Transcription #129

Hey guys, welcome to threads podcast life unfiltered. Thank you so much for joining us. Whenever you’re listening to this in the morning, the afternoon, the evening really appreciate the time that you spend with me and Ben on threads, podcasts life unfiltered. But before we get into our topic tonight, which is mental health Episode 129 Ben’s gonna tell all the new listeners, the maybe one or two of them, hopefully more what threads podcast is all about.

And just in case you’re not new, and maybe you just need a refresher, I’m doing this for you too. But the threads podcast is an opportunity for Jason and myself to be unfiltered in conversation about difficult subject matter. Those subjects usually fall under one of three buckets, mental health, faith, and uncomfortable conversations. We really believe that mental health is a topic that’s not given as much attention as it needs in Western society, for sure here in America. We’ll be breaking that down a little bit tonight and talking about some connections between physical health and mental health. But as a whole, our show is focused on having conversations that are full of meaning and depth. And the purpose behind those is to live life unfiltered, getting away from the Facebook, fake, and all that jazz. So our hope is that you would listen in and find a common thread that ties You and I together, you and us as listeners together. We’re all in this together. And hopefully this show inspires you to make positive changes in your life.

That’s our goal. And it is our goal. And sometimes it’s hard to get that to that goal. But if as long as you keep moving forward, you talked about you know, like mental health. just real briefly that we’re going to talk about tonight, some cool things that the mitten brewing, their owner is really supportive of mental health and they actually them in I think trailhead brewery brewed a beer. I think I don’t know how long it’s going to be out. But like half the proceeds go to a fund that offers free mental health to the mitten brewing employees. So that’s super cool. I really love that brewery. They’ve always been supportive. I think one of the owners nephew has autism. So they give a ton of money. Like, the whole month. I don’t even know what autism month isn’t that terrible. There’s a month for everything for God’s sakes, but whatever autism, I think it’s April, he gives like a ton of money to you know, whatever, probably the local ASD for Kent County, but so that’s such a cool brewery. I don’t love them just because of that. They’re one of my favorite breweries. I love them because their pizza and beer are amazing, but it’s super, super big bonus that they’re really supportive of mental health for their employees. And in those kinds of things.

Yes, I’m still I’m still a fan of the mitten. However, they got rid of my favorite pizza, the Ty Cobb, and I just can’t let

that go. Every time you go in there, you probably say what happened to the Thai calm? Oh, I

do. And they always say there wasn’t enough demand, and they were too many ingredients that were not shared by other dishes. So what are you gonna do?

What are you gonna do? But speaking of beer, no. We’d love for you to buy us a coffee. If you go to buy me a coffee comm slash threads podcast. That’s a way you can support the show. All the stuff that we do cost, money, hosting, editing, all that stuff. And we would love for you to kind of own own a piece of the pie by buying us a coffee. And what’s cool about buying me a coffee is you can do a one time $5 buy a coffee, although it’d be kind of rude if you didn’t do $10 because Ben and I you know, it’s two of us. We don’t actually spend that money on coffee. We actually do spend it on expenses. But you can also do a monthly subscription where for $10 a month you get some extra perks. I totally forgot what they are. But if you go to buy me a coffee comm slash threads podcast, you can check it out.

The last bit of housekeeping that we have to do tonight is mentioning of the reviews. If you listen to the show and you like what you hear, please leave us a review on Apple podcast preferably when you do that, it helps us rank in the math of the interwebs and gets our show more exposure and promoted and and that in turn results in more listeners finding us so write a review. I would love it if you did interwebs

that’s what I was laughing at. I need to find a drop for nerd. See if I can find one. Oh, yes. nerd alert. That was a very good not a lot.

Anyways, yes, the interwebs please review us on Apple podcast. We know when you do it like we, it’s I mean, you gotta you got to send it to us too. But we actually know because we have a service that kicks them out to us and we have not got an email in a long time. So about a year do it bitches. Alright. So tonight, Ben wrote up this awesome sauce plan. Sorry, I had a stroke. I’m just gonna tell everyone I have had the I’ve had a good it was a good day. But I came home I ate food real quick. I rested for 20 minutes, went and ran. came home, visit the bathroom a lot threw up in the shower, drink some juice chugged a bunch of water. I didn’t actually Well, I threw up but I like burped and it came up. And so yeah, that’s where I’m at. So I’m a little like, good luck on this episode. But anyways. So what we’re gonna kind of talk about is mental health and physical health. That’s kind of going to be the theme of the show tonight. But one of the questions just to kind of get things started is talk about a time where you saw your mental health impacting your physical health or vice versa. I’ll let you go first, Ben.

Yeah. So I think back to my, um, it was between the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college, I got into a pretty nasty cycling accident, and ended up breaking my back for the first time. And I was laid up, like I couldn’t do anything like that summer, I was planning on being a camp counselor. I had all these plans to hang out with friends. And then all of those plans just kind of fell to crap. Because I broke my back. And I was in a, like, a birdcage brace type of things was very restrictive, couldn’t really move. And I just remember, I think it was the first week day that I was home by myself and my parents and siblings all left for work. And there, I was just stuck on the couch. And I just very clearly felt like depressed. I just felt like, this absolutely sucks. I hate my life. I hate that I got into this accident, and I can’t do anything. This is ruined everything. So I think that was probably one of the first times that I experienced depression that I can look back in name. And through that I see this very clear connection between I was broken physically and therefore, I was also mentally broken that summer.

Yeah, how did that as you healed? Obviously, you don’t have the bird cage anymore. Just in case if anyone’s never seen Ben, he’s still not wearing the bird cage. How long do you feel like you got out of that? I just curious, like, Did it take like a year and then I my guess, by the history of your parents help in that realm that it just kind of went away? It didn’t get addressed? It just kind of floated away? Right.

Um, I did have follow up visit with an orthopedist or whatever you call him? I don’t know. I don’t know. orthopedic. Doctor? Yeah. orthopaedists. This is gonna be a rough show. But no, I mean, really, the only thing that could do the job was healing. I mean, taking time to let it heal. I did have a follow up and it was determined that surgery was not necessary, and it kind of just healed on its own. So. But honestly, that’s the summer that I really started putting on weight. And that’s also the summer that I first encountered that real tangible sense of darkness and depression and dread. And I don’t know that I really ever got out from under that cloud until within the last few years, really. I think. I mean, I think there were momentary breaks from the clouds, but it just that span of life feels like the clouds were never far behind. Hmm.

They do say a lot. A lot of people, like, can have an event that kind of starts a mental health issue that like they may never had before. And then it does take some time or whatever, it just doesn’t go away. But yeah, I can see that. I’m just surprised that that was that impactful. I mean, cuz I was, I mean, you’re 3837 I’m so young, you are like, I feel like you’re the same age as mag, but she just turned 39. So I was thinking like, you were one year younger. But you know, that’s a long time from seven. And that’s 20 years. Yeah, you know, so that’s a long time. Although I say that and I’m not comparing my abuse from you get in car accident, but it’s been that long if not longer for me to to deal with my shit. So if you’re not going to go to therapy with it, it could still be something that you know, dread Are you carry with a long time? Are you tied up with something? Trying to figure out how old I am? Take the Edit back. I’m actually gonna be great. Ben. You know how old you are?

It is I am 37. How did you Why did it take so many? So long calculating? Cuz I kept hitting the multiplication button instead of the plus button. Yeah, but why are you doing the math? Because I forget. What year were you born? 84. Oh, gosh, I can’t do the math either. See, it’s a problem.

It’s a now you were born in 84. I’m an I’m only 46. I was born in 76. Oh, yeah. That’s only eight years. I’m a dumb. Okay. Again, math is hard. See? Same on the gig, shall we say geography and math. We start doing it and it turns into a shit show. Okay.

Yeah. So you were talking about I was listening? Yeah, I don’t know. I’m just saying like, abuse. And

yeah, I guess what I’m saying is, is that I shouldn’t be so surprised that that carried on off and on for a long time. Were the same thing with me. I mean, this shit that I’ve been dealing with off and on all the time until I started putting, you know, the work in?

Yeah, well, that was in 2003. So Oh, great. Yeah, 18 years ago. Here goes the calculator again, right? You should see me at work. I have so many things like number crunch.

Yeah, I mean, it’s there. But it’s just funny how, how quickly we go to that. Instead of trying to even do the mental work. It’s like I don’t need to do. But as far as I go, I don’t have anything as impactful as what yours was, but I feel a lot of my mental health in my body. And I think that a lot of my quote unquote, chronic pain is to deal with is a lot of it’s to do with my mental health. Yeah. When I was going through when it was added to worse, it was before I met you, I went to the Mary free bed pain clinic. And one of the portions of that pain clinic is you see a psychologist like four to six times and we’re talking like, our sessions. Hmm. Wow. So they really focus on the mental health of it and in wrapping your head around, you know, what if this is it, like, we have to figure you have to figure this out, like not like, like being like, you have to like pointing but I’m like, we have to figure this out. Like if this is as good as it gets. You’re gonna have to wrap your head around that and be like, you know, this is as good as it gets. So yeah, that being said, it was it was it was helpful, but moving on. What’s hilarious, one of my chronic pain issues at the bottom of my feet. And ever since I started working out, it’s gone. Wow, that’s awesome. Now, I’ve never done the gym where I’m someone’s training me like that. So I think that’s part of it. It’s so many different exercises on a daily basis. I think I’m moving my feet. And I think I’ve strengthened my feet, which is just nuts. Oh, because like every summer I stand on a machine all day. Yeah, you know what I mean? So my feet at the end of the day would be sore and I’m like, not having anything and it’s been like I don’t want to jinx it and I probably did by just talking about but it’s been really nice. Like I have other stuff my upper backs flaring up but I mean, again, I I use my body for work. But going back to my when I originally started, you know, when I get stressed, I feel it in my body. And that’s one of the things my therapist Heather is trying to get me to do body scans on a regular basis so that I get so good at it that when I do start feeling some tension, right that I take that breath and say okay, I’m starting to get it upset, like, let’s figure out what’s going on. And I’ve, I’ve kind of failed at that a little bit. But yeah, I would say that you don’t, it’s so much so that Megan, I’ll be complaining of pain and be like, Oh my gosh, I’m just in pain today. She, and she she knows she’s like, Okay, what are we dealing with? You know what I mean? And I’m like, What do you mean? And and then she knows, in the rare case that I don’t run my mouth about it. So you know. Now you and I are so different. You process a lot inside and I just talk, talk, talk talk, but

you are an external processor I am. And I made one of those. Yeah.

Why don’t you preview this video right here. And then I’ll give you.

So one of the things that I did some googling on was this connection between physical health and mental health. And one of the articles that I came across had a video with it, and I thought it was just really well done. And the premise of this video is nurses who have worked during the pandemic, and kind of taking a look at their overall mental health, in light of, you know, the pandemic and in light of their body wearing out because they’re working so hard. And not only that, but also it takes a look at some of the preventable medical errors that these nurses made, because they were so mentally worn out and physically worn out. super interesting. So we’ll go ahead and play that audio now.

For critical care, nurses stress is part of the job. But this past year truly tested their resilience without family visiting. Oftentimes, we were the last person holding someone’s hand when they passed away. And that was it’s hard to describe Jessica Cortese felt a duty to push through and care for her patient, but she knew it was taking a toll on her health,

I’d have anxiety about my shift about what I would see the next time I went to work.

Luckily, Jessica did ask for help and took advantage of the employee assistance program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center designed to help clinicians cope and prevent burnout. They cannot pour from an empty cup. Bernadette Melnick, Ohio State’s chief wellness officer and Dean of the College of Nursing led a new study that found that even before the pandemic began, about two in five critical care nurses nationwide reported depressive symptoms, while more than half experienced anxiety, and over 60% rated their physical health of five or lower on a scale of one to 10. And those poor health scores directly correlated with an increase in self reported medical errors.

These errors are made by very dedicated caring, committed people who are experiencing their own symptoms of depression or poor physical health.

That’s why it’s crucial that hospitals offer support such as counseling, mindfulness coaching, and pet therapy to help nurses take care of themselves, and also provide optimal care to patients. When the dogs come up. It’s nice to see them let down their guard and kind of let out that emotion. Because that’s what’s needed.

I want to be in healthcare for the rest of my career. So, to me, I think it’s worth it to invest in my mental wellness

at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. This is Barb concilio. Reporting.

Yeah, it was a good video. It’s super crucial. Honestly, if I could get a dog I like dogs on my route that I like, there’s some dogs I know I get my treats ready to stop before and it just makes my day there’s a golden retriever. Old as hell. I know. This has nothing to do the story kind of vaguely, but old as hell. He’s always outside just full of he stinks. Like he’s a good old farm dog. But I just can’t wait to go do that lawn and that dog just lights me up. But so what’s your thought about that is you know, I mean, I I’m sure you agree the same as me but or you agree with the video?

Yeah, I was just taken aback by how low the nurses were rating their physical health. I’m like, No, I mean, and of course, their mental health too. But it’s like as they were taking a hit mentally, they felt it in their body. They just felt rundown. And that statement about you can’t pour from an empty cup. always gets me when I’m, you know, I’ve heard it in a couple different contexts. But yeah, I just think of nurses. And as a kid, I spent a lot of time in hospitals and medical facilities. And I just remember the impact that nurses had on my life and just the thought of them struggling to maintain their own health while they’re there. They’re expensive. To maintain and care for the health of others, it’s just a heavy load.

Yeah, I often wonder how those hospitals they have the Employee Resource Center or whatever. And I think the hospitals down, you know, in Grand Rapids probably the same thing, but I wonder how much that actually gets used? Because it’s always weird. So like the mitten, right, that’s not weird, because they’re, it’s a brewery. I mean, it’s pizza and beer. It’s all chill, and everyone loves everyone. But in a hospital setting. You know, technically, I don’t know, the like the HIPAA stuff. But you would the I don’t know, I would feel weird going to my Employee Resource Center, knowing that my boss might know. I guess that’s the gist of it. Yeah.

And I think that reveals a lot about just the landscape of mental health in our country. 100% taken seriously,

no. And same with the military. Like, you talked to Chris cow can yo who was in the military? back, I think it’s a little bit more accepted now. But back then, if you said anything like that, they would pull you off active duty. Oh, for sure. Which is the dumbest thing I ever heard. Like, yeah, they should pull you off. But like, these people are like, especially the guys going overseas, like doing the doing the work. Those guys aren’t gonna say anything. They love that work. They’re not good. They don’t want to get pulled off. No kidding. And so they come back, and they’re just a complete mess.

Yeah, PTSD, and everything else. Like, I don’t, I don’t want to go so far as to say that PTSD is preventable for our servicemen and women. But no, it’s not, I think you’re gonna have that that’s just the outcome of of war of being active duty in the military, you see things, you experience things and you take that, that stress and trauma with you. I don’t think that’s ever going to go away. However, I really think it can be lessened. I don’t think it has to be so disruptive. It’s like these people come back from serving their country, which is an incredibly honorable thing to do. They put their lives on the line. And they’re, they just have to suck it up every day. And then they get back. And the suicide rates are just crazy high for servicemen, because they can’t just suck it up anymore. Like it consumes them. And it’s so sad to see

Yeah, I think it’s the the mentality around it too. Because my guess is a lot of those guys don’t get help when they come back. Because they don’t want to get looked down on and those kinds of things. And so, you talking about Yes, you can’t prevent the PTSD, but starting it early, will make them be more likely when they’re done to get, you know, to get help because right, you know, I don’t know the rate of suicide for for veterans, but it’s really, really high. It’s scary. Hi, Gary. Hi. But going back to the medical field, as my wife is Nikki nurse, she’s not on the floor right now. She teaches new nurses, but I remember times when she would come home just devastated because she lost a patient and it’s like, wrecks. And this is like before she used to go to therapy and like, she didn’t go to the resource. Anything she just like, Okay, let’s go back to work. You know what I mean? And she didn’t lose a ton of them. But I mean, probably a handful, enough to be, you know, pretty rough. So, but it just kind of shows like she didn’t go to therapy. She didn’t you know, those kind of things. And I don’t know, it’s it’s a good article, but I like the the statement and I’ve heard it before, like you even said that, you know, you can’t pour from an empty cup. You got to give yourself self care, which I am shockingly good at. As far as like spoiling myself. My wife, on the other hand is not I have to beat her to go buy some clothes. I’m like, honey, go buy some clothes. But any more about that?

No, I think that covers it. Now. The next article that I came across in my perusal of the interwebs. Sorry, good Rx, which is like they essentially have a prescription discount program that I take advantage of and if you don’t know about it, you should look into it. You can save some money on your prescriptions, or, Yeah, seriously. They put out an article about the connection between obesity and mental health. And I talked about how my health journey or my really obesity journey and depression journey kind of started off For my cycling accident 18 years ago, up until that point, I wasn’t the lightest person, but I certainly was not carrying around a significant amount of extra weight. And I just look back at that time. And that was really when the pound started packing on, because I essentially gave up something I loved. And that was cycling. And I can just look back at that. And see, that was a very distinct moment in time. And this article talks about the mental health conditions that are linked to obesity and reading this was kind of like Yep, mats, check that box. That’s me. Oh, look at that. That one, too. Anxiety? is one of the health mental health conditions linked to obesity, generalized worrying about Will I ever lose the weight worrying about? How am I being seen in public? Social Anxiety occurs when a person’s worries mainly focused on social interactions with other people, panic disorder, you know, all kinds of things can cause that, whether it’s not being able to go on a roller coaster, because you’re too big, that’s embarrassing. And then some more specific ones to obesity would be increased stigma, judgment, health problems, lower self esteem, all of those can trigger that anxiety as well. And I have seen that. And then of course, depression. If you’re obese, you kind of feel dumb about yourself and feeling down are negative feelings and losing interest in activities or hobbies, because you’re too big to really enjoy them can really have a major impact on things, I experienced that recently with a bike, I essentially busted a bike, because I’m just too heavy for it. But and, you know, 10 years ago, that probably would have tripped me up. But I was able to kind of get past that and get a different bike that can hold my weight, and I just keep going. Lastly, this was surprising to me. Bipolar disorder is linked to obesity. I mean, anxiety and depression make total sense. But apparently, being obese leads you to be at more risk for bipolar disorder.

That’s weird, though, cuz I thought bipolar was one of those things you were born with. Yeah, that’s kind of what I thought too. This is a.com site. So like, you know, Megan, Megan was always asked is this is that a.org or a.com? site? And I like a.com. She’s like, yeah, it’s bullshit. Yeah, could be I’m not saying this is AI. But I’m just saying that. That’s kind of the joke we have. But

and one thing that they do say is another possible explanation for the link is the fact that medications used to treat bipolar disorder, including certain mood stabilizers can cause side effects like increased appetite and weight gain. That makes sense. Yeah. And I was on Zoloft for depression and that packed on a lot of pounds too.

Yeah, I just a complete side note. This is a talked about the BMI. This is why I think the BMI is so stupid. I go to the BMI and I’m not saying I’m I’m white by any means, but I anything over 30 is obese. I’m 31.3. BMI. Okay. But I mean, like my healthy weight would be 118 pounds. You hear this right? 118 pounds, like a feather to 159 it just seems crazy to me like yeah, I mean, 118 I’d be Skeletor over here.

I know. It’s crazy. Like my ideal weight is like 100 and I think 75 I was gonna say not probably not

much more than 160 like that’s insane in saying so f the CDC and the BMI they can throw that shit right out the window. No kidding. But yeah, I can all these. I totally get it. One thing I when you talk about like, social anxiety disorder, maybe anxiety in general. One thing that Megan brings up a lot and it’s say it’s just not fair for guys. Like if guys are overweight, no one cares. You know, unless you’re like, you know My 600 pound life?

Well, sure, you know, I feel self conscious often,

do you? But I mean, do you think that but do you think people care though you feel self conscious, but you and I had I think people care. Yeah, but, but, but a bit but if you look at like social media and stuff like that it’s always like, I feel like women have to maintain a certain, you know, weight or look. But guys are just like, Oh, you know, it’s fine. It’s no big deal. I don’t know, I’ve never thought anyone looks that me and says, oh, that guy’s overweight and never really bothered me. And I don’t know, that’s just me. But,

you know, I think part of that is the, again, going back to blue collar white collar. You’re not necessarily sitting down with people who are making judgments about whether they want to do business with you, based on partially how you look. That’s a really good point.

I never thought about that. Because let’s face it, even though that person might be nice people do that. It’s just so human. I do that. Yeah, it’s human. Like, it’s no, everyone will give you a dirty look if you if you brought it up with them. But you’re like, whatever, bro, like, you are totally thinking that too. Like, doesn’t make you like a bad person. But you just like, you know, it does cross your mind? For sure.

So I would I see where you’re coming from, but at least from my experience, I’m politely declining or disagree.

Yeah, that’s totally fine. I’m more looking at it from an outside perspective, not what each person thinks. Sure. But I think people judge women, when they’re more overweight than men. That’s

Yeah, in our culture, I could see that for sure. Well, one thing that Jason and I have been putting a lot of emphasis on lately is physical activity. And we are doing this with our good friend, Mike. And you’ve probably heard all about that relationship in the previous episodes. But this whole working out and we use this band called The whoop band. And man, it is just so it can be one of two things. It’s either super helpful, and I love the stats. Or I’m so annoyed with it. I just want to rip it off my wrist and throw it in the trash like come on. How can How can it be that doing a menial tasks such as drilling a hole in the wall and putting up hooks? How is this giving me such a high strain rating for that? So I mainly I’m on the side of this is an incredible tool. And it’s super, super helpful, but it can be frustrating sometimes.

Yeah, I mean, so your question was any impact on mental health I other than me going nuts, like you just described. I often find like, it may be a problem for somebody like that constantly looks at the numbers and see who’s in the lead. And he because he’s super competitive. So I think that could actually cause some mental health issues, because you’re doing that that just, you know, give him a hard time. But I don’t know if it would either make my mental health better or last. I mean, it doesn’t obviously give you any stats stats on that. But, um, but I think in general, it makes you focus on your meant or your health in general, right, obviously, mostly physical, but it does, you know, it does give you an opportunity to, you know, let’s say so, a brief synopsis of whoop. There’s like strain numbers, and then sleep numbers, and then recovery numbers. And so there’s times where your recovery is just complete crap. And you’re like, I haven’t done anything like what’s going on? And sometimes you’re sick. Sometimes you could have COVID sometimes maybe you’re having some mental health issues, and it’s just like, you’re not sleeping well. Mm hmm. So I hope Sorry, no, I was just gonna say, I’m not sure how we could actually implement mental health into that. I mean, it does do a journal. But other than that, I don’t know.

Well, when I think of mental health, and whoop, what comes to mind for me is I can look back on times where I was having a very heated conversation and was feeling anxious and worked up. And then I can look at that span of time and see that it gave me an elevated strain score because my heart rate was higher. So not I don’t think whoop is showing me obviously anything about my mental health, like it’s not tracking how many anxious thoughts I have in a day, but it’s giving me this vantage point of seeing how my body’s responding to stress and how my body’s response to whatever the case may be, it’s a good reflection of where my mental health is at. And on the days that I don’t get enough sleep. I can obviously see that in the app. And those are usually the days where I’m feeling like, maybe a little bit more prone to anxiety because I, I’m tired, and I don’t have the buffer needed to kind of push it away. So I think for me, it’s been helpful as a tool to kind of give me a window into my mental health. But I hear what you’re saying. It’s not like it’s tracking my mental health. But

yeah, I don’t know how it would do that. Other than like I said, the journaling every morning, it says, you can put a bunch of things in where you stress how it was the level, you know, blah, blah, blah, all that others should say, Did you have a fight with your wife? Or your kids knowing the shit out of you? Like, yeah, those should be great categories. But we’re sure this episode is sponsored by whoop, go to whoop, comm slash threatened home. Just kidding. Maybe someday, maybe so pretty awesome. That would be pretty awesome. So let’s jump into this video real quick.

Yeah, this video is from the UK. And I watched and listened to this. And I was like, why can’t America do something like this? So let’s take a look.

We all know that being active is vital to physical health. It lowers blood pressure, increases energy levels, helps with relaxation, and improves your health in general. But did you know that staying active can also help our mental well being even though we know staying active is important things can sometimes get in the way. In fact, around 20 million adults in the UK are not currently active. This can be even harder for people with serious mental health problems, which may mean they have more physical health problems such as diabetes, hypertension, or smoking related issues. In fact, people with serious mental health problems such as schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder, live 10 to 20 years less than the general population. We think this needs to change. At the Mental Health Foundation, we want to understand how people with serious mental health problems can be supported to become more physically active. So we’ve partnered with some of the fields brightest minds and listened to what people had to say as we developed and delivered a three month physical activity intervention in Northern Ireland. For people with serious mental health problems. We employed researchers living with or affected by mental health problems to evaluate the program and find out what worked well and what could be improved. Ultimately, this study helped us understand how we can design a physical activity program that people with serious mental health problems can and want to take part in, and how we can better support people with mental health problems to become more active in their daily life. There are many ways we can all benefit from staying active. And this definitely doesn’t just mean going to the gym. It’s all about getting your body moving whatever shape or age you are. Find out more on our website, because physical activity should be accessible and available to everyone.

First of all, I’m very disturbed with the no next have any of the characters on the video. Anyways, um, yeah, I I liked that video. It kind of reminds me Not really, I don’t know why I thought of this. But Joe Rogan, He always talks about and I don’t listen to him anymore, because he sold out went to Spotify. But No, I’m just kidding. Sort of. He always talked about how exercise can help people with mental health. He was a big proponent of that before you start popping pills, like the actual exercise can Yeah, can help.

Yeah. And so what strikes me, I guess what struck a nerve for me with this article was the fact that in America, it’s very much what you’re saying. Like when I was feeling depressed. I told my doctor, they didn’t say anything about hey, maybe you should go out and exercise more. It was oh, here’s a prescription for Zoloft. This will help. And like that video, just hearing how seamlessly they interacted with each other. They had researchers, they had mental health practitioners, they had doctors and they were all working together and they were helping people with serious mental health conditions get active. It’s like, why don’t we do that in America? Why are we so quick to push a pill and maybe I’m just not aren’t aware of similar programs in America, but in my experience, it feels like we’re just pill pushers instead of let’s do the hard work of being active and finding ways to help people get active.

Well, just in defense of America, I think that UK video that we we just listened to, I think that was part of a foundation. I don’t think it was the government. Like, maybe I was wrong. But

I don’t know, maybe. But I don’t know of any foundation or government or anybody. That’s really yeah. But have you have you searched for it? I mean, not like, conclusively,

because I would think like, what is it 411 here, or 211? Or something like that? Like hope network is a big mental health thing. I think you know, a little bit about that, but for sure. But I think in general, as we kind of jump into the doctors don’t take mental health as seriously as physical health. I totally agree. Like, those, like I got my Cymbalta because of like, when I was having the chronic pain. Is it okay, if I jump into this part of the topic, then? No, that’s fine. Okay. It kind of all goes together, right? It does. But I mean, I guess the the UK video really, the most important part of that was to say, get out and exercise. Yeah. Before I move on, like, get out and take a walk. And I’m telling you, you know, I don’t know what episode we talked about it. The, you are going to write stuff in a journal. Write a letter to yourself. Yes. And I was going to take walks. But it was it was a funny term during the walks. I can’t remember it now. But it was basically walks without like music and stuff like that. And that it was really helpful. You know, it doesn’t mean you have to sweat. You know, I sweat no matter what, right? Yeah, yeah. But my point is, is if people that are listening, that might be struggling a little bit, just take a walk. Yeah. 20 minutes. Yeah, like that. And consistently, like, you know, maybe not every day, but every other day, I think it would be super helpful. But going about the doctor’s, my doctor gave me Cymbalta because as a side effect of kind of helping with pain. Fast forward, it didn’t, but I’m still on it. Because it kind of helps with my mental health. But there’s no check in with that. The only check in is when I go do my physical, right, like, that’s once a year. And every once in a while. The funny part is like so like, I think last year, I ran up prescriptions, and then he did say you’re gonna have to come in or schedule an appointment. I said, Now this was like in July. And I was like, Alright, I’m gonna schedule a physical for like November. They’re like, okay, we’ll refill it. And I did. I did schedule it. I do. I do. I do go once a year. But yeah, it’s. Yeah. And when I go in there, he’s like, Cymbalta still working for you. Sure. Okay. That’s the gist of it.

Yeah, I will say my physician assistant that I see. She has been doing a really good job of balancing this mental health and physical health and asking about, are you exercising? And what are some barriers to exercise. And, in fact, today, we talked about how I’ve been doing some longer 20 plus mile bike rides. And usually, from the night after, until, well into the day, the next day, it’s hard for me to get a full breath, and I’m a little wheezing. And I had asthma as a kid. And honestly, I just don’t think I was ever active enough to experience it again since then. But. But when I met with my doctor, she’s asking more than just is this medicine working? She’s also talking about exercise and talking about different coping strategies and things like that. So it’s not all bad in America. I just think when you compare us to Europe and Scotland and some of these other places, I think we have a ways to go, Well, we

have a ways to go in general over there. I mean, they get paternity or not paternity, but like, the dude’s get the same time as the lady. They get a ton of vacation time, those kinds of things like they in general, kind of focus on, you know, in general taking care of themselves. For sure. Yeah, yeah. I don’t know what it is with. Pa is and I have What do you call a nurse? That’s a nurse practitioner. Yeah, I see one for my psychiatrists. And I just feel like in general, they care more. I don’t know. Maybe they’re less busy the patient load or maybe they haven’t burned out as much, but I totally agree like my doctor. I like my doctor. Yeah, don’t get me wrong. And he does spend the time I need but it’s just, I don’t know, you know what I mean? It’s just pretty routine. And it is, and I get it, I get it, you got a lot going on. But yeah, I would recommend, honestly that you should not go to your doctor for mental health pills either. That’s just my opinion, even though I did. But again, it wasn’t for mental health IT WAS for right. I just feel it’s better to go to a psychiatrist that or someone that’s in that field. That’s what they do all day. In fact, mine, I actually switched my Cymbalta over to her too, so we can kind of just, you know, look at stuff together. But

I would say with that, I would agree, definitely, don’t just start with a doctor and get the prescription. Also talk with a therapist or psychiatrist or somebody who can. Beyond the doctors, wisdom, men also their own wisdom from their years of training and experience. So one last link that I have, is kind of continuing in this vein of health care. doctors don’t take mental health as seriously as physical health. It was a study that was done. Megan, this is a.com. Again, however, I’m pretty sure the study wasn’t done by a.com. It was the journal Health Affairs, there it is. There are there’s a very significant gap when it comes to doctors, following up on their patients who have been given a depression diagnosis. Doctors are also less likely to help depression patients manage their illness. Meanwhile, these doctors are more likely to engage in care strategies with parent with sorry, patients who have chronic physical illnesses, diabetes. So basically, between 2006 and 2013, they use survey results from 1000 to us primary care facilities. Looking at Dr. Strategies for treating depression, compared to those used to treat congestive heart failure, asthma and diabetes. So what do you think all that

I think that your Internet’s been cutting out for the last two minutes while you were talking to? You probably didn’t even hear and did Yeah. No, no, you were talking. So I think I think people can get the gist of it. I totally agree. I mean, that’s just the mo of America. I kind of go back to, like you said about the UK that it it. America just doesn’t value mental health or physical health. Is that is that the right word? And in that, and I think it just trickles down to doctors. And, and again, they’re not trained for that? No, you know, that’s why we should be. But I mean, how much are they going to be trained? That’s why we go to orthopedic surgeons. I mean, that’s why we go to gut docs, I love that brought that back to the end of the show. I mean, that’s why we do those things. And so I don’t blame them a ton. I just, I don’t know, it’s the same where like diet nutrition, right? I mean, they don’t know anything about nutrition and you go to your, you know, your regular Doc, and they’re like, yeah, just eat more vegetables. Like, wow, I’m gonna need a little bit more than that. Hmm. Interesting as my opinion. Yeah.

One of the other factors playing into this was insurance issues. Because health insurance will only allow treatment for depression, they only give you a certain amount of visits per year for things like that. So it’s not just the doctors fault. It’s part of a bigger issue of just how the healthcare system is set up in America. I think one thing that spectrum is doing better at is the depression screenings. Seems like within the last couple of years, certainly. Since the pandemic, every time I’ve seen a doc, I’ve had to fill out a depression and anxiety screener.

Yeah, that’s, that’s been like that for the longest time, which is good, right? So if you do check the box, it’s a start. So if you check the box, at least, they’re gonna bring it up. And who knows if they could help one person by doing that then, then that’s awesome. But I honestly I just don’t think it’s fair to throw them completely under the bus. If I guess if the I don’t know, if the patient doesn’t say anything like what are you supposed to do? Right. And they’re not like I said, if the patient does say something, they’d be like, Alright, here’s a, here’s someone I want to talk to. But to go back to your point about insurance. I totally agree. And you know, I’ve ranted about Priority Health and the mental health insurance. Yes. And it’s just a shit show. And I think mental health should be free, I get it, they need to get paid, but I don’t know, maybe have the government subsidized. I know, everyone’s gonna hate me for saying that. But like, honestly, like, if we have less assholes, the world’s gonna be better, like people are gonna be more productive. Like, I feel like that such could be such an investment that the United States could make on the people that live here is their mental health and not rake them over the coals. You know, oh, you get six visits, and then you’re cured. Right? No kidding. I mean, thankfully, through this, Sally being autistic and his diagnosis, they’ve been okay. I mean, we have to redo a reevaluate for three months. And basically, so yeah, he’s still got autism. Like, you know, it’s just it’s kind of hilarious. But that’s what the insurance company requires. And so they still pay it. But I mean, Mike and I both aren’t using our, they’re not covering our therapists. We’re both paying out of pocket like, wow, we’re talking for four to $500 a month just in mental health visits. For one person or two for both of us. Okay. Yeah, this is still pretty we go every other week. Okay. So, but yeah, to go every week, if insurance covered it. I don’t think I don’t think I would. Right now, I’m actually thinking about dropping down to once a month, just due to the fact that I’ve kind of hit a wall a little bit, I need to be in person. And she’s working through that. I can go in person with masks if I want to. And I said no. And she’s totally respected that. And, and so I think I’m just going to drop down to once a month. Just, yeah, things are going okay. I mean, yeah, I got this huge paternity shit going on. But I mean, it’s not really causing me, you know, day to day anks. So you’re dealing with it, I’m dealing with it. I’m just, I’m dealing with it. And I don’t feel and again, the medications, probably helping some of that. So like, hey, maybe I’ll back off on therapy until we can do some EMDR in person without mask. And again, as you know, Have you listened to the show? I’m not anti mask, I just, I don’t feel I can have a connection where I can’t see my therapist mouth. Right? You can’t see mine. So

yep, I totally agree. Thankfully, I’ve been able to get in person. And it’s been great the last month. That’s, that’s really nice. That’s really nice. One final thought that we’ll wrap up with. This is something I came across. It’s basically some myths about mental health. And this myth doesn’t speak necessarily to the connection between physical and mental health. But I think it just really gives hope, or at least give some perspective. And we’ll close out the show just by reviewing this myth it says, personality weaknesses or character flaws cause mental health problems. People with mental health problems can just snap out of it. If they try hard enough. Then it says fact, mental health problems have nothing to do with being lazy, or weak. There’s the physical component. And many people need help to get better. Many factors contribute to mental health problems, including, hey, look, some more physical stuff, biological factors, such as genes, physical illness, injury, or brain chemistry, life experiences, such as trauma, or a history of abuse, and family history of mental health problems. And here’s a statement that gives me hope. People with mental health problems can get better and many recover completely. And so again, it’s taking that perspective of when you have a illness, you go to the doctor and you work on a treatment plan, you break a bone, the doctor does his thing and sets you up and puts you in the cast and eventually you’re healed. The same can be true of mental health. Give it the attention it deserves and you can recover.

Yeah, I think I agree. I like the verbiage in here is interesting, though. Mental health problems. So they don’t say mental illness because like a lot of the mental illnesses, you you’re you’re you know bipolar schizophrenia. Bipolar is up for discussion, apparently. So we’ll have to have somebody fact check us on that one. But But yeah, I think you know, mental health problems, especially when they’re ACU I think totally agree. Like, people can recover from those and move on, and even stuff that I’ve dealt with. I think I I think I’ll always quote unquote, be in recovery mode. But who knows, I mean, the EMDR might happen, and I might just have epiphanies. And and I could recover from it, I guess, I guess what does that mean? recovering? Like, I’ll always remember it like, right? Regardless, it’s because it’s part of my story I didn’t write

your journey didn’t know. But when I think of the word recover, what comes to mind on a physical basis is that injury or illness is no longer impeding your daily life or function. And I am, I like, like, over the moon excited, because I’m finally getting there with anxiety, like, it feels like we’ve had some breakthroughs in the last few weeks. And just putting everything on the table, all the things that were ugly, about my experiences, all the things that caused such crazy amounts of anxiety. I really do feel like I’m recovering from that. And I’m able to, to do things I wasn’t able to do before, like, go ride my bike for 20 miles without being so anxious about the problems that could come up board today, I went for a four mile walk, like I’m doing things physically, that I never thought would be possible because of stupid anxiety and how it just causes my mind to go crazy, and the depression that would just keep me from even trying to do any of this stuff. So man, focusing on my mental health has been a huge win for me. So I like that statement that you can get better. And you may recover completely.

Yeah, in general, you know, and there’s, you know, it’s been a long time since I kissed you and told you how much I loved you. And, you know, basically said, I’m real proud of you. Because I know, more. Tell me more. I know, early on, like in February, because honestly, with you, Ben, like, before you started working on this shit. And you know, this, like, a lot of times you start stuff and you just wouldn’t complete it. Like, in general, like, I feel like, I don’t know, I feel like you were just kind of wishy washy, but you had talked about, you know, I think early on about that. The the planner and like, I think sometime in February, I’m like, Man, you’re you’re really sticking to it. And, and now the working out, like I do see a ton of changes, you know, physically and mentally I just feel like you’re, you’re hitting your stride. Especially, you know, I felt real. You know, when the spoke thing happened. I kind of just told you how it was. And I and I was worried that I mean, I debated saying it, but I, you just took it. You’re like, yeah, I get it. I’m too big for this bike, I need to find a bike that can handle my weight until my weight comes down. Like that’s just the reality of it. And so I was super proud of you for, for handling that. Well, so well. Thank you. I just think you’re you’re hitting your stride. But this is looking thinner, by the way. Oh, don’t say that. Now. Don’t say that. Now,

say it earlier in the show. But I didn’t have a chance. So I just thought I’d say it now. But your eyes are a little puffy. You look tired.

Oh, yeah. I’m sure that’s a little allergies. And yeah, but yeah, my eyes are always puffy on here. I’ve asked, this is how vain I am. I’ve actually looked at stuff to put on there to make them less puffy. You are like the king of booze? I am. I don’t know why. And then then I’ll look at myself in the mirror. Like you can’t see much on the camera. But like you are. I mean, I’m sure people notice I just have these bags underneath my eyes. And and I haven’t I haven’t pulled the trigger and bought it yet. But yeah, well, tomorrow. I don’t know. I don’t know. But yeah, this has been a great episode. I think people get a lot out of it. My takeaway was honestly, I feel I felt a little bad when you brought up like you’d been off and on dealing with the stuff from you know, your your bike accident when you’re 17 I was a little shocked by that. Um, not that you haven’t brought it up before, but it’s never been, you know, talked about and, and to be honest, I don’t think you go as deep into your mental health on the show, as you probably should. And that and I’m not scolding you by any means. But I would like more skin in the game, per se. And I think there’s more there to talk about. And I guess the reason I’m surprised about it, because you’ve never really brought it up that that’s been kind of a outstanding issue.

Yeah, well, I talked about how recently therapy’s been kind of some breakthrough moments. And one of the things that I have realized is, I’ve been prone to do the very thing that I hated about my parents growing up. And that was just sweep things under the rug and just pretend they’re not there. So my therapist says that we’re working on de compartmentalizing my life. And yeah, so that’s one of the things that I pulled out from underneath the rug was the fact that ever since that accident, I’ve just, depression has never been too far behind. Just kind of been on the heels. It felt like, yeah. So yes, I’m aware. I don’t always unpack things as fully as I could. Or should it and, you know, just to interject, it’s not a bad thing. It’s

just one thing I wish you would do more of. And we’ve talked off off the air or off the podcast, in more in depth. And, you know, I respect you for whatever you want to share. I mean, I know this is threads, podcast life unfiltered. But again, we like we’ve talked about some of the old show, there is some showmanship and we’re not going to share it all. I mean, we tried to do as much as we can, but you know, I mean, it’s just, yeah,

I don’t want to go anymore into that. But, you know, sometimes I feel like if we go any deeper, it’s going to be an actual therapy session the way we’d go some.

Yeah. And then, you know, trying to keep it around an hour hour and 15 is just kind of crazy. But yeah, for sure. Any takeaway for you tonight?

Yeah. You were talking? Sorry, kind of brain fart. Sorry, I kind of jumped in on you. That’s all right. Well, you had mentioned some of the chronic pain stuff. And I just find it fascinating that the foot pain with as much working out as you’ve been doing to not have that. That’s like, dang, there is a real connection there.

Yeah, it is, um, in the history of that foot pain, just real briefly, we’ll wrap it up. As I was working in the office that we didn’t feed I had told them that I you know, my body was like, I had gotten to the point where my pain was so bad. I’m like, I need to be like, Can I do per office part, you know, labor. And they agreed to it. So I started working in the office. Well, I started having tailbone issues, because I was sitting so long during the day. So then I bought a standing desk. And then then guess what I did, I stood all day, my feet have been hurting for five or six years. From that I stood too much not on a mat, like on the hard ground. And then my feet started hurting. So now I had tailbone pain when I sat down in pain when I stood up. And so that’s been ongoing, ongoing, gone to the Cairo blah, blah, blah. And it’s just, it gets better for a while. Obviously, it’s gets better in the winter, because I’m not standing on it. But honestly, this year, I started working out and it’s it’s been almost, it’s almost gone. That’s awesome. Awesome. So

can I guess one final takeaway, just a reflection on my journey, and maybe it’s encouraging to somebody who’s listening, I have a lot of physical barriers I had to overcome to even get to a point where I could work out on a regular basis. And that’s one of the things that I’ve been depressed about, like ever since I was a kid. I just seem to have medical issue after medical issue. So in order for me to get to where I am now, where I’m biking 20 miles a trip and walking for miles and going to the gym, and everything else, like I had to do some things like I had to get some foot inserts, because of my flat feet, I had to, I have to go see the chiropractor because of breaking my back twice and everything else. I guess what I’m saying is, it might take work, and it might take some effort and seeing some people and dealing with some past issues. It’s okay, do the work, get the things get out, get active, and it will really revolutionize the way you see the world. Don’t let your physical barriers keep you from doing up from getting Well, I guess is what I’m saying.

Yeah. And and as Ben can speak of, it’s it’s super hard to get started it is. Especially, you know, a lot of the stuff if you are overweight, we we totally get it. So if you’re out there trying and starting or wanting to start just do it, just start with a walk. You know, you can do it and it will make your life so much better in your head. Yeah, you’re probably not going to run marathons. But you know what, that doesn’t matter. It’s just as much as you can if you just can move your body. So guys, thank you so much for listening to threads podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we’ll see you in a week. See you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai