Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - What Jazz Thornton Does To Take Care Of Her Mental Health

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

For Mental Health Week, we sit down with Jazz Thornton—mental health activist, author, speaker, TikToker, and filmmaker. Join us for an inspiring conversation! Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor. More links to help here: https://mentalhealth.org.nz/helplines See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, with the Jono and Ben podcast. Cheers to Dilma, making the world a better tea. Good morning. Great to have you on. We're having you on weekly at the moment. Do we need to start partying now? What's going on? Almost lastly, my invoice.

Ben deals with the invoices. Yeah, it's a bit backed up, the invoices at the moment, but I'll get around to it at some stage. Hey now, Chas, Mental Health Awareness Week. Obviously, you couldn't think of anyone more perfect to speak to on a week such as this. So thank you very much for coming on. We thought we'd just try and maybe get some helpful tips and things off you

for people who might be going through some stuff. Yeah, of course. Absolutely. I mean, the very first thing and the biggest thing at the moment for me that I'm being so intentional about post-COVID lockdowns, which I feel bad even saying the word COVID, but as human connection has been a big thing, being so intentional about catching up with friends, going out, having coffee, getting off my damn devices,

because I think we've been lacking human connection for so long now that it's kind of become normal to just do it through a screen. So that's probably been, it's been a huge one for me over the last little while is making sure I'm prioritising that and relationships has been a big thing. Because someone who last little while is um making sure i'm prioritizing that and relationships has been a big thing because you know someone who does spend probably a lot of their life on social media for what you do you know you're you do a lot of tiktok and instagram and you know social media stuff it's probably hard to find that balance sometimes i say even for you

right oh absolutely my screen time is horrific like we don't we don't ever need to look at my screen time but it's so bad. And I think also having like everything's so easy to just like FaceTime and Zoom. But I think that makes us a lot more disconnected from those kind of more personal relationships. So it's something I've been, yeah, a lot more intentional about at the moment. I think after COVID, we all just thought we'd go back to normal when we'd get used to it. But maybe it's a conscious effort we have to make to actually make time to physically meet our friends. Oh, I think that our threshold has gone down.

I think that it's taken out, like, the ability to just actually be with someone. And so, yeah, I think it's actually been harder than people anticipated, and people aren't seeing their friends as much as they would have before COVID. I won't lie, there was a bit of me that was pretty happy not having to see people. I'm an introvert, I tell you.

Can we talk about, you know, there's people in your life that have helped you, you know, to get to where you are now. Dr. Steph is someone that I know through talking to you has been really special with you and someone you're still friends with today. Yeah, yeah. She was a huge part of my journey. She was kind of the doctor that ultimately I will credit saving my life many years ago and now has kind of just become part of the family, which has been so amazing.

And we've worked so much together, kind of around the world now, which has been crazy. But having that person who is willing to kind of walk with you through the fire and then kind of you know be able to celebrate with you on the other side has been huge um and such a big thing for me as well to not have people walk out and leave which you know can be a fear if you're going to tell someone what's going on that you feel like they're going to walk out or it's going to be too much but she stuck by me and it really meant i was just to say because you know we do talk a lot and it's very important about your own mental health but what you can also do for other people like you having that dr steph as well you know that someone who you know helped you at the time as a young kid to get through a really horrible stage of your

life uh it was you know hugely important and it's amazing to see that you're still friends you holiday together we do we do we just went to fiji for a 50th which was so fun and so like we were both just sitting there like what the heck we didn't think i would let alone be here you know and then be in fiji to get a go on holiday and it's it's wild but we're very thankful to still be here we all have friends who have uh been through mental health. If you haven't been through them yourself, how you approach that conversation too. If you know someone's going through a tough time, if you are that person having a tough time, do you want to be spoken to or is it better to wait until they broach the topic? I don't think wait.

I think that there's so much pressure on telling people to ask for help and not enough of telling people to reach in. I think that having, like, in New Zealand, we've created the one kind of sentence starter to be able to have these conversations. We've scripted it out of it, which is like, how are you? Yeah, I'm good, thanks. How are you? Move on with your day. And we don't know what to do when someone breaks the script. And so being able to, like, literally,

if someone says, I'm not good, we're like, ah, that's not what we've been taught. Being able to, you know, be like, no, like, how are you really doing? And even if they're not open with you at the start, like that consistency will enable them one day when they feel like they need to talk to know that you're there. I think if we tiptoe around it, we're afraid of asking the questions, then we're just putting all of the pressure on the people that are struggling to ask for help rather than trying to create spaces for them to do so. I agree. Like when I had a moment like years ago, I was dropping hints to lots of people. No one either, they got the hint and they didn't want to say anything or they just didn't get it. And then in the end, my partner was the one that was like, are you okay? And there was a bit of relief being like, oh, no.

Actually, finally someone's got the hint. Because, I don't know, when's the right moment? Because you feel like a burden. Who do you want to go, no, I'm not okay, you know? So I think I agree. Like, it's good. It's definitely good for people to ask your mates. 100%. And I do think, like, asking for help is obviously such a huge thing.

But I also think that we know that. We're telling that every single day. We're always telling people to reach out. So I feel like, you know, we'll always continue to say that messaging, but it's just as important. Like mental health is not just something that is on the shoulders of those currently dealing with it. It's everyone's responsibility.

We're all the ones that have to check in on those around us. And so, yeah, I think it makes the weight of it a little bit lighter knowing that we're all in it together. What's one thing today that people could try for their mental health? There's one thing you could recommend, obviously, getting off your device or limiting that is a good one. Yeah, that's definitely a good one. The other one that I was so offended to find out actually worked

was bloody getting out and exercising and getting outside. I think especially if you're in office jobs and stuff like that as well, you get so wrapped up in everything that's going on in computer screens and blah, blah, blah. But even getting outside for five, ten minutes, you never underestimate that. I think that

obviously if you're in a higher crisis, hearing that is like, that's not going to do anything. But when you're struggling with anxiety or things that are going on in your brain, getting outside, don't ever underestimate the power of that. Get outside for five minutes. Leave your office if you're allowed to. And just go get some fresh air. Jeez, I don't know what office you work in. We're chained to this desk, mate.

We can't even see outside. Tell us what it looks like out there. Is it daylight? I mean, obviously, you're like everyone else, Jazz, and you probably still have days which are better than others and some that are worse than others. Absolutely, yeah. I actually just had my new season, my podcast just came out today

that talked about a bigger experience that happened last year of having to kind of re-go back to the drawing board and having to relearn how to fight again and realising that recovery is not linear and sometimes we just have to fight a little bit harder than before. And that's okay. Like, it's okay and it's normal. It would be the same as beating yourself up

for getting a sprained ankle twice. Like, it happens and we just have to, you know, pick ourselves back up and go back to the things that we know of asking for help and all of those kind of, everything I tell people to do every day and having to re-task myself. Is that hard for you though? Because you're the public face of it and then you're like, oh, now I'm having to go through it again. Yeah.

Yeah. It was, I mean, I didn't talk about it for a while. I got, it was pretty dark last year and I only had just talked about it now. Because you don't want to let people down. And I know how many people have found hope in my story, so there was so much more pressure to make sure that I got up and got through it again. And I couldn't have done it without the people around me. But it was really interesting because my therapist actually,

sorry, I'm yawning for a second here, but my therapist said at the time, I was like, I don't understand how I'm back here again and I'm feeling all these things again. And she just said, Jazz, the feelings are the same, but your response is different. Like you have grown so much more than you think. So you're asking for help earlier.

You're doing these things. And that was really validating for me to hear. Oh, that's good. You're never letting us down by feeling however you feel it's all valid and you're not letting anyone down by any means. But I completely understand why you'd put that pressure on yourself

though. Yeah. We got there. We got there now. I'm actually currently sitting outside my therapist's office as we speak. Therapy is good. It's where everyone should be going. Yeah you're right. Well jeez I hope she doesn't charge by the minute because we've held you up

for a bit. Hope is real with Jazz Thornton. New podcast series is out now on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts from.

And Jazz, it's always a pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much. Well, thank you, guys.