GOOD MEDICINE
Mental HEALTH MATTERS
The tragedy of September 11th, 2001 occurred three months before I graduated from college with a Marketing degree. That event felt like it initiated a collective shift in mental health.
I immediately began my career as a sales representative for one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
At that time, there was no social media, no Netflix to stream, and no AI to consult with, but it was the height of direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceutical companies, and as a result, pharmaceutical use was on the rise.
I spent my workdays in and out of mental health centers and psychiatrists’ offices promoting products for depression, schizophrenia, bipolar, and ADHD.
In my sales career, I went on to work for another of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to promote products for Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease.
I spent nearly a decade studying the brain and the mind.
I learned to read medical studies, pick out key selling points, and gain access to busy clinics. I delivered resources, medication samples, branded office supplies, and many meals.
Television and magazine advertisements, powerful marketing messages, and budgets with deep pockets, three of the five medications that I sold during my career were “blockbusters,” a title given to medications that generate over $1 billion in sales annually.
Twice I won Sales Specialist of the Year, greatly exceeding the company’s goals, and for a short time, I helped train new sales associates.
For nearly a decade,
I listened and learned.
In sales and marketing meetings.
In waiting rooms.
In medical luncheons and lectures.
In doctor’s offices.
In patient groups.
In mental health facilities.
In acute psychiatric situations.
In pharmacies.
In storage facilities with Federal officers counting my samples.
In conversations with the insane.
In conversations with those who treat the insane.
In state-funded clinics where the cheapest drugs are injected into the most severe of patients.
In institutions with lockdowns and criminal police escorts.
In parking lots across two states in a company car with a trunkful of medicines to give away.
Business was booming!
And I thought things were busy then.
The mental health crisis continues to grow, and in 2025, it’s projected that the pharmaceutical market for mental health could reach exponential growth from anxiety and depression, alone.
Add on other brain disorders like increasing diagnoses of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, Autism, mood disorders, and other neuropsychiatric conditions, and you have to ask:
Why is this happening?
Why SO MUCH neuro-degeneration?
What’s going on with our mental health?
Welcome to The 2020’s
The entirety of “the Covid experience,” including long-covid, has dramatically impacted society, particularly mental health, further complicating an already strained and underfunded system.
Social media, news stories, political divisiveness, and 24-7 social content availability pulls us away from our own real lives and is overwhelming to the central nervous system.
We are becoming disconnected from ourselves.
We were not designed to be so influenced, visually assaulted, dopamine-dripped, or bombarded by conflict and violence.
The world feels fragile and volatile.
Have we become more fragile?
Are we more unstable?
I no longer work in pharmaceutical sales.
I launched my own holistic wellness business in 2018, but mental health continues to be a hot topic during private coaching sessions.
Although the current times feel strained, never in history, have we had better access to making better choices.
We can protect and preserve our own mental health, which will be healthy for those who are around us.
A person’s mental health sets the foundation for how their life feels and unfolds.
A NATURAL APPROACH TO
Mental HealtH
8 NEW HABITS TO ENJOY DAILY
Heal Old Hurts
Hurt people hurt people - even if they don’t intend to.
Seek a professional’s support for healing personal hurts and traumatic experiences.
If you find yourself replaying the same events, scenarios, or emotions, your energy is stuck there.
Therapy can help you break that loop.
Traumatic experiences might include divorces, deaths, accidents, incidents, childhood events, and even old misunderstandings.
There are many healing modalities, including talking, acupuncture, behavioral therapy, massage, etc.
Healing old hurts improves mental health.
This is good medicine.
2. Go Outside!
Sunshine, fresh air, and being in nature is therapy.
Quality outdoor time daily is medicine and will improve mental health.
Children and the elderly sometimes become dependent on others to help them get outside. Everyone needs to go outside and play, breathe, and enjoy.
This is good medicine.
3. Tend to your environment
Is your home and workplace conducive to your mental health?
How does the physical environment at home, work, and your city impact your mental state?
Are mold, pests, unwanted noise, or decay in your home?
Toxic environments precipitate unhealthy mood states.
“Clean and clear” feels different to the mind than “chaotic and cluttered.”
Even in urban design, for example, the “box and line” features of most large cities supports fast, linear thinking and streamlined function, as opposed to rounded and winding gardens that encourage wandering and a slower pace.
Is your home your sanctuary?
What do you need in your environment in order to thrive?
Here is an introductory look at Feng Shui, including ways to be in harmony with the spaces we live in.
I’ve recommended this book and this book to inspire others to clear out their clutter.
Kondo and no one wants your shit
4. EAT WELL.
Eat real, whole, colorful foods. Eat Earth-grown foods.
Living foods offer life-sustaining nutrients.
Boxed and bagged foods carry a lower vibration. They lack the polyphenols and flavonoids that come only from fruits and vegetables. These are powerful medicines for the body.
Investigate what happens when people eliminate processed foods and receive consistent nutrients. They change.
If you have intense cravings for certain foods, alcohols, or sugars, explore the possibility of parasites.
Most people do not eat a naturally anti-parasitic diet, therefore becoming hospitable hosts.
Many third world countries routinely use dewormers in their populations. In America, many kids born in the 1900’s were routinely treated for pinworms and other parasites at the beginning of their school years.
Other things, such as food allergies, can also alter behavior. A common example is children with an allergy to casein in milk will quite often experience behavioral challenges, like anxiety, irritability, and even neuropsychiatric problems. This inflammatory response can manifest as ADHD, cause speech, delays, and decrease vibrancy in the person affected.
Have you been tested for food allergies? Viome?
Eat for longevity.
This is good medicine.
5. Connect with healthy people.
Real connection with other healthy people is crucial to mental health management. Being around other people isn’t ideal unless they are healthy.
Take an inventory of people you are close to.
Who feels mentally healthy?
Does anyone feel toxic?
Beyond connection, we all crave love, touch, and care.
Who hugs you?
Who tells you they love you?
Who genuinely cares about you?
We only need 1-2 close people to improve our mental health and quality of life.
This is good medicine.
6. Move.
Even light walking increases circulation throughout the entire body.
Putting one front in front of the other can help to alleviate stress and anxiety, and it can boost your mood.
I once asked a neurologist,
“Does exercise improve stress and anxiety
or
does lack of exercise cause stress and anxiety?”
Without hesitation, he replied,
“Both.”
The body was born to move.
Stuck energy causes blockages and impediments in the energetic meridians.
In many ways, we are electrical beings.
We need stimulation to get the current moving.
Move.
This is good medicine.
7. Drink up!
Drink up!
Staying well hydrated allows us to be better conducers and producers of energy.
Being chronically dehydrated is linked to brain fog, dementia, and cognitive impairment.
Interestingly, in older women, chronic dehydration, can lead to urinary tract infections, which can present as psychosis or psychotic symptoms.
Quality of the drinking water, is well-filtered and contains natural electrolytes for proper absorption.
Drink up.
This is good medicine.
8. Limit “the rectangles.”
Limit screens and social media.
We were meant to think for ourselves and have our own ideas.
We were meant to engage with our families and look into other people’s eyes.
We were meant to see the world around us in all of its natural color and beauty.
“The rectangles” (phones, televisions, and computers) can be such a great source of entertainment and connection, but there’s no replacement for real life.
We don’t find many rectangles in the natural world.
In a way, these things are unnatural.
Tap into your own source of entertainment
Write, draw, dance, call a friend, take a walk, go out to eat, and fall asleep daydreaming - without your phone.
This is good medicine.
Perhaps there will always be a portion of the population that requires medical support, herbal solutions, or pharmaceutical interventions, but there are many things that we can do on a daily basis to improve the physical and mental health of ourselves and those around us.
Integrate these 8 basic and simple habits into your daily routine and let me know how you feel!
“True Wellness is a side effect of healthy habits and is built over time.”
— Jacquelyn Benjamin
