The journey of mental health and wellness looks different for everybody.
Some may need therapy, increased meditation practice, changes in diet, and sometimes medication.
“It takes a tremendous amount of courage to go down that pathway,” Kathie Bolles, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Anchored Wellness, told Hello Georgetown. “It’s a big deal for people to get on that path.”
As one of the newest additions to the team at Anchored Wellness, Bolles is passionate about helping people understand how useful medication can be in one’s pursuit of better mental health, and also likes to help dispel myths and stigma around medication.
“One [myth] is that psychiatric medications are addictive,” Bolles said. “It just doesn’t work that way. They’re not addictive. Some people are highly creative, and they’re concerned they’re going to lose their creativity if they take medicine. Also not true. As a general rule, it doesn’t change your personality…and it doesn’t change your creativity.”
Medication, Bolles said, is another tool available to people are suffering from poor mental health, and no one should feel shame if it’s part of their journey to wellness. Additionally, starting medication doesn’t always mean the individual will always be on that medication.
“People suffer unnecessarily,” Bolles said. “[It] might be family beliefs about medication or their own beliefs, but you don’t have to suffer, and it may be that you’re only on the medication for a short period of time.”
With the guidance of a medical professional, like Bolles, and a good support team made up of loved ones and other professionals like therapists, medicine can be a valuable tool for individuals. But, Bolles also acknowledges finding the right medication and dosage can be tricky and frustrating at times. Which is why she offers additional resources to her patients to help minimize some of that.
“I spend a lot of time with the patients, which is somewhat unique, a lot of people don’t,” Bolles said. “Then I use an EEG, which is brainwave tracing, and it’s run through a database of abnormal EEG’s and generates a report that says, ‘This set of brainwaves is most likely to respond to this medication.'”
Combined with genetic testing, the process makes finding the right medication simpler and smoother, she said.
“It minimizes the trial and error of psychiatry, because psychiatry is a trial and error practice,” Bolles said. “That is very powerful, especially for people that have been through the mill and can’t seem to get better….we [also] do genetic testing, so the EEG tells us which medicine, the genetic testing tells how to use it.”
The technology has been extremely useful to Bolles personally, who has experienced depression herself, she said, and professionally, as she’s watched it empower patients and change lives.
“It looks at dosing as well as side effects,” Bolles said. “So, we’ve got the who, which, and how, and together I’ve had some amazing recovery stories.”
Bolles said the technology is also available to people who are not currently struggling with mental health, but instead are just curious about their brain function. She is offering a process for the well person that includes a QEEG along with cognitive testing that can help identify focus, memory, performance issues and more. The assessment is followed by a comprehensive debrief, supplement recommendations and other strategies to have your brain work best for you. This is available through the wellness side of things.
Medication is most powerful when combined with other resources, Bolles said, like psychotherapy. Each person’s tool chest of wellness is unique, but in every situation, balance is required to become anchored.
“[To be anchored is] I think to know yourself pretty well and hopefully have done your own work in terms of psychotherapy, so that you’re quite aware of your own tendencies; some that are good, some that aren’t as good, and to have a balance in your life,” Bolles said. “A lot of times, if you do an assessment of that, you’ll notice that one thing might be pretty weak and this one’s pretty strong…and so to be anchored is also having those things balanced.”
To connect with Bolles or anyone on the Anchored team, visit https://www.becomeanchored.com, or the Anchored Facebook page. You can also reach Bolles directly at 512-829-7792 or https://myndworkspsych.com.
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