Lise Thompson on end-of-life support and brain chemistry

00:02

Ward: Welcome to In Conversation With. This is Season 3, Episode 11. For those of you keeping track, our guest today is someone we had on about three years ago. I’ve been harassed about getting this lady back because she was our first ever guest, and she was also our first ever group expert on the Mental Health Radio Facebook group. She also appeared on the Langdon Auger Show, and people have been asking forever. I don’t want to swell her head too much, but yes, we’ve been dying to get Lise Thompson back. Lise, how are you?

Lise: I’m good. I’m cooling off in my basement.

Ward: In your basement? It’s awfully sunny for a basement, I’ll tell you that.

Lise: Well, it’s sunny out. It’s just the light coming in. I had to put an extra little thing over here because the sun was coming in. Sorry, I guess it’s on this side of my face. I got a towel up there. I’m just going to have to do.

01:05

Ward: As I said, we’ve been looking forward to this very much. The camera just keeps moving here. I shouldn’t be doing that. We’ve been looking forward to this because we had such a great time. I’ve known you for what appears like 100 years, and you’re not even close to 100 years old. It just seems like I’ve known you for such a long time.

Lise: Early ’90s, I think.

Ward: Well, it would have been 1995.

Lise: Okay, mid-’90s. I was thinking early ’90s because I moved to Canmore for the first time around 1990 or 1991.

Ward: We’re glad to have you back, and thank you for coming back.

Lise: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

Ward: No problem. Anytime. Since you’re our first mental health group expert, you’ve brought some topics today that you really want to talk about. I think they’re awesome, and I really hope people will watch this podcast and pay close attention to what Lise has to say. Super smart lady. Twenty-five years, and now you’re with Interior Health. You’re an amazing, informed person. Thank you very much for doing this. Back to you.

Lise: Thank you so much. I’ve worked for 25 years in mental health and substance use, and I also have a lifetime of lived experience with my own diagnoses. My mother has bipolar disorder, and I have kids with ADHD and autism. I think that’s valuable in what I can offer because I’ve learned a lot personally and professionally.

03:03

Lise: The first thing I wanted to talk about is support available to people who have loved ones who are terminally ill, or what we sometimes refer to as palliative care. End of life, and support for the loved ones and for the people who are passing. There’s palliative care. It’s end-of-life care, and there’s a lot encompassed in it. I think it’s important to have written advance care planning. There are booklets you can get, and they’re good for opening up the conversation about what your loved one, or you yourselves, are wanting. It’s really about the person who is passing and what their wishes are.

04:19

A doctor refers a person to a palliative care specialist. This is Canada-wide. The specialist can apply for palliative benefits on your behalf, which is financial support for things that might be needed. It includes having medication orders in place so they’re readily available when needed, for comfort, but also for respiratory issues. There are many things that happen when the body is breaking down or dying, to be blunt, because that’s what it is. There are comforts and things to help a person breathe easier or control pain.

05:44

Then there’s hospice. Hospice societies, I think that’s what they’re usually called, provide more emotional support. They have people trained to offer not just bereavement support, but also support with coping once you know that you’re dying or that your loved one is dying. That’s what I wanted to say about that. I put a link in the Facebook chat for a Canada palliative virtual service with different resources on it.

Ward: I think you were talking to my sister Robin about that. I believe that’s in the Langdon Auger Show. I’m going to copy it and put it in one of the group chat rooms, if that’s okay with you. I’d also like to put the link in the comment section when we finish this recording, so everything goes hand in hand. People watching this podcast will know where the link is if they need it.

Lise: That makes sense. Okay.

07:18

Lise: The other thing I was excited to talk about is our body’s happy chemicals. Our brain produces neurotransmitters, and the ones related to happiness are dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. I’m a bit of a brain nerd. Our brain is the master computer, the motherboard. Dopamine enables motivation, learning and pleasure. It gives you the determination to accomplish goals, desires and needs. When we’re deficient in dopamine, that can look like procrastination, low self-esteem, lack of motivation, low energy or fatigue, inability to focus, feeling anxious or hopeless, and mood swings.

Ward: I’ve noticed a lot of those can be associated with sundowners, too, because I’ve worked in the field for a while.

08:48

Lise: Yes, absolutely. I’ve got a puppy saying hi.

Ward: Oh, a puppy.

Lise: Hello. Anyway, on another note, when people take antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication, those medications work to balance these neurotransmitters. Maybe medication is something we can talk about another day. My focus for this show was: how can we increase these happy chemicals? First, recognize whether we might be deficient in them by knowing the symptoms, and then how can we naturally increase them? Sometimes we can do for ourselves what a medication can do.

Ward: Yeah. So, to eat?

10:00

Lise: To increase dopamine, meditation, having a daily to-do list. I think it’s that sense of accomplishment, having long-term goals, eating foods rich in L-tyrosine. I don’t know what those are.

Ward: I was just going to ask what that is.

Lise: I looked it up once and I don’t remember. Somebody can look it up, or I could look it up and put it in the comments later. Exercising regularly and creating something, maybe music, painting, drawing, art. I make jewellery. Writing, creating something.

10:54

Lise: The next one is oxytocin. That helps us have feelings of trust, motivates us to have relationships and build relationships. It’s known as the cuddle or love hormone, and it plays a role in bonding. When we’re deficient, we might feel lonely, stressed, lack motivation, have low energy or fatigue, feel disconnected in relationships, feel anxious, or have insomnia. You’ll notice a lot of crossover with these brain chemicals. To increase oxytocin: physical touch, socializing, massage, acupuncture, listening to music, exercise, having a cold shower and meditation.

11:58

Ward: Interesting. One thing I have to ask. There’s oxytocin, and then there’s OxyContin. Oxytocin is the happy chemical. That’s not the bad one people get hooked on. Is OxyContin the bad one?

Lise: OxyContin is the narcotic.

Ward: That’s what I’m saying. They’re not the same thing, correct?

Lise: They’re not the same thing. However, and this could be a whole other show, medications and drugs, especially opiates, affect our reward and pleasure centre in the brain, which comes from the amygdala structure, the emotion centre of the brain. That’s an interesting connection, too.

Ward: Let me know if you want to know more, because I could go on about that one, too. I’d like to do more shows with you, so sorry to interrupt. Continue on.

13:07

Lise: For sure. Everything’s connected, really. The next is serotonin. It helps with feeling significant or important among our peers, calm, and accepting yourself and the people around you. I read a book once that had to do with serotonin, adrenaline junkies and serotonin seekers. I think of serotonin as the calming one. Often, anti-anxiety medication has to do with the production of serotonin because that calms. It’s a calming chemical, and some people crave that. Those are the people who seek calming activities. They want, or need, less stimulation, kind of a thing. Whereas adrenaline or endorphins, those are the people who crave roller coasters and skydiving and the extremes because that gives you an adrenaline rush.

14:52

Lise: So, serotonin. When we’re deficient in serotonin, that can affect low self-esteem, being overly sensitive, anxiety or panic attacks, mood swings, feeling hopeless, social phobias, obsessions and compulsions, and insomnia. To increase serotonin: exercise, cold showers, sunlight and massage. The cold shower thing is interesting because there’s been interesting research about shocking the system with cold water. Some listeners might know about ice baths, where you submerge yourself in the ice bath. It’s good for brain chemistry, but research has also found that for people with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, if they’re in a flashback, reliving a trauma, submerging themselves in cold water, having a cold shower or jumping in a cold lake kind of zaps the brain. It redirects the brain from the flashback. It’s the same with panic attacks. If you’re in anxiety or a panic attack and in that heightened emotional state, having a cold shower, or, if you can’t have a shower, splashing cold water on your face or running your hands under cold water can help redirect the brain.

16:48

Lise: Then endorphins. They release a brief euphoria to mask physical pain, so they’re kind of a natural painkiller. They also help with the response to pain, depression and stress, and alleviate anxiety and depression. When we’re deficient, it could look like anxiety, depression, mood swings, aches and pains, insomnia and impulsive behaviour. To increase endorphins: laughter, crying, creating music or art, eating dark chocolate, eating spicy foods, exercise, stretching, massage and meditation.

17:51

Ward: We do a thing on the Langdon Auger Show. We always have a chair dance or a moment where we dance, usually to some disco song. Make sure you’re stretching because it’s that time of the day when we’re going to do a chair dance, or get up and dance if you so desire. Every show we try to have that moment with a song: get up and dance, get up and move and stuff like that.

Lise: Yeah.

Ward: I can’t remember what show used to have your moment of Zen at the end. That was Jon Stewart’s show, The Daily Show.

Lise: That’s right.

18:45

Ward: I really want to thank you for coming on today. I really want to do this more often. I know you’re a busy lady, way up north doing your job, but I’d like to get you on more often. Maybe, if you’re up to it, we can do one of these live shows and take some questions from people tuning in. Like I said, you’re popular, and people have been asking when we’re going to get you back. We’ve got to end the show before her head swells and there’s no room left on the camera.

19:26

Ward: Thank you very much for tuning in, or thank you for coming on. Sorry to do it this way, but I definitely want you back more often. What do you think?

Lise: Sure.

Ward: You hesitated there.

Lise: No, I want to. It’s fun. I have commitment issues.

Ward: I know. I was going to say, who’s lurking in the corner over there?

Lise: Oh, Dave just snuck by to get to his computer.

Ward: Hello, big man.

Lise: Hello, big man. He’s waving.

Ward: Okay, I’ll wave back.

20:00

Ward: Oh yeah, somewhere about there. Yeah, there we go. All right, well, I’m going to thank you again. Once again, we’re going to end this for tonight. We’ll chat after we do this, so just give me one second here. Have a good night, everybody. You’ve been listening to In Conversation With, Lise Thompson, Season 3, Episode 11. We’ll be back. Thank you.