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Beautiful Minds Wellness

The Brain People Podcast 2024

Amanda Anguish

Daniel Binus

Dry Time

We all have times when we feel anxious or depressed, but now is the time to take control of your mental health.

Daniel Bynas, and I'm a holistic psychiatrist.

Before we start this podcast, I want to introduce you to our brand new intensive online program that I'm super excited about.

It's called Overcoming Anxiety and Depression.

Brought to you by experienced mental health professionals, this program will give you powerful tools to manage your emotions and practical ways to excel in your relationships.

This is a powerful, amazing, holistic program that will assist you in your battle for optimal mental health.

Join our next session beginning March 5th, 2024.

Learn more at beautifulmindswellness.org.

Welcome to the Brain People podcast, a show where 4 mental health experts team up to bring you practical tools for overcoming mental health challenges.

The Brain People don't replace your doctor or therapist, but we will give you some extra tools to help you on your journey.

So join us as we fight mental illness, 1 episode at a time.

Amanda Anguish, and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.

So today we are going to be talking about a very interesting topic as always.

And today's topic is called dry time, dry time.

So for some of you that are just like wore into the jungle, I don't know if you're gonna like this, but you're gonna see the benefits of dry time.

And a lot of you are probably wondering what in the world is dry time?

And why are we talking about that on a mental health podcast?

Because we are not really weather people here, right?

We're not trying to talk about global warming or anything.

So Amanda, can you tell us a little bit about what this means, dry time?

So for 7 years, I worked specifically in substance abuse and recovery programs, and so dry time we're talking today about the abstinence from alcohol.

Now some people have varying definitions of like, I'm doing a partial dry time, like only drink on the weekends or that sort of thing.

But we're talking about dry time in terms of not drinking.

And with that, it was almost exactly 2 years ago that I was in court for a DUI.

But I thought it was very interesting and this has always been a fascination of mine with substance abuse.

I have family members who have experienced this, but this idea of how we can so affect our lives with alcohol.

And I see lots of people dealing with alcohol abuse.

We'll talk about drugs maybe another time, but this one's specifically about alcohol.

And how in this court case, when the expert witness got up to give her testimony, I noticed that she said something that I had never even thought about in all the years that I worked in recovery, that the body actually recognizes alcohol as a poison as soon as the alcohol hits the body.

And I don't know why that surprised me so much because I've seen how alcohol has poisoned people, but to hear that the body knows that even if our brains don't always want to acknowledge that.

So that's why we're talking about dry time today.

Yeah, and it's interesting because I've seen this in people that are drinking, and of course, a lot of people get flushed red.

And then especially certain populations are actually truly prone to having a full-blown allergic reaction than when it comes to alcohol.

Oftentimes Asians are more prone to that.

And it's because of an issue with 1 of the enzymes that degrades alcohol and they can't degrade it properly.

And so that alcohol toxin, so to speak, stays in their system longer.

And then they get this terrible allergic reaction and they get hot, sweaty, heart pounding, a lot of times nauseated, and it's a very not a pretty picture at all.

Yeah, and we hear that from people quite often like, oh, I can't drink, like it doesn't, it affects me too much.

And, but we don't realize that it actually affects all of us.

Some of us are just more resilient maybe for a time.

And so actually Dry January came about in 2014 through an initiative or campaign by an organization called Alcohol Change UK.

So this is kind of where the whole concept of this dry time, especially dry January, at the beginning of the year started was in the UK.

Maybe you get all the holidays out of the way and now you can go back to abstinence or something like that.

So this is kind of some British guilt after the holidays.

They're like, oh, we need to do something to make up for all that debauchery that we just went through.

But I'm really impressed that they did this because, you know, that shakes a lot of things up.

A lot of people, It's very cultural to drink in most places, you know, to drink over the holidays, after, you know, a long day at work, you go to the bar, you go home and grab a glass of wine.

But I like that they came up with this because they realized there are negative effects of drinking too, you know, as much as it's fun, it's also causing some problems.

And I think that's what they wanted to sort of help people become aware of.

Absolutely, so what was the whole kind of process when you think about dry January?

Like what do they recommend and what are some of the things that people do in this process and what are potentially even some of the benefits?

Yeah, So the pure way of, I guess if you want to call it celebrating dry January, is to abstain entirely from alcohol.

Now there's some people that can't do that.

I mean, it's a small group, but there are some people who are dependent on alcohol.

They've actually used so much that they can't not drink.

And I don't, maybe you can explain some of the medical, you know, effects of that, but The body is so used to alcohol that you literally cannot go without.

I actually remember, ironically, I was sitting waiting for another jury duty.

I don't know why I get so many jury duties.

Fair, equitable person that's going to always judge well, I guess.

But I was sitting there and I remember a lady actually got out of jury duty because she couldn't sit through the court case without drinking.

It can actually literally be dangerous for people if they're drinking regularly to suddenly stop.

And that's in the case of what we call alcohol dependence, which is where people are drinking, generally speaking a significant amount every day and without it, they really can't even function.

And so beyond that, not only can they not function, if they go into acute withdrawal, that can, because alcohol is a depressant and it depresses brain activity, that withdrawal state can trigger an alcohol withdrawal seizure.

And that can literally be fatal for certain people.

And that's why even thinking about dry January, we wanna be really careful.

It's a good idea, but if you're drinking a significant amount, you don't wanna just quit cold turkey without some kind of medical assistance.

Yeah, and so you can talk to your doctor about that and make sure that you're a good candidate for this.

But the average person is a good candidate for dry January.

So in the purest form, you're not drinking anything at all.

Some people modify it, you know, Monday through Friday I'm not gonna drink, but I can drink socially on the weekends with my friends sort of thing.

I think anything less than that really isn't dry January.

Absolutely, and 1 of the issues with that, you know, a lot of people talk about that, everything in moderation, right?

But I'll tell you, when you get in that mindset of like, okay, I'm just gonna wait until the weekend, a lot of people end up treasuring that time even more.

And they're like, ooh, I can't wait till the weekend.

I get to like, you know, have my alcohol and all of that.

And mentally, psychologically, it becomes an even bigger addiction, even though you're doing your body, sure, a favor as far as less alcohol.

But in the long run, it doesn't always work to improve the overall effect of the addictive pattern.

K'dee Elsen Crews

Sleep

Welcome everyone to the Brain People podcast.

I'm Amanda Anguish and I'm here with my co-host Dr.

Katie Elson and today we are talking about all things sleep.

I know a lot of you out there, according to the CDC, there's about 50 million of you who are struggling with sleep deprivation and another 20 to 30 million people that are suffering from sleep issues and so we're gonna try to help some of you guys at least the ones listening on how to improve your sleep and how to get better sleep and even prevent some of the sleep problems you probably have.

So I just wanted to share a little bit before we start that there's actually, Because of sleep deficiency, some of us are experiencing depression and anxiety that if we improved our sleep, we wouldn't even have that depression and anxiety.

Up to 40% of our learning is affected because of sleep deprivation, and that specifically has to do with memory issues and stuff like that.

Our memory goes down, our aging goes up if we're not getting enough sleep, And so we need more sleep, and a lot of us aren't getting it.

What are some of the things that you notice are contributing to sleep problems with some of your patients?

And so just to clarify, the approach we're taking today is from what are things that we can do outside of taking medication.

And the reason I want to start with that is that's what we're going to be talking about is what can we do.

And a lot of people think like, oh, sleep, difficulty sleeping has only to do with my brain and chemicals.

But there are things that we can do to impact our brain and our sleep.

And so some of the things that come to mind is because our body has this internal clock that it runs on, and that clock is impacted by light, by temperature, a lot of the things have exactly to do with light and temperature and routine, right, that clock.

So 1 of the things that I just work with clients on is what's your bedtime routine?

What are you doing, right, as the sun sets and your body starts producing more melatonin?

Are you fighting against that process by watching a lot of TV, engaging a lot of screen time?

And when you talk about that internal clock, you're talking about our circadian rhythm.

And our circadian rhythm actually goes by the sun coming up and the sun going down.

And so some of us are really trying to impress ourselves with how much we can fight against those things.

And we don't even realize that we're fighting against something that's trying to help us, not hurt us, by getting anywhere between 7 and 9 hours of sleep.

We're trying to go, oh, I don't need this sleep.

But our bodies are telling us, And we can't really fight that.

They'll often say, there's a window in which I start feeling tired.

And then the moment I go past that window, it's like I'm wide awake again, right?

When it's telling us it's ready to sleep, it's in the perfect condition to sleep, we're fighting that.

Yeah, so you were sharing some of the things that you assess for with your clients and stuff.

1 of those things that we don't often think is associated with sleep, but it is quite associated with sleep, and that's not just what you're eating, but the times you're eating too.

So let's talk about the times that we're eating.

A lot of people don't realize there are ideal times for eating.

Well, for 1, because our body has different clocks, being consistent about your meal times, and then on top of that, not eating a late meal, a late heavy meal especially.

And, you know, it's, if you think about it, if our body is using energy and resources to digest when it's supposed to be in a restful state, then your body is not going to sleep, right?

And I know that you have a great analogy for that.

I heard it in the— In regards to the factory.

How can a factory shut down if the machines are still working and the people are still in it?

I thought you were talking about my other fast food analogy.

But it does go with the, you know, not even eating too late.

You talked about schedule and stuff, and if we're eating too late, our bodies can't relax and go into that sleep state if we're eating past a certain point.

And so even just to be more specific, if we eat past, you know, 5 or 6 o'clock at night, that starts to impede our sleep process.

And even our production of melatonin and things like that are based off of that last meal and stuff.

And 1 of the ways that we create melatonin is a cell in our gut actually makes that.

And it doesn't produce that melatonin if we're eating way into the evening hours and that sort of thing.

And I know for some people, they say, well, I actually get sleepier.

Like, the reason why I overeat or eat a heavy meal is because it actually helps me fall asleep.

And that reminds me of both why people overeat or eat heavy meals and then also why some people drink alcohol.

It's like, yeah, it could definitely help you fall asleep.

If you think about heavy meals, the blood is being pulled from your head to your stomach, right, and so you have the sense of sleepiness.

But when they actually do sleep studies and they look at the sleep and the brain activity during your sleep, referring to both alcohol as well as eating heavy meals, you see that they're like micro-sleep.

So you're not entering deep stages of sleep in which those are the stages we need to feel restful.

And so yes, you may be falling asleep, but you're not staying asleep or you're not having good quality sleep.

And that's 1 of the things that this sleep research talks about is a lot of people are sleeping or they say they're sleeping.

They're like, I don't have insomnia, but they don't feel rested afterwards.

And it's not just, do I fall asleep, but do I stay asleep?

And do I get that deep restorative sleep that makes me feel good when I get up in the morning and ready to go versus, oh, don't wake me up.

And I heard 1 guy say that he has to drink an energy drink just to get to the coffee pot to drink the coffee.

And I thought, wow, that's definitely a sign of sleep problem.

Well, caffeine, we talk about this, there's this term half-life, and that's how much the caffeine or how long the caffeine lasts in our bodies.

And a lot of people say, oh, well, I don't drink coffee or my energy drinks after 3 PM or something, so it's not affecting my sleep.

But what research shows is that caffeine actually can have a half-life of 24 hours.

So that's staying in your system and affecting your ability to sleep long after you've had that cup.

And just because you don't think you feel that effect, it doesn't mean that it isn't still affecting you long-term.

Now I know a lot of people aren't going to like hearing this because you're taking away that, you know, it's almost this ritual that we crave and we love, and we don't want to let go of that.

And we're not here just to take things away.

We're here to replace that with something that's even better.

And that is that good night's sleep, where you don't need the coffee or the caffeine in the morning.

Yeah, and so think about caffeine, alcohol, and smoking nicotine and other stimulants, right?

And so if they are having these long half-lives, so half-lives not only for caffeine, but any drug, right?

They have these long half-lives, then they're going to be stimulating our brain and not allowing for our brain to be at rest.

And that's really what we want is our brain to be at rest.

And we're going to get to that a little bit later, the brain, the specific brain part, like our thinking when we talk about cognitive behavioral therapy.

But I wanted to continue a little bit because we already started with caffeine and food, and maybe we can talk a little bit more about there are certain foods that actually help with sleep, things that include like magnesium or omega-3s and stuff like that.

And I just learned this recently because I'm fascinated by weeds in my yard and not wanting to get rid of something that might be helping me.

And I just found, if you live in this area or I don't know how far you can find this weed, but it's actually called purslane and it's really high in omega-3.

So if you want to save yourself a trip to the grocery store or the pharmacy, you can pull out that purslane in your yard and start chopping on it.

Mariola Porras

From Global Marketer to Life & Health Coach

Daniel Bynas and I'm a holistic psychiatrist.

Join our next session beginning April 2nd, 2024.

So join us as we fight mental illness 1 episode at a time.

And today I'm joined by Mariola Porez and she is life and health coach extraordinaire.

And she's going to be sharing with us today about her journey into life and health coaching.

And she's going to not only be sharing about how this has impacted and helped other people, but how this journey has also made a tremendous impact in her own life.

So welcome Mariola, glad that you could join us today.

So can you tell us a little bit about your journey into life and health coaching, how you even got interested in that?

Because from what I understand, and I think I know you pretty well, having worked with you now for several years, that you were actually in the corporate world for several years, I think about 15 years, right?

So tell me a little bit, how in the world did you go from the corporate world to actually getting into life and health coaching?

And I guess the answer is I had to lose my health to really find it.

15 years of a marketing career up in, you know, global corporations had led me to really understand marketing from a strategic standpoint.

You know, marketing is all about finding the needs, the insights, and developing strategies for us to achieve goals for the company, right?

For the different products or services we're selling.

So yeah, as I did this, I discovered that in the corporate setting, we do a lot of strategy and a lot of tactics to reach this, but we lack doing that in our own lives.

You know, corporations are very highly demanding, especially if you have an international career.

It was working, working, working, but I really overlooked or neglected my personal health, which led for physical breakdown that then impacted my mental health, it impact my spiritual health and even my social connections, my relationships, my community, I was isolating, I was working.

As a result of that, I started learning more about the impact of lifestyle in our health and how our choices really lead us for success or for failure, right?

So that led me to really understand what the component of health is in our lives and then how we can take ownership of that in everything we do.

Isn't it interesting how we can be so strategic when it comes to like working hard and getting all these things done and supporting the job or the corporation that we work for, but we can often ignore our own health in the process and not be very strategic about that.

Why do you think it's so easy to be very strategic when it comes to work and all of this, but really ignore our own needs?

We go to school, we learn a lot of things, but we really don't talk about our bodies and how connected they are.

The way we feel affects the way we think.

The way we think affects the choices we make.

We know it more at a external way, but we don't really see it as all of it combined.

As a psychiatrist, I often notice that patients that come to me, they often tell me like, look, this is the first time I'm really learning about how to take care of myself.

And to me, it is kind of crazy the way we do education in the world, isn't it?

Because in my mind, I'm like, you know, we need to get better at like educating our children of how to take care of their physical and their mental health so that that's not last place.

Because if you're not doing that, then everything else in our world is gonna fall apart, isn't it?

We don't take classes on how to deal with grief.

And we are all facing brokenness and loss and even emotional intelligence, right?

We learn a lot of theory, but how do we apply that in our everyday life?

And we get to learn it unfortunately through experiences, through the consequences of making the wrong choices.

So what was the moment when you were in your career and you were in this marketing career?

And I think it was, I don't know, maybe you can't name the company, but it was a pretty big company, like a worldwide company And you were successful.

What moment did you remember getting to where you're just like, okay, something needs to change here?

Well, it was just not being able to show up at work fully.

I started having a lot of gastric failure.

That's how it started manifesting my, you know, the lack of balance in my life.

I was having a hard time communicating and remembering things.

Even as I connected with my peers, I saw how irritation, how resentful I was, how angry I was.

Series

The Brain People Podcast 2024

Dry Time

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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