- [Voiceover 1] WVIA's "Mind Over Matter", a mental health initiative, is underwritten by Geisinger.

- [Voiceover 2] There's a feeling in the air, like when things are on the move again.

You can tell by the crack of a bat, the smell of pie being served, business in person, Kids being kids together, you're ready for this.

And so are we.

(uplifting music) - America is experiencing a mental health crisis.

Even before the COVID 19 pandemic, some 50 million Americans struggled with mental illness, more than half went untreated.

Depression and suicidal ideation are on the rise, and anxiety is a daily companion for tens of millions of Americans.

Hello everyone, I'm Tracey Matisak.

Tonight on "Mind Over Matter", we'll hear real life stories from people around our region who have experienced their own mental health challenges, and how they're coping with everything from grief to eating disorders.

Later in the program, we'll meet a panel of experts who'll provide valuable information on what to do if you or a loved one are struggling.

Above all, we want you to know that you're not alone.

If you need someone to talk to, or would like to explore treatment options, dial 211 to speak with a caring person who can help.

Losing a loved one is one of life's most stressful experiences, especially when that loved one is a child.

COVID has made the grieving process even more painful, often forcing families to mourn in socially distant ways.

We begin with the story of one man who is grieving multiple family members, and how he's coping with so much loss.

- He almost got killed in a car accident on Harveys Lake, and he was in the hospital for two weeks.

Traumatic brain injury.

(somber music) All of a sudden Hunter's sister had called and was freaking out crying.

And came ripping up the road, and we didn't know what was going on.

And she was saying something that she got a phone call from the the kid that Hunter was with and said Hunter wasn't breathing, wasn't waking up.

April and I, that's Hunter's mom, we drove to immediately to the general hospital, he wasn't there, went to Geisinger, he wasn't there.

And he never came out of the house, 'cause he already died before he even left the house.

And nobody knew where he was.

I guess the coroner had taken him.

Because of the pandemic, that was another crappy thing, that we didn't even get to see him until the funeral, which was a week and a half, two weeks later.

That was extremely hard not to see him.

Yeah, my son had passed away the day before Easter.

And like I said, he just turned 18 in January and he was set to graduate Wyoming area in June.

And of course, he didn't make it, but that was tough too, having to go to the graduation went without him.

And the school did a wonderful job of making sure his cap and gown was there.

And the other phenomenal part about this, we don't understand why, but two rainbows came up over the stadium almost when they called his name.

And we couldn't believe that.

And again, my family was there and friends, and Hunter's mom was there, his sister Kayla.

I have pictures of it, it was just something else.

Yeah, in 2021, I lost my dad, my 18 year old son and my mom all within a short period, maybe five month period, and very hard to deal with something like that.

I expected to not be so hard that my mom and dad had passed away 'cause they were older, but not my son, he was only 18.

It was a tragic thing.

I didn't expect all three of 'em to go, I don't know.

It was tough year, really tough.

And I guess I get by by just going to work, I met a really good girl that loves me and I love her too.

And that helped me a lot.

- I just helped him try to get through it day by day, and holding onto the memories.

Through the losses I've had in my life, I kind of try to be strong on for him, but he is a very strong man who impresses me every day with what he does and how he can hold it all together, with what he's been through.

- I try not to let anybody down because I know that people kept saying, "Hey, we don't want you to kill yourself or this or that", but I just get through by a lot of love and support from my family and friends, and it's just what I do I guess.

The other part of it is too, is just losing somebody that you love so much, it's just really hard.

But I guess I get through by just, like I said, love and family, friends.

And like I said, you just gotta get through it somehow.

It takes a lot of love.

- A recent study shows that Americans check their cell phones on average 96 times a day.

That is once every 10 minutes.

For young adults, the numbers are even higher.

Turns out that we're so busy connecting digitally, that we're disconnecting from real life and compromising our mental health in the process.

- So even at concerts, or plays or anything like that, I totally find myself with my phone, oh, gotta hit record, and put that phone up, and you're missing the moment.

That's huge, you're missing the moment.

I remember being in my twenties, I didn't miss anything.

I didn't have anything to distract me.

And now it's kind of a bummer that I'm compelled to pick up the phone, and go like this and miss the whole thing.

So as a mom, my daughter is on her phone all the time, and I see this and I'm constantly saying to her, "Riley, let's go outside, let's take a walk.

"Let's actually go outside and do something productive."

I feel there are so many addiction out there, between alcohol, drugs, and digital, it's huge and it's real.

And there are places you can go, and people you can talk to, and alternative ways to soothe this feeling that you have to be online all the time, and you have to be connected with people in that way.

- Most of us keep our phone on us or next to us from the minute we wake up in the morning till the minute we go to bed at night.

- So my daughter Riley, she's 15, she'll be upstairs.

She'll text me, I'm on the couch down here.

She'll text me, "Hey mom, what's for dinner."

"Hey Ry, why don't you just come downstairs "and we'll talk about it."

Wow, imagine that we could actually talk person to person.

I feel like younger generation, kids these days, they're on their phones all the time.

I know for me, I'm on my phone as well a lot.

And I have to stop myself and say, "Why don't you get outside, why don't you go do things, "be part of life instead of just like (mimics texting) "all day long?"

- It's not uncommon for people in the house these days to text each other and call each other, which is kind of a little surprising.

But people have gotten a little bit lazy and a little bit complacent in the ease of access of the technology.

(country guitar music) - I've been on dates, or even just hanging out with really good friends.

We'll be at a restaurant, whatever, and they'll be on their phone, and I've done it too, I'm guilty of it, I will say.

You're sitting there talking to each other, and then this person's looking at their phone and you're like, "Do you even hear what I'm saying?

"Do you even know I'm here?"

I see that a lot in my profession.

I bartend, and I look around the bar and everybody's on their phones.

No, one's really present in the moment, and I find that a little sad.

And here's another thing, I walk up to people at the bar and ask what they want.

Hey, what do you guys need?

And they're like this, I kind of walk away 'cause until they can get off their phone.

that kind of thing, that's true.

But anyway, I'll be on Instagram and I'll be scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and I'm looking my phone.

I'm like, "Wow, that's 45 minutes of that."

You don't need to do that.

And I start feeling a little guilty about it, so I get up and make some tea and walk away from it for a little bit.

- And there's no way to make it happen automatically.

I mean, the only thing you can do is when you come in your house turn off your phone or leave it in another room so you don't have it on you, but very few people are willing to part with their phones.

- But I really do think that we all need to take a break from scrolling.

You feel like you're almost gone.

You get into other people's lives and what they're doing, and you just have to make your own life, and create your own cool things, and get out of the house, and just get off line.

I would tell someone know if they think that they're spending a lot of time online on their phones, on their computers, whatever, and just not getting outside and being a part of the world, I would tell them find your passion and go out and create something.

A typical day of shooting for me would be to make some coffee, get my camera, jump in my car and just take a trip.

A day, trip a road trip, it doesn't matter where.

I don't even know what I really wanna shoot.

I just know that I will get in my car and drive, pull over wherever I see something interesting.

And it's usually an abandoned building, or something old, or an old road sign, or somebody interesting.

(upbeat guitar music) So one time I had heard about this Volkswagen graveyard, and I decided, well, I'm gonna check this place out.

I'm a huge lover of Volkswagens, anything old, old cars of any type, but especially Volkswagens.

And going to that place took me offline.

I mean, I wasn't home on the computer.

I wasn't looking into my phone.

I was literally immersed in something that I really, really enjoyed and a place that I really enjoyed being.

If you're artistic, go out and be artistic because scrolling online and being on your computer, you might feel you're being artistic because you're appreciating other people's art, but maybe go out and create your own.

- Every 52 minutes in America, someone dies from an eating disorder.

It is a problem that affects people of every age, race, size, and sexual orientation.

Dr. Jen Buckwash battled an eating disorder that could have taken her life.

Instead it set her on a path to helping others heal.

- And the only thing I have ever known for certain for my entire life, was that I wanted to be a mom.

My therapist would say, "Would you rather be skinny or have a baby?"

I quickly chose being skinny.

With eating disorders there's no thing that matters more than being the sickest or the skinniest, everything is meaningless.

I grew up in Northeastern, Pennsylvania, and I loved my childhood, But there was all was just this distance between me and everything else.

I could just never connect.

And to everybody else, it looked just fine.

But I was always trying to get to this version of myself that's cheerful all the time, or happy all the time, or successful all the time, or perfect all the time.

And I always kind of felt mediocre.

The eating disorder really fed off of that.

- When she told us about the things that she was doing, getting on a treadmill for two hours straight, and she was only living on 300 calories a day, it was a real eye opener.

- There was a part of me that wanted recovery, but then there was a part of me that wanted to be sicker.

So once people were identifying me as sick, it became, okay, I'll show you how sick I could get.

- She was in a death spiral and we really thought we were losing her.

And they says, "Your daughter could die "the next time she throws up and, "and you're gonna watch her drown in her own blood "because her esophagus ruptured."

- We realized just what a fight we were in for to help her get better and just to be there for her.

- The impactful moment was another woman that I met in treatment.

Seeing her children come to visit her.

I said, I don't want that.

There was a worry in my mind that because of how much I hurt and strained my body, that I wasn't even gonna be able to have children.

And that was enough, that was enough.

I gathered my army so to speak when I was pregnant, because I knew my body was gonna change.

There was gonna be a baby in there, I expected it, but breastfeeding wasn't easy for me.

And that triggered that eating disorder voice.

It said to me, "You are not enough.

"You are not a good enough mother."

I was so obsessed with trying to be the perfect mother.

- I'm gonna get you, come on, I'm gonna get you.

- My mom came over.

Part of this I think, was to see the baby.

But I think it was mostly to see her baby, to protect me and see how I was doing.

And she'd immediately went and laid down on the floor with Emma, the baby.

And I got down on the floor with them.

And I remember being like, I need to just be with Emma.

I'm often not going to be a perfect mom, but the most beautiful thing that I have with my kids now is that I connect.

(Emma laughs) (Jen laughs) My world is my children, and they will know loudly that they are important.

I'm a psychologist so I treat mostly eating disorders.

I never really connected with the process of therapy until it was saving my life, and then it became my life's work.

It just feels right, it feels right, right.

To turn that pain I had into this purposeful thing that I get to do every day.

My narrative of an eating disorder is what people expect.

I am a thin white woman.

That is not the story of eating disorders, they do not discriminate.

And you don't need to be a certain size to have an eating disorder.

We have seen a huge increase in eating disorders during COVID 19.

Now, you can call 15 therapists and not get one that's taking new clients.

We have these people that are on the cusp of serious, serious medical complications that are not able to get care.

Body positivity and all of these movements are so beautiful, but at the end of the day, it's still body focused.

My biggest goal with my kids is that they know equally that they are brave, and that they are smart, and kind and creative.

They are so much more than body, and so is everybody else.

(uplifting music) - If you're struggling with an eating disorder, grief or just feeling stuck, there is help available.

Call 211 to talk to a caring person who can start you on the road to recovery.

Stress is a fact of life and it's probably safe to say we've all experienced it at some point during the pandemic.

For some, high levels of stress are all in a day's work.

How we respond can make all the difference when it comes to our mental health.

- [Police officer] (indistinct) - A little girl who was hit by a vehicle, she had some pretty significant head injuries.

So we flew her out to get her to a trauma center quicker.

It was emotional wondering whether or not she would make it.

She did recover, and I was able to meet her after the fact, and she's doing wonderfully in life.

That was a very stressful call.

There are definitely images that stick with you.

Obviously over the course of my 23 years, I've seen some pretty true traumatic events and traumatic images, gunshots to the head, fatal auto accidents.

There are a lot of times where it's just, you don't know what you're going into.

Everybody's undergoing a lot of stress at that point, so a lot of times we get a lot of wrong information.

So there are scenes that could be completely chaos.

There's people screaming and yelling and trying to rush in.

We just kind of drown everybody out.

(somber music) Critical incident stress debriefing is offered after any type of critical incident or stressful incident.

And they actually bring in professionals, counselors, but I do have an employee here now who I did send for some stress debriefing after some children were the victims of a drowning incident so.

There's just a constant on the go.

You don't know what you're gonna get into every day.

You don't know how many calls you're gonna have.

You don't don't know if you're gonna get a lunch.

You don't know, you don't know you can get called out at the drop of a hat, so that in itself is stressful.

I have four dogs waiting for me every time I go home.

So they are my de-stressers.

(somber music) After 23 years, stress is not very common for me.

I've seen a lot in my field and I've learned how to deal with it.

I can't say that things don't bother me.

There are certain circumstances that still bother a lot of people, especially circumstances with children or very gruesome sites.

I seem to deal with it as well as I can.

And when I go home to my dogs, that's one thing that de-stresses me.

So I'm a huge advocate for rescue animals.

I rescue dogs and I currently have four of my own who were all rescues.

I bought a large property in hopes of opening up my own rescue someday.

So that's something that's always on my mind.

As a way to alleviate my stress, I take my dogs for walks daily, that's kind of my outlet.

So I take them just a few miles away to the Wyoming Valley, sanity authority.

And there's a farm there.

They run, and while they're running, I just let everything go, and that's my way to relax.

(pensive music) (dog barks) (pensive music) - In every episode of "Mind Over Matter", we've examined the toll that the COVID 19 pandemic has taken on our collective mental health.

We've also talked about treatment options, like talk therapy and medication, but sometimes the most powerful healing can come from unexpected places, and there's no prescription required.

- As COVID, the pandemic was unfolding here at the district We had already been trying to look at creative ways to address trauma and stress in children.

My husband and I, we brought Barney home June.

So my superintendent and my supervisor discussed with me the possibility of maybe training this puppy to be a therapy dog.

He is an English labrador retriever.

He's now 11 months old, and is still in the socialization part of his training.

And hopefully in the months to come, he will be taking his therapy dog test to become our official certified therapy dog in the Hannover area school district.

We see the traditional stressors in students.

Any changes in their can cause a stress in a child.

Feelings of loneliness and isolation when children are left out of their social group, their friend group, COVID has only amplified that.

Hi everybody.

Barney is a great neutralizer.

He's an equalizer, he's a mood booster.

I've had him around our preschoolers here in the district, in our kindergarten first grade buildings, to our middle school buildings, up to our high school.

And when kids converge around him, he will just roll over, and he's Mr. Dosel.

Students that have difficulty coming out of their shell can look at Barney, and it's almost like he can sense a difficulty that a student might be having.

And he'll seek those kids out and he'll just lay by them.

And all of a sudden the student who doesn't want to read their story, or do their math work, all of a sudden, they're petting the dog alongside of him and they pick up their pencil, he's a diversion.

and he is a good diversion.

People will stop when they see him in a hallway or walking into a classroom.

And someone stops and, "Oh my God, he just made my day.

"I'm suddenly having the best day."

I mean, I don't have that giftedness about me, but Barney certainly does.

To get give a sense of confidence, a sense of belongingness to students that maybe wouldn't have the opportunity otherwise.

(cheerful music) - With the COVID pandemic, there's been added stressors in the healthcare field and added responsibilities.

I think the fact that a medical facility wanted to introduce a health humanities role and position is really amazing and progressive, and it kind of blossomed from there.

I go out into the community a lot.

I do a lot of activities with the staff and residents here.

It's allows someone to decrease anxiety, decrease depression.

It stimulates both hemispheres of the brain.

It has a lot of positive effects on neuroplasticity in the brain.

And I think a lot of times art speaks the unspoken.

Someone might not want to talk about what they're going through, they have an outlet to express those emotions and feelings.

- It's so relaxing, we have a very stressful job sometimes, and it's nice to just get your emotions out on the paint, and not be judged, and have a good time.

- We coordinate a monthly wellness group for staff and residents, which incorporates a lot of lifestyle medicine pillars, which are nutrition, stress management.

- I have a background in mental health and I love art.

So this is like the perfect match for me.

- Whether or not you're feeling stressed or whatever it is that you're going through.

It just kind of feels nice to tap into a different place, to be able to just express those emotions without actually saying them.

- It gives peace, there's numerous pressures that comes with being in a nine to five job.

Coming here takes it away.

You're around like-minded people and you're putting together a nice piece art.

- It's amazing to see someone that is so nervous or stressed out when they think of art, and they're like, "I'm not an artist", or "I don't know if I could do this."

And then once you get into the process, and really just allow yourself to feel and express.

And it's been pretty amazing to see that process unfold and to have people say, "Oh, I accomplished this.

"I created this."

(cheerful music) - And once again, welcome to "Mind Over Matter".

If you've had these kinds of struggles, remember that you're not alone.

If you need someone to talk to, or you'd like to explore treatment options, dial 211 to speak with a caring person who can help.

So that said, let's meet our panel.

Leah Dougherty is the instructor of practice, bachelor of social work program at Marywood University, where she also teaches in the master's program.

She is a social worker, educator, adoptive parent, and advocate.

Joining us via zoom is Dr. Laura Campbell.

She is clinical director, outpatient behavioral health department of psychiatry and behavioral health at Geisinger Medical Center.

And Maryanne McEvoy is a child advocate at the office of advocacy and reform in the office of governor Tom Wolf.

Welcome to you all, and thank you so much for being with us on "Mind Over Matter".

Wanna jump right in and begin with the subject of grief, which was the first story that we saw.

And let me direct this question to you, Dr. Campbell.

And that is that Jamie Donnelly lost his 18 year old son and both of his parents in a fairly short time.

It would be difficult enough to suffer any one of those losses, but to have three in a row and one of them being your child, how does someone cope with that much loss?

- I think one of the most important things is that unlike the cliche that we often hear, that we have to move on and past grief, that we really need to move through it.

We have to allow ourselves to have those emotions.

No grief journey is the same for anyone.

They talk about the stages of grief, but it's not a straightforward process.

And it's just critical to have the support that you need, the time to go through it, and to be able to reach out for help if you need it.

- Yeah, Lea Dougherty, what about people who get stuck in their grief?

Sometimes people just cannot seem to move on.

What would you say to that person who maybe feels as though by this time they should have been able to move forward and they're just stuck?

- Well, I think the first thing is that, we stated already, grief is different for every person.

And so if you are feeling, your word, stuck, or just as though life is you're unhappy, or overly sad, or just struggling is to reach out to someone, it's okay to ask for help.

Whether it's to attend a group that is available in your community for grief, or to reach out to a pastor, or minister, or a counselor, or social worker.

Don't stay stuck in that moment.

- Yeah, Dr. Campbell, you mentioned the different stages of grief.

And I actually made some notes here about the five stages that Elizabeth Kubler Ross writes about.

That are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

And you said that people move through grief in different ways, but do we all go through some version of those stages?

- Not necessarily.

And we may think we've emerged from a stage and end up back in it at the one year anniversary or at some other really difficult point.

Kubler Ross's work was just groundbreaking at the time.

And we're finding out that there's more to the story.

And I think we really like to have a predictable sort of path to follow as humans, and unfortunately it doesn't work quite that way.

- Yeah, and Dr. Campbell, there are some who say that there is a sixth stage, which is finding meaning in the face of all that loss.

What can you say about that?

- I certainly think it's helpful when people can get to that place.

Not everybody does reach that, but if you believe in a higher power or if you find a way to make the loss meaningful in some way, or your response to it.

Like advocating, if it was a know a loss to a traffic accident and you are advocating for traffic safety or something like that.

Sometimes people can really find a way to move forward in a helpful way.

- Yeah, Maryann McEvoy, Jamie mentioned the word love several times as he was talking about how he's been moving through his grief.

And singled out his partner in particular for helping him to work through it.

And I know Lea touched on this a moment ago, but can you talk about the importance of relationships when we're going through grief like that?

Absolutely, I mean, relationships are known to be protective factors.

They're called protective factors because they're powerful for us when we're dealing with some really big emotions, just needing to be near someone, not necessarily someone who knows exactly what to say or what to do, just being in the presence of somebody who truly cares and is empathizing with us can be extraordinarily healing.

So Lea had mentioned reaching out for those supports, whether it's a community within your church, or within your school, whatever it might be, or a therapist.

Oftentimes people are so concerned with saying that right thing, and in reality, all you really need to do is be there with that person to experience it them.

How often do you hear people say, "Thank you so much for being there."

And we gonna wanna say, "Oh, I didn't do anything."

but you were there.

- Yeah.

- And that's what that person needs at that time.

- It's the presence more than having the right words at the right moment.

- Absolutely, exactly.

- Yeah, Lea, we have all gone through something of a collective grief throughout the pandemic.

Whether it is the loss of relatives to COVID, or just simply the loss of life as we knew it prior to COVID.

And of course, there was always the ongoing threat of another variant coming our way.

And so the question for you is, what are some ways that we can maintain a healthy perspective?

As COVID goes from, we hope pandemic to endemic, where we have to learn to live with it.

- I'd like to start by just saying that we learned a lot through this.

About how important social support is around grief, as has been iterated multiple times already.

And we lo we lost ritual, we customs.

Funeral homes weren't able to have the same rituals through this.

And so one of the things that I did early on in the pandemic, was ran a support group online for people who lost someone early in the disease effort.

And I think it was just talking with other people who could understand that they had a lived experience similar and knew what it felt like.

So I think that that's so important, is to share, and to be open, and to talk so that whatever your loss is, and loss isn't just death.

- There are many ways we grieve.

- Yeah, moving on now, we wanna talk about digital addiction, which was another of the stories that we watched.

Dr. Campbell, I will come back to you.

Certainly during the COID 19 pandemic, we tended to turn more to our devices.

I mean, we made Tik Tok videos, we watched Tik Tok videos.

We texted, we Instagrammed, we Facebook, we FaceTimed.

We spent a lot of time on our devices.

So much so that statistics say that digital addiction worsened by something like 20% over the last two years, what is behind our addiction to our devices?

- I think you were getting at some of it, right?

We want to connect.

We weren't able to get in person and have those holidays and gatherings as we typically were.

so there's definitely a positive element of the social media and the digital age.

And on the other hand, we can overuse it as a distraction.

We're learning that the addiction to digital devices and media can actually be very similar to addictions, to drugs, and alcohol and other things in our lives too, the way our brains react.

- Can you talk a little bit more about that?

What are some of the long term effects?

Because this is not just something that when you stop using your device, you're fine.

What are the long term effects on our brains, for instance?

- I don't know that we know enough about the long term effects, but we are seeing that there are changes in neurological connections and those feel good chemicals that run through our brains definitely respond to this addiction, much like others.

And so we end up feeling urges.

We don't wanna walk away from our phones for too long is I think was mentioned in the video earlier, And we're constantly checking, thinking that we're going to miss out on something.

- Yeah, Maryanne McEvoy, let me ask you about young people and why it is that young people tend to be more at risk when it comes to digital addiction?

- Sure, I mean, especially given COVID like the doctor was just explaining, just that need for relational connectedness and it's immediately at your fingertips when you need it.

Now, it's a double-edged sword because you can use social media in healthy ways, or you can use it in unhealthy ways, right.

So making sure that we are talking to our children about what that looks like, what the difference is between healthy and unhealthy internet usage is extremely important.

But ultimately all of our children are trying to connect.

They're trying to find groups that they can fit in And they're finding their own identities.

And in doing that, they're trying to connect to different people.

And social media has given them a way to do that, it's been part of their lives forever.

For some of us, we didn't grow up with it, but for a lot of our kids, it's just a part of their childhood., it's a part of their life.

So just making sure that they understand, what do healthy relationships look like so that when they are online, they can really distinguish between what's a healthy online interaction, and what might not be.

- Yeah, and while friends are important for all of us, it seems that for young people, I mean, friends are everything.

- [Maryann] Oh they're everything.

- Yeah, they're everything.

But it's important, like the mother in the video said, to be able to put that phone down and to connect with family and those friends in person to have that support structure.

- Yeah, Dr. Campbell, I wanna come back to you because we talked about the effects on our brains and while it's not completely well understood.

There are concerns that we need to think about, but what about physical issues or the physical effects of long term device addiction?

What should we be, or how should we be thinking about that?

- Well, I can't speak too much on the the ergonomic issues that people develop, but I certainly know that people are stiffer and have neck issues from looking down so much.

But I think also, if we're on our devices all the time, that means we're not moving.

We're not doing a lot of the things that could be keeping us healthy.

Maybe we're more likely to eat junk foods while we're in front of the TV or scrolling through Facebook.

So I think that those are kind of the indirect effects that it can have on our physical wellbeing.

- Yeah, Lea, what are some of the warning signs that we should be looking for to discover whether we, or somebody that we care about might be spending a little too much time on devices.

- And as the doctor indicated, we're becoming more and more aware that this has the potential to be an addiction, just like other addictions.

And in any addiction it's a compulsion to an extreme, in the simplest form.

And so someone who is not able to disengage for any length of time or for any reason would be concerning, But also that there are harmful effects happening, like in their social relationships, in school performance, in work performance, in their health.

They're all indicators that we need to be worried about.

- Yeah, and what do we do?

So in the case of a parent, the mom in the story would say to her daughter, "Let's go outside, let's take a walk, let's do something."

What are some things that parents, teachers, or just concerned friends can keep in mind in terms of helping someone break that addiction?

- It's about setting boundaries, all of us.

Turn off, put it down, turn it off.

I've heard many parents tell me, "We took away video games "or took away the tablet or the phone."

And they acted like they were in withdrawal, the impact for us.

it's setting up a routine without the device.

So even one of the things I work with a lot of families is to not have devices at the table and to eat together.

Not to eat separately, not to eat in front of the television, but to sit at a table and eat together and have a conversation.

That's a lost art in many families.

- Yeah, and Dr. Campbell, Lea just mentioned the idea of withdrawal.

What might that look like for somebody who has been spending a lot of time on a device and now because their parents have told them not to use it or they've just decided to try to break the habit, what might that withdrawal look like?

- I was mentioning urges earlier that there's this craving or this fear of missing out, and certainly for kids and teens, there could be behavioral acting out because they want and feel the need to be on that device.

But I think it can certainly also result in depression, anxiety, sort of social withdrawal.

And if we're intentional about it, hopefully we can set up some new routines.

Set those limits and be able to engage in another activity instead.

- Yeah, wanna move on now and talk about eating disorders.

We watched a piece just a few minutes ago about Dr. Buckwash.

And Lea, this question is for you because the doctor described herself as someone who was always trying to be better, who never felt like she was enough just the way she was as a young person.

And I'm wondering, is there a personality type that lend itself to eating disorders?

- So there are some traits that we find are characteristic of persons who develop eating disorders.

Low self image, the people who are more introverted, shy, feel less than as the doctor said.

Struggling to live up to somebody's expectation, whether that's themselves, or external family members or friends.

So yeah, there are some characteristics.

- Like perfectionism people pleasing that sort of trait.

Dr. Campbell, is there a genetic component at work here?

In other words, can eating disorders run in families?

- There's a significant genetic component to eating disorders.

It predisposes individuals to it though.

That doesn't mean they're going to develop an eating disorder if they sort of have that predisposition.

But somebody who has that background genetically, then encounter certain kinds of stressors or develops a very perfectionistic personality.

Succumbs to the pressures of society or a body image.

All of those things can kind of be the perfect storm for somebody who already has that genetic position predisposition.

- Yeah, Maryanne you and I have a conversation where you talked about eating disorders as an issue of control.

Can you explain what that means, and what the linkage is between eating disorders and a perceived lack of control?

- Absolutely, so a little earlier, we were talking about routines, with getting rid of some of our digital addictions.

And getting the out of some of those routines that we have.

It's a matter of control, right?

So feeling like you wanna live up to somebody's expectations, and you have all this negative self-talk and you're being told that you're not able to do something.

It's almost like, well, I can take that into my own hands.

And I can show myself that I am able to do this.

Now, the problem is now we're getting into a pretty unhealthy scenario because what you're taking control of and what you're proving that you can do is something that's very unhealthy for you.

- Yeah, and Lea, when we think of eating disorders, we tend to think of anorexia, where you're not eating enough.

Or bulimia, which is the binge and purge cycle.

- Does it manifest in other ways, are there other kinds of eating disorders?

- So I think that what we're realizing is there is disordered eating, and it's taking any of those disordered eating behaviors to an extreme.

So someone who diets and is working so hard to control every aspect of their negative health behavior.

that takes it into an eating disorder, kind of.

- Yeah, and Maryann, we tend to think of eating disorders as primarily affecting young white females.

But it's much broader than that, isn't, it?

- It's much broader than that.

I mean, they absolutely impact males as well, but I think it's important to also realize that that there are heavier women who are suffering from eating disorders as well.

And often they're receiving the brunt of a lot of judgment, right.

From society.

So their negative self-talk can be alarming.

Right, and regaining that sense of control and feeling like they can do what other people are saying they can't do, that leads to eating disorders.

- Yeah, Lea, two parts to this, one is, and thinking about control for someone who perceives that their life is out of control, and this is one area that they can control.

Talk about healthier ways of working around that.

If you feel like your life is out of control and you feel like you need to take some sort of action, what's a healthier way to cope with that?

- So we do a lot of counseling with persons with eating disorders, both individual and with young younger adolescence, family, because it's opening up lines of communication, not only within themselves, that self-talk, but with the people around them so that they can have a better sense of themselves in that environment.

At home or in school so that they don't feel so out of control and at everything.

- What again are the warning signs, what should parents, teachers, friends be looking for?

- In its simplest form, anything to an extreme, is certainly something to be cautious about.

Being secretive about eating or after eating, that's when you worry about someone binging and then purging.

So just being aware of behaviors that don't seem on sync for what the person should be doing.

- Yeah, and Maryann, if you would just follow up on something that Lea mentioned.

About the role of family and friends and ways that they can help with a situation that is emotionally fraught to put it mildly, and what are some ways that people can help without maybe pushing the person even further into the eating disorder.

- Yeah, I think the best thing that we can do again, back to that saying, the right thing doing the right thing is just lead by example.

It's not about trying to cast any judgment or trying to tell the person what they need to do to be healthier, just encouraging them, letting them know that you're there, that you wanna support them, and making sure that you're flexible.

If they need something specific at a family gathering, to support them in their journey and recovering from an eating disorder, would be extremely powerful for that person.

- And we wanna remind you that if you have had these kinds of struggles, we want you to know that you're not alone.

If you need somebody to talk to, maybe you'd like to explore some treatment options, you can call 211 to speak with a caring person who can help.

I wanna move on now, and talk a little bit about stress, which we're all intimately acquainted with, as well as alternative therapies.

Because we did see that story as well.

And Lea, I'll begin with you on this.

Thinking of people like Angela, the paramedic that we saw in the piece.

She walked us through a process that they use called critical incident stress debriefing.

For those who have been exposed to trauma, she talked about how that process works.

And I'm just curious, does that kind of process help potentially prevent PTSD down the road.

- So there are several practices similar to that one that are in development or have been developed for that acute time after a stressful event, Because we recognize how important that moment in time from a few hours after an event, up to about four weeks.

And when we intervene at that point, then we can reduce, for example, the likelihood of PTSD developing.

Then there are other interventions that are more at an intermediate or longer term.

And that's where for someone like a paramedic, who's frequently experiencing these stressful crisis kinds of events, We're recognizing that we need to be doing more of that.

- Yeah.

- Dr. Campbell, most of us don't experience trauma in our everyday work, but we do experience it almost in a secondhand way through media, when you think about the images that we see, we see images of war, we see images of disaster, we see accidents, we see all kinds of things just by picking up our devices.

And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about how we can protect ourselves from secondhand trauma, if you will, that we witness all the time.

- Witnessing or learning of a horrific event like war can certainly trigger a trauma response, especially if we've had traumatic events happen to us in the past, it can bring it up again.

So, similar to what we were talking about with the digital addiction, being intentional and setting limits with what we're looking at, not that we want to avoid all news of terrible events, but we can become inundated and sort of get down that rabbit hole of horrible stories and become overwhelmed by it.

So I think one thing is to really just be able to step away from it for a bit, and take good care of ourselves.

- Wow, and Lea, beyond taking a break, which is important for all of us, to sort of limit our exposure if we feel like maybe we've seen a little too much, maybe it's beginning to wear on us.

What then, what are some ways that we can sort of beyond taking a break, kind of normalize things and stabilize ourselves if you will.

- It's surrounding yourself with supportive people and having somebody to talk through if you're feeling stress over either something you've experienced, or something you've witnessed, or even just watching it on TV.

The taking a break can't be just separating yourself, but it's separating yourself and doing something.

- [Tracey] Yeah.

- We recognize that the importance of the social relationships to work through that.

- And Maryann, you work with young people who have ACEs, adverse childhood experiences, you help them work through trauma.

Can you talk a little bit about how you do that and how you help them to move forward in spite of what they've been through?

- Absolutely, again, back to those healthy, positive relationships, children need adults in their life who are providing those, those stable supports for them.

There are so many programs throughout Pennsylvania that provide these types of supports to our kids who need them.

I know in the one video we watched the therapy dog and the beauty of those relationships, whether it's with a trusting adult or an animal, a pet, is that they're lowering that level of stress that that child's feeling right.

And they're bringing them into a state of calm, feeling safe, and that's where we really have to get to be able to help children who have experienced adversity.

So it is really not important to know every detail of what a child has experienced.

It's more important to be there, to help them work through the emotions and the aftermath of it in a space that's calming and safe for them.

- Yeah, Lea, I just wanna ask before we get back to the therapy dog, because we will talk about that in a moment, but how do we know when we or someone close to us, maybe our stress levels are just a little bit too high, we've experienced trauma or just everyday life, which can be pretty stressful.

How do we know when we're kind of maxing out?

- So I think personally, our immune system will be depleted if we're in too much stress.

And so people are more likely to get sick is one factor to consider.

If it's just the people around you, you'll notice differences in maybe their sleep patterns or their eating habits, or just their mood is off.

Pay attention, if someone doesn't seem okay, ask, it's okay to ask.

- Yeah, and Maryanne getting back to the therapy dog I was thinking about in the story about Angela, the paramedic.

She showed us the four rescue dogs that she had, and she talked about how they really helped to reduce her stress level.

Which of course, made me think about Barney the therapy dog in the other story.

What is it about pets and dogs in particular that have such a therapeutic effect on us as humans,.

and on children in particular?

- Yeah, I love this question.

So where to start, right.

I think if we're looking at recent research on using animals for therapeutic means, we wanna look at the fact that those stress hormones in our brains are actually lower.

They're proven to be lower when we're around our pets.

And I love looking at this from kind of an evolutionary standpoint, right?

Animals have always been crucial to our survival as humans.

Now we talk about them as pets, but long ago they were there to protect us, feed us, when we were cold they were there to cloth us, Right, so animals just from an evolutionary standpoint, make us feel safer.

And as we've evolved, now, they've become these emotional crutches for us as well, so to speak, and it may not even be that recent, that its become that way.

If you look at ancient civilizations and Egyptians, so many times animals are seen to be this link with the after life.

And they play this really, big spiritual role for us, and they really always have.

- Yeah, Dr. Campbell, we also talked about art therapy in one of the pieces, and as a medical professional, you know all too well about the stresses in your line of work.

What is it about the creative process that is so therapeutic and that helps to bring stress levels down?

- I think there are a number of components.

So one, of course the emotional expression, the ability to just perhaps put onto to paper or canvas what we might be feeling.

I think it's a really mindful activity too.

We're focused on creating, and so we're not in our heads like we so often tend to be.

And so maybe we're even distracted from our stress and troubles.

Art therapy in particular, often is done in groups or in kind of a social setting, or at least with a therapist too.

So I think there's also that social component that we keep bringing up that is such a critical part of our lives as humans, we are social beings.

- Yeah, well, Dr. Laura Campbell, Maryanne McEvoy, Lea Dougherty, thank you all for being part of tonight's program and for your ongoing work in the area of mental health.

For more information, visit wvia.org/mindovermatter.

And remember you are not alone.

On behalf of WVIA, I'm Tracy Matisak, thanks so much for watching.

- [Voiceover 1] WVIA's "Mind Over Matter", a mental health initiative, is underwritten by Geisinger.

- [Voiceover 2] There's a feeling in the air, like when things are on, on the move again.

You can tell by the crack of a bat, the smell of pie being served.

Business in person, kids being kids together.

You're ready for this, and so are we.

(uplifting music)