Practitioners truly want to help people too, but I would have never thought that the story of my friends car battery could be used as the perfect analogy to make that possible for Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Ted Mauger. Mental health conditions are a difficult thing to talk about, especially with the patients who need to hear about them the most.
Think about it: an orthopedic specialist wants to put a cast on your broken arm, you put the cast on. An endocrinologist wants to start you on insulin for your out-of-control blood glucose level, you use the insulin. No one bats an eye. A psychologist, however, recommends taking anything for a mental health condition and...
"In Michigan, the speed limit on the expressway is 70 mph, right? Well, the level of concern for someone's mental health is identified similar to the way we determine how dangerous a driver is on the expressway.
Everyone would agree that a driver at 70 mph is pretty safe, but there are some people who drive at 75 mph. Those people are happy driving that speed; they don't feel it is dangerous, most others on the road don't feel as if they are dangerous, and the cops generally won't even pull you over.
Some drivers are traveling at 80 mph. At this speed, the majority of drivers still feel entirely safe. Now, however, the cops are concerned and, although some drivers around the still have no concerns, there are many drivers who now feel that those driving at 80 mph are just not safe.
Finally, let's look at the people who are driving a hefty 20+ mph over the speed limit, at 90 or more mph. Certainly the cops are going to pull you over, the other drivers on the road are going to be upset, and, most of the time, even the driver is sitting on the edge of his/her seat, because it is clear that, at this speed, the driver is unsafe.
Hopefully, you noticed that the driver is the last one to identify how dangerous he/she is on the road, because they believe they have full control of the situation. The same thing generally happens when someone has a mental health condition: the people around them identify that something is wrong before they do."
Seeming to change the subject, the physician asked the patient about any family history of mental disorders. The patient did believe one of her parents had a mental health condition. With this information in mind, Dr. Mauger began using another analogy....remember my friend with the weak car battery?
" Let's say you have a car with a weak car battery. It was the battery you were given, and it is the battery you are stuck with. When you turn on your headlights, blast the heat, blare the radio, and use your power windows, what happens to that weak battery?
It gets even more weak, of course.
That weak car battery is kind of like a brain with a disorder, and the headlights, heat, radio, and power windows represent the stressful things in life. Genetics say that our parents pass their genes to us: they are the genes we are given, and they are the genes we are stuck with. So when our parents have a car with a weak battery, they generally pass one on to us too.
Now there are two ways we can make sure that we have enough of a charge on our battery.
The first way: We can turn off the lights, heat, and radio.
We can eliminate our stress.
The second way: We can add electricity to make sure we can handle all of the stress we have.
For a car battery we use jumper-cables. For a brain we use medication.
Thankfully, the use of these car analogies by Dr. Mauger resulted in a patient's better understanding about their mental health and the various ways it can be improved. This, to me, represents a successful patient encounter. Through paralleling easily understood aspects of a patient's everyday environment (the speed limit and car battery) with a more unfamiliar subject (mental health and the use of pharmacological agents), Dr. Mauger was able to give this patient everything required to make an educated, yet autonomous decision about her health.
Also, just so readers are aware, medication is not the preferred, initial method of treatment in any mental health situation. Counseling, exercise, and other lifestyle changes are always encouraged before and during medication use. Patients who do not find these lifestyle changes to be efficacious in bettering their mental wellbeing are encouraged to seek further assistance from a medical care provider, in which case a patient-customized care plan will be developed. This care plan may or may not deem medication use appropriate for the patient condition.
So if you ever find yourself in the middle of a conversation about mental health , remember a few things: 1) Car batteries, speed limits, and mental health may have more in common than you'd think. 2) Medical providers want to help people function with a healthy mental status, and 3) they have the knowledge and resources to educate and assist patients in creating an easy to understand care plan to make positive change happen!