Mental Health Champions: Why & How Dr Philip Gold Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness

An Interview With Michelle Tennant Nicholson

Maintain regular contact with good friends and close relatives and have a readiness to talk with them and ask for help rather than feeling I have to deal with difficult matters all by myself.

As a part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Philip Gold.

Dr. Philip Gold is one of the world’s leading researchers of depressive illness. For over three decades he has worked at the National Institutes of Health, where he has served as Chief of Neurodendocrine Research and Senior Investigator in the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, and Chief of the Section on Neuroendocrinology. In his recent book, Breaking Through Depression: A Guide to the Next Generation of Promising Research and Revolutionary New Treatments, he draws upon his long-term research to delve into the interplay between our anatomy and our lived experiences as the key to understanding why there are such individual differences in how we make connections with others, deal with adversity, or recover from trauma. Offering an inspiring exploration of the recent advances, Dr. Gold reveals the latest breakthroughs that can heal people struggling with depression to offer promising paths to wellness for millions.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

I grew up in a small Southern town where most people knew each other. It was very close-knit community, and I enjoyed my childhood a great deal. My parents were teachers. When I was six, my brother developed bulbar polio, which is eighty percent fatal. I was inspired by the doctors who saved his life, and by his own pursuit of medicine three years before I undertook medical studies. His illness inspired in him a special dedication and compassion for his patients.

You are currently leading an initiative that is helping to promote mental wellness. Can you tell us a bit more specifically about what you are trying to address?

I am dedicated to discovering new biological abnormalities in depression that can serve as targets for new antidepressants and that might constitute a diagnostic marker for depressive illness. I also hope that I have provided important information in my recent book, Breaking Through Depression, for the necessity of using both medication and psychotherapy as necessary components of optimum treatment.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

My parents became depressed when my brother developed polio. I did whatever I could do to cheer them up, but was not very successful. It was then that I learned that depression was a terrible malady and started thinking about becoming a psychiatrist. I later developed the only depressive episode of my life when I was 21, which is detailed in my book, Breaking Though Depression. It taught me a great deal about depression which I applied in my research.

Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?

During the Christmas break in 1987, my wife and children went to visit her parents for a few days and I stayed behind to meet a deadline for The New England Journal of Medicine. I stayed up all-night the first night. About 4AM, I had the idea based on what I was writing and what I already knew that depression represented a stress response that had run awry. I have spent the rest of my career with this as one of my main focus.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

One of the most interesting aspects of my work was to take post-doctoral fellows under my wing and help them become good researchers. I found that watching them develop into creative and well-read investigators to be thrilling and often remembered my own experience during this crucial time.

None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?

I had several mentors who helped me enormously. The first was Elvin Semrad, a brilliant psychotherapist who was head of my training program at Harvard. He had an extraordinary facility for helping patients encounters issues they were disinclined to address. The next was Frederick Goodwin, my first mentor at the NIH. He was extraordinarily generous and gave us free reign to pursue ideas that we found compelling. He sponsored my salary for three years when I took a sabbatical in endocrinology at the NIH. During this time, I learned the secret about the infertility my wife and I were suffering that resolved the problem. Arnold Meyersburg was a psychoanalytic consultant who in my estimation had a brilliant understanding of depression and its treatment which he tried to convey to me.

According to Mental Health America’s report, over 44 million Americans have a mental health condition. Yet there’s still a stigma about mental illness. Can you share a few reasons you think this is so?

I think many individuals profoundly misunderstand mental illnesses like depression and feel that it reflects an individual’s incapacity to effectively organize and cope with their lives. We know that depression is like diabetes, an illness that occurs because of genetic predisposition and environmental factors such as overeating and not exercising. In depression, there are strong genetic predispositions and environmental factors such as trauma, disinterred or overly demanding parents, and multiple severe stressors throughout life. There are probably some individuals who are fearful that they may to have significant disturbances in living and feeling and who work hard to dissociate themselves from others who do.

In your experience, what should a) individuals b) society, and c) the government do to better support people suffering from mental illness?

Individuals should understand that people suffering from illness like depression must exert tremendous discipline and courage to survive an illness which inflicts profound anguish and abolishes their capacity to experience pleasure in anything. Society needs to come to a similar understanding and reject the tendency to denigrate individuals who suffer mental illness. The government needs to recognize that depression is a dreadful disorder, destroys one’s sense of self, and robs individuals of the capacity to enjoy their lives or celebrate past achievements. The government needs to provide generous insurance to those who need psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, and psychiatric hospitalization. Many individuals need and want such help cannot find or afford it.

What are your 5 strategies you use to promote your own well-being and mental wellness? Can you please give a story or example for each?

1. Remember how important it is to me to be true to myself and state my feelings and thoughts if a conflict arises with another or if I feel I should express myself even though it might be awkward or difficult.
2. Maintain regular contact with good friends and close relatives and have a readiness to talk with them and ask for help rather than feeling I have to deal with difficult matters all by myself.
3. I need to restrain my perfectionism, acknowledge that I can make mistakes, and not be ashamed of my vulnerabilities or shortcomings.
4. Reading fiction expands my experience and acquaints me with people and environments I would otherwise not know of or appreciate. It takes me into spheres that are often magical.
5. Try to keep physically and mentally active and have a readiness to undertake new things even if I feel somewhat anxious about them. As a corollary, I know that I can’t take my health for granted, and I need to be vigilant in eating well, getting enough sleep and exercise, and having regular physical examinations. I need be cognizant of my liabilities and proactive in doing whatever I can reasonably do to take good care of myself without feeling self-indulgent.

What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a mental health champion?

One of the first books that inspired me to pursue medicine was Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis. I remember reading it from cover to cover on a rare snowy day in our southern town. I was inspired by the compassion, devotion to good care, and courage of the book’s protagonist. The Emperor of All Illnesses: A Biography of Cancer, by Saddartha Mukergee, inspired me to write my recently published book, Breaking Through Depression, which summarizes my thoughts about the biology of depressive illness and the need for adjunctive psychotherapy for an illness that is caused by stressors that change the structure and function of the stress system that has run awry in depression.

If you could tell other people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

Having a positive impact on society means participating in communal life that brings immeasurable support and comfort to others and fosters close relationships. We all need to be well connected to others in order to flourish. Understanding that there are many less fortunate than we are and helping them provides a sense of justice and compassion to our lives which enriches us enormously. Our environment I s in deep trouble, and needs the support of every citizen in order to reverse what otherwise might become permanent catastrophes that t affect us, our children, and future generations.

How can our readers follow you online?

The best way to follow me online is by Googling Philip W. Gold, NIH.I recently published a book containing many of my most important ideas entitled, Breaking Through Depression.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!

About the Interviewer: Inspired by the father of PR, Edward Bernays (who was also Sigmund Freud’s nephew), Michelle Tennant Nicholson researches marketing, mental injury, and what it takes for optimal human development. An award-winning writer and publicist, she’s seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Michelle co-founded WasabiPublicity.com.