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Busting Mental Illness Myths with Dr. Benjamin Griffeth · Flourish- A Prisma Health Podcast

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  Scott Webb (Host): Today, we're going to do some myth-busting about
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  mental health and mental illness with an expert in the field, Dr.
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  Benjamin Griffeth, psychiatrist at Prisma Health.
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  This is Flourish, the podcast brought to you by Prisma Health.
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  I'm Scott Webb.
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  Doctor, it's nice to have you here today.
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  I hope you're ready to bust some myths.
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  I don't know if you wear a hat for that or if there's a special outfit.
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  But we're going to try to bust some mental illness myths.
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  And let's just start with myth number one: mental illness means
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  someone is weak or isn't intelligent.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  That comes back to the idea that somehow mental illnesses are different
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  than all the other illnesses.
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  Mental illnesses are illnesses of the brain, just like heart disease
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  is disease of the heart, diabetes is a disease of the endocrine system.
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  So to say that mental illnesses are somehow uniquely aligned to
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  your moral center or your moral strength or your confidence or
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  your consciousness or anything like that just doesn't hold much weight.
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  We have a lot of data that mental illnesses, because they are diseases
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  of the brain, have the same rudimentary structure that all other illnesses do.
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  There's a genetic component.
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  There's a biological component.
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  Certainly, there's a psychological component and a spiritual component
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  and a social component, but that's also true of all the other illnesses.
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  For instance, you have arthritis of the knee.
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  Well, there's a biological component.
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  Maybe that arthritis was predisposed by genetics because your family's
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  prone to have osteoarthritis.
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  Maybe the arthritis is there because your active lifestyle had you competing
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  such that you had previous injuries, and those previous injuries set up the
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  opportunity for arthritis to develop.
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  And psychological impacts of the arthritis, social
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  impacts of the arthritis.
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  If you're having arthritis, it's difficult to go out and be as
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  active as you previously were.
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  And so, physical illnesses, mental illnesses, they're all the same thing.
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  And so, they all have the same answer.
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  Host: Right.
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  Yeah, like I said, we're going to bust a bunch of myths today and good to
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  bust that one, that a mental illness is, as you say, is very similar to
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  osteoarthritis, which I have in my knees.
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  I was nodding my head as you were saying that.
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  I'm like, "Yeah, right.
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  It's a thing."
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  So, myth number two, there's really nothing you can do to prevent people from
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  struggling with mental health conditions.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  Absolutely incorrect.
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  The individual themself can do a lot of work towards helping their
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  work through their mental health condition or their mental illness.
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  We certainly have lots of data around diet being able to improve things.
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  So for instance, the MIND diet, M-I-N-D diet, which is easily accessible on
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  the internet, is already shown to have great linkages towards improving
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  outcomes in patients with dementia and even preventing dementia.
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  So, we know diet can certainly make a difference.
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  We know exercise can make a difference.
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  Just the simple things like having a 15- to 20-minute walk every day
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  can substantially change your risk of developing mental illnesses,
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  as well as the severity of those illnesses if you do develop them.
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  As people, when we see our fellow humans on this earth struggling with
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  mental health, the ability to reach out and help them is substantial.
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  That can be things like assisting them with getting to appointments,
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  helping them with getting socially engaged with other support systems.
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  But it can be just as simple as spending time with them, letting them
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  have the opportunity to talk, letting them have the opportunity just to have
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  somebody who is with them substantially changes how much of an impact their
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  mental illness may have upon them.
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  And so, you don't have to be specially trained.
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  You don't have to have knowledge or abilities.
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  For instance, in my case, you don't have to have a four-year undergraduate
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  degree and four years of medical school and four years of psychiatric
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  training in order to be able to talk to somebody with a mental illness.
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  You just have to be a human and respect that they're another
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  human and spend time with them.
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  Host: Yeah, I love that.
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  You know, and there's so much AI out there, which would be a separate podcast.
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  But you and I are humans.
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  We're talking about humans and human stuff.
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  And another one that I hear, Doctor, another myth I believe anyway, is
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  that therapy's really only helpful if your mental illness is severe.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  Absolutely not correct.
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  Yeah, that's a myth.
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  Therapy helps at all levels of mental illness.
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  In fact, you could argue, and there have been several studies to indicate
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  that certain types of therapy work better with milder illness
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  compared to more severe illness.
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  But that said, therapy works for nearly all mental illnesses.
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  Therapy works for all severity levels.
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  Now, sometimes you have to pick and choose.
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  Some types of therapy don't work for certain types of illness.
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  And so, you have to pay attention to that.
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  And like I said, there are a few illnesses where therapy is not helpful
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  and severity does play into that.
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  So, a patient, for instance, with severe dementia might not benefit from
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  therapy because due to their illness, their ability to attain to the therapy
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  session, their ability to remember from the therapy sessions the things that
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  help them improve, would not be able to be something that the patient's able
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  to retain because of their illness.
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  But that's a very rare instance that you're talking about.
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  Even patients with mild dementia are known to improve with cognitive
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  therapy, with behavioral therapy.
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  They improve with interpersonal therapy, where they are able to spend
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  time with others, going back to the myth that we were just discussing.
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  And so, the idea that therapy only works if somebody's significantly
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  impaired seems to shut the door on a lot of opportunities to help people get
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  better sooner and get better without having to become ultimately sick.
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  It would be the same idea that you would say that we only use insulin once you
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  have been hospitalized for diabetes.
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  That makes very little sense.
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  Insulin is an appropriate treatment, then you start it from the point that
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  it's an appropriate treatment, not waiting for bad outcomes to happen first.
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  Host: Yeah.
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  Let's talk medications, Doctor.
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  I've heard this one before, this myth, if you will.
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  If we ask, you know, for help for a mental condition, you're just
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  going to throw a pill at us, and that's going to be it, right?
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  That may be part of an answer.
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  Host: Sure.
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  Yeah.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  For many illnesses, medication is part of the answer, but that's
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  not going to be the only answer.
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  If you seek out help for a mental illness, especially coming to a
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  therapist, by definition, therapists are not prescribing medicine.
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  So, that's the first and easy way to bust this myth, to point out that
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  most of the people who are working on mental health treatment don't even have
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  the ability to prescribe medication.
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  Now, often medication is considered part of the treatment process.
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  And again, if we go back and start thinking about mental illnesses, just
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  like physical illnesses, having a biological component, a psychological
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  component, and a social component, then medication may be part of the
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  answer to the biologic arm of that.
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  But medication doesn't address the psychological upbringing and underpinnings
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  of that human, nor the social factors that are going on in their life that may have
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  impact into their mental health as well.
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  So, medication isn't the only answer.
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  A good prescribing physician should recognize that and should be offering
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  the opportunity for medicine, but the opportunity for therapy at the same time.
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  Host: I think that I've heard this before, and I think I've even seen it
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  on social media, Doctor, that taking medications for a mental condition
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  is going to change our personalities.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  So, that is mostly not correct.
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  So if you are an innately grouchy human, medication will not change that.
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  If you are an innately happy person or a gregarious person or social, the
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  medication is not going to change that.
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  Now, if you are natively a happy person who hasn't been happy due to the presence
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  of, say, major depressive disorder, and I give you medication that helps
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  remove the illness or I engage you in therapy that removes the illness, then
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  yeah, you're going to see a personality change where you actually return
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  to your normal personality because I've removed the burden of illness.
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  Host: Right, like a change for the better.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  It should be a change for the better, that you should expect that mental
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  health treatment is going to restore someone to their normal personality
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  by alleviating the burden of the illness that may be coloring how they
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  interact with the world right now.
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  Host: Yeah.
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  It's also interesting and hard to, you know, solve everything today in the
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  context of our podcast, but we're going to scratch the surface as best we can.
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  And another myth I've heard, Doctor, is that if we've managed
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  all this before, right, managed our mental health before, that we
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  probably don't need help now, right?
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  We've been fine up to this point.
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  We're good.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  Right.
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  And that makes total sense if the stresses of your world are always
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  going to be the same, right?
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  Let's say you travel, and you go up to the rental car agency, and you have only
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  driven sedans your entire life, and the only car that they have available for
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  you is a minivan, you should be able to just automatically adapt to that.
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  You should be able to find the blind spots.
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  You should be able to know where the corners are for parking, right?
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  That's that same kind of logic that nothing new is going to happen in
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  my life that is going to present me with a challenge that I don't
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  have the answers to, that I don't have the experience to deal with.
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  And that doesn't make a lot of sense.
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  One of my favorite metaphors when I'm talking to patients about the
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  opportunities of therapy and the opportunities within treatment is
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  this idea that when you're born, you're born with a toolbox, and
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  as you grow up, you add tools.
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  You add a saw, you add a hammer, you add a Phillips head screwdriver,
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  and all that works very well.
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  But you, at some point, are going to encounter a crescent wrench
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  problem or an Allen wrench problem.
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  And if you don't have that in your box, you can hit that, you know,
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  Allen bolt with a hammer as much as you want, but it's not going to work.
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  Host: It's not going to turn.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  It starts idea that you have to consistently work to increase your
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  tools, to increase your adaptability, because new things are going to come,
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  new stressors are going to come, and just because you've responded well to
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  previous stressors doesn't necessarily indicate that you're going to be
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  able to adapt to the next stressor.
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  Host: Right.
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  And this metaphor, which I love, I had a typing teacher when I was in high
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  school, and he used the card metaphor that we're all dealt a hand of cards.
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  But it translates to this.
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  And in this case, when we think about possibly needing help in the
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  future despite managing things up to a certain point, you might have
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  that wrench that we need, right?
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  Right.
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  Exactly.
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  And that's often if you want to expand that toolbox metaphor,
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  that is the point of medication.
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  That is the point of therapy, is it's handing you a new tool, or it's teaching
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  you how to use a tool that you've previously had in a different way.
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  I'm doing some home renovations at the house right now, and it's amazing how
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  much old paint you can scrape off with a screwdriver if you have to do it.
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  Scott Webb: Right.
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  Well, I've loved this today.
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  I know we're going to talk again soon about antidepressants.
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  But let's finish up today, more human stuff of course here.
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  This last myth that talking about mental illness just makes it worse.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  Talking about mental illness just makes it better.
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  There's no way that in talking about your illness you can make
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  things worse than they already are.
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  The talking about process makes it better.
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  The ability to open up to have someone else, even if all they do is listen
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  and say, "That sounds really hard," is a reinforcing process that helps
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  you be connected to a social system.
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  That social system helps you feel better.
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  The more you work on the problem that it's presented, the more likely you
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  are to potentially have an aha moment that allows you to think about or
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  process this challenge in a better way.
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  But mostly, the more you talk about it, the more people are going to say,
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  "Hey, maybe you need to seek care.
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  Maybe you could reach out to this person or this organization or this
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  physician and look and find out what ways you can interact with the
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  healthcare system to get your symptoms better so that you feel better."
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  Because if all you do is walk around and not talk about it, everybody may perceive
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  that something's up, but they're not going to automatically say, "Hey, Bob,
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  you know, you seem to have been down.
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  Can I get you a referral to a therapist?"
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  What going to do is leave you be and let you decide when it's
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  appropriate to talk about it.
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  So, the talking about it helps, not hurts.
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  Host: Yeah, that's well said.
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  You know, and I was just sort of thinking about me and my life and I'm
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  like, "Well, okay, so when we talk about things, we might uncover some things
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  that are uncomfortable or difficult or challenging," but that's the whole point,
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  right, doctor, is to work through those things to get the tools we need in that
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  metaphor sense to fix those things, right?
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  That's exactly right.
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  The lack of interaction.
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  So, let me pick on a specific mental illness, depression.
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  Depression I like to describe as being a jealous little animal.
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  So, one of the things that we know about depression is people who are suffering
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  with depression are less likely to be social, and that's because that jealous
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  little disease in the back of their head is telling them, "Hey, don't do that."
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  Because if you have depression and you go out and you socialize, you might
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  feel better, and that jealous animal doesn't want you to feel better.
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  That jealous animal's going to tell you things like, "Hey, stay up at night
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  when no other people are around and you can't do anything but, you know,
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  watch, TV and doom scroll on your phone.
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  Sleep during the day when sunlight, which would help your depression, you
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  won't see it because you're asleep.
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  And sleep while everybody else is awake because socializing with others might help
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  you feel better," because it's jealous.
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  It doesn't want you to feel better.
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  It's the same thing that it's going to tell you, that depression's
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  going to tell you, "Eat lots of sugar and lots of carbs," because—
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  Host: He wants you to feel bad.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  Eating sugar and carbs actually contribute to your feeling down and feeling wiped
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  out and sleepy and tired all the time.
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  Don't eat dark leafy green vegetables.
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  Don't eat beans and lentils and fresh fruit.
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  Because if you do that, you might actually get the building blocks that
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  help you feel better and alleviate your depression, because your
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  depression doesn't want you to do it.
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  It's jealous.
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  It wants you to stay in the dark by yourself eating sweets and carbs
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  because that's what keeps it alive.
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  Host: Yeah.
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  Yeah, it's so interesting.
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  As I mentioned, we're going to speak again soon about antidepressants, which
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  will be another great conversation.
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  But for today, thanks for your time, your expertise, your metaphors.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Dr. Benjamin Griffeth:
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  My pleasure.
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  Host: For more information and other podcasts just like this one, head
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  on over to prismahealth.org/podcast.
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  This has been Flourish, a podcast brought to you by Prisma Health.
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  I'm Scott Webb.
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  Stay well.