Old Fashioned Stress

Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. Jennifer Bahrman about stress in the senior community.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplacethe TV remote because you were the TV
remote. Remember when music sounded likethis, Remember when social media was truly
social? Hey, John, how'sit going today? Well, this show
is all about you only. Thisis fifty plus with Doug Pike, helpful

(00:27):
information on your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
Fifty plus brought to you by theUT Health Houston Institute on Aging Informed Decisions
for a healthier, happier life,and by Texas Indoor Air Quality Specialists because
clean air is healthier air. Andnow fifty plus with Doug Pike. All

(00:52):
right, let me get this microphone, settle around here and turn this up
just a little bit. I hopethat will work. Yeah, it Works's
fun. Thanks for listening to appreciateit on this Well, it's actually clearing
off quite a bit. I wasgonna say, kind of a string of
yet yet another day in the stringof cloudy, moist days without rain.
I don't think we're gonna get inyour rain today. I certainly don't anymore.

(01:15):
I wasn't sure this morning, notreally sure whether to water the yard
or not, or maybe just letit ride for a day or two more
I think I may have to turnon the sprinkler system this afternoon and just
hope it continues to work. Aftergetting kind of a mixed review, I
paid a full service call for aguy to come out and tell me that

(01:36):
I could kind of jiggle the knoband it would work. Like, oh,
okay, I'll go with jiggle forone hundred bucks, Alex, thank
you for very for in fairness tohim, that's their service coffee, and
I was not going to challenge it. He did give me valid and valuable

(01:57):
information based on his assessment of mysystem, so I got my money's worth.
I made a mistake trying to dosome price matching in a pet supply
store recently and learned that some ofthe and I guess they've had to kind
of crack down on this because theywere probably getting burned. But some of

(02:20):
these sponsored sites that show a certainproduct that I need for our pet at
home are just clickbait. They showa very low price for something and then
when you click on it. Ihaven't ever clicked on it. I've just
shown it to the cashiers in theseplaces and they say, okay, yeah,
we'll do that. But apparently they'rehaving to crack down because some of

(02:44):
these clickbait sites are showing ridiculously lowprices for products and they can't match that
obviously, so they've made restrictions.In any event. Oh, by the
way, speaking back to my yardfor a minute, I'm still kind of
in shock. On Sunday afternoon,I think it was our yard guy shows

(03:05):
up, so I'm just I'm justin the house, minding my own business.
I go out there about oh,I don't know, most of the
way through his work, and Ilook back to the back corner of the
yard where there is a very smallbut fertile patch of soil that will grow
anything. And I had back therethanks to my producer over on the Doug

(03:27):
Pike Show on KB and ME weekends, Adam Adam had given me a bag
of seeds to throw out there,little daffodil seeds, and I had done
that about three weeks ago, andin those three weeks those plants had sprouted
and gotten about three and a halffour inches tall. And we're looking pretty
good as young daffodils go, untiluntil my guys just just weed eater it

(03:54):
all the all, weed eater themall the way to the ground. Will
I was wow disappointed at best.Not a fan of diffidil. He thought
there were weeds. He thought theywere weeds, and he takes care of
my yard. And I, bythe way, just to clarify, I
had told him two weeks ago whenhe was last there, don't run the

(04:18):
weed eater in the back bed becausethere are flowers there, those little things
you see, Those things are aboutan inch and a half tall. Those
are little flowers. Leave them alone. And so that day he left them
alone. This day, short attentionspan theater, I guess or short memory

(04:40):
just whacked him right down to beardirt, which is great if he hits
the weeds with that, but notso much on the other. In any
event, Adam says he's got replacementseeds. I'll get them, and I'm
gonna put up I don't know,I might put up police tape around him,
just on little sticks. Do notcross this line with your weed eater,

(05:02):
pal second I'm gonna do. Movingforward, I used to kind of
get into the weather, and itdawned on me that nobody really cares because
you'll get your weather elsewhere. I'lllimit my weather until there is some dramatic
tropical thing in the Gulf of Mexicoto ten seconds, and here we go.

(05:26):
That's all I'm gonna do until there'stropical stuff. Twenty percent chance of
rain today irrelevant, then fog tomorrowmorning, kind of irrelevant after about ten
o'clock, then partly cloudy Saturday,maybe a little rain Sunday, then beautiful
Monday. That's the end of that. Markets up, oil down, and
gold thanks to Houston Gold Exchange backup near twenty four one hundred dollars announced,
Well do you have any gold land? I think we've talked about this

(05:48):
before, but if you do,or if you know where you can get
your hands on some, you mightwant to sell it. It's really it's
come to the point where I'm gonnaassume as I can get over there as
soon as I can carve out aboutan hour, I'm gonna roll over there
with a little gold in my pocket, and I bet I can turn it
into a pretty decent piece of money. At twenty four hundred dollars an ounce,

(06:12):
what do you have? You?Nothing? Not a not even a
good I saw something the other dayit says you can get one hundred dollars
gold bar, and I thought attwenty four hundred dollars an ounce. That's
gonna be more like one hundred dollarsgold postage stamp, basically a very thin

(06:32):
postage stamp. But that one hundreddollars one twenty fourth of an ounce,
will, I'd be about probably theweight of a bbe maybe, and you'd
have to hammer that thing out towhere it's a bar instead of just a
sphere. Well one, speaking ofI found this story approximately will this comes

(06:55):
with a pop quiz? Approximately,what is the value of us coins that
are thrown away in our country accidentally, incidentally, whatever tossed into fountains annually?
Approximately? What is that value?Coins? I'll say always thrown away
dollar bills. I don't think I'llsay sixty million dollars. That probably is

(07:25):
one of your better guesses. Ever, that was a legit guess. That
was a legit gas sixty eight milliondollars. And even if you could only
even if you could only capture thedifference between your guess and the real number,
you'd still be in pretty good shape. Now we just have to convince
all these people who are throwing coinsout the window or accidentally losing them at

(07:48):
the car wash. Have you everbeen vacuuming your car at the car washing
and heard that of the vacuum whenit picks up a nickel or a dime
or something. I can't say that, I can. I can tell when
I hit one under the seat.My son's bad about leaving loose coins when
he goes to the fast food places. And you can tell when you hit
one. It's a totally different sound, will totally different sound. All right.

(08:13):
If you are the least bit interestedin fly fishing, or if you
are just interested in magnificent films aboutfly fishing, or about the lakes and
rivers and oceans and seas and baysof the world, Moody Gardens has got
you covered. Not this coming weekend, but the next April twenty six and
twenty seven, for the third annualfly Fishing Film Fest at Moody Gardens.

(08:41):
They are going to present these twonights of films in their MG three D
theater, which is the largest screenin Texas, by the way, And
they're going to offer two different,entirely different lineups one Saturday, one Friday
night, one Saturday, and Iget to see them both, and I

(09:01):
get to MC and I get tohand out the door prizes and the raphleot
ands at all these things, allthese fantastic things that are gonna go on.
Tickets for the film festival just fifteenbucks, and Moody Gardens has been
kind enough for those of you whowant to go make a weekend of it.
Maybe play on the beach at daytime, or play golf somewhere. There

(09:24):
are one and two night packages atthe hotel available, so you can just
soak it all in. It's anamazing thing. There are gonna be a
lot of vendors. There plenty offood keep you happy. There is a
cash bar, and I guess ifyou've got one of the rooms, you
can just keep going back and forthto that until you run out of money.

(09:46):
Moodygardens dot Org is where you canfind details on all of this,
and I strongly recommend for anybody whois even remotely interested in fly fishing,
you've got to see these films.If there anything like last year's, they're
gonna be fantastic. Moodygardens dot Org. Now they sure don't make them like
they used to. That's why everyfew months we wash them, check his

(10:07):
fluids and spring on a fresh coato wax. This is fifty plus with
Dougpike. Hi, welcome back tofifty plus. A better day than I
expected it to be. Honestly,it looks pretty nice. I might have
to just get outside and do somethingsoak up a little vitamin D. We'll

(10:28):
talk in this segment about something that'sprobably not getting the attention it deserves within
the senior community, and that's stress. Old fashioned, everyday stress that can
manifest itself as a result of anynumber of things. Stuff happens, right,
and a lot of times it's stressfulstuff. To help us alleviate some

(10:50):
of that stress, I'll bring indoctor Jennifer Barman, licensed clinical psychologist and
assistant professor at UT Health Science.Right here. Welcome aboard, doc,
Hi dog, Thank you so muchfor having me. Thank you, Jennifer.
In your world, is there asingle accepted definition of stress, Well,

(11:11):
stress can mean a lot of differentthings for a lot of different people.
Definitely. Yeah, that's actually thebest way to put it. But
that it means different things to differentpeople. Go ahead, I'm sorry,
Yeah, it just means different thingsfor different people. Oftentimes it's a little
bit more of the distress that becomessomething more chronic at nature and I'm pretty
confident there are going to be allkinds of levels of stress or starting maybe

(11:35):
with stuff that's really not worth worryingabout, and rising the things that we
really should address but don't want tobecause there's no time, or it's painful,
or it might stir up dirt wejust don't want to stir Is that
about sum it up? Absolutely?As I said, it's different things for
different people, but also different Itfeels different depending on what the stressor is.

(11:56):
As you said, sometimes it's somethingsuper small. Maybe it's some and
we shouldn't have to be worrying about, or maybe it is something that we
do need to worry about, butit could be something brief. Think about
it as like maybe the car notstarting or the flat tire when you get
to the car. But sometimes itis definitely a lot more chronic in nature,
and that's when it's a lot moreconcerning. I would imagine also that
it can be very cumulative too.It's kind of death by a thousand cuts.

(12:20):
Maybe somebody cuts you off in traffic, and then you get to the
office in your little card key won'twork, and there's all kinds of little
things that could just stack up onyou and just make you lose your mind.
Huh. Absolutely, And as weage, stressful situations just tend to
take a bigger toll on ourselves.That texts our bodies and our minds differently

(12:41):
than when we're younger. Yeah,the interesting thing I was thinking about that
as well. And young people.Young people might be worried about whether they
can get concert tickets for Saturday night, and old people are going to worry
about whether they can afford assisted livingor whether or not to tell their kids
they fell down right. Absolutely,aging often comes with a new and unexpected

(13:01):
life challenges that really make life morestressful. As you said, it may
be something very small when we lookback at young adulthoods, but in that
moment it can feel like a lot. Now when we're older adults, it
actually is a lot more things thatcan lead to the stress, things like
losses of loved ones, loss ofour physical abilities. That maybe it's advance

(13:22):
of taking care of aaching parents,retirement planning, being an empty nester.
That all increases kind of overall stresslevels and reduces one's opportunities for coping effectively.
Let's talk if you don't mind thisis I think a good time to
talk about the symptoms of this andwhat can we look for in ourselves,
my audience and I that would indicatewe're a little more stressed than we might

(13:46):
realize and probably ought to be doingsomething about it. Sure, you know,
we do want to keep our eyesopen for a larger diagnoses that come
with stress that can cumulatively lead tostress, lead to mental health issues such
as depression, anxiety, substance youthsuicidality. But in the day to day,
we oftentimes have stress and it isnot necessarily going to escalate to that

(14:09):
level of intensity. It might benoticing that you've got more tension in your
body, that your body just feelsthat it's holding onto a lot of tension.
It could be changes in one's immunesystem, gas, intestinal problems such
as diarrhea, constipation, metabolic disorders, things like hypertension being a big one
there, cardiovascular disease, and justflare ups of health conditions overall. And

(14:33):
if we notice these symptoms, sayin a family member or a friend,
how do we bring that up withoutsounding judgmental or disapproving or something. It's
okay just to bring it up assimple. It's like, hey, it
seems like you're a lot more stressthese days, and that might lead to
a dialogue or conversation to be hadwith one's family member. But there's also

(14:54):
behavioral things that the family members andthe individual can do too, things like
engaging healthy habits, making sure thatyou're getting a well balanced, nutritious diet,
getting out in nature. I heardyou mentioned it's a beautiful day out,
much nicer than it and we wouldhave expected get out there and spend
some time outdoors. Physical activity beinga great one, but also social connectiveness

(15:18):
and that's a big one that wetend to see when we think of loss
of loved ones, loss of friends, re establishing what that means to be
social, finding new social connections,and really embracing the positive changes that this
time of life also brings with theseason. That makes sense, at what
point in this battle with stress dowe just wave the white flag and seek

(15:41):
professional help. Well, you know, everyone can benefit from therapy, and
therapists are definitely here to help.So when one notices that the stress is
definitely more chronic in nature, that'sharder to just shake it off by engaging
in some healthy habits when it definitelyleads to more significant mental health concerns.
That's when we want to intervene withsome more professional help, such as through

(16:04):
a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Itmay be a delicate question, but our
primary care doctors really equipped to treatpeople with more than just moderate stress.
Maybe well, primary care physicians arenot the ones to be able to offer
that therapy. Now, in termsof medication, you have to be able
to provide some help, but Ialways recommend for more specialized care to seek

(16:26):
out a specialist, And that's wherea psychiatrists would be the most specialized for
this in terms of medication management.But you know, even just talking to
a primary care physician of Backlin's concernsand how one's feeling can be a really
great starting place and they may beable to direct one to more specialized care.
That's a very good point there,And for someone who really needs it.

(16:48):
How do we how do we pickour psychiatrist or psychologists? Do you
do you does your field interview?Do you sit down and visit for five
minutes with somebody to kind of figureout out who's gonna be the right fit
for this walking marathon that's coming up. Some providers do offer brief consultation with
its, so that is definitely anoption. But some other places to check

(17:12):
in to find a good fit is, you know, just asking word of
mouth, asking others that they knowof someone who you could recommend, checking
with one's insurance company to see whois in network who would be the best
for individual. But there's also somereally great resources online too, Psychology Today

(17:33):
dot com being one that comes tomind. It really gives an individual chance
to see who's accepting patients in thearea. Now, not everyone is listed
there, but it's an option too. That's a very good option. It's
a starting point anyway, and Iguess that's what a lot of people are
probably looking for quietly when it's Ithink when they get into it, it'll
be a little it'll certainly be refreshing, and it'll be a little easier than

(17:56):
they even thought. Thank you somuch, doctor Jen for Barman. I
greatly do appreciate it. Psychologytoday dotCom. That's going to be our starting
point. Thank you, Yes,thank you so much for having me.
Oh my pleasure. All right,Bubby, all right, we got to
take a little break here. Onthe way out, I will tell you
all about ut house Institute on Agingwhere you will be you can make yourself

(18:22):
available to anyone, including a psychologist, maybe a psychiatrist, who is not
only trained in those fields enough toget the degree on the on the office
wall, but also in how thosedisciplines apply specifically to seniors. It's just
such a marvelous idea. I don'tknow why. There's nothing like this in

(18:42):
every city in America, but Houstonhas the Institute on Aging over at ut
Health in the Med Center, andthat's where it all starts. This is
a collaborative of hundreds of providers allthe medical fields, with that extra training
so that they know us better thanwe know ourselves, and better than most
other providers would know us. It'sa fantastic opportunity to use them and many

(19:07):
of them. Although it's based basicallyin the med Center, they do work
in outlying areas all around town,in the hospitals and the clinics, far
enough out that there's probably somebody veryclose to you who can help you with
whatever's bothering you. Go to thewebsite, learn what they do, how
they do it, See all thedifferent resources they offer to help us as

(19:30):
seniors get the care we need andthe care we deserve uth dot edu slash
aging Utch dot edu slash aging.What's life without a NET? I suggest
to go to bed, leave itoff, just wait until the show's over.
Sleepy back that Dougpike as fifty pluscontinues, Bye, welcome back to

(20:03):
the Plus. Thanks for listening.Bottom of the hour. We've turned that
on our way up to I don'tknow about what six seven minutes will and
then we'll do another one of thosethings and let you know about some fantastic
sponsors of this program, and thenwe'll conclude later starting I guess with the
leader of our country, our president, who just this week told the United

(20:27):
steel Workers Union. I listened toit. It's just hmm. I'll just
tell you what happened. Told isthe steel Workers Union that his uncle was
shot down while flying a single enginereconplane over warzone and New Guinea even referenced
cannibals in the area and noted,not coincidentally the way he presented it,

(20:53):
that his uncle's body was never recovered. Well, the military, which keeps
track of such things like missing planesand people, recalls in its own records
that President Biden's uncle flew twin engineplanes and that in fact, on the
day that his plane went down,he was running a courier flight with three

(21:18):
passengers on board, and that planewas forced to ditch by I don't know
why wasn't shot down, It justhad to ditch. This was on May
fourth, nineteen forty four, andit went down in the ocean, not
over the jungles of Cannibal filled NewGuinea. And he's running for president again.

(21:47):
That concerns me that he can be. He has just told so many
outrageous, blatantly false stories about himselfand his family. It's difficul cult to
imagine that he can keep up withthe day to day running of this country
by himself. We'll go from thereto kind of a related story. Really

(22:12):
at Florida, Mike Waltz called fora damage assessment to be done by our
highest levels of security after reviewing someof the classified documents that President Biden had
stored in his Delaware basement. Becausewhat Waltz saw, he said, which

(22:37):
dated back to Biden's time in theSenate and his vice president, what walt
saw actually is still quite pertinent andrelevant to current threats to our country and
some of the ways that we gatherthat information. This was in his basement.
And don't expect to hear any moreabout this on the nightly news either.

(23:00):
It's just not gonna happen in Olympicfashion news. Have you seen this
story? Will No in Olympic Fashionnews? And you know how, boy?
I just I follow fashion, Youknow I do. Will You can
just one look at me and youknow that I'm just I'm just one more
good choice from a cover of GQ. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm right

(23:22):
there on the cutting edge anyway.I'm also squarely no fooling on the side
of the thousands of women so farwho have challenged what they call kits.
A kit in Olympic lingo or inany big sports lingo, that's your uniform,

(23:44):
that's what you're gonna wear. Andthese kits that Nike has presented for
our USA Track and Field team towear in Paris this summer are how can
I do this? I've got tobe very discreet here. The men's gear
is fine, pretty traditional, butthe women's apparel below the waste is distinctly

(24:12):
I'm trying here, distinctly lacking infabric that should be there. To avoid
unintentional exposure, of the women's Well, just go see for yourself. One
commenter, a woman, said,wait, my blank is going to be

(24:32):
out, and another noted, justsimply when you run out of fabric after
designing the men's kit. Shame onNike, Shame on everybody in the company
who signed off on this. It'sdisrespectful to women. At the very least,
our country's greatest athletes shouldn't have toworry about anything but competing for gold

(24:55):
medals in Paris, and they shouldn'tat all have to devote any time to
per grooming or concerns over what acamera might catch that they don't want it
to catch. Swinging amiss for Nike, and they got about one hundred days
to come up with something different,which they will they better at least might

(25:15):
the the the weird part of mybrain that comes up with weird ideas and
imagine sayings that sometimes are real andsometimes are not, tells me that Nike
may have done this to generate publicity. They may have made only one of
those women's kits in the form wesee it now just to garner all the

(25:37):
attention it's getting, and then havea whole warehouse full of more more decent
stuff that this is going to berolled out in response to the hue and
cry that this this first one tojust look it up. It's I that
that was just such a bad decisionon somebody's part. I'm gonna go away

(26:04):
from that. Well, let's takehow much time do we have? Two
minutes? Let's let's go to theOh, by the way, will do
you know what today is? Nationally? Actually? The world? Oh?
Global is world? What day?It is? World? Will day?
Kind of warm? It's World AmateurRadio Day? And here we are.

(26:29):
Oh, I don't love about anamateur tour. You know, you gotta
take them where you see them,you know, all right? Well,
good trade, that's a lot ofdata or punishment doesn't fit the crime.
Oh, good trade. Good trade. Restaurant in Italy is trying something that

(26:51):
I think more restaurants in this countryshould try to change significantly the ambiance in
their establishments. When you go intothis restaurant in Italy, they will give
you a free bottle of wine inexchange for handing over your phone while you
dine there. And most of there'sno strings attached, and the response has

(27:18):
been very positive. They wrap thatin quotes I don't know how you say
very positive in Italian, but that'swhat it's been. I thought that you
were going to say that they couldthey would give you a free bottle of
wine if you could finish it infive minutes, you could knock it off
and be a magnum of wine.If you can knock it off in twenty
thirty minutes, four bottles of wine. No, just give up your phone

(27:41):
and twenty minute. I've talked aboutthis many times, and I think you
and your friends should try this,And I would like a report. You
got two couples out for dinner orfour friends, whatever. You sit down
at the table. You stack allfour phones right in the middle of the
table. First person to touch theirphone before the meal is over pays for
all four meals. What if itstarts ringing and then it starts vibrating all

(28:06):
the other phones. So what whatif and then it topples over your your
tower of phones. It's not fourphones. Don't make a tower on the
ground. No, No, don'tsomebody steps on your phone. No.
I see you're just taking it toa ridiculous extreme. You just set them
in the middle of the time.Make it. Never pull my phone out.

(28:27):
I always have it in my pocket. If it rings, and if
it rings, and if it rings, I let a good voicemail. No
you don't, you pull it outof your pone. No, I let
a good voice smell. I don'teven have a voicemail box set up.
That's how little I can about it. How much time to have none,
That's what I thought, and justwent on and on and on about how

(28:48):
what a magnificent, what a magnificentsocializer you are by never even taking your
phone out of your pocket. I'mgonna ask you off the ear for the
truth. You got a pinky swearwhen you tell me what you tell me.
Kirk Combs is the custom builder forwhom I've spoken for which I've spoken
for many years now, the betterpart of ten at least, And I
am so thrilled to let you know, if you haven't heard already, because

(29:11):
I've been singing it from the rooftops, that Kirk Combs is the twenty twenty
four Southern Living Builder of the Yeartwenty twenty four Southern Living Big Magazine Builder
of the Year. They build fromnorthwest Houston all the way out through the
hill Country, all points in between, and they are plenty happy to either

(29:37):
help you a lot or help youjust a little with the process of making
your dream home become reality. Youcan show up with a scribble on a
napkin, you can show up withcomplete blueprints, and they will take it
from wherever you give it. Allyou got to do is sit down with
their design team, their architectural teammore than once, and really map it

(29:57):
out, really dial it down toeverything, including even the light switches and
the outlet covers. They're all yourchoices because it's your dream. Kirkholmes dot
com. That's the website. Theonly two things common are that twenty year
structural warranty twice the standard and thetwo by six exterior walls to keep the

(30:19):
god awful heat we have in thesummer and the brittle call we have for
three or four days every winter outof your house. Kirkhomes dot com.
That's ky You are k because atkirk Holmes it's all about you, aged
perfection. This is fifty plus withDougpike. Are you kidding me? Will

(30:48):
Melbourne? What have you done?Will? I haven't done anything in this
Speak for yourself. I'm not loaded. Holy cow? Are we that popular?
Will that all these people want tobe involved in this program. I
think I'm flattered. I'm flattered,you're well. Never mind. By the

(31:11):
way, if you've sent me aFacebook friend request recently or in the well
in a while, even please whenyou send one, if you send me
one, back it up with anemail that tells me that you're doing this,
and to call a mutual friend ofours who will vouch for you being

(31:32):
a legit friend. I get alot of these things. Honestly, I
went through there. I haven't checkedthem in a while, and about an
hour ago I went through and juststarted scrolling through to see what's there,
and I had I don't know aboutsixty and I'm ninety percent sure that about
fifty of those were straight up hackstrying to get me to click on them

(31:56):
and add them so that they couldget in there and make me have to
reset my Facebook password again and againand again. So yeah, I would
love to have legitimate listeners and friendsable to see what I'm posting and me
able to see what they're posting ifwe have mutual interest. But I don't

(32:17):
want to get hacked again. Somake it easier for me to to help
you into the family. I wouldlove to have you, but I man,
I just don't want to get burnedagain. Thanks for understanding. I
really appreciate that. All right,moving back to now, what do I
have left? Will? Forty second? Forty seconds? Okay, we're gonna

(32:37):
do something real quick, son,take the wheel, healthy discussion or quit
your whining. Quit your whining.Target employee, you wish, I wish
we had a sound of a babycrying, went on TikTok to complain about
having to close an entire store nearlyalone, in her second month on the

(32:58):
job. Boohoo, you got ajob at Target where they trust you to
close the whole store after only beingthere for two months. They don't trust
me to turn off a microphone inhere. We'll be back tomorrow, Audios.