Exercise, check! Healthy diet, check! Sunscreen, check! No smoking, check! Less alcohol….I said less alcohol… oh never mind. Mammograms, colonoscopies, prostate exams, routine visits, check, check and check! By now you know the ways to protect and defend. But this month reminds us there is so much more.
Mental clarity and health needs our undivided attention. Awareness of challenges of spirit and mind in yourselves or loved ones didn’t need entitled celebrities or royalty (!) reminders. Even when the body has failed, the mind is our soul. Mental hygiene is effort enough, then comes cancer, sneaks in covid, sometimes even PTSD from military and other life traumas. No radiation beam or chemo is going to erase this insult. In fact, therapies deliver added risk. Too often brain chemistry changes without insult: young men in their late teens and twenties are especially vulnerable, postpartum mothers, menopause and mid life, elderly loneliness and dementia. Is anyone safe?
Everyday I am addressing these in the clinic. Trying to balance serotonin, avoid mania with steroids used for cancer therapy, calming anxiety and claustrophobia, helping with sleep and rest which is so critical. I often advise patients or their loved ones to speak to primary care and ask for help. Such a critical aspect of well being too often gets lost in the blood pressure and cholesterol checks.
Counseling is only part of the solution; better living through chemistry is usually required. We need strength which we can gain from exercise, meditation and seeing friends, but no amount of lavender or CBD is going to cure imbalance. Someone reading this needs this message today. Perhaps it will spur you to react for a loved one. Appointments with the shrinking psychiatry specialists are hard to find and delays normal. Check anyway and ask for a call if a cancellation occurs. It can change your life. Self medication with drugs, marijuana or alcohol happens often without good outcomes. After cancer therapy, and now we know after covid infections, memory loss, mental challenges, chronic fatigue all are impacting well being.
Our goal is our best life and often requires medical care. You wouldn’t avoid therapy for heart disease or diabetes. Just because we cannot see mental health on a brain scan doesn’t mean all is well. Do not fear getting an opinion and being honest with your doc.
As we honor our fallen heroes this Memorial Day, we owe the debt of enjoying a free and strong home of the brave. To those survivors of war, I say thank you for your service and please guard your own strength now. You offered protection and defense and it is our turn to take care of you. To those who battle physical or mental challenges daily, demand the care you deserve. It is not weak to get help. It may be the smartest and bravest action you ever take. God Bless.