Welcome to Dr. Warrick's podcast channel. Warrick is a practicing cardiologist and author with a passion for improving care by helping patients understand their heart health through education. Warrick believes educated patients get the best health care. Discover and understand the latest approaches and technology in heart care and how this might apply to you or someone you love. Hi, my name is Dr Warrick Bishop and welcome back to part two of my interview with Lisa Ryan. For those who may have missed the first part or can't quite remember, Lisa's been good enough to share. Her journey is a personal story where really anxiety and depression led to inappropriate use of alcohol, excessive amounts, and this culminated really in a... Well, in a cathartic episode where in her 50s with cardiac failure, diabetes, obesity and pneumonia, she really had to face up to what she'd been doing with her life. And I'm pleased to say she's turned things around. And really, I'm looking forward to sharing her journey with you today about that. Hi, Lisa. Thank you for joining us. Thanks, Warrick. Lovely to be here. So I've set the scene. You're in a hospital bed in your 50s. You are a crook. Tell me where your thoughts are. Well, I was actually, it's 11 years ago and it was late 40s, around, yeah. And so then I had, I finally got through that two weeks in hospital, two weeks in a day, but let's not. Quibble, because when you're in hospital that long, it's every day, yeah. So finally spent about a year recovering and I didn't drink at all at first and then I decided I could moderate. So I... They expected me to get through the diabetes or recover from the diabetes within, they thought it would take two years. It took me one year. I worked really hard, lost weight. And for me at that time, I thought it was, all I had to do was stop drinking. But then I went, no, I can moderate. I've got this now. I know what to do. I know what I did wrong. Okay, things got out of control. And then... Then around 52 in that year, I started to go downhill again because the dependency issues came back. And then at 52, I did join a gym at 50, and it was a local fitness studio, and that actually started to help me keep the... I did gain a lot of weight back, but I started to gain a smidgen of self-confidence, which I didn't really, despite my busy jobs, and I was safe in that environment, but I didn't have a lot of self-worth. So I never really worked on my issues as to why I was drinking. So all I did was stop. I didn't have any tools. It shouldn't have been a surprise that I ended up almost back to where I was a couple of years before, health-wise. And I look at it now and it's not a surprise. But I was surprised because I thought I could moderate, but I clearly could not. So I got to 52 and still back to being sick again in a different job. but back to not being reliable like I wanted to be and sick all the time, back to having all the headaches, back to being, yeah, just gut issues and heart palpitations all over again. And, yeah. And I sat there one day and I just went, I don't think that I can. go through another recovery like I did before. I actually think that if I don't make change now, I think that's where the rubber hits the road. I really didn't think that I'd make it till Christmas. And this was the September. So I crawled into my GP's office. I already had an appointment because I'd been away sick again and they needed a medical certificate. And they'd been getting quite, they didn't bring it up. as to why I was away a lot, but it was not appreciated that I was away a lot and I can't blame them. So there I was. I had already gotten an appointment, but I arrived about an hour early because I just woke up that morning and just went, I can't do this anymore. I don't know what I have to do, but clearly the last two years I haven't been able to do as well as I thought I could. I'm an only child, so I've always done things on my own. So I have that mindset of I can fix it. I don't need anybody else. But I, having gone through that health scare once already and heading right back into the depths of it again, I just knew I was really, really unwell. And I just went, well, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how I'm going to do it. But I just turned up to my doctor's office in that September and just said, got to do something different. So obviously you made a choice at that stage that something had to change. What were the key things that you were able to put in place? And for those listening, I can let you know that Lisa has moved from really the situation she's described to one of... now being a certified life coach, helping others and running her own website and Facebook page called Keep Looking Upwards. So Lisa, what were the fundamental things or the key points that really allowed you to make the changes that have led to your recovery to a large degree and allow you to now help others? I had a wonderful doctor. I know... The GPs can get a bit of a bad rap, but I lucked out, and I have a really good guy that is a family counsellor as well as a general practitioner, and he's done a lot of work into family dynamics. And I really got therapy like I hadn't had therapy before, and I dug deep into why I was drinking. As I said before, I've discovered that it wasn't just about stopping drinking. It was about making different choices. And so he taught me a lot about mindfulness and habit change and looking, and I'm an overthinker as well. So when I say looking forward, I just mean not being stuck in the past, like I was always sitting back there and ruminating. And that, in effect, helped my anxiety. And I wasn't very, what's the word? I wasn't very, I joined that gym, but I wasn't out there very often. It wasn't consistent. But I found a sense of self-worth in some of the things that I was doing with strength training actually had a flow-on effect to my confidence level outside of the gym. So I started to little by little between mindfulness and getting some confidence that I could, because, you know, you've had so many day ones that you don't trust your decision-making very much. So when I started to feel a bit more, feel good about myself, but, oh, wow, I just did this in the gym. can't believe that would give me a bit of a kick and then I would start to go through life holding my head up a bit more and this all had a flow on effect with my depression and my anxiety because mentally exercise I found helps your mental stability so much and I just I just started to when I started to feel better with all these different aspects I just didn't want to lose that. So I just wanted to keep on staying well. So I just kept adding more things to the toolbox, like Brendan Burchard is an American speaker. He does professional development as well, but he also does a heck of a lot with personal development. And he had a book out the first year of me becoming a non-drinker. called the motivation manifesto and it taught me about letting go of fear because a lot of my decision making was based around fear and uh taught me about living a life of gratitude about living life in the moment so that all um started me down a track of just thinking about life differently that i didn't need an external substance to manage my anxiety or my issues, that I had the capacity within me the whole time. And then that same year, Annie Grace brought out a book called This Naked Mind. And that went into the science of how my neurotransmitters were actually changed by the alcohol. And therefore, it became a light bulb moment for me when I realised that not why did I end up drinking, but of course it was obvious that, you know, when you turn to a socially acceptable item like alcohol, that it's not why, it's of course, you know, of course this happened to you, you know, it's an addictive substance and this is its effect. And I think I didn't realise how much physically that it affected the heart and my blood sugars, and not just me, it happens to everybody, that if you, you know, this abuse does affect your blood sugar levels, which then when your body can't process things, this is when you end up with pancreatitis and you've got your blood diabetes. I didn't realise how much it affected the heart and how much everyone focuses on the liver, but, you know, I just had no idea. And so I just went, I just don't want to go back there again. Of course, Lisa, alcohol also has a close link to hypertension, high blood pressure, and a close link to atrial fibrillation as well as cardiac failure, which was your experience. Look, I'm pretty keen to drill in a little bit on some of your advice to anyone listening. Let's move away from the specifics of alcohol because there may well be people listening who are not necessarily battling with alcohol but maybe battling with cigarettes or maybe battling with getting some exercise after a heart event or maybe battling with altering their diet to lose weight. Some of these challenges I think probably fall under a similar umbrella of a requirement. to really have that sense of self-worth, have some mindfulness and get some guidance and support around it. What would be the absolute keys you'd recommend for someone who wants to make some of those lifestyle choices for their better outcome in the longer term? I really think that we get overwhelmed with the big picture. Like I lost 30 kilos, but I, I didn't really think about it as the one big number because if I had to think about 30, it would just stymie me into inaction. But what I think is really useful is to just think about baby steps and just even if it means that all you did today was to start off was you got a pair of sneakers and you put them on. You walked around the house in them and that was it. And then tomorrow you did the same thing, but then this time you took yourself out of the house and you walked up the street for five minutes and you turned around and it came back. Tick. You know, like everybody thinks that it has to be this, oh, I've got to run a marathon. I mean, I've got all this weight to lose or, you know, everyone thinks you have to do it overnight and it's got to just magically happen. But it's not very sexy to say it takes time. And I think any time you're changing your habits, it's just giving yourself some self-compassion to understand that you took a long time to get to where you are. And in most cases, it does take time to gain that excessive weight. It does take time to realise that if you're a smoker, that you've taken a long time to get to that point where maybe you're addicted to smoking. Any of those other habits, it takes time to get there. So it also takes time little by little. And the baby steps are not to be underrated because I think in the long term they really pay off because the more often that you can tick off something that you've made a good decision today, that you ate well, you got up, you had a shower, you went to work, you showed up when you said you were going to show up. Tick, tick, tick. All those things were great little pats on the back for me because I hadn't done it for so long. And then when I started to just feel better by all those little decisions that all add up, then I just went, I'm just going to keep going forward. I just, this is feeling too good. I just, and then I think that's why they stick because I think if you expect a lot to happen overnight or in a week and then you get disheartened. then I think that affects you mentally. And so you lose a bit of self-confidence in yourself. But if you just keep ticking off the little stuff, I think that's what's really important. No, I think that's incredibly valuable, Lisa. Look, in the interest of time, I'll wrap it up. It's been fantastic sharing. I really get the sense that what you've distilled from your own experience is that... At some stage, you have to make a change and own your own future. When you put up your hand, there will be people there to support you. Oh, yes. I absolutely agree. Absolutely agree. The biggest thing that I say to people is don't try and do it on your own. Absolutely. Reach out because there will always be someone there to help you. It might be your GP. It might be the books that you found. It might be a friend or a family member who links up with you. It might be a life coach like yourself reminding people that you run. Keep looking upwards, a website and Facebook page. The other thing that I thought that you really articulated beautifully as a reminder is that. We make this choice, we get the support, but we take small steps and build those small steps into the self-worth and snowball that gradually. Not expecting change overnight, but expecting change gradually. Change will happen, I guarantee it. I think it's critical for almost everything we do to... work on that self-worth, because without that, we really don't get up and do the things every day that'll make the most out of the day for us or get the most out of life for us, whether that's work, family, whatever it might be. Lisa, it's been a pleasure sharing with you. I hope those listening have enjoyed your pearls of wisdom. Say goodbye. Thank you. Thank you so much. For those listening, thank you so much for tuning in. And if you've got any queries or questions, drop us a note. Any ideas for future podcasts, let us know on info at drwarriotbishop.com. Take care. Until next time, I'd like to see you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Goodbye. You have been listening to another podcast from Dr. Warrick. Visit his website at drWarrickbishop.com for the latest news on heart disease. If you love this podcast, feel free to leave us a review.
