AcadianaCasts Presents:
AcadianaCasts Presents:
Men's Mental Health Unmasked with Allen Green of Greenhouse Psychiatric Services
The mask of masculinity has kept too many men silent about their mental health. In this powerful episode, psychiatric provider Allen Green shares his personal battle with lifelong depression and suicidal thoughts—publicly for the first time.
Now the owner of Greenhouse Psychiatric Services, Green uses his experience to break the stigma around men's mental health. He sheds light on how depression often looks different in men, the dangerous myths of "toughness," and how physical and mental health are deeply connected. From the gut-brain link to ketamine therapy, this episode is full of insights that could save lives.
AcadianaCasts Presents: Allen Green
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If you're struggling, call or text 988, or reach out to Greenhouse at 337-247-7282. You can also visit NAMI Acadiana (https://www.namiacadiana.org/) National Alliance on Mental Illness. There is hope—and you're not alone.
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Thank you to our amazing sponsor, Love of People Nonprofit! Visit their website www.loveofpeople.org to start "Helping Others Help Others"!
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"AcadianaCasts Presents" is the Flagship Podcast of the ACADIANACASTS NETWORK. Lafayette, LA based host, Carter Simoneaux talks with entertainers, business owners, athletes, chefs, and more - anyone who can help tell the story of Acadiana.
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If you want to watch this episode on YouTube, check out our channel! You can also watch the show on the KLFY+ App via Roku, Apple or Amazon Fire Stick
And I think that is the biggest issue is that we're just, it's literally just ingrained into our consciousness that you know, mental health is weakness and it's not.
Speaker 2:Glad to have you. I'm Carter Semino, host of Acadiana Cast Presents. Go to acadianacastcom today to get started on your content creation journey. From podcasts, live streams to social media reels. We can help you any step of the way. A full turnkey service for content creation right here in the hub city, lafayette, louisiana, servicing South Louisiana. So if you're catching this out in New Orleans, we can help you out too, over in Lake Charles. Why not Come over Natchitoches? I'm not so sure about you North Louisiana folks, but you know, give us a ring, maybe we can help you out in more ways than you think we can. Seriously, folks, go to AcadianaCastcom to start your journey today in the world of content creation.
Speaker 2:Today's episode is brought to you by Love of People, nonprofit from the Blue Monday Mission, which has the Blue Monday Jam every second Monday of the month, raising money for the aging musician population, also putting the younger generation of musicians with the older generation, where they can learn from these Grammy Award winners and Louisiana Music Hall of Famers in real time, get some valuable stage experience and be able to pick their brains. It's such a beautiful night, you've got to go check that out. Also right now is the Williams Bros Diaper Drive, the 10th annual Williams Bros Diaper Drive, where we're collecting all kinds of diapers children, adults all sizes, wipes and puppy pads that will be donated to Acadiana Animal Aid that latter, but this has been going on for 10 years. They've helped thousands of families here in Acadiana who are in need of just a little bit of help. We'll have a distribution day at 1400 Northwest Evangeline Thruway, next to the Lafayette Visitor Center, on Saturday, july 26th. Until supplies last, you can come pick up some much-needed diapers. Go to loveofpeopleorg to find out about all the amazing things that they're doing for the community here in Acadiana.
Speaker 2:And speaking of the diaper drive, the channel partner for that is Alan Green with Greenhouse Psychiatric Services and that is also today's guest on Acadiana Cast Presents. I've gotten to know Alan pretty well over the past few years and this is a really powerful episode. You know he works in the world of mental health and he opens up about some very serious mental issues of his own and also provides some great tips for people, specifically men, who maybe are suffering in silence. It's a powerful episode and it's one that I think can help a lot of people. It's something that we don't talk about enough as men and for those women who are watching or listening to this, this could be a great tool for you to learn how to better communicate with your partner or a loved one, that special male person in your life. So, without me rambling any further, all that being said, acadiana Cast presents Alan Green. Alan, you live in Youngsville now. Where are you from originally?
Speaker 1:Originally from Shreveport, so I don't know, born and raised in Shreveport, louisiana, actually, a little town called greenwood, louisiana, okay, uh, it's kind of like saying you're from maurice, you know, uh, but uh, I've been down here for about 17 years so I feel like I've kind of, you know, been accepted by the, the locals, as a, as one of their own and whenever you came.
Speaker 2:Why did you come down here?
Speaker 1:so I came down here for work. I was working for a company out of Dallas, texas, and we were going around Louisiana opening up branches of this company. I was the director of the company at the time, or the Louisiana branch of the company at the time, and I was traveling a lot. By the time we got down to Lafayette I had a couple friends of mine that were going to med school and they were doing their rotation here. I got tired of traveling as much as I was, so I decided to to to stick around. And then, you know, a few years later, it's when I when I met my wife, and you know, here I am.
Speaker 2:How did you get into? You know you now own Greenhouse Psychiatric Services. How did you get into the kind of the medical world, psychiatric?
Speaker 1:services. How did you get into the kind of the medical world? So originally I went into nursing. My goal was actually to become a nurse, anesthetist, crna had a couple family members that that were, you know, doing that and you know I had a child at a really young age. My original goal was to become a doctor, but I decided that med school might not be the most appropriate thing if I want to really be, you know, a dad or whatever, and decided to go into nursing to become a CRNA. About three quarters of the way through nursing school I went and worked with a CRNA and I looked at it and went oh gosh, what did I do? I cannot do this. I'm too uh, too antsy. I can't sit still that long, you know. And that's pretty much what they do. They put people to sleep, they sit there and they read the newspaper and hour or two later their job's over with. You know it's a lot more complicated than that.
Speaker 2:Well, my friend, my friend's mom, was a CRNA and one of the reasons why I went to UL to for a living I mean, that's pretty much what it is and I realized that that was not made for me.
Speaker 1:So, at that point in time I went and started working in the emergency room and loved it Fell in love with the emergency room.
Speaker 1:Is that when you met our friend John Williams? No, actually I didn't meet John until I moved to Lafayette, which was about five, six years into my nursing career. Five, six years into my nursing career and the company that I, you know, helped, you know, start up around here. What we were doing was we were inserting what's called a PICC line, and what that is is it's a catheter that goes into a patient's arm and goes down, you know, right above their heart. Pull up a PICC line, luke, and it's used for anything from IV antibiotics, you know, difficult to access, you know, vessels, nutrition, even so, they can do that.
Speaker 1:So I did that for about 13 years. Yep, there, it is, right there. So, you see, that goes in on the right side, right there where those little blue veins are, and it sits right at the top of the entrance of the heart. So I went around and put those in patients. Okay, wow, that's how I met John Williams. We were actually servicing one of the hospitals that he was working at, one of the long-term care facilities he was at, and you know, of course, he and I hit it off right away and you know, over the years, our relationship has blossomed into the brotherhood that it is today.
Speaker 2:So you know, throughout that time, you eventually get into starting your own business in greenhouse psychiatric services. Uh, what is it first off for those who don't know, and how did you eventually make that jump to doing your own thing?
Speaker 1:So the, uh, the, the, the pick line job kind of ran its course. And you know, at that point in time which we'll definitely talk about here in just a little bit, uh, cause it's, it's, it's part of the story. But, um, you know, I kind of got burned out with that and started looking for other things, was working with a friend of mine, uh, one of the physicians that uh, I was friends with, um, that was living here and he was opening up a business. So I kind of got into the business side of things. I went back and got a, you know, an MBA and was helping him kind of open up a business. He was in Well, through him I met some other people that eventually led me into my current business partners with my IV clinic and with Neuromand Infusion Center, which is the Ketamine Clinic and the Ketamine clinic.
Speaker 1:We were using that for uh treatment, resistant depression, ptsd, anxiety disorders. Um, we're still using that today. I mean, that company is still, you know, still rolling right now. Uh, but it was at that point where I started treating the depression patients, um, that were the, the, the worst depression you can imagine, because ketamine isn't a first line drug, it's a, you know, it's? It's it's kind of the break glass in case of emergency. Yeah, exactly, and um, whenever I witnessed the first complete 180, um, I knew right away. I was like okay, this is it. You know. And I mean, I was I don't know. This was probably about 10 years ago, and I knew right then. And there I was like, okay, I now know what I want to do for the rest of my life. I went home that day and I told my wife. I said I'm going back to school. I said I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, be a mental health provider. And so that's that's how this started.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah. So so you saw that and you saw the help that you can give folks and you've helped helped so many professionally in your time doing this, but I imagine that resonated with you for a reason. Can you take us into your own journey? Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you know, I think that that's that's why I think this, this topic that we're we're covering today, uh, is so important to me is because, yes, you know, I am a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner by trade. I treat patients for mental health issues, but what most people don't realize is that I'm also a mental health patient. Um, you know, I've battled mental health most of my life. I remember probably one of the very first times that I felt depression. I mean, of course, at that time I was about eight or nine years old, that I had no idea what it was and there was times throughout my life where I've really battled depression not just had it, but really battled it and I've lived with anxiety. I've. You know, one thing that only a handful of people, actually less than a handful of people on the face of this earth know about me is that Take your time, brother first time it's ever been said in public.
Speaker 1:So one thing that, you know, most people don't realize about me is that, um, you know, since I was about eight or nine years old, I've dealt with chronic suicidal ideations and, um, you know it, it, it's something that has plagued me most of my life, and that is why this is so important to me. Uh, because, unfortunately, at that time and you know, and thankfully, hey, I'm still here, uh, and I will always be here there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will always be here, um, until it's my time. But, uh, these, these thoughts are still there sometimes, even even where I'm at in life. Uh, it's something that we're not taught on how to deal with or what it is. And at the time, you know, when I was so young, you know, thankfully, I had such a strong support system all my life with my family, my friends, you know. But I think that that's really why this resonates so deeply with me is because I am part of this world. I do live in this mental health world. I don't just treat patients in it.
Speaker 2:So I'm kind of fascinated about this and, you know, I hope I appreciate you sharing your story. Um, but when it comes to, especially at an early age, these, these, these thoughts, uh, how abstract are they? How on the nose are they? Uh, as far as you know, wanting to self-harm.
Speaker 1:Um, it it's. You know, at that age they were never really very exact, very precise. They were never. They were. They were definitely like you said. They were definitely abstract. Um, it was more of just, uh, you know, thoughts of just wishing that I wasn't here anymore. Um, it was thoughts of, uh, you know, not knowing what to do with my life. You know what I mean. I dealt with, I dealt with bullying. I dealt with, you know, all those things throughout my life and uh, it, it was just thoughts of you know it'd probably be easier if I wasn't here. Uh, as I've grown older, those thoughts have turned deeper and darker. I guess is the way you look, can want to look at it. Um, there's been times where specific yeah, very, very specific.
Speaker 1:You know, there's been times where I fantasized about how I would do it, um, there's been times where, you know, I lay in bed in the morning and I'm so angry because I woke up, you know. And there's been times where I've gone to bed at night hoping that I don't wake up in the morning, um, and there's, there's there's always this kind of lingering thought of why, what did I do? What did I do to deserve this? Um, what is missing? Uh, how, how, how do I? How do I figure all this out? And you know, it's been there, like I said, most of my life. And again, that's what really drew me into mental health and wanting to help other people.
Speaker 2:So, before we get into how you've helped other people and you know, kind of addressing some of these signs and these thoughts and whatnot, how have you been able to battle that? Do you have? Is there any tips or tricks or, for lack of a better term, of of kind of facing these or like you feel yourself getting into this spot or this, this state, this mental state. Do you know little things to get yourself out of it?
Speaker 1:Well, I think my story's probably unique to me. Um, you know, I have, uh, I have been fortunate that, again, my support system has always been been there. Uh, you know, I was raised in a really strong religious family and, uh, that has always been a, a a key factor of of of, I think, why I'm still here today. Uh, but I learned and this is why I think it's very unique to me I learned that through helping other people, that that's my medicine and that's why I really feel as if I was put here for this. This is why I'm so adamant that I want other men to hear this story and that's why I think that I'm okay with being a little bit vulnerable, even though this is the very first time that I've ever spoken about this outside of my wife and my best friends. That's it.
Speaker 2:Well, I've definitely dealt with a lot of anxiety in recent years, to the point of having like panic attacks on the interstate where I can't use my hands, having to use my elbows to pull the steering wheel off. Off the road I was able to pull into like a waffle house. I couldn't even put my car in park, um, so I'm trying to weigh people down like a t-rex, yeah, and then these people look at me like I'm freaking lun'm, like I am, but help, I think I'm having a stroke. And then, you know, emts come and, thank God, someone finally was like I think he's not being silly, like he needs help. Emts come and you know, I remember the EMT telling me she was like I was like I think I don do. I look, you know, whatever she's like, I was like I've never had a stroke before. I had a thing. I had a buddy who just like had one around my age and so it was kind of like in my head. That's what it was.
Speaker 2:And she's like oh no, no, buddy, you're having a, you're having a panic attack, and I was like oh okay, um, so kind of learning myself about myself through that, and I think I have dealt with some depression and it because, like you're not really taught what that is. It took me a while to recognize like what I'm dealing with is in fact of a form of depression, because I, you know, I was just like not wanting to get out of bed, I was like I'm just tired or like maybe it's my diet, maybe I could be a play a role in it 100. But uh, it took me a while to accept and recognize that, oh, I'm depressed in this moment or dealing with this, and so, luckily, I also have a great support system and I seek treatment to help. I'm a lot in a better state today than I am when I was a few years ago. But so many of us men and June is Men's Health Awareness Month Mental health is such a big part of it.
Speaker 2:That's why we're having you on here today and I appreciate you sharing your story. But why do so many men struggle in silence?
Speaker 1:It's society, you know, and I put the full blame on society. That's what.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you Is it like a nature versus nurture thing? Yeah, I mean— Are we predisposed as men to kind of keep things in as a defense mechanism, or is it a societal?
Speaker 1:I don't think we're predisposed at all. I think you know. I think what the problem is is that, from from the time we're, we're, we're a little child I mean, how many times have have, have you heard your, your, your parents or anybody, even your friends, or whatever? When something's going on, hey, hey, suck it up, put some dirt on it, move on. Um, you know we gotta be the protector, the provider, we gotta be tough.
Speaker 1:You know that masculinity, that literally the mask that we're taught as a kid to wear, um, that part of it has unfortunately led to what my biggest battle today is, and that's trying to decrease the stigma around mental health, especially in men. Um, because we're, we're always told, you know, we got to be tough, we got to. You know, we can't, we can't burden other people with our problems. And as soon as I tell you that something's going on in my life, well, guess what? Guess what? That's now your problem? In reality, it's not.
Speaker 1:You know, um, and I think that is the biggest issue, is that we're just we're, it's literally just ingrained into our consciousness that you know, mental health is weakness and it's not, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's real. Mental health is real. You know, nobody bats an eye. When someone has a stroke or a heart attack or breaks their arm, what happens when you have a heart attack? Fifteen people go to the hospital and come visit you and bring you flowers and gifts and stuff like that. But you know how many people come visit my patients in the hospital? Very few you know, and that's the unfortunate part about it, and I think that it's just the stigma that we as a society have created is why now men have such a struggle talking about this.
Speaker 2:It does seem like in recent years, there have there has been a push to kind of remove that stigma against men and you know it's part of the work that you do while we're having this conversation is a further that that that conversation and removing the stigma Do you think part of the society that we, that we live in in 2025, with the access to all the information in the world in our pocket? Do you think that plays a role in the diagnoses of people, of men with mental health issues? Or is it maybe part of these conversations that people are seeking help more?
Speaker 1:I do see a light. You know it's a very dim light right now, Uh, but I do see a light. I do see more men open and and thankfully, the men that I'm seeing more open are the younger generations and that is showing me some, some hope. Hope, you know, because, uh, it's still a struggle with men my age and older, you know it's. We're still in that that mindset of we can't show our weakness. We can't, you know, we can't let that mask down and talk about our, our struggles with depression and our struggles with with anxiety and stuff like that. You know. But you know, one thing I did want to mention is is specifically about depression and how it looks in men, um, because sometimes I feel like it's it's missed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's. There's, either either by friends or a partner, even doctors and people in the medical field. It's easily.
Speaker 1:It's easily easily missed. Because what do we think? Depression is Crying sadness, you know those kind of things. But when it comes to men, because of our mask, because we're hiding and holding and trying to lock all this in, it usually comes out with that very irritable mood, the lashing out the things like that. You know that very irritability, you know. Irritable mood, the lashing out the things like that.
Speaker 1:Uh, withdrawing, um, you know, overworking ourselves, that's one thing that I did. You know I was constantly doing something else. I was constantly, you know it's turned out in my benefit. But a lot of these things that I now do, all the volunteer work, all the, you know, the, the companies that I'm, I'm in, all those different things, a lot of those were my way of coping and because if I slowed down, then now, all of a sudden, I got to deal with my own emotions, um, but so that's one big thing.
Speaker 1:Um, porn's a big one. You know, a lot, of, a lot of men revert to porn because we get that dopamine, bush, you know, and it's just like, hey, a little bit of dopamine makes me feel better. So, drugs, alcohol, um, just turning in on ourselves and just not talking anymore, you know those are how things look in men and why a lot of times it gets missed. Because on the outside things look okay. You know this person's. They own three companies, they've got a nice house and a car and family and everybody's successful. And you know they got a smile on their face but inside they're dying.
Speaker 2:Not to necessarily play devil's advocate, but it's kind of half my personality. But could there be an argument to be made that? Okay? First let me backtrack real quick. What specifically does your practice do Like? If I wanted to go and get seek like CBT therapy, you're not the person that I would necessarily talk to, so I do strict at Greenhouse.
Speaker 1:We do strictly medication management, but we are, you know, we have several counselors that work in a separate company within our office. We've got other providers, we've got a functional medicine provider at our office. We refer patients out, we do all kinds of things, but Greenhouse specifically does medication management.
Speaker 2:Okay, as far as the sit-down therapy CBT, was it cognitive behavioral therapy? Sit down therapy CBT was a cognitive behavioral therapy. Um, could the argument be made that focusing so much on our issues and talking about this all the time makes us revert back to it and always thinking about it instead of? You know, for some people, going and being busy is the cure?
Speaker 1:Well, that that can be true, okay, in a sense. Okay, when we start going to therapy and when we start talking to other you know, talking out of our, our problems and stuff, if we've been hiding it for so long, yes, in the very beginning, some of these emotions are going to come out. Some of these things are going to, uh, potentially get worse before they get better. That's where medication can help, you know, and that's why we use medication a lot of times is to give ourselves a little bit of breathing room until we can get to that, that, that part where we start to get relief from these symptoms. But what you said about covering it up or, you know, working and stuff, that's what it's doing. We're just covering up, we're not dealing with it. It's still being stuffed, it's still growing like a cancer inside of us because we're not doing anything about it.
Speaker 2:Interesting, Now let's talk numbers. The suicide rate in men is crazy the disparity it's astronomical. What do we need to understand about these numbers? Can you share with us?
Speaker 1:I think these numbers should hopefully be a wake-up call for many, but three out of every four suicides is a man.
Speaker 2:Is that in?
Speaker 1:the United States. It's in the United States, yeah, there is about 130-ish men that die by suicide every single day, so that comes out, I think, to about one every 14 minutes, or something like that. Um, and here's where it gets really scary. Only 36% of the people in America that are seeking mental health care are men, so we have the highest rate of suicide. Also, we're actually more likely than women to complete suicide, usually by much more deadly ways, um, but yet only 36% of the mental health population are men getting help.
Speaker 2:You could just throw in those numbers at me when I gave you the devil's advocate scenario.
Speaker 1:We've got to cover all sides of this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, right, yeah, we're thorough here. But not to make light of there, I go again using that humor as a defense mechanism when I'm uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Again, as a man, that's what we do. We have our defense mechanisms, because this is an uncomfortable topic, yeah, and it's what I hope that this podcast is going to start to lighten a little bit. And I think that's why I wanted to get vulnerable in front of people to get, you know, get vulnerable in front of people and, uh, it's, it's. It's not to gain sympathy or to gain anything like that. I just want other men that, you know. I mean, I consider myself a pretty masculine man. You know what I mean. I grew up hunting, fishing, you know, doing all those things. I can build things, I things I can, you know, I can protect my family or whatever, uh, but I'm also strong enough to be vulnerable what role does shame play in some of these numbers that we're seeing?
Speaker 1:it goes back to the, the, the, the, the mask thing, and and shame is exactly why men are not getting help, because as soon as I come back and tell you, hey, I'm having thoughts of wanting to hurt myself, well, why are you doing that? Why do you have those feelings? You know?
Speaker 2:man up.
Speaker 1:You know that's why? Because the response is typically well, what do you have to want to hurt yourself for? You're successful, You've got a great family, you make a lot of money, you do all this and whatnot. But you know you shouldn't want to hurt yourself. Well, now I'm shamed because now you just shut me down, and so I think that's where where it kind of begins, and then it literally snowballs from from that, because once I shame you, you're never going to seek help again. I see that happen way too often.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about people getting help. Like you said, it's a daunting task to seek help and to start some sort of therapy or acknowledge that something is wrong as men. But for those who are too afraid or nervous to start therapy, where can they start?
Speaker 1:So that's a great thing. You know, I don't want every man or woman that you know watches this or listens to this to think, oh, I've got to go to therapy, oh, I've got to be started on medication. Listens to this to think, oh, I've got to go to therapy, oh, I've got to be started on medication. You know, sometimes these, these things can start with with simple life changes, you know, I mean, how many times have you gone to the gym, walked out of the gym and felt better? Well, guess why? Because working out, lifting weights, doing these kinds of, these kinds of things, they do the exact same things that the medicine that I prescribe does. It just takes a little bit longer, and that's. But if you're not to the level of break, if you're not ready to off it, if you're ready, you know, to make a change and you're not so severe yet, which is what my, my push for this is go to the gym. You know, text your friend you don't have to tell them just yet but hang out with your buddy. You know, uh, I think that that, that, that companionship, that brotherhood, is a huge component, and honestly, it's one of my biggest components, uh, of of my healing process.
Speaker 1:I lived in the gym and every time I went in there sometimes I didn't want to go there, but I knew that this was what I had to do to make myself feel better. Because even when I didn't, even before I understood what it was doing in my brain, I knew that I felt better. You know your diet. Sometimes we can change our diet up. Gut health inflammation in our gut is automatically going to lead to inflammation in our brain.
Speaker 1:So, doing things like that, little small steps we don't just have to automatically go, you know, feel sad one day and then you know, call me and say, hey, I need medication. That's not what it always is, but taking those little small steps might keep you from having to get to that next level. But in terms of you know, once you get to that level, if, if, if, if you just reach out to someone, um, to just maybe bend their ear a little bit, you might learn a lot. And when I say that, I mean you know, call my office. You know, or maybe you see this podcast and you want, you want to talk to me specifically, heck, dm me. You know, I don't, I'm here for it, but those kinds of things is where we start little bitty, small steps each day to help ourselves to that bigger ending.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the I need to get back in the gym. It's getting, it's getting rough over here, um, but I've had such poor technique and I would throw my back out and it would discourage me and whatnot. But I've learned through the help of our friends over at rise physical therapy and sports lab to treat my body better. And you know, just you know what no more deadlifts for you. How about that? Just there you go. No more deadlifts for you. How about that? Just there you go. No more deadlifts. Um, but I've heard rogan talk about it before. You know as far as mental health goes, and you know doing hard things, but if he can push himself to do something very difficult and hard in the gym, it makes the rest of his day the whole day.
Speaker 1:it makes so much easier, right, and that's exactly you know what. What I think other men need to need to hear and need to see is that if I can do this one hard task, I guarantee you the rest of your day. Not only is it going to be easier, but you know, there, there are certain chemicals in our brain that, um, you know that helped to almost reset the brain. Uh, and when we work out, those are released. One specifically is called BDNF, and it is what helps to repair our brain. It's what helps with my favorite word, you know, shoot, we're going to have to start that over, because I just literally just blanked out with what I was about to say.
Speaker 2:Oh man, it's all good, I can cut around it, if you just remember the word.
Speaker 1:I'm completely lame right now.
Speaker 2:Neuroplasticity.
Speaker 1:Yes, god dang, yeah, nice, good job.
Speaker 2:Solid, all right.
Speaker 1:You know, when we go to the gym, our brain releases what's called BDNF, and what that does is it actually helps to repair our brain. And you know one of my favorite terms neuroplasticity. That is actually regrowing neurons in our brain. And when we create that and we turn that into a positive neural pathway, now we're starting to get somewhere. We're starting to to to repair this, these negative you know cycles. There's negative depression, um, that doesn't just happen while you're in the gym. When you leave the gym, there's another two or three hours where that's still rolling. That's still building new positive neural pathways and if we do that consistently over time, we're going to create those positive changes in our brain.
Speaker 2:The other thing you mentioned was the brotherhood aspect. I went to St Paul's in Covington, an all-guy Catholic school, eighth grade through senior year, and whenever I came to UL most of my friends were at LSU. I was at LSU my entire life. My parents weren't there, but kind of followed a girl and came to UL. Well, she was on the soccer team so I never got to see her. When I first got there, my couple friends from st paul's who came here were on the cross-country team. Never saw them and so I was having trouble, you know finding that pack again.
Speaker 2:That you know that brotherhood, uh, beyond just, you know texting some friends, but you know they're living their lives going to college somewhere else. Or you know some didn't go to school, they went straight to work. Um, and it gets a lot of guff nowadays. But my mom said you know what, go through Rush, go through Fraternity Rush. Let me know how, if it's not too expensive, your father and I will help you pay for it. Because she saw the value in me, needing that brotherhood, that male connection, and went through Rush and I was like Mom, it's like $90 a month. And she's like that's it All right yeah, we'll help you out with that.
Speaker 2:Let's go Compared to like LSU and those other places and, like I said, fraternities get a bad rap a lot of times good reason. But the biggest value that I saw in it and learned was that brotherhood, that connection, having some of these conversations late at night with some of my brothers about man, without this I was lost and I kind of was in the same boat. I was lost and this found me a kinship that was really well needed. And as we get older in life and people start developing their own families, friends start to dissipate what are simple. You know simple ways that men can connect with each other Well, besides like going to the bar and meeting them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's probably not the best place to do it, but you know. Going back to the gym, you know I can't tell you how many friends I've made at the gym.
Speaker 2:I'm sure Luke attested that as well.
Speaker 1:You know how, how often do you walk in the gym and you know it may not happen the first day you're there, but you know there was a meme going around, uh, you know social media, not not too long ago, uh, that I saw it was how, how friendship develops in the gym and it was like the first scene was, you know, they kind of head nodded each other. And the next, you know, the next time they see each other, they, you know they, they they might fist bump or something. And the next time they're like, hey, can I get a? You know, and then all of a sudden you've got a friend, you know, it's just like you know, and so it develops like that, um, but that's just one example and you never know where it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Um, but the, the brotherhood aspect of it is, it is one of those important things that, unfortunately, there are a lot of people who aren't going to have that. Yeah, um, there's, there's a lot of isolation, you know, in this world and, uh, that's unfortunate. You know, and I've been, I've been lucky enough and blessed that I have an amazing, uh, you know, group of friends and uh, that I can lean on.
Speaker 2:But you know, if you don't have that, like I said, well, that is probably the best, the best way, sure, but that is one of the beauties of the internet is that people who maybe are more isolated can find these, these common groups yes, absolutely, that's a great. I'm glad you brought that up yeah, nerds like luke will get on twitch with his friends and play video games absolutely wee hours of the morning I have a.
Speaker 1:I actually have a patient in my clinic who, um, I spoke with not too long ago and you, one of the things that he did say to me was man, I just feel lonely sometimes, you know, and I'm like, well, I get it. And I was like, well, you know, aren't you in school right now? And you know he said, yeah, but I just have a hard time finding you know that I can make friends. And I was like, well, don't you play video games? He goes that you've connected with, not just played the game with. He's like, yeah, there's probably a couple there. And I'm like, well, maybe we start there. Why don't you send a message to that person and just see what's up? That's how it starts. It doesn't have to be from day one hey, we're best friends. All of a sudden, it's going to start small. It's going to start with that head nod or, if you're online, you know, send that message say, hey, what's up?
Speaker 2:several of my very closest friends I've met and, in turn, met in person because of online gaming and everything like that. So yeah, oh yeah, there's to that it's, there's a lot of different ways that we can.
Speaker 1:we can, you know, meet people um and, if you can, I definitely encourage you and I understand it's. It's hard. I was a shy person, I know probably don't seem that amongst my, my, my, my people here, but it's because I'm comfortable here.
Speaker 2:Now you back to your practice and your patients. You use, you've used like a functional lens with your patients and you kind of mentioned the gut health and how that can a hidden sign that that's doing some mental bad for back of letter term lack of a better term, excuse me, um, but what are some other kind of hidden health issues so that that's an excellent thing to discuss right now, because I think one of the biggest, the biggest key points that I want people to understand with this is that mental health doesn't always mean that your mind's broken or that you've you know, you've got some sort of trauma.
Speaker 1:I mean, sometimes it is an inflamed gut. Like I said, you know, inflamed gut equals an inflamed brain. Um, if we, if we can get your gut biome working, you know, um, we're going to, we're going to help your mood. Uh, one thing that that I've I've I've kind of recently been focused on is that our gut is not just there to digest our food. It's, it's actually co-authoring our mood. That's insane.
Speaker 1:And yeah, it's, you know, and so I don't have the ability within greenhouse to do gut health testing to the magnitude that it really needs to, but I I do have, um, uh, a provider, um, that uh that does this and, um, emily is a functional medicine uh provider and she does this extensive gut health testing if needed. And you know, going off of that, I don't remember what the statistic was, but there there has been some evidence that I mean I want to say it's greater than like 80 or 85% of patients with depression, um, have a terrible, you know, uh, gut biome, have a terrible you know gut biome, wow, and and that that that, right there, speaks volumes of why it's important to get our diet right. But it's not just about our gut health, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean, you look at some, some men and you, you, you think about some of the symptoms of depression. You know the sadness, the, the, the lack of energy, the, the poor sleep quality, the, the, the low motivation, the disinterest in things that should be interested, you know, in, especially like sex and things like that. Um, those are symptoms of depression, but they're also symptoms of low testosterone. So when I get a man that comes in the office and those symptoms are, you know, spat out like that. I'm like you may not be really depressed, you might just have low testosterone which is leading to your depression, and that's where the functional medicine side of things come in, and from that point they're going to get a referral to Emily.
Speaker 2:What is the age that a man should get their t levels tested? Because it's such in like the zeitgeist right now yeah, that's a.
Speaker 1:That's a sticky situation and, and you know, if you'd asked me that question five, ten years ago, I'd say, oh, you're probably good until you're about 40 plus. The sad news is is because of I the the crap that's in our diet and in the environment that you know we've allowed, um, I'm seeing men as young as 30, you know, and even younger sometimes, um, that are showing evidence of low testosterone. And you know we typically don't start treating testosterone until your levels are around 300. But that's what the level of about a 60-year-old man should be. But that was 50 years ago.
Speaker 1:Today we're seeing that as early as you know late 20s, early 30s. So if I see the symptoms, I really don't put an age on it. Now, the unfortunate part about it is, once you start testosterone, you're going to be on testosterone for the rest of your life. So if you are younger than you know late 30s I'm not going to encourage you to go get on testosterone replacement. There are other methods that we can utilize up to that point. Hopefully that we'll try at least before we start placing patients on testosterone.
Speaker 2:What's in our food is such a relevant topic right now in the national that we'll try at least before we start placing patients on testosterone. What's in our food is such a relevant topic right now in the national sphere With RFK, we want to do these changes of getting things like red dye out of our food and things like that. If you were to advocate to Louisiana legislature, for example, what are some things that you would try to advocate? It doesn't necessarily have to be food related, but maybe it can be. But in regards to improving the mental health of men in this state, you know to.
Speaker 1:to be honest, I don't. I don't know enough about that really to speak to a depth on it, but where my mind goes is why can't I have the food that they're they're given those over there, you know, across the pond, right, why are, why are, why are? Why is the exact same food over there got 80% less ingredients in it than what the exact food here has? That's what I would say. I want to. I want to eat what they're eating over there. You know now, I'm not saying that their mental health over there is perfect. I'm sure there's plenty of other issues that they're battling with over there, but that's where I would start is let's get all this junk out of the food. Let's quit focusing on food for profit and let's go with food for nutrition and food for mental health. I think if we can just think about it like that, they'll get all that stuff out of there.
Speaker 2:We love our food in South Louisiana. Yes, we do, they'll get all that stuff out of there. We love our food in South Louisiana. Yes, we do what should we, you know? Treat yourself right. Of course, the joie de vivre, enjoy the spoils of life and such, but, you know, in moderation, I think Absolutely. But what are some foods specific to Louisiana? Or maybe that's in our diet here that we should be on the lookout for Positive foods.
Speaker 1:Sure, seafood, okay, I mean, we're, we're, we're in the Mecca of it. You know, if we can, if we can, incorporate more fish and seafood into our diets, those, those types of foods are anti-inflammatory and those types of foods are component of what what we know as the Mediterranean diet. Uh, the Mediterranean diet, it's really the biggest one that has been studied in terms of mental health. Um, but the Mediterranean diet has been shown, in mild to moderate depression, to decrease symptoms by up to about I think it's like 60, 70%, something like that Um, which is about equivalent to what medication does. So if we can just start incorporating more, more of that fish, more of that seafood I mean, I guess you could probably put crawfish in there so, hey, we're winning there, um, but, uh, that is anti-inflammatory. That's the key thing.
Speaker 1:Look at anti-inflammatory Um. Again, I'm not a nutritionist and I don't know enough about the diet side of things. Thankfully I have, you know, people on my team that know more about it than I do. Uh, but that is probably one of the biggest, biggest things is trying to find more ways to decrease inflammation within our body. And you know, here in South Louisiana, with the, you know, with all the gumbo and with all the you know, the rice and gravies and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I love them as much as everybody else, but they're not doing anything if we're eating them every day.
Speaker 1:But, like you said, just everything in moderation. Enjoy life, because if you're not, that's going to affect your mental health as well.
Speaker 2:Are the anti-inflammatories removed when you batter it and fry it?
Speaker 1:You know, probably not. Anti-inflammatory is removed when you batter it and fry it. You know, um, probably not, especially when you're. You know, when you're you're, you're frying it in seed oils and all of that. Yeah, yeah, uh. There's nothing worse for our bodies than these, these seed oils. I don't know if you've ever watched a seed oil being made, but it is absolutely disgusting.
Speaker 2:It's so, it's so gross and yeah, I mean, and I was just telling you the other day that I got, I finally got on that yuca app and so I've been scanning all my food. I love that thing cares the hell out of me everything yes, everything there's there's.
Speaker 1:there's hardly anything, unfortunately in in today's, you know, mass-produced, mass-produced, you know profit-driven uh world, that unfortunately includes our, our food that we eat and you, and that does have a huge impact on the inflammation within our bodies and unfortunately, I don't see any way out of it unless you go out and catch your own or do all of that.
Speaker 2:Beardy-ass corporations, the gut health thing. Going back to to that real quick, it just reminded me that I made the mistake recently. It's scrolling through instagram and I saw an ad for something that says it's not beer belly, it's cortisol belly. I'm like, oh, okay, it's not the beer, please tell me more so I can continue that lifestyle. Uh, but you know, learning a little bit about, you know the cortisol, yes, can you explain? Uh?
Speaker 1:so cortisol is a stress hormone. Um, I like to explain cortisol to people of you know, think about it like coffee. All right, a couple cups of coffee, probably actually beneficial for our bodies. Okay, cortisol can help to reduce stress. It can help to give us a little bit of energy. It can help us stay, you know, help our wake wakeful cycle does help with our mood as well.
Speaker 1:But the problem is is what happens when you drink nine cups of coffee, or 10 cups of coffee, or you know, three energy drinks in a day that are all 200 plus milligrams of caffeine? I go really fast, mind your business. Well, unfortunately, when we're, when we're looking at the, you know the recommended allowance of caffeine, we're just a little bit too overboard with it. So if you think about cortisol in the same way of way too much caffeine, you know way too much caffeine is just going to cause us this inflammation. You know it's going to cause the stress, it's going to cause the anxiety.
Speaker 1:And the problem is is that when this is done over and over and over on a daily basis and that cortisol level never has an opportunity to come down, because we're only sleeping three hours a night and you know we're eating fried food every day and we're drinking, you know, eight to 900 milligrams of caffeine per day. We're never letting that cortisol come down. So we're constantly at an elevated level. Well, unfortunately, one of the bad things about cortisol is when it's at that level, it's, it's, it's literally breaking our brains down and those, you know that, the those neural pathways that we were talking about creating and building positive. Well, cortisol is blunting all of that and the ability for our brain to actually repair ourself.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, um, I know we want to give kind of a message to folks dealing with these mental issues, but before we get to that I want to talk to you about some of the practices that you're kind of in that world. And you mentioned earlier ketamine as a treatment option and I feel like still to this day you're feeling the effects of the war on drugs and some of the propaganda that was pushed out of the war on drugs and some of the propaganda that was pushed out they were still kind of feeling that. And when you hear the word ketamine in treatment or you hear psilocybin treating like PTSD, a lot of people, especially those who grew up in that era of real disinformation, they kind of scoff at it like, oh, that's terrible, but what have you seen and are you an advocate for these? I guess non-traditional means of help.
Speaker 1:I cannot wait until the FDA gets out of our way and allows us to start utilizing these natural substances, like psilocybin, that are grown right out of the earth, that have been shown time and time and time again to be beneficial when used appropriately.
Speaker 1:That's where I become the advocate is, as a mental health provider that understands what these medications you know for PC you know you know, uh, but the changes that these things make in our brain ketamine, psilocybin, mdma, um, lsd, you know, all of these substances have been shown to actually go in. And again, going back to that neurogenesis, they have been shown to creating positive neural pathways in parts of our brain that have been just completely broken down for years, if not decades. And those are the patients that we see that medication doesn't work, or you know, we call them difficult to treat, symptoms like difficult to treat depression, difficult to treat PTSD. They used to be called treatment resistant depression. But that is where we're now starting to create these new pathways that allow things like exercise and medicine and counseling to actually start doing the job that it was intended to do.
Speaker 2:This is, you know, fda. Get out the way. That's every government agency in my opinion.
Speaker 1:I'm probably going to lose my license if this gets too far out, you know.
Speaker 2:It should be a state issue and it should be decided by folks like you who are in the field, doing this work and seeing the impact that these things are having on people, to give them the option, in a responsible manner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got a patient right now that we're fighting and we're trying to get him in to be able to do ketamine. But he's currently in the military and unfortunately, you know militaries, their hands are tied by the government and he can't get it until he gets out of the military and I know that's not the same for everybody that's in the military. But this particular patient and his job, they will not allow him to get ketamine. When I have tried, I don't even know I mean upwards of 10 different medications on this patient and we're just kind of just keeping him on that. You know that the cusp of of of getting better, but we just can't quite get there. I know ketamine will do it, I have no doubt in my mind. I've seen it happen over and over and over again. I just I can't get him there.
Speaker 2:Scientifically, what is ketamine?
Speaker 1:All I know of it is referred to as horse tranquilizer yeah, and that's the unfortunate part and I wish that you know. So, you, you look at you, you look at what it was used for originally it was. It was created um, oh man, I think it was created back in like the 30s or 40s or maybe even earlier than that. But uh, it was created to kind of help soldiers on the battlefield that needed to be moved or they needed to do some sort of you know, procedure right there on the battlefield. So if you give someone ketamine, what does it do? It tranquilizes them. Yeah, if you give them all of it right there at one time. Well, imagine, you know, when you have surgery or whatever, and you start to, you know, when you, when you have surgery or whatever, and you start to, you know, they give you the sedation and your respiratory drive goes away and now they have to intubate. You Imagine having to intubate a horse. That's where ketamine became used for horses, because it it's almost impossible to end in. You know, intubate a horse while you've got to do a procedure on a horse. But it wasn't created for horses, it was created for us.
Speaker 1:And then society has now said, oh, that's a horse tranquilizer. Well, yeah, of course it's a horse tranquilizer because it works, but in low doses, given over an extended period of time. It doesn't tranquilize us. It doesn't even put us to sleep. It puts us into a very blissful state that allows our bodies to heal. That's what people need to understand, is it's it can be used for.
Speaker 1:Look it's on the world health 20 most essential medications. I mean, come on, you know, and I think we all know of of you know you mentioned Joe Rogan a while ago. We all know of a medication that was on the World Health you know essential medication list that he kind of got, you know, beat up about Ivermectin. Yep Ketamine is the same way. You know it's got this bad rep and it's unfortunate because it is beautiful. I've personally witnessed it change dozens and dozens and dozens of lives. It's literally the reason that I am in the position that I am in today with my career is because I watched it change people's lives over and over again. I knew I wanted to do that for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:Well, what would you say right now to a man who's listening to this episode and he's close to giving up?
Speaker 1:first and foremost, you're not broken. You're not, you're not damaged. There's a possibility it wasn't even your fault that you're feeling this way. Um, but just understand. There is hope, there is a way out. There are people that care, even strangers that care about you. I'm one of them.
Speaker 2:I haven't, I know I know there's someone listening right now that I've never met, I've never laid eyes on, I've never spoken to, but I already care about them because I know that they're feeling what I felt and if I had to say anything, it would be I'm still here, so can you beautifully said and we focused on, of course, the fellows, this episode, but I want to give a message to know the women in our lives our mothers, sisters, friends, girlfriends, wives, fiancees, whatever. Whatever have you, you know how can they help without pushing too hard and what should they look for in their partners.
Speaker 1:I think you said it. You said it great. How can they push without pushing too hard? And that is the first thing that I want to emphasize is, you know, be gentle, because until, until their vulnerability has been lessened and until they get to a comfortable state, their ego is not going to allow someone to push too hard. So be gentle. And if I had to say one thing, and the most important thing that I would say to any woman, whether it's mom, spouse, sister, you know, friend, ask If you notice that some man in your life is just a little off, that something's just not normal about that person right now. Ask.
Speaker 2:Women tend to be a little more perceptive than us, fellas.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. But what I really want to emphasize is ask and then ask and then ask Okay, because that, done in a gentle manner, is going to eventually allow a man to open up, and that is what we need to focus on. Don't don't come at a man Well, you know you are this way, you're acting like this. Just say you know, I've noticed that you know you're, you're a little bit off, or I've noticed that your mind is not in the same place that it used to be. I don't want to fix you, cause that's big. Don't fix, don't try to fix your man, don't try to fix the man in your life. Let let let me do that, let me work on that later on. Let the counselor try to do that. Just open the door for that person, because right now they see themselves as this unbreakable rock. But if you ask and you ask, you might just make a crack in that rock. That allows them to to be able to open up at a later time. So if you can just approach it gently, that's, that's that. That I think that's gonna that's gonna be very important is just be gentle, ask and don't try to fix them. Just let them know that you're there, let them, know that, that you hear them, that you see them, and I think a lot of men that's just what they want.
Speaker 1:They want to be heard, they want to know that they're not alone. You know, and I think that you know, going back to my story is, for decades of my life I just felt alone and, of course, I didn't have, you know, the knowledge about mental health that I have now, but I didn't know, scared to reach out to anybody, I was scared to talk about it because, of course, I had the same mask over my face. I, you know, I was, uh, I was raised with a very loving but very stern father and you know, he, he taught me to be tough, he taught me to, you know, to, to not put my burdens on other people, and that mass stuck with me for a very long time and, you know, it wasn't until I finally became comfortable with, you know, with my, my current support system, um, that I felt okay, being able to, to open up, and it's because, you know, my wife didn't push, she was just there and she listened.
Speaker 2:Shout out, shonda. Shout out you for coming on this and being open and vulnerable and sharing your story and for fighting that good fight for the men out there, here in Acadiana. And, you know, hopefully this can reach folks outside of it. It's the beauty of the internet we're going to have. In the show description, in the show notes, we're going to have all kinds of different resources, plus your business as well, that people can go and find Just off the top of your head. Is there anything that you can plug?
Speaker 1:I think the most important thing, number that anybody can remember is 988. Okay, this is the suicide hotline 988. You can call it, you can text it and the people on the other side of that hotline are not just, you know, medical providers. There probably aren't any medical providers out there. There are people that have been there, there are people that understand what you might be going through at that moment and they're just there to talk. That's probably the one most important number that I wish people would would understand, and they just recently changed their number to 988 to make it a little bit easier to remember. But if you're having those negative thoughts and you're, you don't know where to go, you don't know where to get help and you don't even know if you need help. Yet call or text 988.
Speaker 2:You can also call 337-247-7282. That is 337-247-7282, Greenhouse Psychiatric Services. Alan would love to see you and love to help you get your mental health journey going in the right, positive direction. Alan, once again, thanks for coming on the show. We end the show the same every single episode. You take a look at your single camera right there. I know you've been given messages of hope this entire episode, but this is one last time for you to plug your business. Give a message of hope any words of wisdom, any quotes, a phrase, anything that you want to end this episode with, to end the episode in part on the internet, world at large.
Speaker 1:The floor is yours, absolutely. And I wore this shirt on purpose because this is a, you know, shameless plug. This is my daughter's company. Um, she uh, opened up a company called fearless Christian designs and that's exactly the the. The reason I wore this shirt is because what I want men to understand is that we need to fear less. Not be fearless, just fear less. And if we can do that and reach out to one person, take that one little small step today. You're going to get better. You will.
Speaker 2:Thanks for checking out this week's episode of Acadiana cast presents. Make sure to follow us, subscribe, be a part of the Acadiana cast family wherever you're checking out this show, and if you liked what you saw or you liked what you heard from today's episode and you want to get involved in content creation or up your already ongoing projects, go to Acadiana castcom to get started. We can help you. From podcasts to live streams to social media reels, some graphic design and animation wherever you are in your content creation journey, we can help you out. Go to AcadianaCastcom to learn more and we'll see you next time here on Acadiana Cast Presents.
