The Healthy Chef Vol 2. Issue 2 Derek Upton
Being a chef for well over a decade now I have seen enough of kitchen culture to know that it can breed mental issues and addiction. My own journey has been riddled with extreme depression and insomnia that has taken its toll on me on many levels. 5 years ago, I was on several anti-depressants and sleeping meds, just getting through the day was a miracle, they basically were a band aid for a bigger problem. I came to a point where I had enough of living in that cycle and just getting through the day. I was also fresh out of a horrible divorce, emotionally broken and ready to give up. Speaking from a male perspective, we are raised to not show emotion or talk about feeling. That is even more true in kitchen culture; where we are men and women, yelled at, treated horribly, and undervalued, to name a few.
It is up to us to be the change we want, that starts with first understanding and admitting that you need help, so I started getting therapy sessions. Honestly, it was hard at first, hard to be honest with yourself and face the issues. No one wants to be brutally honest with themselves, no wants to admit they need mental help, but it was the best thing I ever did. After a year of forcing through, retraining my brain to think different and emotionally hold myself accountable for myself, life began to be positively different. I no longer immediately went to a mentally dark place when life seemed like a disaster, or nothing was going right. I learned to grow beyond the pain, forgive those that never apologized to me and to quit holding on to the past. I was getting in my own way. I still struggle every day, the journey to better your mental state never ends, but keeping yourself accountable and facing it every day is the difference, you cannot run from it.
As most people who know me know that I am passionate about plant medicine, specifically cannabis. I heavily use CBD and CBG daily to supercharge my endocannabinoid system (The Endocannabinoid System as an Emerging Target of Pharmacotherapy),which governs hormone levels as well as many other functions of the body, i.e. inflammation. (What is the Endocannabinoid System) Cannabis has been a huge part of me getting off all my meds as well, I started using it as a way of helping along the body’s natural process of leveling out hormones. Alongside therapy sessions and daily self-positive reinforcement I was able to pull myself out of my extreme depression and believe for myself that it did not have to be that way. For some, cannabis might not help or be the answer, but for me it was the catalyst. You must want to change in the first place, you must realize you are the keeper of your happiness, it’s not found in work, a relationship, money, or things. Filling your own cup up to overflow is how you stay happy; the world will always have its dark parts and life will always be hard, but it doesn’t mean you have to unhappy .You got to be good to yourself so you can be good for others.
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