5 Best TED Talks for your Mental Health

If you like to listen to podcasts and you are struggling with your mental health, you may want to listen to some of the incredible Ted Talks that are available to help and support you through difficult times. From talks about anxiety, depression, and the power of healing, there are so many wonderful videos or podcasts to explore. Here at StudyStream, we are sharing what we think are the five best TED talks for your mental health.

Don’t Suffer from Your Depression in Silence

Producer and Activist Nikki Webber Allen explores the stigmatized views of mental health and talks about her journey with depression, and anxiety. She talks about the importance of seeking help and how Black Americans are not reaching out when they need support because of the stigma and shame. One of the quotes from this talk is “having feelings isn’t a sign of weakness, feelings mean we are human and when we deny our humanity it leaves us feeling empty inside, searching for ways to self-medicate to fill the void.”

The Voices in My Head

Dr. Eleanor Longden was in her first year of university when she started hearing voices. In this TED talk, she shares her experience with Schizophrenia and her journey towards helping others with her foundation InterVoice. Powerfully honest and brave, this talk gives a lot of insight into what it is like to suffer from Schizophrenia but also explores the strength needed to never give up and learn to accept yourself for exactly who you are. One of the quotes from this talk is “a broken and haunted person began that journey, but the person who emerged was a survivor and would ultimately grow into the person I was destined to be. Many people have harmed me in my life, and I remember them all, but the memories grow pale and faint in comparison with the people who've helped me.”

How to Cope with Anxiety

Dr. Olivia Remes, a mental health expert and author, talks about anxiety and the way it can overwhelm our lives. She talks about the best ways to be kinder to ourselves and reveals her coping strategies for anxiety and how they can change your life. This talk is honest and relatable and shares Olivia’s vision to help all of those suffering from anxiety disorders. One of the quotes from this talk is “having a purpose and meaning in life is a very important coping mechanism. Whatever we do in life, whatever work we produce, however much money we make, we cannot be fully happy until we know that someone else needs us, that someone else depends on our accomplishments, or on the love that we have to share. It's not that we need other people's good words to keep going in life, but if we don't do something with someone else in mind, then we're at much higher risk for poor mental health.”

This is what it's really like to live with ADHD

Jessica McCabe an American Actress and YouTube personality shares her journey with ADHD. This emotional and relatable talk explores the idea of potential and how things can change quickly when you don’t manage your ADHD effectively. She talks about her decision to turn things around for herself and stop believing that her failures were because she was neurodivergent. One of the quotes from this talk is “The thing is, while everyone experiences ADHD symptoms sometimes, an actual diagnosis is based on how many of those symptoms significantly and chronically impair multiple aspects of your life. Just like you can get sad and not have depression, you can get distracted and not have ADHD. And just like you can have mild depression or severe depression, ADHD can range from mild to severe. I also learned ADHD is a terrible name for ADHD. It creates a lot of confusion. We don't have a deficit of attention! What we have trouble with is regulating our attention.”

Lessons From the Mental Hospital

Glennon Doyle Melton, an author and activist, shares her story of living with addiction and eating disorders. This raw and honest talk explores the process of recovery and reaching out for help when you know you need it. One of the quotes from this talk is “We start out as extremely sensitive truth-tellers. We feel so much pain and so much love and we sense that the world doesn’t want us to feel that much and doesn’t want to need as much comfort as we need. So, we start pretending. We try to pretend like we’re the people that we think we’re supposed to be. We numb and we hide, and we pretend and that pretending does eventually turn into a life of lies. But to be fair, we thought we were supposed to be lying.”

There are so many incredible Ted talks available that will inspire and motivate you when you are struggling with your own mental health. These are just five of many but make sure you are not isolating yourself. Reach out and get the professional help you need if you are struggling. You deserve to be mentally healthy and life a happy and fulfilled life.