Dr Michael Schirripa: 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness
The first and most important step (literally!) to optimize mental health is to move! Our minds are powered by movement, and we as humans are perfectly engineered to move. Of course, exercise is one perfect example of this, but when I speak to my own patients, I tend to emphasise movement as it is a softer word and can also be less intimidating for patients, especially if they are feeling depressed and feel that formal exercise is too daunting. Everyone can move and, say, take a short walk, whereas initially, not everyone can “exercise”. Movement is also cumulative, so 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there all add up to improve our mental functioning.
As a part of my series about the “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Michael Schirripa.
Dr Michael Schirripa is an Australian graduate of English literature, author, medical doctor and a specialist forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He has worked in mental health for 25 years and runs a forensic psychiatric practice as well as a private practice specialising in the assessment and treatment of psychiatric illnesses, especially depressive disorders and anxiety conditions. He has a special interest in the emerging field of “lifestyle psychiatry”. He has written and recorded the “Mindhunting: Journeys in Forensic Psychiatry” podcast, and his debut psychiatric thriller, MINDHUNT, is due to be released in July 2024.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Thanks for having me! I would love to share my story, which began, like many life stories, in childhood. As a child and adolescent, I was often quite sick with severe asthma and so I was always interested in health and, in then in particular mental health, as I knew people in life who suffered from quite severe mental illnesses. As a younger person I was always intrigued by them, but also had that younger person’s naivety and interest in who they were as a person rather than someone with an “illness”. When young, I was fascinated by “stories” and I was a voracious reader as a child. Psychiatry is language-based medicine and is very much about the telling of human stories and that attracted me to work in mental health as every patient is so unique and different and has their own narrative to share. I really was driven to understand what was happening to people who had a mental illness and then what I could do to help them with what they were experiencing. I was very supported by my parents with my medical studies and was encouraged to pursue these dreams and I will always be grateful for that. When I was in medical school it became clearer that I really wanted to work “with” patients rather than “on” them, and so psychiatry was a natural fit.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
As a junior specialist forensic psychiatry trainee, I was required to conduct a home visit to a patient’s house with our community forensic mental health team. I was new to the team and I had not met this patient previously. He was a man who suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia and when acutely unwell a few years before he had removed a gun from a police officer’s belt and attempted to shoot the officer with it. Fortunately, the gun misfired and the officer survived. This patient had now stopped taking his medication and had become unwell and was psychotic, so I was required to conduct a home visit with the community team to assess him at his home and then potentially have him detained or “committed” back into a secure psychiatric hospital for further treatment.
When I arrived at the house with the community mental health nurse, I saw there were black SWAT team police cars all over the street and officers standing around waiting. I think it was then that it dawned on me how serious this situation was. When we got out of the car, the officers stood by us and to my sudden surprise, I was urged to give an impromptu summary of this man’s mental health and outline to them how I was going to literally knock on his door and try to engage him for an assessment! I had never thought on my feet so quickly before! So I gave them a quick run down and they walked off into position, some of them telling me “don’t worry doc, we have snipers up on the roof of the neighbour’s house if anything goes wrong!”
I prepared myself to knock on his door and try to speak to him, when a woman, dressed all in black approached me and introduced herself. As she did so an officer strapped a bulletproof vest to my torso. This woman said to me “Hi doctor, I am Emma.” I introduced myself and asked her what her role was in all this. She said “well, I am a professional hostage negotiator.” My eyes must have widened as I said, “oh, really? So, who are you here for?”. She stared back at me and coolly replied, “Well… potentially … you!” I was so nervous then, and I think my stomach dropped at that point! I will never forget walking up to knock on that front door, trembling as I moved. I looked up and saw those snipers above! Thankfully the patient answered, and even though he was indeed psychotic, I was able to do the assessment without incident, and we were able to get him to the hospital for treatment safely. It is an episode I will never forget, and will always be grateful to our police force for the protection they provided me that day!
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
I still wince when I think of this one! I had just completed several years of psychiatric training and had sat my final examinations in order to progress to the final stage of my training. These exams were written and then also clinical, where you are required to assess patients in a “real life” situation under the intense scrutiny of two senior psychiatric examiners. You then present your clinical findings and you are intensely questioned by these examiners for nearly an hour. You prepare for many months specifically for these exams, so it was an intense relief when I finally found out on this particular Friday that I had actually passed! The elation was incredible.
As such, I had arranged to go out to dinner that night in order to celebrate and relax. I remember we headed out to a fabulous, upmarket restaurant that served glorious food and wine. I was overjoyed that I had passed. That elation soon wore off, however, when I received a phone call at around 1030pm while finishing my dessert. I answered and it was the hospital where I worked: “Doctor, where are you?” the voice sternly asked down the line. “Ummm … out … why?”. I was confused. The person on the phone, the senior psychiatrist who was also on remote call that night, bluntly said: “because you are on call tonight and we have several patients in the emergency room that you need to assess! When will you be seeing them?”
I think I dropped my dessert spoon in shock! Talk about highs to lows in an instant! I quickly freshened myself up, said my quick goodbyes, organised a taxi to take me straight to the hospital and started seeing those patients, much to the laughter and entertainment of the mental health staff and other doctors in the emergency room. They did not let me forget that for some time. What did I learn from this? Well, as I got home at about 3am the next morning and wearily climbed into bed: next time, double-check the on-call roster!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have been so fortunate to have had several inspiring people who have supported me, guided me and taught me. They have ranged from friends, to family, to other doctors and professors that I have worked with.
Out of all of them I am most grateful to my father. My dad was not an academic but was a businessman during his working life and ran a successful fresh food business with his 3 younger brothers. When I was quite young I would often go into work with him during my school holiday breaks and would follow him around, but he would also put me to work! I really noticed how much other people, employees and clients, respected my father. I saw how much he just listened to other people and would treat everyone with respect. As such, no one ever had a bad word to say about my father and I realised it was his capacity to listen and give anyone the time of day that made the difference. He had this amazing ability to get along with anyone and was exemplary at soothing others when they had a complaint or an issue to raise with him in the workplace, again because he came at it from a position of respect. That example of listening and respect has stayed with me and has been such an invaluable tool and attribute as I have progressed through my medical and psychiatric career.
What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?
I have found that working in psychiatry has wonderful rewards but can also place significant demands on you as a doctor and as a person. It is very important to balance this up with activities and interests that are quite different to work and that are a contrast to what you do during the work day. For me, that has come with regular activity via exercise, in particular long-distance running. Specifically, that has allowed me to do something physical (as opposed to the ‘mental’ work of psychiatry) and to get outdoors, in nature, that invigorates my physiology and my mind. It is very important to find an interest that takes your mind and body away from the day to day pressures of working in mental health. I also believe that personal support, via intimate attachments with loved ones are also important, but it is essential to also find a “solo” activity that is just for “you” that transports your mind and body right away from work. I believe this makes you a better doctor as it really replenishes your reserves and energy levels.
What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?
My experience has taught me that a fantastic work culture comes from two actions: respect and quality. I think respect is so important and is demonstrated by listening to everyone in the workplace. You may not agree with their opinions or choices, but I believe everyone deserves to be listened to. If others in the workplace feel heard, then this can create a much more cohesive work environment, and it also will help others to be more open to more difficult discussions, such as hearing criticisms of their work, for example.
I also believe that quality, in all things, also builds a fantastic work culture. Approaching every task, even the most simple and mundane, with a high-quality work ethic is very important. It demonstrates to other workers that you, as a leader, take pride in even the most basic of activities, and this will be very much noticed by other staff. I believe that if leaders are seen to be applying themselves to basic work roles, then others within the organisation will be motivated to follow and do the same. This can create a culture of “pride in work”, which can be shared by all employees, regardless of where they sit in the workplace.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Mental health is often looked at in binary terms; those who are healthy and those who have mental illness. The truth, however, is that mental wellness is a huge spectrum. Even those who are “mentally healthy” can still improve their mental wellness. From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to improve or optimize our mental wellness. Can you please share a story or example for each.
I certainly agree that mental health and illness exist on a broad spectrum and are not simply a “black and white” proposition and that we can always optimize our mental health further to prevent problems.
The first and most important step (literally!) to optimize mental health is to move! Our minds are powered by movement, and we as humans are perfectly engineered to move. Of course, exercise is one perfect example of this, but when I speak to my own patients, I tend to emphasise movement as it is a softer word and can also be less intimidating for patients, especially if they are feeling depressed and feel that formal exercise is too daunting. Everyone can move and, say, take a short walk, whereas initially, not everyone can “exercise”. Movement is also cumulative, so 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there all add up to improve our mental functioning.
The second is sleep. This is vital for optimising our mental health as it is during sleep that the body, mind and brain carry out much-needed maintenance and repair work. Sleep undoes the damage that can be induced by fatigue during the day and allows us to function more efficiently in terms of our mental health during the day. Simple “sleep hygiene” techniques can improve our sleep duration and quality. This includes strategies such as having set bedtime and wake time hours, reducing caffeine intake, not eating within 2 hours of going to sleep, not having “screen time” within an hour of going to bed and sleeping in a completely darkened room.
Thirdly is nourishment. I am an adamant believer in the power and meaning of language, and in psychiatry, this is so important. A word like nourishment, much like the word ‘move’, sounds much softer and warmer than a word like ‘diet’. Diet can sound hard and rigid and conveys a particular meaning to many, but nourishment conjures up the idea of what am I doing to replenish myself? How can I nurture myself? This allows for more fluidity and motivation, I have found. Nourishment and mental health are all around quality, fresh, ‘whole’ foods that lead to satisfaction in food and the powering of our minds, but also promotes healthy gut bacteria, which we now know are essential for good mental health due to the bi-products of the flora that reside in our GI system.
Fourthly, is community. I emphasise this concept over “socializing”. With patients, I like to take a close look at who is in your community? The number of people is not important but it is the quality of those attachments and connections that makes the difference to improving our mental health. Our community is not only human support for us, but they can also listen to our life stories. Being part of a community has a strong evidence base with regard to life satisfaction, marked reduction in feelings of loneliness, reduced stigma and improved mental health outcomes. It also improves our longevity!
Finally comes interests. Again, I tend to focus on that word and concept rather than “hobbies” which can be too narrow. Mental health is not just about our emotional lives but also our motivational and cognitive lives. Being mentally engaged in meaningful activities has significant benefits in terms of optimising our overall mental health as it gives us such energy and drive. I encourage people to find at least one highly meaningful interest just for them, that they can pursue. I tell them that if it is solitary or part of a group, that does not matter as long as it strongly resonates with them as an individual and really lights a fire for them!
How about teens and pre teens. Are there any specific new ideas you would suggest for teens and pre teens to optimize their mental wellness?
Certainly, I would recommend firm limits on “screen time” and encourage more time to be spent outdoors, exercising and, importantly in the company of “real life” friends and family. Young people are in a phase of rapid and dynamic cognitive and emotional development and they are so susceptible to whatever environment they are in during those years. Encouraging them to form stable and secure attachments with other people, both family and friends, is very important to their future mental health. We do not want our precious young people to learn about “relationships” purely from social media or a screen but from real-life experiences. I am a big believer in team sports during these years, as that ticks so many boxes. It encourages exercise and healthy pursuits but also teamwork, cooperation and forming social bonds with others. It also helps young people to learn about strategy and to interact in a healthy manner with authority figures, such as coaches.
I would also encourage young people to volunteer. This can teach them invaluable lessons about providing a service for others not for monetary or aspirational reasons but for the joy and pleasure of helping those who are less fortunate.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?
As a psychiatrist, one of the books that had an incredible and meaningful impact on me was the novel from 1998, I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. I read this when I was in medical school and was posted to a psychiatric ward at the time. It tells the beautiful but sad story of twin brothers, one of whom has paranoid schizophrenia. It is a stunning and accurate portrayal of this psychotic illness, but what was also incredibly described was the importance of the role of family when it comes to mental illness, in this case, the love one brother has for his twin. By that time in my medical school education, I had decided that I wanted to become a psychiatrist, so I was trying to read as broadly as I could about mental illness. On the ward, I was speaking to a lot of patients, many of whom suffered from schizophrenia, about their experiences and as part of that, with the novel in mind, I also started listening to family members and their experiences. I remember one parent of a patient saw that I had the novel in my bag, and they asked me about it as they, too, had recently read it. We spoke for an hour about the novel and illness and families and I will never forget this parent telling me to never, ever forget the importance of families during my career as a psychiatrist.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I am flattered to be described in that way, thank you! I am a massive believer in and advocate for education. I believe that we all have the capacity to continue to learn and gain new understandings right through the life cycle: from infancy to old age. As such, I would love to see even greater public education around mental health, very positive but straightforward messages about how to improve our mental health and also clear explanations that de-mystify mental illness, explain the truth, provide hope and reduce stigma. I firmly believe that the more we understand, the less we judge, and that includes ourselves! I would love to see younger children being appropriately educated about their own mental health and how we as people can influence the mental health of others, both in a negative and in a positive manner. I think that if we have greater awareness at a younger age will become a more powerful tool as these kids grow into teens and adults. An analogy is learning a new language: younger people are so adept at learning a foreign language, and I believe the same applies to learning the “language” of good mental health.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
There is a wonderful quote from the film The Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living, or get busy dying!” That simple line has always resonated with me, and I think of it often. I have always been a Stephen King fan and really enjoyed the film that was based on his short story. That line really struck a chord with me as it contains such a sense of dynamic movement. It also reminds us that, ultimately, life is for living! It was a direct inspiration for me to finish off my manuscript for my debut novel as I remember telling myself many times, with that quote in mind, that I am the only one who is responsible for living my life and chasing my dreams and it would mean so much to me to write this story.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
The best way is through my website, www.michaelschirripa.com, as that gives links to my social media but also tells more of my story and links to my podcast, book and writing. But I am also very active on Instagram, Threads and TikTok, all under @michaelschirripaauthor. I would love to engage with others on all of these platforms about mental health, lifestyle, reading and writing.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
