Blog one mind over medicine: How mental health shapes patient care

Welcome to Med Decoded: Real Talk About Mental Health

Hey everyone, welcome to the very first episode of Med Decoded, where we talk about the medical world in a way that actually makes sense, no confusing jargon, no boring lectures, just real talk. Today, we’re diving into something that impacts way more people than you might think: mental health, and how it’s intertwined with the medical field.

Here’s the thing: your brain and your body aren’t on separate teams. They’re on the same roster. When your mental health struggles, your physical health can take a hit, and vice versa. This connection is often overlooked, but it’s critical to understand.

The Hidden Epidemic

Mental health issues are more common than we think. Here's a statistic that might surprise you: about one in seven teenagers struggles with a mental health disorder. This includes anxiety, depression, eating disorders, issues you might not even see on the outside. If you're in a class of 28 people, four of them could be dealing with mental health challenges right now. Maybe even your closest friends.

The crazy thing? Mental health doesn’t just stay in your brain. It can affect every part of your life, including your physical health. Imagine your mind and body are like two players on the same team, if one gets injured, the whole game changes.

For example, depression can weaken your immune system, making you more likely to get sick, cause headaches, and leave you so tired that even getting out of bed feels impossible. And if you’ve ever been sick for an extended period, you know how that can add stress or even feelings of hopelessness.

The Stigma and the Lack of Support

Here’s a tough reality: not everyone gets the mental health support they need. In the U.S., only about half of people who need treatment actually get it. That leaves so many to handle it on their own. Why? Sometimes it's financial, sometimes it’s because there aren’t enough therapists available, and other times it’s the fear of being judged.

This lack of care can have terrifying consequences. Mental illness, if left untreated, can spiral into something much more dangerous. Suicide, for example, is one of the leading causes of death for young people worldwide. For those between 15 and 29 years old, it’s the third leading cause of death globally. In the U.S., it’s the leading cause of death for those aged 10-14.

But there’s good news: getting mental health support does make a huge difference. Therapy, medication, and just having someone to talk to can save lives. But the crisis is growing, not slowing.

The Growing Crisis

In the last decade, hospital visits for teens with mental health issues in England have gone up 65%. For girls between the ages of 11 and 15, admissions for eating disorders have jumped by six times. And if this is happening in one part of the world, you can bet it’s happening everywhere.

Which brings us back to the question: How can the medical field do better?

Teen Medical Glossary: Breaking Down the Terms

We all know the medical world is filled with complicated terms that can make understanding mental health difficult. So, in this segment, I’ll break down some of the most common medical terms in a way that might make more sense to you.

• Anxiety: Think of it like your brain being a browser with 37 tabs open, and you can’t find the one playing music. Anxiety is more than just feeling stressed—it’s a constant feeling of being on edge, one that doesn’t go away and can interfere with daily life.

• Depression: It’s more than just feeling sad—it’s a heavy fog that sticks around for weeks or months. It makes it hard to enjoy things you used to love, get out of bed, or even care about school or hobbies.

• Mental Illness: Just like you can get sick physically, you can also get sick mentally. Mental illness is a health condition that affects how you think, feel, or act.

• Therapy or Counseling: This is a safe space to talk to a trained professional about what's going on in your life. It’s like having a coach for your brain, someone who helps you understand what’s going on and teaches you skills to handle it.

• Medication: Medications like antidepressants are prescribed to help balance brain chemistry, similar to how insulin helps manage diabetes.

• Stigma: Negative attitudes or stereotypes about mental health can make people hesitant to talk about it. It’s the reason many people are scared to get help—they don’t want to be judged or labeled.

• Self-Care: Doing things that help you feel good mentally and physically. Think: sleep, healthy food, breaks from social media, and simply going outside.

• Crisis Line: A free service where you can talk to trained listeners when you’re struggling or thinking about harming yourself. In the U.S., you can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

• PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This develops after going through something scary, dangerous, or life-threatening. It can cause flashbacks, nightmares, and feelings of being constantly on edge.

• Coping Mechanisms: These are the ways we deal with stress or big emotions. Some are healthy, like journaling or walking; others, like avoiding people or substance abuse, aren’t so great.

Guest Interview: A Personal Story of Struggling with Mental Health

Me: And now I'm going to bring on our guest for this blog and this episode. I'm going to kind of let her explain who she is, and then we'll get started on the questions.
Guest: Hello, I'm a 68-year-old woman, and I've dealt with mental health issues for 36 years.

Me: Alrighty, I'm gonna get started on the questions! Question one is: Can you tell me a little bit about your first experience with mental health struggles?
Guest: Yes, I sure can. My first time that I knew I needed some type of help, I was going to drive my car off of the cliff, and I caught myself and stopped. I was crying, and I decided that then I needed some type of help. I didn’t know for sure what, but I needed help.

Me: All right. How old were you whenever you were first diagnosed, and what was that process like at the time?
Guest: I was 32 years old, and the process to me was a little scary because I really didn’t know how to handle the situation. And I didn’t know if I was going to be normal ever again, or if I could get help.

Me: What was the public attitude toward mental health when you were younger?
Guest: Okay, the attitude was that the public thought and saw you as someone that was crazy. They would call you crazy! Because no one understood what mental illness is. And there’s so many various kinds of mental illness, and they just automatically assumed that I was crazy. And that’s how the public did then, ‘cause they were not aware of everything that people nowadays are aware of. Yeah...

Me: Moving on to the next one. How did doctors and nurses treat you when they learned about your mental illness?
Guest: Um, I was blessed by getting a doctor that was patient, understanding, and caring. He made me feel sure that he could help me, that it wasn’t something that I was going to live with the rest of my life, that he had ways to help me get over it, and the way he explained it to me made me feel more secure with myself.

Me: There’s a lot of controversy right now surrounding drugs whenever it comes to mental health. What is your opinion on that as someone who has maybe taken, said drugs, or seen how it affects other people struggling with mental health?
Guest: Okay, my experience with that, the very first drug that I was prescribed was Prozac. Well, I had heard all of what everyone was saying about Prozac. Prozac will make you crazy. Prozac can make you kill people. And I was scared. And I looked at him, at the doctor, and I told him, I said, I’m not so sure about this. And he said, let me explain to you, okay? What depression is to begin with, and why Prozac is not going to be harmful to you. It’s a chemical imbalance in your brain. Okay? Prozac will help with that chemical imbalance and replace the chemicals that are necessary for you to become a normal functioning human being. Now, the controversy on Prozac, yes, it has not been good for some. There have been people that have become murderers. There have been people that have done a lot of things. But the reason being is the way he explained it to me was because they did not have a chemical imbalance. They did not need that type of medication. So therefore they were prescribed a medication that was doing them harm.

Me: Was there any cases around that time that you can just remember of people taking Prozac when they didn’t need it?
Guest: There had just been cases, like on the news, and stuff, and it was all over the place about the controversy on Prozac. So people were really scared of it. It's done nothing for me, but help me. I never had a problem with the Prozac. At all. It made me feel and function like a normal human being again.

Me: Are there any other drugs that you have taken other than Prozac to help your mental illness?
Guest: Yes, there is. I took Prozac for quite a long time, and then it got to where I was becoming immune to it. I could tell my body, in my mind, that if something wasn’t working as well as it did. So back to the doctor and what it is—is I had built a resistance to it. So they put me on a different antidepressant. And after so many years of taking that one, then I would be prescribed a different one. And I followed that cycle, even ending up taking Prozac again. And I didn’t have any ill effects on any of it that he gave me, prescribed to me, except the weight gain. Yes, nearly all of them. I had weight gain. And that was a downfall for me.

Me: What do you think that did to your mental health? The weight gain with the medicine. How did you combat that?
Guest: Well, I did. I was perfectly functioning normally in the brain then. So, my combating it would be like any other person, just, I have to lose this weight. Should I not take the antidepressant because I’m gaining weight? Okay, it’s something to weigh on both hands. You’re weighing this out. Do I want to be a normal functioning person with a chemical balance or do I want to be a mental with a chemical balance just so that I lose weight? And my choice was to keep my mind healthy and lose the weight myself.

Me: Did that affect your depression, any? Did that make it worse?
Guest: Weight gain does make your depression a little bit worse. But see, I had the aid of my antidepressant to level that out. So I didn’t have that. Had it not been for the antidepressant, I’m pretty sure that, yes, I would have had a lot more of a difficult time.

Me: All right. Was there any other negative experiences you had with any of your medications, other than the weight gain?
Guest: Yes. I decided that I would just stop cold turkey taking my antidepressant because all of the backlash that you get from people and telling you you’re crazy and, you know, it’s just badgering. And especially, you know, my husband was the world’s worst. He’d say, did you take your crazy pill today? And, you know, I’d feel so angry at him. But so I decided I would just stop taking it. Well, I did. And it was nearly a year that I did not take it. My family said they noticed the difference that I was getting like I was before—secluded, crying all the time, having anger issues. But I myself didn’t notice that. I thought I was doing fine. So, there was a death in my family, my brother died, and we had to travel to Texas for his funeral. Well, we were very close, my brother and I. So when we got back, I went into a super deep state of depression. I locked myself in our bedroom. I didn’t eat. I didn’t allow nobody in. I stayed in the dark. For four to five days until my husband ended up talking me out. And so that’s when I decided, I have to get help again. So I went to the doctor and they put me back on antidepressants. I started pulling out of that depression, and I made a vow to myself that day. I don’t care how well I feel, even if I think I don’t need it, of course I don’t need it because If I don’t take it, then I’m not going to need it. So I made a vow that I would never stop taking it. And I’ve taken it now for 38 years. No, 36 years.

Me: Wow! How did you feel like your depression and your mental illness affected your family?
Guest: It’s kind of hard to deal with somebody that has a chemical imbalance or mental issue, because you might say something and not mean something bad and they take it wrong. They cry. So much. They don’t want to be in the public and around other people most of the time. And there are, you know, some that are functioning mental people that have a chemical imbalance, yes, but they don’t function like a typical normal person would.

Me: Do you think that specifically affected your family member’s mental illness or their mental health?
Guest: Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I honestly believe that it takes something to trigger that mental state. For myself, it was infidelity by my husband. And that triggered it. And so I think it takes something shocking to cause you to have that problem or, in a certain sense, I think it’s hereditary. I’ll always believe that it’s hereditary. Because it seems like everyone in my family has had this issue or is having this issue.

Me: Have you noticed changes in the way mental health is addressed in medicine over the years?
Guest: Yes. There’s a lot of doctors that don’t want to put you on antidepressants and go talk to you about it because they feel like that you can just handle the situation yourself. That you have the knowledge these days to be able to just not be that way. Well, I’m here to tell you, that doesn’t happen. It says, “We don’t have that knowledge that we need.” And I think a lot of doctors are like that. Very few. You don’t find as many