by Dr. Jennifer Thomas
It’s finally May. We made it through another winter. Seeing the signs of life returning — daffodils and tulips with their colorful greetings and green lawns coming back to life — it’s hard not to feel a bit lighter and more hopeful.
I enjoy planting flowers this time of year, mainly pots of annuals that decorate my patio and front yard. I’ve learned a lot over the years about what works (and what doesn’t). Some plants need full sun; some don’t do well with too much moisture. People aren’t that different. We need our basic needs met too in order to thrive: food, water, shelter, and safety to be healthy humans.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and coincides beautifully with the metaphor of spring and new beginnings. Caring for people’s physical health, as well as mental health, are two sides of the same coin: we can’t have one without the other.
In my office, which is coincidentally in a town named “Gardner,” I see the people of that community thriving when we can help them with both their physical health, as well as their mental health. We do this through an approach called Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH). Like the sunlight and water that are essential for plants to grow, attention to physical and mental health are both essential for people to thrive.
I think of a young man I recently saw in the office with severe anxiety, who was using opioid drugs to cope with the emotional pain he was in. Through the IBH program, we helped uncover that he was living with the trauma of abuse he had suffered as a child but had never been able to talk about before. He is now receiving treatment, including medication and counseling, and has been able to find and keep a job. He was not a “bad seed” but rather needed the right environment, the correct combination of factors that allowed him to heal and blossom into the healthy version of himself he is today.
I think of an older patient who was struggling with heart failure. Her legs were often painfully swollen, and she found herself in a terrible cycle of repeated hospitalizations over the past year. Once we were able to sit and talk with her, to take a whole-person approach, she shared that she was severely depressed. Most days she struggled to get out of bed, let alone stay consistent with taking her numerous daily medications. Once we were able to get her depression treated, she felt more hopeful, her energy improved, and she started taking her medications every day, which did in time help keep her out of the hospital.
Like all living things, people need resources and consistent care to thrive as healthy, happy people. This spring, as we welcome the signs of new life returning to our communities, remember that we — like the plants, flowers, and trees we love some much — need the right conditions to grow and flourish. We need to invest time in caring for ourselves too, both physically and mentally, so we can continue to be our best selves too. Enjoy the sunshine and take care!
Dr. Jennifer Thomas, MD, FASAM, is a family medicine and addiction medicine physician with Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers. To learn more about Morris Hospital’s Integrated Behavioral Health program, visit morrishospital.org/behavioralhealth.
