Women In Wellness: Dr Zoe Martinez On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Set limits not only with oneself but with superiors and colleagues about what one can realistically do without feeling guilty. Failure to do this often leads one to feel overwhelmed and/or resentful as well as reducing self esteem.

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Zoe Martinez.

Dr. Zoe Martinez grew up in Seattle, Washington where she developed a passion for seafood and the Seahawks. She subsequently moved to Southern California where she completed her undergraduate education at Pomona college, obtained her Ph.D. at UCLA in Behavioral Neuroscience and completed medical school at UCSD. She completed both her adult psychiatry residency and her Child and Adolescent fellowship at UCLA and is board certified in both.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I am became interested in psychiatry at a young age due to mental health issues in several family members. During graduate school, while doing neuroscience research I also worked as a lifeguard/recreation therapy assistant with the inpatient child and adolescent patients and decided before I entered medical school that I had an interest in psychopharmacological treatment, particularly of children and adolescents, although I also treat adults.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

During my residency I worked at West Los Angeles VA and one of the patients who was frequently admitted was a gentleman with schizoaffective disorder who would frequently come into the Emergency Room naked and agitated. However, we had developed a rapport from his previous admissions so he would always ask for me. When I would enter the ER I would speak with him calmly but forcefully and he would almost immediately calm down and become cooperative.

What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

That rapport — which includes empathy and a willingness to communicate with a patient are at least as important as medication.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? I had a patient on a very low dose of clozaril who strongly wanted to come off of it. Over more than a year we worked together to reduce his dose to an amount that seldom produces any significant benefit. However shortly after he completely discontinued it, he decompensated, and then also unfortunately changed his insurance so that he was no longer my patient. However, I remained in communication with him, his wife and his new providers but he did not do well.

Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

That although it is good to work with patients in obtaining their goals, that the ultimate responsibility for medical decisions resides with the doctor and sometimes we must set better limits even if the patient is dissatisfied.

When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world? I have been practicing telepsychiatry since 2015 which has allowed me to help to increase access to mental health care, which I believe is one of the biggest problems with individuals obtaining care.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing?

1. Making time to exercise. I had an extremely anxious patient who I repeatedly encouraged to walk and do yoga. Although she was extremely resistant to this at first, largely due ot her anxiety. However as she implemented this started feeling better about herself and was able to make other positive changes, including improving her eating habits (she was an someone who had also struggled with Anorexia Nervosa in her past and tended to under eat).
2. Making sleep a priority and paying attention to it. I had a young bipolar patient who gradually listened to my advice about sleep hygiene and after tracking and then making her sleep more of a priority she found that her medications seemed to work better resulting in an improvement in her mood, relationship with parents and academic performance.
3. Making sure to make time with friends or family in person and decreasing the time spent alone on electronic devices. I have had several depressed patients who have done this and all of them have noted a decrease in their depression especially an increased feeling of hopefulness and an ability to look forward to things, which is a protective factor for reducing suicidal feelings.
4. Being completely honest with one’s psychiatrist about alcohol and substance use. I had a patient going through a difficult breakup who once we started to discuss this began to recognize that her drinking was a problem. She had gradually gone from having 2 glasses of wine with dinner, to 2–3 bottles of wine an evening. We were able to openly discuss her reasons for drinking and as a result found an effective, not addictive medication to help reduce her anxiety and she was able to stop drinking most evenings and on the occasion that she did drink, to have at most 2 glasses of wine.
5. Getting a pet. I have several patients who after doing this found that their depression and anxiety decreased as they developed a sense of feeling less alone and needed. Rather than a pet being a burden, they often help to lift one’s mood, get people out of the house, or just be cheered up by the often silly antics of pets which can lead to laughter, which is one of the best natural antidepressants.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Take advantage of any opportunity to be kind to other people, and to be kind to at least one person every day. This can be a kind word or helpful gesture, it doesn’t have to be anything big — but being kind to someone else helps both the person being kind and the recipient of the kindness.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. It is never possible to finish everything we plan to do in a day. Acknowledging this helps reduce guilt and an internal pressure to overwork.
2. One of the most important determinants of job satisfaction is your relationship and ability to communicate with your boss. This is more important than salary or hours worked. A good relationship fosters growth and helps to facilitate problem solving. A negative relationship leads to resentment and dissatisfaction.
3. Consider how your particular job will impact your leisure time and relationships with friends and family. As much as I love psychiatry, I wish, at times someone had suggested that I consider working in an emergency medicine instead. In psychiatry, we are to some extent, always on call — even if not carrying a pager, as we carry the responsibility of our patients until they find a new clinician. Emergency medicine involves shift work, meaning that when you are done, you can really feel done.
4. Reach out early and often to colleagues for support with challenging cases instead of trying to manage everything alone. Not only can colleagues often make helpful suggestions, just discussing challenges with someone else can just reduce the stress one feels when struggling.
5. Set limits not only with oneself but with superiors and colleagues about what one can realistically do without feeling guilty. Failure to do this often leads one to feel overwhelmed and/or resentful as well as reducing self esteem.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Sustainability — which includes being careful about how one uses all resources (which includes power, water, food, etc) is critical to hopefully helping the planet survive for longer and making it more habitable to others.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Done first regularly posts pieces and both myself and some of my colleagues regularly address issues related to mental health and the challenges faced by many patients.

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.