Part 1: Why mental health matters to us

by Rebecca Wagner, PhD on May 16, 2013 · 0 comments

in mental health

Menninger recently adopted standards of behavior that are intended to guide our actions and promote a culture of excellence. This month the Psychology discipline was charged with bringing attention to one standard: “We are linked to one another by a common purpose: serving our patients and our community.”

We had differing thoughts about what this statement means, but we agreed that we are linked in our battle to fight mental illness and the stigma associated with it. We believe that mental health matters, not only for the people we treat at The Menninger Clinic, but for our families and community as well.

We wanted to share our views about why “Mental Health Matters” in hopes that it will create a discussion with others about why mental health matters to them. Ultimately, we are all linked together by mental illness, and despite differences in opinions, we can stand next to each other and fight to reduce the stigma.

Here’s what some of our psychologists have to say about why mental health matters (stay tuned for more of our views in an upcoming blog post):

It’s not just my job but how I live my life. If I encourage my patients to take risks and be vulnerable, then I hold myself to the same standard. It’s the only way our culture can begin to change:  the belief that mental health matters. Patricia Daza, PhD, Hope Program for Adults

To be ill means that you cannot recover by a mere act of will. If you’re mentally ill, you can’t just change your mind—think positively if you’re depressed or stop worrying if you’re anxious. We increasingly understand the complex psychological, social and biological bases of mental illness. We have increasingly diverse treatments. But the foundation of treatment for all illness is caring and compassion, along with hope—which must be founded on realistic expectations that respect the often daunting challenges of recovery. Jon Allen, PhD, senior staff psychologist

Mental illness affects everyone, regardless if we are the one who is diagnosed. As a society we are linked together and constantly influencing each other. If one person is ill, then the effect will be experienced widespread. “Mental health matters” because we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves and our society. Rebecca Wagner, PhD, coordinator, Eating Disorders Services

Nothing convinces me that “mental health matters” more than the wealth of scientific evidence on the unity of mind and body. Examples include the strong relationships between stress and immune system function, depression and heart disease, smoking and suicide risk, exercise and depression – the list goes on and on. It behooves all of us to remember that mind and body are one – when we treat one, we treat the other. Tom Ellis, PsyD, ABPP, director, Psychology

Tagged as: mental health, mental illness, psychologist, psychology, stigma, The Menninger Clinic

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From one mom to another: 27 things I’ve learned about motherhood and parenting through the years

by Donna Lamb, LCSW on April 19, 2013 · 12 comments

in parenting

Someone very dear to me is about to deliver her first child, a son. She is preparing for him; my instinct and need is to prepare her. There’s so much I wish I could tell her about motherhood and parenting, yet there’s no way I could even begin to encompass it all. I’ve winnowed it down to these pieces of advice:

  1. For a while you will be the most important person in your son’s life. You will be his world. His eyes will light up when he sees you or hears your voice. His need for you, his absolute dependence on and reverence of you, will be humbling.
  2. Your capacity for love will astound you. Your instinct and need to protect this tiny person will turn you into a momma tiger when you sense he is about to be hurt; you will gladly exchange your life for his if you think you can save him.
  3. He will believe what you teach him about himself. Do you see him as smart, kind, good? If so, tell him. When he’s a teenager, he may forget these seeds you’ve planted, but the plants will eventually sprout and then bloom and then thrive.
  4. Tell him the good things you see in him. Often.
  5. Ensure his safety, both physical and emotional, to the best of your ability.
  6. Teach him that if he gets lost, to find a mother with children, or to stop and sit down and you’ll find him.
  7. Support him in doing whatever it is that he loves. Don’t let him do everything he wants.
  8. Don’t stop him from feeling sadness or anger or fear or guilt; these emotions will teach him about himself and about life. It will be hard to see him suffer these emotions, Momma Tiger, but you must.
  9. Don’t make him the center of your life. Instead, show him that sometimes he’s the center, sometimes he’s not.
  10. Show him the importance of family.
  11. Teach him to respect adults.
  12. When he’s about 11, his devotion to you will change; it needs to change. For a period of time, his friends will be more important. One day – if you’ve taught him well – his wife or partner will be. This can hurt, Momma Tiger. But you must encourage it to happen … it’s how he’ll eventually find out how much he can love. And this – realizing the depth of our capacity to love –  is the gift of this lifetime.
  13. You are grooming him for all future relationships with women. Teach him that we are trustworthy, dependable and strong. Teach him that there will be times when even strong women need someone’s arms around them, saying, “Everything’s going to be all right. I’ve got you.”
  14. Love him even when he’s hard to like.
  15. Hold him responsible and accountable. This is how he learns that he is.
  16. Model for him how to deal with conflict; he will learn this by watching the adults in his home. Teach him to talk it out rather than fight it out, punch it out or numb it.
  17. Forgive.
  18. Forgive again.
  19. Teach him to laugh at himself. This makes life so much easier and a lot more fun. If he’s like me, he’ll have enough material to keep himself amused his entire life.
  20. Apologize to him when you’ve made a mistake, but not for setting limits, having an opinion or saying no.
  21. Say no.
  22. Let him experience the consequences of his choices; this is how he’ll learn what is right and what is wrong.
  23. Teach him to believe in something bigger than himself.
  24. Help him see his gentleness; help him see his strength.
  25. Imagine the man in the boy; remember the boy in the man.
  26. Enjoy him.
  27. And finally … relax … you’re going to do great.

I think these are pretty good parenting guidelines; I certainly can look back to when I didn’t see the importance of some of them and instead learned them the hard way. I expect I’ll keep adding to the list as life goes on, which probably means a lot more mistakes from me. Sigh.

Looking simplistically at psychotherapy, many of these things are what we attempt to show, teach or experience with our patients.

Imagine the healing and growth that can come when we do.

Tagged as: children, consequences, emotions, healing, motherhood, parenting, patients, psychotherapy, teaching, teenagers

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The shame game: obesity as an indication of an increase in disordered eating and poor body image

by Hannah Szlyk, LMSW on April 12, 2013 · 1 comment

in eating disorders

Every time I hear a media story about “the war on __,” I automatically become suspicious. Considering America’s history of the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror,” my skepticism meter perks up, and I feel the urge to cringe.

Despite hailing from the state of “live free or die,” I am usually puzzled by any grandiose display of self-righteousness. Why must we always be fighting these nebulous enemies? How am I supposed to respond to the battle cry if I am dumbfounded by the cause?

New York City & the fight against obesity

At least I can give New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg credit for placing the culprit front and center: On various NYC Health Department advertisements and campaign videos, you can find glasses of “fat” representing the number of pounds one can gain from sugar and soda. Signs ask you if you are “pouring on the pounds” and caution you not to “drink yourself fat.” The city’s war on fat and obesity nearly resulted in a ban on super-size sodas this past month. But will such strict rules and fearless public service announcements really curb the prevalence of obesity?

Research has shown that unhealthy weight control behaviors (dieting, laxative use, purging), as well as body dissatisfaction, have been linked to weight gain, obesity and the development of an eating disorder. This data suggests that obesity and being overweight are not solely products of genetic make-up or uninhibited eating – weighing more can also be an indicator of disordered eating.

Shaming vs. condoning

Unfortunately, society tends to envision individuals with an eating disorder as extremely thin, but the truth is they present in a range of body types and sizes. A person who binges may experience as much distress as a person who restricts food intake, and both individuals are attempting to achieve a similar goal: to regulate emotions and experience a sense of control. Therefore, it is upsetting that our society shames those who are heavier and condones those who are thin, for we are only feeding the disorder. If we idealize the very thin, we are only encouraging the eating-disordered patient to accomplish thinness, be it through restriction or other compensatory strategies.

I would like to set the record straight that I am not blind to the preponderance of fast food and unhealthy food choices accessible throughout the country. Yet, before we banish the super-size cup, isn’t it important to also explore why we are so hungry for bigger portions? Yes, cravings for and consumption of sugar and fat beget additional cravings, but I speculate that we are yearning for something else. If we can look past our focus on food and how it is consumed, we may be able to identify that missing piece.

Tagged as: binges, dieting, eating disorders, obesity, public service announcements, research, shame, thinness

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Examining the criminalization of mental illness

by Mathew Estey, LMSW April 8, 2013

Serious mental illness is debilitating, confusing and overwhelming. As a society, one might imagine our response to mental illness might model the response to other public health challenges like heart disease, diabetes or breast cancer. Sadly, the opposite seems to be the case. Take the time to Google “mental illness is” and you find “mental [...]

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Dreams: What are yours telling you?

by Heather Kranz, MEd, CRC March 11, 2013

How many of us can relate to awakening from a dream that felt so real the residual emotions remained with us for hours afterwards? Or eagerly recounted the unusual plot of a recent dream to friends or coworkers in an attempt to interpret what it might mean? The phenomenon of dreaming has been romanticized by [...]

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Can we handle the truth? Exploring society’s drive for the idealized image

by Hannah Szlyk, LMSW February 28, 2013

If you had the opportunity to live a “golden life” and achieve your dream of success and fame, would you do it? What lengths would you take to pursue this image or pathway to success? Would you too fall into the traps that both star athletes Lance Armstrong and Manti Te’o now find themselves? And, [...]

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Veteran suicides, drug overdoses and other causes of early death: epidemic or not?

by B. Christopher Frueh, PhD, and Jeffrey A. Smith, PhD February 12, 2013

How are Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans dying? Is there an epidemic of premature deaths, relative to their civilian counterparts, among the still relatively young men and women who saw combat deployment over the past decade? In an era of big headlines and the twenty-four hour news cycle, the average American citizen might justifiably presume that suicide [...]

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We need our prefrontal cortex to work

by Jon G. Allen, PhD February 7, 2013

I am fortunate to have a challenging job that requires flexibility and creativity, but it’s often difficult and sometimes downright exhausting. One time I complained about this effortful experience to our former chief of staff, Richard Munich, and he responded, “That’s why they call it work!” I find Dick’s matter-of-fact attitude toward the difficulty of [...]

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POT: What’s new in plain old therapy?

by Jon G. Allen, PhD February 7, 2013

More than two years ago, I wrote a post on this blog entitled, “Is psychotherapy going to POT?” Tongue in cheek, I was protesting the proliferation of brand-name, evidence-based therapies with all their acronyms: CBT, DBT, ERP, EMDR and the like. There’s no way any therapist can learn to practice 150+ brands, and a half-century of [...]

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Where is Providence in the midst of tragedy?

by Rev. Salvadore Delmundo, Jr. December 22, 2012

Providence—the belief that God sees all things, reigns over all things and is concerned for all things, to bring about the ultimate divine purposes of creation—is always at the forefront of discourse and reflection whenever tragedy strikes. The issue of providence for people today, in light of the Sandy Hook school shooting, arises out of the incongruity [...]

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