Transcription
0:00:07
97.3 WZBG 8:22 once a month, third Wednesday of the month. Pretty much, varies a little bit. We have a visit with the McCall Behavioral Health Network. And this morning, I’m happy to have as my guest, someone I work with on a monthly basis because she is the Director of Development and Marketing, Marissa Mittelstadt. Marissa, welcome back to the show.
0:00:28
Thanks for having me.
0:00:29
It’s been a few months since we had you on the show. Last time you were here, you were sharing a journey that your brother is going through and about being in the fight with substance. And we’re going to revisit a bit this morning. The first thing I want to ask is how’s your brother doing at this time?
0:00:50
My brother is doing well. I’m really happy to say that.
0:00:53
Glad to hear.
0:00:54
Yes.
0:00:54
Excellent. So he’s been in the fight, but he’s doing better. But what we expanded on a little bit, and it gets to the broader topic this morning for us, which is really about patience, kindness, compassion with those who are in that fight, despite the setbacks, despite the disappointments, and the importance, I guess, of hanging in there, right?
0:01:15
Yeah, I mean, when we look back at my brother’s journey, and just for your listeners, a little background, he has been, you know, diagnosed with a mental health disorder, you know, that’s It’s severe, right? He goes into psychosis. He becomes manic. It’s challenging, right? And on top of that, there is substance use involved. dealing with this for over a decade now.
0:01:43
And it’s been filled with ups and downs, probably more downs than ups until recently. And I’m just so glad that we did not turn away from him in his darkest moments, because it was so difficult.
0:01:56
And that’s that’s the big part of it, too, is that that hanging there part. But that part’s not easy, right? You finally reached out and got therapy for your own role in this, right?
0:02:07
Yeah, I really, I did. I had to. It got to a point where I just realized I was doing things that were maybe detrimental to myself, you know, reaching for that wine more often or, you know, eating more food. I gained a lot of weight and I just, I just couldn’t do it on my own anymore. I feel like I’m a hyper -independent person too. And thought, I can do this, I can help him, I can save him.
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And you know what? I couldn’t, and I had to realize that.
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Why do you think it took you as long as it did to reach out for therapy?
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Jeez, that’s a good question.
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Well, I know we don’t have nearly enough time.
0:02:42
You’re right, we definitely don’t. I think this feeling of, I can handle this, I can do it. I can get him to get help.
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Right. So we all need to work together, don’t we? That importance of relying on the strength, knowledge, training of others to help us through this.
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Right.
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Yeah. Right. Yeah. My therapist was able to recognize like some patterns that I had of, you know, just trying to fix that situation. And what she told me, I was like, you know, you can’t, what’s going on is not, it’s very common, is what she also told me. She’s like, your situation is not unique.
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And I thought it was.
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So that was a big eye -opening moment to me.
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Yeah.
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I think a lot of group therapy is really about that, is that sense of, you know, camaraderie, that you’re not in it alone.
0:03:29
Absolutely.
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And I imagine at times being part of a family that’s in this fight, with your brother, even though you’re a family in this fight with your brother, you still felt alone. Absolutely. Like it’s some individual battle that you have to take on your way. Right.
0:03:44
And I felt that, you know, because my mom and my dad were really, you know, they’re taking the brunt of all of the financial consequences, housing consequences. I you know, I felt I had to be a support for them as well and really just, you know, step up in the family. So that was also challenging.
0:04:02
If you’re just joining us in the broadcast, Marissa Middlestaedt is Director of Development and Marketing for McCall Behavioral Health Network. And she’s relating a personal story here and about the importance of compassion and kindness and therapy and basically reaching out for help and being there for one another. When it comes to McCall, one of the things I’ve always been fascinated, blown away by, frankly, when I get folks like yourself or staff at McCall, how many have been through the fight against substance abuse, have been in the fight against mental illness, which can result to substance use. And that sense of, because they know what that’s like, it gives them a special perspective on helping those who are in it. Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s, when you join in or when you decide to opt into a therapy or a group, you realize you are really not alone.
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Like I said, your situation may not be unique. Everybody’s path is different and everybody’s path to healing will be different, but there’s a lot of commonality in the struggles that we face. And being able to talk to other people. Our staff at McCall, like you said, has a lot of experience, some personal and just also treating people. you know through therapy and groups and we have holistic therapy the yoga and reiki and all sorts of things to help um to help you along the way it’s just really wonderful and you just need a whole bunch of programs because the counterintuitive part is we just got done saying that that you know everybody’s got this commonality but everyone’s fight can be very individual and in terms of what works for them can be can be very individual as well.
0:05:38
Right. And I really think, you know, McCall does a great job of working with each, you know, family with each person to find out, like, what what path did they want to take? Right. What is your personal path to recovery? And your family’s path?
0:05:51
Because really addiction affects, and mental health disorders, they affect all of us, like everyone in the community cares. We’re about to hit the autumnal equinox, so we’re heading into fall. So we’ve got a little bit of a play on words and really falling back into things.
0:06:05
And if people have therapy, maybe I should talk to somebody. Isn’t it time to actually go and do it now? Absolutely. Check it off your to -do list. Let’s get in, make that phone call.
0:06:16
I know it’s scary, but I guarantee you, you will find some peace in that process. Absolutely. So our guest this morning, Marissa Mittelstadt, joining us from the McCall Behavioral Health Network. I wanted to get back to just one point. Again, I’m glad to hear that your brother is on a positive path. When we talk about therapy, is there a particular element, something that has helped him get to a better place or at a place that’s more positive toward a more successful place in his fight?
0:06:47
I think really the decision was his and his alone that he needed to get help to You know, get get through these challenges and become, you know, a more productive member of society. So he found basically a recovery coach, who then connected our family we speak almost weekly with this recovery coach, and it’s helped. guide our family. We’ve talked about things in a mediated way, things that we’ve needed to talk about for a long time. It’s brought us closer together. It brought that connection out of that isolation that often happens with mental health disorders and substance use disorders.
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So I think that has made a huge difference and it’s also connected him to other resources.
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Like he didn’t have glasses.
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His glasses broke. He was able to get, you know, his glasses fixed.
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He was able to go to a doctor and You know with support of this recovery coach to address his diabetes that he’s been struggling with so really all of these connections that have been made through this help has put him in a much better place today. So don’t give up if you’re in that fight because that one step, that one person, that one coach or therapy might be the one that helps you get to that to that better place and kindness, compassion, therapy and Hanging in there.
0:08:03
That’s right. That’s our broad scope this morning. Marissa, a pleasure having you on the show. Thanks for having me, Dale. Best to you and your family and continued success to your brother in his challenge. Thank you so much.