I’d like to start a recurring segment called “Dr. Travis’ Soapbox,” where we dive into the pitches that I find myself giving over and over again in the clinic. If you decide to become a patient of mine at DirectMed DPC in New Braunfels this summer/fall you will inevitably hear one or all of these at some point during our relationship together.
This week, I’d like to start with one near and dear to my heart: counseling.
I spend an enormous amount of my day talking to people about depression, anxiety, addiction, grief, and stress. And thank goodness! It is important! Many of you reading this are personally experiencing depression, anxiety, or addiction. And many more have close family and friends struggling with one of these things. And there is no shame in that. Life is hard. At times it’s downright overwhelming, impossible, terrifying. And even when everything is fine, we can still experience depression, anxiety, addiction. It can happen for no clear reason.
So when you are not feeling well, what can you do? As a family doctor, there are many treatments that I utilize on a daily basis. When it comes to mental health concerns, I regularly talk with patients about:
- Therapy! (see more below)
- Food. We have to eat well to feel well. As many fruits and veggies as you can! Shoot for at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies (a half of a cup is a serving).
- Movement. Exercise is a critical part of mental health. 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week is the goal.
- Nutrients and Vitamins. Fish oil, magnesium, B-vitamins, and vitamin D, just to name a few.
- Meditation or spiritual practices like prayer
- Connection and community
- Medications (like prozac, celexa, wellbutrin, buspirone, mirtazapine, and more)
At the top of my list is therapy. It’s been important for so many of my patients, for me/family/friends, and the science is pretty clear. Therapy is critical. Combining therapy with medication is twice as effective as medication by itself (see this article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3918025/). There are many different ways you can connect with a therapist.
- I will be building partnerships with therapists in the New Braunfels area and will have personal recommendations for my patients in the coming months.
- I regularly recommend patients use the Psychology Today website. Their main page has a search tool on it for therapists by zip code. Most therapists keep an up-to-date profile here and there are many ways to customize your search. This is my go to method.
- You can reach out to the company you work for and ask if “EAP” is something that they offer, many do. This is usually 6-12 free therapy sessions.
- Most major insurance carriers will have something like a “mental health” phone number on your insurance card. You can call this number for a list of therapists in your area.
- There are also lots of new internet-based, virtual therapy services where you pay a monthly fee and get regular access to a counselor (like Cerebral, BetterHelp, TalkSpace, and more).
If you have ever thought, “I should see a counselor,” then let me strongly encourage you to pull the trigger and do it! Thanks for reading. See you next week!
