, and you're not moving your body. So the community solves a lot. And also when we are with each other, we tend to eat probably more healthier foods.

We're not just sitting home binge eating or shoving in processed food. Right. We're more mindful of what we eat. Yeah. My wake up call with that was the health app. It tracks your steps. I was walking like 3000 a day, which is terrible.

So now I walk like 7,000. So everyone watching this, check out your health app. Well, you're in Vegas too, right? It's hot, yeah. Summer's tough to get steps in. You gotta get up early. Yeah, I'm in New York. You probably walk over 10K in New York.

I do. That's the one good thing about New York. Yeah, the one, there are a couple of good things too. A couple of good things. Yeah, but yeah. There are new studies on pollution. Have you seen those? Yes.

On how they impact the babies even? You know, I never had this like post-nasal drip that my doctor says is related to living in New York. Whoa. Like I never had allergies, but like, since I moved to New York, I've had this like constant dripping. So it's definitely pollution.

Damn. That's concerning. Any other studies or things you're working on right now? You know, scarcity trauma is huge. I'm an immigrant. I came to this country with very little when I was very little. And I'm someone who's on the outside is successful, right? Like I have all these like fancy Ivy League degrees, three businesses.

But the scarcity keeps creeping in. Like, okay, like, what if I run out? I got to hustle. And I found links between scarcity trauma and in. Like, okay, like, what if I run out? I gotta hustle. And I found links between scarcity trauma and high functioning depression, right? With people with high functioning depression, they won't acknowledge the sadness. They won't acknowledge the anhedonia, but they just push, push, push, push, push through. And I found that my high functioning depression is related to my history of scarcity. I don't ever want to be that little kid who didn't have food.

I don't ever want to, you know, not didn't have food. I don't ever want to not be able to provide for my daughter or for my employees. So I'll forget about, again, the V's scheduling my wins and I'll be like, well, no time to celebrate. Got to push through the hustle just in case we run out. But again, I have to remind myself that when I'm on that deathbed, I'm not going to be thinking, I should have gotten that one more campaign.

I'm going to be like, I wish I had more time with my family and friends. Wow, I can relate to that so much. I might be a high functioning depression. I think a lot of people are. I think we're all walking around with a mask, like I was. We have a mask of productivity, but we're struggling. We're not acknowledging our feelings, but something's eventually going to give. Yeah. Something's there because it's not normal to want to work 80 hours a week and think that's normal. Yeah, that used to be me.

Which I do. Yeah. I've done that for seven years. I mean, same. Like when I wasn't working, I felt like empty and restless. Same. And I was like, that can't be good. Yeah, when I'm not working, I literally start like twitching and I feel uncomfortable.

Get back into your body. Use those five V's, use the five four three two one. Start to feel again. Slow down, yes. Yeah, when I did that Reiki healing, start to feel again, slow down, yes. Yeah, when I did that Reiki healing, a lot of pain came out of my body. It was really interesting because I came in kind of skeptical. I've never done something like that, but I was open and yeah, he said I had a lot of stress and anxiety.

Well, the thing I love about your generation is that you're so open to learning and trying new things and focused on intentionally healing. So I think you're going to be better off than the older generations, but you also have way more stuff to deal with than older generations did. You have more social media, you have so much more comparison. Like it's harder to have a house. It's just harder to have things. So I do think that, you know, like you have these challenges, but you're also,

your generation has a lot of positives. Yeah, I think each generation's like that. Our generation cyber bullying is pretty bad right now. It is. It really is. Yeah. I didn't catch that. I got bullied physically, but not, yeah, because Instagram came out when I was in high school. So I caught the tail end of that. But now these kids, they get home, they're getting bullied on TikTok and Instagram. It's not just kids though. Adults are getting bullied too, right? Yeah. But for children, it's worse because with a child's brain, they perceive rejection

the way that an adult brain would perceive being stabbed. So like for a child to be rejected by their peers is more painful than to be physically hurt. Really? So when, yeah. So when your kid comes home and is like, someone so doesn't like me, you can't be like, sticks and stones, don't break my, that doesn't work,

because their brain perceives it as like they're dying. Why is that, you think? Again, back to the basics, right? I told you the number one predictor of longevity is our relationships. Human beings are social. We weren't meant to live alone. We weren't meant to be on an island.

We're meant to connect. That's how we survive. We don't have the talons of an eagle. We don't have the claws of a tiger. We have each other. So we need each other. And when a child is rejected, take it seriously. Don't brush it off because that's very painful for them.

And that's why I think I work so hard because I was rejected a lot as a child from friend groups and I wouldn't even tell anyone, because I was so embarrassed. So I didn't have an outlet for it. That's your trauma. Yeah, I was scared to tell my parents about it. And do you know the symptom of trauma?

One of the symptoms in the DSM-5 is shame and blame. So you didn't even know it. You were blaming yourself and internalizing it when it wasn't your fault. Wow, that's crazy. But I feel like that's a common thing for kids to want to fit in a friend group and they get rejected and then they got no one to talk to. It's one of the number one reasons I see pediatric patients and they don't want to tell their parents because the parents

like, oh don't worry about it, you have your siblings, you have us, you don't need them. Well you're invalidating their trauma. So it's really one of the number one reasons I see children with depression and anxiety. Wow, So even young children are getting that? Even young children. That's crazy. Yeah. Sad. Because when you picture children, you think of just happiness and innocence. But that's sad to hear.

They're struggling. Wow. And kids are mean. Yeah. They're definitely mean. They are mean. Dr. Judith, where can people find you and look more into your studies and everything? Follow me, Dr. Judith, where can people find you and look more into your studies and everything? Follow me, Dr. Judith Joseph. I'm on all the apps, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, name it, threads, Facebook.

We'll link it all below. Yes, and then also take my anhedonia quiz. Like, you know, some of the things that you were saying, you know, you were saying that you felt numb, you felt restless, you didn't enjoy things, you were hidden away. Those are all symptoms of anedonia and people take that quiz online and then it gives them a score and then they can take it into a therapist or take it into a coach and do something about it. Wow, I'll take it tonight and I'll post it on my Instagram. Thank you. Thank you. Cool, we'll link the quiz below as well guys, check it out.

So all of my research is now in my book and the five V's are in there. I have all these creative ways that I pulled from all these different countries and put them in the book. So there's something in there for literally everyone. And again, I think healing is within everyone's reach, but we just need guidance and we just need to be told that it's okay to do it differently

than how traditional people do it. Beautiful, we'll put the book in the description below. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. Thanks for watching, guys. Peace. online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for. When you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette with our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games,

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