02 Aug Earthquake Model of Women’s Mental Health: Hormones + Life + Brain
One of the best tools I’ve ever learned, personally and professionally, is what I call the “Earthquake Model of Women’s Mental Health.” It’s actually a tool that can be used for male and female mental and emotional health, but it’s been especially helpful in my work with women.
You see, this model looks at the “3 Components of Women’s Mental Health“–our hormones, life experiences, and brain chemistry–to help us understand what might be going on within. I learned the priniciples of this model years ago, from the fabulous book, “Women’s Moods” by Sichel & Driscoll, and have since adapted it with my own spin and used it, along with the assessment chart, below, with clients, and myself, for years.
It has helped us come to see why we feel the way we feel, why changes in moods or emotions might feel like they just “appeared,” or why we can’t seem to shake the feelings of depression or anxiety or stress we’ve been drenched in for too long. Most importantly, it helps us understand what we can, and really must, do to be well again.
What is the Earthquake Model of Mental & Emotional Health?
For the best possible understanding, watch this video I created, in which I explain every detail of what the Earthquake Model is and how to use the Earthquake Assessment Chart (which you can download here!).
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In a Nutshell…
Think of an earthquake.
What happens before the earthquake goes off? The ground underneath is shifting and changing, mostly in imperceptible ways. We don’t even know those changes are happening until the day the earthquake suddenly goes off.
The same goes with our mental and emotional health. We experience life, hormones, and events that shift and change our brain chemistry in the same way the ground shifts unknowingly beneath our feet. We don’t know these shifts in our brain are even occurring until one day, “Bam!” we find ourselves in the midst of an “earthquake” like depression, anxiety, PPD, etc.
Little did we know our hormone shifts were changing our brain chemistry.
Little did we know our life experiences were changing our brain chemistry.
Little did we know our brains were changing with each new event, and over time, being primed for the eventual “earthquake.”
At first, we may experience a “tremor,” or a minor mental health event, like grief or minor symptoms of depression or anxiety for a brief time. We feel ‘out of whack’ for a time, slow down and take care of ourselves a bit better, and with support and time, we start feeling better again.
Or, we may go straight to the earthquake, with no seeming “warning” any trouble was even coming.
It’s important to realize that every “tremor,” and “earthquake,” primes our brain to potentially travel that same path again–just like platelets in the ground shift until they rumble a bit (tremor), but then go back to what seems like “normal” for a time before eventually booming (earthquake). Our brains work the same way. They become stressed to the point of a “tremor” or “earthquake” and after, are primed to shift again in similar ways in the future. When is anyone’s guess, but for our brains, things like significant stress, loss, and trauma can trigger the full-blown earthquake of major depression, an anxiety disorder, complicated grief, or others.
We may feel like “this just came out of nowhere!” But it didn’t. It came out of the years of hormone and life shifts changing our brain. We may feel like it will last forever. It won’t–IF we get the help we need.
The Good News…
Knowledge is power, and understanding these shifts in our brain and emotional state can be extremely empowering as we begin to understand why we feel the way we feel, what we need to do to feel “better,” and how we can do what we need to do.
Again, the video above is the best explanation of how this works, so please make time and watch!
In short, as we begin to map out our hormone, life, and brain changes, using the Earthquake Assessment Chart, we begin to see: “Aha! No wonder I’m feeling like this now! Look at all my brain has dealt with so far in my life! No wonder I’m having a tremor or earthquake!”
This can help us identify what we need to do to feel not only better, but also to eventually feel “better than better,” or to flourish.
How to Help the Earthquakes
Professional treatment is a great way to help the earthquakes subside, including psychotherapy, and medication as needed. Both of these work to “correct” the brain chemistry, to re-regulate and set things straight again.
This doesn’t mean your brain goes back to exactly how it was before. No. We don’t have the same brain today that we had ten, five or even one year ago. Those pathways have been forged, and our brain may still remain sensitive to the stressors in life and may again travel the same pathways again.
But–psychotherapy and medication, and other important things, like adequate sleep, nutrition, and exercise, rest and relaxation, stress management, social support, and other wellness practices, can ALL help to bring the brain, and thus our emotions and mental wellbeing, back to a healthy place.
Yes, you can, and will be well again–IF you’re willing to see what’s really going on, reach out for the help and support you need, and do the work of overcoming, becoming, and flourishing.
The Beauty…
That’s the beauty of earthquakes: They don’t last forever. Yes, there may be destruction and mess to clean up after, but you find you’ve survived, and now you have an opportunity. The opportunity stands to build something even better–a new way to see things, a new way to feel things, a new understanding, a new you.
Questions or comments? Please join the discussion, below!
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