#35 - Change Your Brain Chemistry, to Improve Happiness and Mental Health - Dr. Laura Murray from Johns Hopkins

Did you know we can manually adjust our brain chemistry leading to increased happiness (and health)?  Did you know that in countries like Zambia, people with a 4th and 5th-grade education are being taught to successfully administer mental health treatment to local populations?  What can we learn from that effort to improve access and cost to much needed mental health care services in the United States?

We discuss all of this, and how these learnings can be applied to help us manage our mental health during physical distancing due to COVID-19 with Dr. Laura Murray.  Dr. Murray is a Senior Scientist at Johns Hopkins school of Public Health in the Department of Mental Health and International Health.  She is a clinical psychologist by training. Dr. Murray’s recent Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun: “Coronavirus stressing you out? Here’s how to cope (March 2020)

You can connect with and learn more about Dr. Laura Murray here: Dr. Murray’s  Johns Hopkins Profile, LinkedIn

HERE ARE MY NOTES FROM THE CONVERSATION:

1. What are the mental health impacts of being isolated?  Here are some of the ways that isolation and loneliness can impact us.  Being alone can make us feel these things and experience these things so we need to be aware.

   Isolation can make us:

   Fearful, worried, sleep and eat erratically, strain relationships, shorten our temper, cause suicidal ideation, increase substance abuse, and intense feelings of sadness, depression or anxiety.

   If you are experiencing any of these things during this time, then you are not abnormal, you are not alone, and there are things you can do to manage your mental health and improve your experience during isolation.

2. How can someone manage the impact of isolation during social distancing?

   Dr. Murray suggested some ways we can manage our mental health during COVID-19 induced isolation and distancing including:

   1. Connect with others – finding ways to do this that works for you.  Even seeing someone’s face from 6 feet away can make a big difference with how we feel
   2. Authentic interaction – seek these interactions even if remotely
   3. Humor – as they say, laughter can be the best medicine
   4. Sleep schedule – consistent rest is very important to managing our mental health
   5. Activities that bring you joy or pleasure – this is up to you to define
   6. Limiting media exposure – I can only take so much cable news
3. Internal narratives matter – what’s trending in our internal narrative?

   Dr. Murray explains that our thoughts matter.  The more we think to ourselves “this is bad” or “my family will get sick” then our behavior and emotions follow those thoughts.

   How does this work?

   When we have negative thoughts such as “a lot of people are going to die” then a chemical reaction begins in our brain (within the amygdala) that triggers an emotional reaction.  That emotional reaction triggers a physical reaction (heart rate increase, discomfort, gastro-intestinal symptoms, etc.) and these physical reactions lead to anger, agitation etc.

   Dr. Murray explains that manually retraining the brain, and what follows from those efforts, is the coolest thing she’s learned in psychology. Neuropathways in our brain can change because of our behavior

   Positively affirming ourselves, or exercising have more of an impact on our brain chemistry than most people realize.  Just a brief walk, or a kind wor