The world heard the sad news that the actor Robin Williams committed suicide one evening. Robin was a beloved actor and comedian who won the hearts and minds of millions of people throughout the world. This event sparked some serious public discussions about how commonplace it is for people to suffer from mental health problems in plain sight, by people who live perfectly normal and productive lives. They said that depression was the cause, but depression is mostly triggered by other health problems that were growing over time. A relationship with a Chiropractic clinic will add another dimention to mental health.
As a Doctor of Chiropractic I see the relationship between physical health and mental health. In fact you can look at someone from across the street and should they have bad posture you will automatically think this is a person who suffers from poor self-esteem or poor health, or even both; something we do not consider when we see people with good posture. Isn’t that true?! Why has our collective experiences directed us to think that way? When you think like a chiropractor, a spine and nerve expert, this becomes very obvious why a healthy person exhibits a good posture and bad posture often indicates signs of an unhealthy person. An unhealthy spine eventually becomes an unhealthy person… this we know.
How does this contribute to mental health, you ask? When the body suffers nerve interference, notably from spinal lesions, organs and systems abnormally by either under performing or over performing. In medicine there are about 200 different diagnoses that describe the ill effects of spine and nerve health challenges. Robin Williams was under several medications for a growing number of health issues. His immune system was taxed by this medicine approach and his brain was also taxed by the growing dysfunctions of his body as the psychiatrist can only administer drugs for the symptoms. The sum of all these unhealthy outcomes collectively contributed to his compromised mental health resulting in an altered state of mind; so in the end of the acumulation of all that, he lost hope and ended his life.
In everyday practice, as a chiropractor my patients will confess their mental health challenges, their physical limitations and then tell how much better they feel both physically and mentally because of their body’s restored health; restored by the combination of proper care to restore a healthy nervous system, and with better guidance in everyday lifestyle improvements. When mental health problems become unmanageable by natural methods and a psychiatrist is a necessary specialist to bring into the case management, this is an appropriate co-management scenario. When there is no daily focus on restoring the health or promoting a healthy metabolism, the results are less promising.
The end-result of focusing on a healthy metabolism and a healthy nervous system is someone who moves better, suffers much less, sleeps much better and has a better outlook on life. Just the opposite of chronic medical only interventions that dull the senses, dull the systems, disturb the sleep and a gradually dysfunctional metabolism. There is a significant benefit to combine the Chiropractor and the Psychiatrist in managing mental health patients.
Yours in Health,
docMIKE
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