From Darkness to Light: A Journey through Mental Health

1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:02,404 Speaker 1: Welcome to the healthy, wealthy and wise 2 00:00:02,524 --> 00:00:08,064 podcast with Dr William Chokta, mdjd. Our mission is to empower 3 00:00:08,125 --> 00:00:11,897 you with the knowledge and the tools you need to thrive in all 4 00:00:12,099 --> 00:00:16,184 aspects of your life. Join us now as we discuss everything 5 00:00:16,285 --> 00:00:19,823 from nutrition and exercise to money management and personal 6 00:00:19,862 --> 00:00:24,713 growth. Dr Chokta will provide insightful advice on how to 7 00:00:24,774 --> 00:00:28,064 improve your physical and financial health, as well as 8 00:00:28,103 --> 00:00:31,460 your emotional and mental well-being. Whether you're 9 00:00:31,481 --> 00:00:35,930 looking to boost your energy levels unlike financial freedom 10 00:00:36,252 --> 00:00:40,247 or cultivate a more positive mindset, we've got you covered. 11 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,901 Get ready to become the best version of yourself? So let's 12 00:00:45,941 --> 00:00:50,487 get started. Here's Dr William Chokta, mdjd. 13 00:00:51,090 --> 00:00:54,246 Speaker 2: Good morning. Today, we're going to talk about mental 14 00:00:54,246 --> 00:00:58,125 health issues. Welcome to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise 15 00:00:58,206 --> 00:01:03,247 Podcast. This is part of our Leadership Masterclass series, 16 00:01:03,427 --> 00:01:08,426 and our intent is to provide you with information that can make 17 00:01:08,486 --> 00:01:12,079 your life better. I always like to start off with my beliefs. I 18 00:01:12,141 --> 00:01:15,281 believe life is about being of service to others. I believe 19 00:01:15,361 --> 00:01:20,000 knowledge is power. I believe leaders can change the world. As 20 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,349 always, we always like to give you an outline, and the outline 21 00:01:23,429 --> 00:01:26,066 is we're going to start off with an anatomy of the brain and the 22 00:01:26,066 --> 00:01:29,834 mind. We're going to talk about mental health issues as 23 00:01:29,894 --> 00:01:32,602 compared to mental health illness, we're going to talk 24 00:01:32,643 --> 00:01:39,658 about symptoms and signs of mental health, and then we'll 25 00:01:39,798 --> 00:01:44,204 answer questions that you might have. Well, the brain is a very 26 00:01:44,266 --> 00:01:47,483 complex organ in the body. Indeed, it's one of the areas 27 00:01:47,503 --> 00:01:52,219 that we, as physicians, still do not completely understand. But 28 00:01:52,260 --> 00:01:55,587 if we were to take a look at the brain, it's divided into 29 00:01:55,688 --> 00:02:00,424 multiple areas, and if we were to do a sagittal cut of the 30 00:02:00,444 --> 00:02:03,501 brain, we would note that in the frontal part is what's called 31 00:02:03,522 --> 00:02:08,986 the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is for thinking, memory and 32 00:02:08,986 --> 00:02:14,283 movement and behavior. Next to that is the parietal lobe, and 33 00:02:14,324 --> 00:02:19,304 that's speech and language, in the occipital lobe, which is for 34 00:02:19,304 --> 00:02:24,454 sight, the cerebrum, which is for balance and coordination, 35 00:02:24,759 --> 00:02:27,901 and below that is the brainstem. What is unique about the 36 00:02:27,961 --> 00:02:31,800 brainstem is that, regardless of whether we are conscious or not 37 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:36,570 , the brainstem functions and allows us to breathe and allows 38 00:02:36,691 --> 00:02:39,824 our hearts to continue to beat and it helps to regulate the 39 00:02:39,884 --> 00:02:43,379 temperature in our body, even though we're not conscious. And 40 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:46,707 there's a more medial lobe called the temporal lobe, and 41 00:02:46,747 --> 00:02:50,082 we'll talk about that a bit later. The second issue that 42 00:02:50,122 --> 00:02:56,563 comes up about the brain is where is the mind M-I-N-D? Is it 43 00:02:56,563 --> 00:03:00,943 located in the brain? Is it somewhere else? To be honest 44 00:03:00,984 --> 00:03:03,631 with you, we don't really know, but the belief is that it's 45 00:03:03,711 --> 00:03:07,765 probably in the brain, probably located somewhere in the frontal 46 00:03:07,765 --> 00:03:12,439 lobe, depending on your philosophical position. What's 47 00:03:12,479 --> 00:03:15,948 important is that, as we look at the undersurface of the brain, 48 00:03:16,368 --> 00:03:22,026 that's a very unique section or part of the brain, if you will, 49 00:03:22,086 --> 00:03:29,800 called the amygdala, the amygdala A-M-Y-G-D-A-L-A, the 50 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:33,974 amygdala. And one of the reasons why the amygdala is so 51 00:03:34,034 --> 00:03:37,981 important is that it is considered to be the emotional 52 00:03:38,141 --> 00:03:43,516 center of the brain. Some call it the happiness center of the 53 00:03:43,557 --> 00:03:46,951 brain, and we'll get to that a bit later. But let me 54 00:03:47,032 --> 00:03:50,241 parenthetically say that when we talk about mental health issues 55 00:03:50,241 --> 00:03:54,699 . You notice I say I use the term issue and not illness or 56 00:03:54,780 --> 00:03:59,537 disease, because we may all have some mental health issue, but 57 00:03:59,676 --> 00:04:04,465 we obviously do not all have mental health disease or illness 58 00:04:04,465 --> 00:04:09,139 . Issues can be anything related to how we think and how we feel 59 00:04:09,139 --> 00:04:13,435 and how we behave. For instance , basic fear and anxiety can be 60 00:04:13,515 --> 00:04:19,151 an issue. One may be afraid of heights as an issue, but as long 61 00:04:19,151 --> 00:04:22,298 as that does not interfere with your normal activity in life, 62 00:04:22,999 --> 00:04:26,511 then that's not considered an illness for you, and so it's 63 00:04:26,571 --> 00:04:31,658 important that we consider how we function and that we 64 00:04:31,718 --> 00:04:36,863 differentiate between mental health illness and mental health 65 00:04:36,863 --> 00:04:42,396 issues. And when we talk about mental health illness, it's 66 00:04:42,456 --> 00:04:46,023 important to understand that mental health illness is nothing 67 00:04:46,023 --> 00:04:49,392 to be ashamed of. It is basically a medical problem, 68 00:04:49,413 --> 00:04:54,560 just like heart disease or liver disease or kidney disease or 69 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:59,091 any other type of malady that may affect the body. And one of 70 00:04:59,110 --> 00:05:03,838 the things that it interferes with our ability to care for 71 00:05:03,899 --> 00:05:08,331 patients who have actual mental health illnesses is that we tend 72 00:05:08,331 --> 00:05:14,199 not to understand the illness itself or the problem itself, 73 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,865 and that makes us many times not care for these patients as 74 00:05:18,946 --> 00:05:23,132 quickly and as thoroughly as we should. So when we go back to 75 00:05:23,774 --> 00:05:27,879 the amygdala, the amygdala, again, is a part of the brain 76 00:05:27,899 --> 00:05:32,932 that's located in the area of the hippocampus, and some even 77 00:05:32,992 --> 00:05:36,379 call it the happiness of the reward center. It is the part of 78 00:05:36,379 --> 00:05:39,632 the brain that affects how we feel. Let me say that again, the 79 00:05:39,632 --> 00:05:43,041 amygdala is the part of the brain that affects how we feel, 80 00:05:44,451 --> 00:05:48,639 and those feelings are controlled by hormones that have 81 00:05:48,639 --> 00:05:53,225 an impact on this particular part of the brain that can 82 00:05:53,266 --> 00:05:56,132 result in a whether we're happy or whether we're sad, and one of 83 00:05:56,132 --> 00:05:59,567 those hormones is dopamine, and another one of those hormones 84 00:05:59,586 --> 00:06:03,656 is serotonin. And so, indeed, one of the ways that various 85 00:06:03,697 --> 00:06:07,406 types of illnesses that involve the brain, ie mental illness 86 00:06:07,466 --> 00:06:13,016 like depression and others, are treated is with medications that 87 00:06:13,016 --> 00:06:18,846 manipulate or change the impact of a number of these hormones 88 00:06:19,346 --> 00:06:24,857 that occur in the brain. So if one were to have a high dopamine 89 00:06:24,857 --> 00:06:29,245 level dopamine one of the hormones in the brain one would 90 00:06:29,305 --> 00:06:34,596 be happy, motivated, alert, focused. Likewise, if, if the 91 00:06:34,637 --> 00:06:38,702 dopamine level is low, those patients tend to be tired, 92 00:06:38,975 --> 00:06:43,540 unmotivated, unhappy, mood swings, sleep problems and 93 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:47,040 difficulty concentrating. It's really important to understand 94 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:52,420 that much of how we interpret how we feel really depends on 95 00:06:52,500 --> 00:06:56,278 who we are and what our backgrounds are. Even more 96 00:06:56,358 --> 00:07:00,716 specifically, as a book once said some time ago, men really 97 00:07:00,817 --> 00:07:04,156 are from Mars and women really are from Venus, meaning that 98 00:07:04,298 --> 00:07:09,766 even though we're both human, but because of the various types 99 00:07:09,766 --> 00:07:15,802 of sex hormones in our body, we may interpret or relate 100 00:07:16,223 --> 00:07:19,769 differently in terms of our moods and in terms of how we 101 00:07:19,829 --> 00:07:25,125 feel. Likewise, when we look at children who may have mental 102 00:07:25,165 --> 00:07:30,975 health issues, children many times are not little adults and 103 00:07:31,055 --> 00:07:35,079 we should not consider them little adults. So mental illness 104 00:07:35,079 --> 00:07:39,357 in children is a very unique area of specialty that should be 105 00:07:39,357 --> 00:07:43,755 treated by child psychologists and child psychiatrists. Let me 106 00:07:43,855 --> 00:07:47,605 also, parenthetically, say that I think it's very important that 107 00:07:47,605 --> 00:07:52,500 we keep in mind again that boys and girls are different in 108 00:07:52,521 --> 00:07:59,437 terms of how they act and in terms of their behavior. This 109 00:07:59,497 --> 00:08:03,507 has to do with their particular age and their particular area of 110 00:08:03,507 --> 00:08:06,959 development. But I think it's important to be very cautious 111 00:08:07,079 --> 00:08:11,576 about how we attribute certain things to children, particularly 112 00:08:11,576 --> 00:08:16,416 as it relates to mental type issues. I personally think that 113 00:08:16,456 --> 00:08:25,029 the phrase or the definition or the term attention deficit, 114 00:08:25,855 --> 00:08:32,557 hyperactive disease or ADHD is overused in children. I think 115 00:08:33,759 --> 00:08:39,057 many times it'll be a situation where in a maybe elementary 116 00:08:39,096 --> 00:08:43,684 class or maybe in preschool or even beyond preschool, 117 00:08:46,575 --> 00:08:52,097 elementary class, or in high school or junior high class. One 118 00:08:52,097 --> 00:08:54,725 group of students may be very quiet and very attentive. 119 00:08:54,815 --> 00:08:59,025 Another group of students may be very interactive and not very 120 00:08:59,066 --> 00:09:03,264 attentive. It's not uncommon. Many times that boys in my 121 00:09:03,384 --> 00:09:09,542 experience have been, I think, unfairly classified as having 122 00:09:10,023 --> 00:09:16,120 ADHD or some type of behavioral disorder, when they're actually 123 00:09:16,139 --> 00:09:18,515 just boys and when you compare them with girls, there's 124 00:09:18,615 --> 00:09:21,879 obviously a difference. My point is be very, very careful and 125 00:09:21,938 --> 00:09:28,875 have a health care professional evaluate them and decide whether 126 00:09:28,875 --> 00:09:33,725 indeed there is a mental type of issue and certainly anything 127 00:09:33,745 --> 00:09:37,240 that might require treatment, like Ritalin and other types of 128 00:09:37,299 --> 00:09:41,376 medication that are frequently used with children. My point is 129 00:09:41,417 --> 00:09:45,980 just be very cautious in terms of what you do. One of the great 130 00:09:45,980 --> 00:09:49,495 things about health care and mental health issues is that 131 00:09:49,534 --> 00:09:52,475 there is medication that's available for treatment. For 132 00:09:52,495 --> 00:09:56,559 many, many years there was not very, very good medication with 133 00:09:56,639 --> 00:10:01,037 minimal side effects. That is no longer the case. I would 134 00:10:01,057 --> 00:10:06,386 encourage you, if there's a suggestion in yourself or maybe 135 00:10:06,427 --> 00:10:09,783 a family member, that you seek out a health care professional, 136 00:10:10,174 --> 00:10:15,395 psychologists or psychiatrists to assist with that problem. Let 137 00:10:15,395 --> 00:10:18,865 me just say a word about a particular type of mental health 138 00:10:18,865 --> 00:10:26,836 illness. Now. This is not a mental health situation but an 139 00:10:27,037 --> 00:10:31,283 actual illness. Let's take a look at the illness called 140 00:10:31,342 --> 00:10:35,263 depression. Depression is very, very serious and very, very 141 00:10:35,403 --> 00:10:40,004 unique. Usually, these patients have what I call the hopeless, 142 00:10:40,495 --> 00:10:47,022 helpless, worthless syndrome. They feel things are bad for 143 00:10:47,062 --> 00:10:50,517 them and that there's no hope that they will get better. They 144 00:10:50,557 --> 00:10:53,970 feel the things are bad for them and no one can help them make 145 00:10:54,010 --> 00:10:57,980 things get better, and some even get to the point where they 146 00:10:58,020 --> 00:11:01,148 feel that things are bad for them and they actually deserve 147 00:11:01,207 --> 00:11:06,724 it. My point is that if you see someone, or you know someone, or 148 00:11:06,724 --> 00:11:11,376 yourself have any of those thoughts, particularly if they 149 00:11:11,417 --> 00:11:16,346 begin to migrate toward self-harm and even the thought 150 00:11:16,447 --> 00:11:23,024 of suicide, immediately seek help so that individuals can get 151 00:11:23,024 --> 00:11:27,421 the appropriate treatment. You would be amazed at how common 152 00:11:27,922 --> 00:11:32,636 the thought about self-harm and suicide is. So, even if 153 00:11:32,756 --> 00:11:37,645 individuals appear to be joking, I would encourage you to go to 154 00:11:37,745 --> 00:11:41,219 the free hotlines that are available and to make sure those 155 00:11:41,219 --> 00:11:45,298 individuals get proper treatment. So, in summary, we 156 00:11:45,339 --> 00:11:48,505 talked about mental illness as a medical problem. Like heart 157 00:11:48,546 --> 00:11:52,321 disease, mental illness is treated with medication that 158 00:11:52,380 --> 00:11:56,308 regulates many times dopamine and serotonin hormone levels. 159 00:11:56,835 --> 00:11:59,740 Men and women are fundamentally different in terms of how they 160 00:11:59,980 --> 00:12:06,018 act when they may have mental abnormalities. And the children 161 00:12:06,057 --> 00:12:10,522 are very, very unique, and all of these maladies should be 162 00:12:10,562 --> 00:12:13,798 treated by healthcare professionals. So, in conclusion 163 00:12:13,798 --> 00:12:17,746 , thank you very much for spending a very valuable time 164 00:12:17,807 --> 00:12:23,962 with us. We will continue to provide interesting topics about 165 00:12:23,962 --> 00:12:29,538 healthcare and others as the time moves on. Have a wonderful 166 00:12:29,599 --> 00:12:29,840 day. 167 00:12:30,674 --> 00:12:32,517 Speaker 1: And thanks for listening to the Healthy, 168 00:12:32,557 --> 00:12:37,301 wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William Choctaw, mdjd. We hope 169 00:12:37,341 --> 00:12:40,803 you enjoyed this episode. In fact, if you found this episode 170 00:12:40,884 --> 00:12:45,248 helpful, you can support and subscribe to the podcast on your 171 00:12:45,248 --> 00:12:49,951 favorite podcast platform with the keywords Dr William Choctaw, 172 00:12:49,951 --> 00:12:55,601 and you'll find it very quickly . Also, subscribing helps ensure 173 00:12:55,601 --> 00:13:00,217 that you don't miss any future episodes. And then take the next 174 00:13:00,217 --> 00:13:03,924 step of action and share it with your family, friends and or 175 00:13:03,924 --> 00:13:08,159 your co-workers. They'll be glad you did so. Until the next 176 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:12,554 time, live your best possible life the best possible way. 177 00:13:13,075 --> 00:13:15,418 You've been listening to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise 178 00:13:15,518 --> 00:13:19,302 podcast with Dr William Choctaw, mdjd.