The Intersection of Physical and Mental Health
In this podcast, Anil Harrison, MD, discusses the importance of mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and financial wellness and ways to improve overall wellness.
For more mental health content, visit the Resource Center.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Host:
Hello everyone and welcome to Multidisciplinary Dialogue: Clinical Rounds and Case Reviews with your host, Dr. Anil Harrison, who is the program director and chair of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at the University of Central Florida and HCA Florida West Hospital in Pensacola, Florida.
According to the National Institute for Mental Health, mental illnesses are common in the United States. It is estimated that more than one in five US adults live with a mental illness. In this episode, Dr Harrison discusses mental health and overall wellness. The views of the speakers are their own and do not reflect the views of their respective institutions or the views of Consultant360.
Dr. Anil Harrison:
Good afternoon, everyone. Today we are going to talk about wellness in how we balance work and our lives while staying healthy.
Let me begin by confirming and talking about mental illness where one in five are experiencing at least one mental illness, which is approximately 50 million people. Unfortunately, more than half have not received treatment.
Why talk about mental illness? It was and it still is a taboo. "Be strong." "Toughen up." These are some of the things which we have heard in the past and still do.
I'm glad that there is more awareness and openness, and my hope is that, in the future, there will be more willingness as well when trying to help the one person amongst five of us to help address this issue.
Health relates to both our physical and mental states. Being healthy means being free from disease or injury. How are you doing today? I'm here surviving. Better than the alternative, isn't it? "I am surviving," are the usual answers one hears. The question is, is this enough? Probably not. Although I'm glad you are surviving, what is preventing you from thriving is the question.
Wellness is the act of practicing healthy daily habits to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, one is actually thriving. What constitutes wellness? Wellness has several components. One has physical wellness, which is about doing what you can do to help strengthen and take care of your body. Quite a few workplaces, companies and organizations, help promote this.
The second one is emotional and mental wellness, which refers to building an awareness of and accepting one's feelings and one's moods. Another one is spiritual wellness, where spiritual strength is a force that drives us to make sacrifices for others and for our nation and for the greater good.
Spirituality involves the recognition of a feeling or a sense or a belief that there is something greater than one's self, something more to being human than the sensory experience, and that the greater whole of one of which we are part is cosmic or divine in nature.
There is also social wellness, which refers to relationships we have and how we interact with others. Our relationships can offer support during difficult times. Social wellness involves building healthy, nurturing, and supportive relationships, as well as fostering a genuine connection with those around you.
There are other components that contribute to wellness, your financial, environmental, and vocational wellnesses. Of course, being financially stable, living in a good environment, and if your job is rewarding, the latter constitutes towards vocational wellness.
How should things be? Our body and physical energy should be vibrant, our mind joyful and our emotions exuberant, and we should be at peace spiritually. You'd agree we have a certain amount of energy which is spent on all these essential components: your physical, your emotional, spiritual, and social wellnesses.
You'd agree if a total energy is spent on just one of these four essential components, it would be disastrous. If you spend all your energy on working out all day and not pay attention to your emotional, spiritual, and social wellness, that certainly would be an imbalance. Similarly, if you are emotionally drained, this would affect your physical, spiritual, and social wellness.
How do we change from a person who's just surviving to actually thriving? How does one maintain a work-life balance? A good work-life balance is a state of equilibrium where a person prioritizes and balances the demands of one's career with the demands of one's personal life. Is this a simple task? Especially with increased demands at the workplace, longer workdays and responsibilities, relaxation and recreation become more challenging while family life and parenting become more demanding.
This leads to inadequate sleep, lack of exercise, and balanced nutrition. There is no time for recreation and, of course, hardly any time to add spirituality, causing us to feel that life is only good when we are away from work.
The question also comes is the concept of balance realistic? Striving for this may contribute to burnout, adding unrealistic expectations to already stressful lives. This imbalance leads to depression, anxiety, stress, or whatever you might call it. There are occasions addictions are a result, and the untenable and sadly and unfortunately, on occasion, this can result in self-harm or harming others.
Here are some steps towards wellness. Connect with others. Form good and positive friendships and partnerships. Exercise, as it is good for the body and the mind. Have good nutrition which is balanced and has all the elements necessary. Find new hobbies and interests. These are good for the mind. Lastly, spirituality in any form, with awareness of yourself or your surroundings, either by meditation or yoga or prayer, is very helpful.
Try and liberate yourself from unrealistic expectations. Prioritize wellness. Detach, unplug. Take a vacation. Plan and prioritize such as taking Covey's concept, where along one axis you categorize it as important and less important, and along the other axis as urgent and not urgent.
Important and urgent would be if there's a crisis or if there is a deadline-driven responsibility. Something that is urgent may not be important. Think about communicating or delegating appropriately. There might be important things that are not urgent, such as pursuing new opportunities like learning something or towards your health and wellness, having good relationships or working towards your career development.
Lastly, something that is not urgent and not important that we find ourselves engrossed in and, unfortunately, would be things like browsing the social media, shopping online, always fixated on your phone screens or your TV screens. Ladies and gentlemen, there are several resources through the government, through state and city facilities which offer help, the American Psychiatry Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychological Association, the NIH, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
On a personal note, my beautiful mother passed away seven years ago secondary to dementia. She spread joy and happiness. When she developed dementia, it caused her and everybody around her, including myself, to become depressed. She felt useless, worthless, and felt she had become a burden on her family, the community, and the society.
I remember reading this beautiful story called A Tale of the Old and Broken Pail of Water, which I narrated to her. There was once a man who would carry two pails of water from a stream close by back to his home. While one pail was nice and sturdy, the other had broken holes in it and would leak water along the path back home.
Upset, the broken pail apologized to the man for not being able to do a good job in bringing back a full pail of water. The man smiled and turned to the broken bucket with holes and said, "Look back and see the beautiful flowers that are growing with your water." I told my mother, "With your love and care, you've helped me make our lives beautiful."
My experience going to nursing and retirement homes was not the best initially. It is here that I saw most people on antidepressants, on medications for anxiety. I would see some who'd be screaming for nurses and for loved ones, while I also saw folks who were more like lifeless bodies.
I started cutting back on my visits because it was hard for me to see this. Hard for me to see this. Until one day I realized if it is hard for me, it must be extremely hard for them to experience that. Things changed. I had to make a change within myself.
I requested a friend to accompany me, where after I evaluated, after I'd taken care of my patients, we would congregate and we'd start singing. The count of people joining slowly increased over time, with more and more elderly people joining in this fun-full event. It is a great experience for everyone. Over a period of two years, the number of elderlies receiving medications reduced by about half.
Towards physical wellness, companies and organizations have gym memberships. My suggestion being, for mental wellness, please invest in getting counselors at the workplace. Do remember, be it a company's budget, a community budget, or your own budget, remember to include humanity in it.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us bring about a change. Let us attempt to be the optician who can change the outlook of people. Let us be the electrician who can rewire the happiness and joy within us, the artist who can put a smile on others' faces, the mathematician who can help us relearn how to count on one another, the construction worker to help build bridges across neighbors who have ceased to talk, the gardener to help sow seeds of compassion and love.
Let us, let us bring the change in our outlooks and our priorities together, and replace the 'I' in illness with the 'we' in wellness. Thank you very much.
Host:
For more mental health content, visit the Consultant360 resource center.