"Medication Isn't Giving Up-It's Giving Yourself a Chance,"with Dr. Jana Wheeler

What if sobriety is only the first chapter of healing? We sit down with Dr. Jana Wheeler, a psychiatric and wellness nurse practitioner, to unpack how mental health care—thoughtful assessment, smart medication, and steady therapy—can turn fragile recovery into a grounded, connected life. From pediatric roots to lifespan psychiatry, Jana’s path shows how compassion and science meet to support kids, teens, adults, and older adults with care that actually fits their lived experience.

We get real about medication: who might benefit, who might not, and how to weigh risks against relief without fear or shame. Jana walks us through the questions people are afraid to ask—Will I gain weight? Will I lose my spark?—and explains why the right meds should help you feel like yourself, not less you. We break down suicidal ideation in clear terms, including how clinicians assess risk, why those intrusive thoughts are red flags for depression, and how quickly the right treatment can quiet them.

ADHD gets the spotlight, especially in women who were overlooked as kids and learned to mask chaos with achievement. Jana shares her own late diagnosis and how targeted treatment sharpened focus, organization, and presence. We trace how untreated ADHD can spiral into self-medication and addiction, and why early screening, therapy, and evidence-based medication can change the story. We also confront stigma—across generations and cultures—and make the case for routine mental health checkups the way we book dental cleanings.

Serious conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are not the monsters culture makes them out to be. With consistent care, many people lead stable, meaningful lives; the challenge is sticking with treatment long enough to build insight and confidence. Along the way, we talk couples work, family support, and why recovery thrives in relationships. Healing is not a solo sport—when therapy, medication, and community row in the same direction, people move.

If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find us. Your story might be the bridge someone else is waiting for.

Transcript

Meet Dr. Jana Wheeler

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Relationship Blueprint, where you unlock your power of connection. And I'm really excited today to talk to someone that is a good friend of mine. And what I want you to think about today before we meet Dr. Wheeler is all the things that have brought you to where you are today, the person you've become, and the person maybe you'd like to be. And I think Dr. Wheeler is a great example of all the potential that is untapped within us until we can really unlock that power of connection. And so without further ado, I'd like to introduce Dr. Jana Wheeler. She is a psychiatric and wellness nurse practitioner with a wealth of experience. She is also capable of doing assessments and diagnostic care, treatment of substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder. And she helps people find hope in whatever situation they're in through her practice. I just want to welcome you here today and thank you for your willingness to be with me today.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Thank you, Colleen. So we met a long time ago. How long has it been? It's been almost 12 years, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah. So 2014. 2014 was the years. Uh Dr. Wheeler, Janet, and I met um in recovery. We were both in a 12-step program and had hindered spirits, love for mental health, love for helping people. And uh for both of us, found that through recovery we were able to realize some dreams that at least I never dreamed I could have. I'd like you to add anything that I've left out that you want to share with our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Um just that along those lines, um, when I first got into recovery, I I didn't even think about going into mental health. And through my journey of recovery and working with students in an educational setting who had mental health challenges and the pandemic and things like that, I just saw a lot of suffering and lack of mental health providers in our area where we live. And so in 2020, though I was already a nurse practitioner, I wanted to get more training to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. And so my recovery story kind of led me to what I'm doing today.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Wow. I love that that you didn't even know that this was going to be your journey. You were already a nurse practitioner. I believe you worked in pediatrics at the time. And so, as you can imagine, those of you listening, that Jana and I were both in

Recovery Journey To Mental Health Care

SPEAKER_01 2:40

roles within our community, that going to a 12-step program was not the easiest thing to step into. And yet we're we're sitting here today on the other side of that with so many dreams that we can realize now with that help and the support of that community and one another. I I wanted to just highlight, I was always impressed by your just desire to learn and your educational experience, your undergraduate degree is from Yale. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Actually, my first master's degree is from Yale. I went to Mercer University for my Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and then I have a Master of Science in Nursing with a specialty in pediatrics from Yale. And I have two degrees from Medical University of South Carolina. One is a Doctor of Nursing practice, and the other is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner certificate, which was essentially like another master's in nursing. Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

And so I think I've been on the journey with you through your MUSC education and got to attend your first graduation. It was an honor to be there and to celebrate that with you and all that you brought to our community. Because what I remember you saying, Jana, was that um we live in Bluffton, Hilton Head, South Carolina area, and that in our area we had really very few practitioners that would be able to serve a community that was under 18 to provide medicine. And now, what is your practice? Do you treat everyone from children to adults? What is tell us more about that?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yes, I am certified to treat the entire lifespan. So I think my youngest patient is five, and my oldest might be 85, maybe 87. So I do see the whole lifespan. I am very comfortable seeing children because of my background, and I think a lot of mental health providers are not comfortable doing that. So I definitely have gotten some popularity around town for being able to treat children with whether it's ADHD or more serious mental illness. Um, so I'm open to seeing any age and enjoy really meeting everybody.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

I love that part

Serving Children Through Adult Psychiatry

SPEAKER_01 4:56

of your story, Jana, because I'm thinking about when you were um working in pediatrics and and how you you did love the job and that time with children that you didn't know was going to lead be such an important part of your path now. And I think that that's one of the things in recovery that I just keep finding that what unfolds explains so much that's happened before. You know, the things that we did and that maybe we no longer do certainly have played such an integral role in the roles that we've taken on now. Like my experience with children also has led me to really um have deeper work with with parents and couplehood and then also with doing parenting courses. So I think that we both have this similar path. It's been a different journey, but a very similar path. And I love and sometimes we're able to collaborate on some of the people that we think yeah. And that's been really great because I know that I can trust um Dr. Wheeler when I'm send someone and refer someone to her. I know they're gonna be well taken care of. And and especially if there's people in recovery, that we have to be so careful about medication, but it doesn't mean they can't have medication. So the question I'm sitting with now as we're really talking about this, is there are many people in the um 12-step community that have been told by, you know, a um a well-meaning sponsor or someone else that if taking if they're taking any kind of medication to help them with other, say, mental illnesses that they may be suffering from or helping them stay off alcohol or drugs, that somehow they're not sober. So could you address that for our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Well, if

Medication And Sobriety Myths

SPEAKER_00 6:40

you're a uh 12-step purist, um the book that we use to kind of guide that process does allow for seeing experts outside of the um recovery circle for mental illness and other things, obviously. If you're if you a lot of us, you know, drink or use drugs because we have mental illness to begin with. And there's certain things in our childhood that can make us more that happen that can make us more at risk of developing an addiction, trauma, things like that. And if we self-medicate and then we take away the self-medication and get sober, sometimes the mental illness can still be there. It could be anything like depression or ADHD, all the things we use to kind of cover up with drinking or using drugs. So I feel like it's can be unsafe to ignore that part of us. And many of us who, you know, we just have underlying mental illness for whatever reason, whether it's genetic or childhood trauma, and we just need to address all of it, the whole person.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah. So I think what you're bringing to the forefront is that we when we recover, we really recover a whole person. And not drinking is one part of the story. Once that stops, there's uh there's a lot of other pieces that we have to get back together in our lives. And one of the things that you're saying is that it could actually impede the process of um staying sober by not addressing those issues because they're underlying issues that have been there all along that perhaps we didn't even know we had. I knew that I suffered from anxiety, but I what I didn't know was that if I had addressed the anxiety and some of the trauma from my childhood, that perhaps the addiction would have never really taken hold of me. And so, but once it does, it does. And then when we find this recovery, we've got to really think about, you know, just using our 12-step program, which I found absolutely um an integral part of my recovery, but also looking at our uh mental health and perhaps our physical health by seeing someone like you. Yes. Yeah. So now let's let's move on to what is it that people have this myth around, I don't want to take medication. I mean, I just had a client in the other day who was talking about how she just, you know, is meditating and she's does all these physical activities to help her with exercise and and she's trying so hard, but it sounds like she's swimming upstream and is suffering.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

And I understand why people have reservations about taking medication. And not everyone who has a mental health issue needs

Risk, Benefit, And Side Effect Fears

SPEAKER_00 9:24

medication. I do think therapy is should be a always be a huge part of mental health recovery. And if the symptoms are mild or they respond quickly to therapy, then that person may not need medication. But a lot of people do need medication. And we had a conversation earlier about, or I had a conversation earlier with a friend who was talking about well, if you have high blood pressure, you're gonna take your blood pressure medicine. Some of us can be in perfect physical health, but we might need some pharmaceutical help to really be able to thrive and enjoy our lives to the fullest. So antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, ADHD medications, mood stabilizers, um, and in some cases antipsychotics help. I always, I'm sorry. No, no, please go ahead. A lot of the other concerns I get is questions that people worry about. Am I gonna be able to, am I gonna gain weight? That's a huge one that people worry about. They also worry about sexual dysfunction because there is, there are some people that do develop some sexual dysfunction from some medications, but not all. There's concerns about will my personality change? Will I be able to, you know, do the things I normally want to do? So those are all valid concerns. And I try to educate the person who I think would benefit from medication about any question they might have or hesitation. And it's still always up to the person who I'm seeing, whether they want to take the medication or not, or give it to their child or elderly parent. But I try to have that conversation that sometimes you may be going to therapy and you don't get better, or your symptoms are severe in the fact that you're having suicidal ideations on a daily basis, even though you're not planning on acting on them, that's still a sign of more severe depression. So I just try to lay it out in a way that makes the most sense. Anytime you prescribe a medication, you want to certainly think about risk versus benefits and do what's what's right for the that individual.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah. I love that you are so willing to educate people and and certainly, you know, what you're saying is allow them the freedom to choose after they're educated. But if they don't walk in your office, I think many of us make up stories about medication or seeing a doctor like you, like, I'm not really that bad. My general practitioner gives me something to sleep. And what I'm constantly reminding my clients about is that if you're going to take something that's impacting your brain, don't you want to go to somebody who really that that's all they do all day. They're not prescribing antibiotics and they're not prescribing, you know, something to alleviate your pain and your foot. This is what they do. They know the brain and they know what might help. And what kind of assessments do you use to sort of get that differential diagnosis that you're able to say, you know, I think this is what it is, and this is what will help you individually?

Assessment, History, And Screening Tools

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Well, I sit down and talk with the patient. I don't, I try not to pre-judge. My first session is an hour long, and we generally use that time. The gold standard is to get a very complete history and current assessment of your patient and their current status. So that involves childhood trauma, that involves sexual abuse, that involves we get pretty deep, actually, your family history. In some mental illness, there is, you can do a family history and have a lot of answers come from that, even if the person doesn't know that many details. For example, my uncle was in and out of the hospital and no one knew what was wrong with him, and then he committed suicide or something like that. That tells me, okay, there's something running in this family potentially. So you have to just kind of look at the big picture, the the history, the physical exam, and also just current, you know, mood. You can use different screening tools to kind of narrow that down to whether or not they're actually depressed that day versus being just kind of chronically in and out of depression. And that also helps me decide whether medication is something that needs to be tried urgently or can possibly wait and see how things go in therapy. And so I just try to individualize everything I do. And I always want patient input too. I don't like to just say, okay, this is what you're going to take, come back in three weeks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah. So that's you're bringing up so many questions. So I'll try to keep them in order. One was you mentioned the phrase suicidal ideation.

Understanding Suicidal Ideation

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Can you help our listeners understand what that is versus being suicidal?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Well, a lot of times when people are depressed, one of the kind of red flags to me is that they're thinking about suicide, whether they're actually going to come up with a plan to do it or initiate that plan. If the thoughts are popping in their head, that's not what I would consider normal. Now, some people, it is normal for them because they've always had them and they don't know that that's not normal. But to me, that's a sign of more severe depression and shouldn't be there. They can be passive and, you know, whenever somebody tells me they've been thinking about suicide, I always ask them, okay, do you have a plan in place? Do you have an intent to do this? And usually the answers are no. So it's just something that pops in their head. They feel kind of guilty about it because they don't know how to stop it. It just kind of happens and they don't want to seem ungrateful for their life and all the people in it. And to me, I just look at it as a symptom that's associated with depression. Obviously, you're not doing it intentionally, and that could be a sign that medication might be needed in a case like that. Usually it's the first thing to go once you get on the right medication.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah. I'm thinking of clients over the years.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Did not answer your question.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

It did. It did. And I'm thinking about clients over the years that have really had a hard time telling me that they're thinking about it because they thought I was gonna like send them right to the psych ward, or they thought that somebody, if they really shared it, that somehow that they would be reported. And I um I've always been struck by that, that it's such a an old way of thinking about suicidal ideation, or we're really seriously thinking about committing suicide. And with that in mind, it someone said to me one time, it's not that I want to die, I just don't want to live. And that really kind of for me was able to pinpoint suicidal ideation because it's just such a desperate feeling of I really don't want to give up my life. You know, I know I see the good things that I have in my life, but God, living is hard. I'm having a hard time, you know, on a day-to-day basis, staying in there. And it's been exhausting. And I remember that from my own anxiety that, you know, we only all have our own baseline of who we are. Just as you said, the person who might think about suicide often doesn't know really how maybe unnecessary that is. Um, and they may feel isolated or maybe they're normal, but without in any kind of intervention, I know I lived with anxiety for so long, it was just a part of me. It was just a part of who I was. And until I really got help for that, then I could see like, oh wow, this is what I could have been feeling all this time. So I think it's really an interesting thing for our listeners to know.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

And I think a lot of times people don't know how they're supposed to feel. They've it might have been raised in a home where, you know, things weren't particularly healthy or encouraging. And so they that's their normal for how life should be. And they don't really realize how good they could feel, and they're almost scared to feel good because it's it's not their known state of mind. Tell us more about that, the uh fear of feeling good. Can you talk a little more about that? I just feel like people they'll people will share with me, well, I'm not gonna lose control. So taking mental health meds, just for example, an antidepressant, doesn't mean that you're gonna be like impaired in any way. But a lot of times people have this link in their mind that maybe I'm gonna be impaired or unable to uh take care of my family or whatever their fear might be, just because they've

Stigma, Culture, And Seeking Help

SPEAKER_00 18:08

never tried it, and they don't know that they could actually walk around feeling well and looking forward to the day when they get up and being able to have moments of joy throughout the day. And once they do go ahead and try something and they come back and say, I had a moment where I just everything seemed okay, and I've never had that, or I haven't had that in so long. And it's okay to feel good.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Yeah, yeah. And you're right. So if people haven't had that feeling in so long, it is unfamiliar, but it's that taste of what's possible, the taste of that. You also were talking about people coming in with stories. Now, do you have difficulty now? Do you feel like it's changed that people are much more likely to come see you for uh medical assistance than say 10 years ago?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Well, for sure. I mean, when I do the family history, you know, I get an insight into the the stigmas that occur in families and, you know, some of the fears of, you know, becoming like a family member. And um the stigma is real even today, even though we're in 2026 and people are more aware, possibly because of the pandemic and other things that have happened, that you know, there's a high percentage of people have had some type of mental event at some point in their life. And we became more aware and open about it. But the stigma is still there, especially in the older population. Culturally, it can be more prominent depending on the culture people come from. And that I'm talking about different types of American culture as well. You know, in the West, people are probably more open to talking about mental health than maybe in the South. So it can be culturally from state to state, or it could be someone comes from a Latino country and they tend to have different ideas about mental health, and people from far eastern cultures have different ideas about mental health. And so there the stigma can be there even if people are kind of unaware of it. I often see it almost more in families where there's been no mental illness at all or no perceived mental illness until you really start talking to them. So it's just the fear of the unknown. Whereas if you really get to talking to people, there's usually an aunt or uncle in there somewhere who, you know, had to go to the hospital and get shock treatments or, you know, back in the day or something like that. So I forget what your original question was, but um, those are some change, the change over 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Like, are we are we more open to medical help?

SPEAKER_00 20:50

And younger people are like the generation Gen Z, they're very open to talking about it and very accepting of people with mental health problems. And I just think we are moving forward in that department, but we still have a long way to go.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yeah.

Therapy Plus Meds As Team Care

SPEAKER_01 21:05

I've always had this dream that people would see mental health to see people like you for the medicine part of it, see people like me for the therapy part of it, like we see a dentist. You know, you get your teeth checked every six months, you check in, how are they doing, your gum's fine, you know, and if they are, fine. There's no nothing further. We don't do anything else. But if there is a problem, we address it with the dentist and and we're we improve and we get better. Whereas with mental health, I feel like people wait so long. I once I'm not sure if this statistic still stands, but it was people have a tendency to wait seven, ten uh hours before they get any physical help for for pain or something, but they'll to get mental help, they will wait seven to ten years. That sounds like and then and by by the time you go, like you Been so entrenched in that pattern that is even harder for you physically and mentally to leave that. And perhaps, like us, maybe you've turned to a substance, or you've turned to shopping, or you've turned to being angry at your children all the time. Like there's so many different ways that we can really manifest behaviors that are based on, you know, mental illness that we haven't really addressed. So I I feel like our listeners need to understand that this is just as mental health is just as important as your physical health, and that God knows they sell every pill and exercise equipment and ever anything you could think of for our physical health. And then there's the physical beauty, like all the cosmetics and the Botox and the stuff out there. And not that there's anything wrong with that, but boy, do we spend a lot of time on the outside of us. A lot of time.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

And well, I've been guilty of that myself, thinking, okay, if I look, you know, as perfect as possible on the outside, nobody's gonna know how much I'm suffering. And I see that a lot. I still like to look good on the outside, but at this point I'm not trying to cover up and put a inauthentic version of myself out to the world like I was when I was drinking and using.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

I love hearing that, Jana, that the authentic self, you know, you no longer have to pretend or hide. You can just be you without you know without drugs and alcohol. But that also required, I know how much hard work you did.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

And you have to put in the work. Medication can only take you so far. And I do think that, you know, the work needs to happen as well. And I really try to encourage people you to see a therapist, whether it's in our practice or I send them out of the practice. Therapy should always be a big part of a mental health recovery plan.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

And you work for the therapy group. Could you tell us a little bit more about your practice?

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yes. Um, so our practice was actually started in the pandemic um as a group of therapists and has grown over the last six years. I joined in the late

ADHD In Women And Late Diagnosis

SPEAKER_00 24:12

2023 at that time, and still today as the one and only uh prescriber in the group. So at some point, I'm hoping we can add another nurse practitioner, maybe in a year or so. But it's a group of therapists and me. So it's great because people can get have a one-stop shop. You know, they can see me. We I can, you know, converse with the therapist if need be. And so people feel like they're getting all their needs met under one roof, and that's a plus for our practice.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

And you have somebody there that I'm just so um in awe of uh Philip Searcy, who is now trained as an Imago certified therapist. And uh what I know Philip would say, or I believe he would say, is that also if you are suffering from any kind of mental health issue, going to couples therapy with your partner is critical to your overall well-being, because we'd like to think in the old individual paradigm that you fix you, you fix you, and then we'll be fine. And sadly, that isn't the truth, that it's a relational, we have a relational relationship with our partner. And when I'm depressed, that impacts my partner. If my partner has ADHD, it impacts me. And so while we'd like to just separate all these things, that just isn't how it works. And so couples who can really be able to talk about that in a healthy way, aging couples, you know, they're not having sex anymore. There's they're grieving what's happened in their sex life and maybe missing some of the activities they had when they were young. And perhaps they come to you for help with that medication, but what they also need is self-help and support with their loved ones. Maybe it's a daughter or a son, because we really do need support. And you and I learned that in recovery.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

I think it's interesting that your ADHD has come up several times during our talk so far. Recently, I was actually diagnosed with ADHD in my 50s. You know when you know, but I, after doing this job for a few years, had, you know, talked to so many people with ADHD and diagnosed it so much that I started to see a lot of similarities to myself and my patients who talk about ADHD. And so I decided to get an assessment. I don't even know if I've shared this with you yet, Colleen. But um I decided to go get an assessment. And it turns out I have ADHD. And the reason I wanted to bring that up is because a lot of women who have ADHD do not know that they have it. They may suspect or their children may have it, or you know, they'll see traits in other people. But it is very common in women and girls that it gets missed because uh don't women and girls are not as boisterous as little boys who are running around the classroom stealing all the attention. And those are the kids we know have ADHD without, you know, just by looking at them almost. But I was able to be quite successful in school and you know, which is another misnomer that people associate having a DHD with not being smart or something like that. Um, I found out I have have it in my 50s and started taking medication for it, prescribed by my per prescriber. And it has been life-changing for me. I've been so much more organized and focused, alert, and present with the patients that I see. So it's never too late to look further and see maybe something else might be going on that you haven't thought about before.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Yeah, I love the book Driven to Distraction, which really busts that up myth about people with ADHD not being bright. And you're also identifying the part of ADHD, which is the attention problem without the hyperactivity. And so sometimes people are walking around, I don't have ADD because I don't, I'm not impulsive or I don't

Untreated ADHD And Self‑Medication

SPEAKER_01 28:12

get into fights, or I don't do this. I can focus with my Legos for four hours, and so I can't have it. And all of these are just misunderstandings about the disorder. And so I'm really glad that you're bringing up the unidentified patients that can really benefit from that knowledge, even if they don't take medication. As you said, like just having that knowledge can be so powerful. I remember working in the schools and you know, you'd see this one child with ADHD who was very bright, and then looking over at another kid and just wondering, you know, why am I in trouble all the time? Why can't I finish my work? I know this work as much as they do, but they get their work done. That turns into low self-esteem and maybe a story that people tell themselves about being lazy, and it then creates all kinds of other problems, which I believe in the book Driven to Distraction, they talk about drug addiction being 80% more likely when ADHD is not addressed. Is that accurate, Jenna?

SPEAKER_00 29:14

I don't know the exact number, but I do believe that a lot of people that are problem drinkers have ADHD and they're self-medicating. I see it a lot. I see the when parents are struggling with the decision whether to put their kids on medication or not, I share with them sometimes that I see the result of what happens when it's not treated. And depending on the severity of it, you know, they have a hard time leaving home, going to college, being successful in college and beyond. And their self-esteem suffers, and a lot of times they will pick at alcohol or drugs to just kind of ease that feeling that those negative feelings they have about themselves.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yes. And even cocaine addiction, I've had people report to me, I finally felt normal, like my brain was working properly, because it was that stimulation for the frontal cortex, right? So they can actually feel like they don't have to work so hard at focusing and getting things done when they were under the influence of cocaine, which if we really want to talk about that, let's let's think about which one we want people to sort of investigate, right? So it's uh there's so much to learn about it. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you want our listeners to know about your work and how they can get help?

Serious Mental Illness Is Treatable

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah, I I do think, you know, we touched on stigma, we touched on, but we haven't really talked about more serious mental illness. And there is an element of the population that do have serious mental illness. But most uh serious mental illness is treatable. It's not in the case of someone with severe schizophrenia, they're probably not going to be able to live the type of life that they might want, but they can medication can help with their symptoms, hallucinations, you know, delusions, things like that. Bipolar disorder is very treatable. It people can have a very normal life with bipolar disorder if they are on the right medications. And these are two diagnoses where you do need medication. And so there are people walking around with these things. They don't necessarily tell everybody that they might have bipolar disorder or something more serious. So I just want people to know that, you know, there are people with more serious mental illness, and sometimes they do need to take medication, no matter what, but they can have a normal or more normal life with the benefits of medication. So there are some serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia that may not be curable, but they can, their symptoms can be improved with medication. And bipolar is another more serious mental illness, depending on the severity of it. It can be treated with sometimes one medication or maybe two that they have to take, but they can have a normal life, keep down, keep a normal job, be a productive citizen if they're under the right treatment.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yeah. And, you know, when you're saying this to me, I'm thinking about patients from over the years who would be like, I feel so good. I'm not taking that medicine anymore.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Well, bipolar patients are part of their journey, is usually a time or two throughout their history where they do stop their medications because they start to feel better. And sometimes that can lead to a manic event, depending on the severity or type of the bipolar illness. And that's kind of expected to happen on some level until people have had enough oopsies with their medication where they realize, okay, I'm I'm more balanced and healthy on this medication and develop that insight that, okay, I have a mental illness. It's okay. That doesn't make me less of a human being. I just

Staying On Meds And Insight

SPEAKER_00 33:06

need to take medication daily to be stable.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Well, Jana, I've so enjoyed talking with you today. And I hope our listeners are getting a glimpse into really what your field is and how normal you are. Like I think we all picture the doctor with the notepad and maybe the sofa, and that you have to be really sick to go see someone like you. And I think I hope that we can just take that myth away for people so that they could really see that, you know, we're all here as helpers and that we just really want to help people achieve their goals and live their best life. And many times with the help of medical suit uh support, that that can happen for them. So thank you again for being with us. And we'd love to have you back. I'm doing a recovery series beginning in March, talking about recovery in all different ways, because I feel like some people think of recovery only in relation to alcohol and drugs. And recovery is so true for so many things that we go through. A divorce is a period of recovery. We recover from the death of somebody we've loved. We recover from a lot of things, and that resilience that we build can only help us unlock more potential within ourselves. So I want to thank everybody for being with us, Dr. Wheeler, for being with us on the relationship blueprint today, where you unlock your power of connection. And perhaps you'll look into seeing a doctor for yourself, even if you just rule out something you've been worried about. You can go see someone like Jana and find out more if there's anything more for you that you have maybe ignored. So have a great day, everybody, and we'll see you next time on the Relationship Blueprint. Bye.