EP 34: Medication and Mental Health with Bibi Ladipo-Ajayi
Many people living with mental illnesses often use medication to help manage their symptoms and while it certainly helps many address the issue, it can also cause side effects and mask the root cause. Today’s guest is Bibi Ladipo-Ajayi, a medical writer and pharmacist turned counsellor that operates at the intersection of counseling and medication therapy for mental health challenges. Bibi helps people realize that medication doesn’t heal them, it just masks their symptoms, and she uses a wide rage of methods to help her clients reduce their dependence on pharmaceutical medications and transition to a functional wellness lifestyle. Find out how Bibi makes use of pharmacogenetics and nutrigenomics testing and hear how she suggests we become our own best advocates. She asserts the importance of listening to our bodies, having a team approach to our health, and recording our own medical history, as well as doing research, advocating for ourselves, and having the courage to step out of our comfort zones. Make sure to tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Bibi introduces herself and shares what she does as a medical writer.
- How a program at The King’s University launched Bibi into the counseling world.
- The intersection of counseling and medication therapy for mental health challenges.
- How Bibi helps people realize that medication doesn’t heal them, it just masks symptoms.
- Using pharmacogenetic and nutrigenomic testing to treat medication dependency and individualize diet and exercise recommendations.
- The importance of listening to our bodies and communicating that with our doctors.
- How to best advocate for ourselves – get a second opinion, ask questions, do research.
- Having a team approach to your health by finding functional medicine practitioners.
- The benefits of recording your own history with medication – what works and what doesn’t.
- Bibi’s advice for asking your doctor the right questions about prescribed medication.
- Why you should never just stop taking medication with just your own opinion – do your research, talk to your doctor!
- Everything we do is important and makes up a part of who we are and how we function.
- By advocating for ourselves, we advocate for others – being empowered to take charge of our health helps us shine a light for others.
- A story of hope to close: How Bibi got out of her comfort zone and found her passion.
Tweetables:
“I feel like, because of our society and everyone wanting quick results and wanting to [take] the quickest route to a solution, we tend to forget that our bodies have this ability to heal, and we prefer to pick the lower hanging fruit, which is medication to cover up [our symptoms].” — Bibi [0:09:46]
“Your body is constantly speaking to you and, honestly, you’re the one who gives the doctor what they use to make the diagnosis. If you’re not able to connect because you’re not being mindful of your body and being able to communicate that with the doctor, there’s not too much they can do.” — Bibi [0:20:16]
“You are one person with many parts. Everything that you do is significant and can [help you] build the life that you want. Your mental health is important, your physical health is important. Your relationships are important, they feed into your health. All the support systems that you have in place to help you overcome challenges, they are all important, and they all make up who a person is. They all feed into who we are as people and how well we’re able to function.” — Bibi [0:40:41]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
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