#9 - Exploring Mental Health through Neuroscience: Interview with Fiona Wu

Today on Matters of the Mind, I’m continuing conversations with guests attending the Active Minds Mental Health Conference, the nation’s leading conference focused on young adults and mental health. I speak with Fiona Wu, a mental health advocate whose work is inspired by her own experiences and background studying neuroscience. Fiona shares her early experiences with mental health challenges and the impact that community spaces have on mental well-being. 

To learn more about Active Minds, visit their website www.activeminds.org

Transcript

Pippa: Hello everyone, my name is Pippa Greenberg, and you are listening to my podcast, Matters of the Mind. Today, I'm in Washington, D. C., attending the Active Minds Mental Health Conference, the nation's leading mental health conference for young adults. I'm currently sitting with Fiona Wu. She is a mental health advocate.

Welcome to Matters of the Mind. 

Fiona: Thank you.

Pippa: So, can you tell us about your work and what brings you to the Active Minds conference? 

Fiona: Yes, of course. So I have been interested in mental health for a very long time. It mostly comes from lived experience in high school and also from my mom's mental health experience. And so, ever since, I've really wanted to dig into what's going on scientifically, like, culturally, you know, anthropologically, like, so many different aspects. That's just so fascinating. And so, I've been learning about it and advocating for relevant issues ever since. 

Pippa: That's awesome. So, what are you most interested in learning about at this conference?

Fiona: Ooh, so every time I come, I get really excited to hear all about mental health policy, because I have an interest in it, but I didn't necessarily major in it. I was in neuroscience and public health double major, but. I didn't really have that many policy classes to take. And because we're in DC, it feels especially relevant.

And there are people coming from all over like policy research and like academic professors that come talk about their work and school support. And it's so cool to see like professionals doing these things that I care about a lot and making it into careers. And it's always very inspiring to see how that happens and how I could potentially follow their steps as well.

Pippa: That's really cool. That's awesome. So what aspect of mental health advocacy is most important to you and why? 

Fiona: Ooh, there's so many. But just what comes to mind, first of all, a very big part is diversity and inclusion. I think inclusion advocacy is mental health advocacy because feeling comfortable and feeling like you belong is a huge part of well being. And so I did a lot of diversity, like DEI stuff in college to make sure Asian Americans and international students are heard on campus. 

And then a second very big thing is I have a lot of problems with psychiatry as an institution itself. And so I've been learning a lot about critical psychiatry and how the medicalization in the U. S. might not be the best way to go about mental health care and how the very biochemically predominant narratives might be harmful to patients. So that's another big part that I am very nerdy about. So, yeah. 

Pippa: That's really cool. So, how do different cultural backgrounds influence perceptions and treatments of mental health issues?

Fiona: Oh, wow. Okay. I'm Taiwanese and what I knew about mental health before coming to the U. S. and going to college was simply, it has something to do with psychology, and then secondly, there were sometimes news about people committing suicide, but then usually when that happens, people talk about, oh, depression is important, and we shouldn't let that happen again.

And then that happens for, say, like two or three days, and then suddenly it's over and no one talks about it ever again. So when I first experienced depression and anxiety in high school, I didn't really know what to, how to name what I was going through. I didn't know that I needed help. I thought that this was a normal academic stress that every high school student goes through.

And so to get that mental health literacy, it really was through college, taking classes and realizing that in the U. S. people are way more open about it. And so that's a huge part. And then seeing extracurriculars are surrounding it and be like, Oh, there are people who also care about this and also have similar experiences that I did.

And then lately I started looking back and realizing that there are actually a more culturally relevant care that I thought and so, for example, Taiwan still uses a lot of like Chinese medicine practices and daily health care and how that could be potentially helpful to mental health care is something that I've been looking into, too, as well.

Pippa: That's awesome. That's really cool. So what role do you believe community support plays in mental health recovery and well being? 

Fiona: Oh, wow, well, I mean, personally, it's been the biggest part of my whole recovery journey, honestly. When I was in high school, when I didn't know what was going on, it was my friend who found out about me struggling, and then in turn told my favorite teacher, and my favorite teacher sat me down and said, Fiona, you need help.

And I was like, at the time I was like, no, I feel like I'm okay. And she's like, no. And so like for someone to even name that and give you that information was really important to me. And then obviously afterwards, just having friends and family understand what's going on. And I think our generation has been more and more open about it, which is amazing.

But beyond that, I think the community and like. third spaces, like outside of home and work, those spaces can be so important to your well being in general. And so, for example, parks, um, community centers, like libraries, like all of these places can come together and improve someone's life so much more. And so I think those are very powerful avenues that we haven't fully tapped into for mental health care, so I'm hopeful. 

Pippa: It's significant for people who, you know, may be struggling or just maybe like a little guidance to have that person or that group of people that they can turn to or ask for help.

Fiona: Exactly. 

Pippa: So you shared earlier that you're a neuroscience nerd. You love it. 

Fiona: Yes. 

Pippa: Me too. So I would love to hear more about what you're interested in and what you study and why or how you got into that. 

Fiona: So I worked in a neuroscience lab in high school, but it was on retinal glial cells for fruit flies, which has nothing to do with anything clinical. But I vaguely knew that what I was studying has implications on mental health, which was another thing because I was experiencing, I was researching it. And so I knew that. Neuroscience is the biology of psychology, and that's why I want to look into it. And so I took classes in college and it has so many different sub disciplines within it.

There's clinical neuroscience, which has lately been really big. There's cognitive, there's social, there's, you know, economical, whatever. And. I've always been very interested in the clinical side, and that mostly involves imaging and EEG, and those are just two very common research techniques that people use.

And so, I would recommend people who are interested in it to like, just watch a lot of YouTube videos and see, and then slowly you will pick up on these like, more professional terms, and you will be like, oh, I know what they're talking about. And then maybe potentially look into research experiences in college and stuff like that. But I've always been so fascinated by the brain and like the more I know, the more I realize how limited we know and how limited everything is. 

Pippa: Have you run EEGs before? 

Fiona: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a project on EEG and I. Right now I do MRI. 

Pippa: Wow. 

Fiona: So yeah, those are some different things. 

Pippa: That's awesome. Have you heard of TMS?

Fiona: Yes. Oh, my current project is a clinical trial on TMS. 

Pippa: Really? 

Fiona: But it's actually for Hyperphagia. So right now I'm doing, I'm in a lab working mostly on eating behaviors and eating disorders. And so we're trying to use TMS as a potential treatment to reduce overeating. 

Pippa: That's really cool. That's amazing. I did an internship this past summer with them neuropsychiatrist and that was one of his practices is doing TMS and I was like, it's so interesting. 

Fiona: It's so interesting. It's very new. I saw it for the first time like two weeks ago and I was like, Oh, this is so new and so different. But it's cool that they're very significant results that people are seeing. So it's, it's good to be hopeful in science. 

Pippa: So is there any advice that you would like to share for those struggling with mental health challenges or for anyone hoping to become a mental health advocate? 

Fiona: I like to think to myself that if I saw myself when I was 16, like, really struggling, I would really want to tell her that it will be okay, and I know it's such an empty promise, but knowing right now that my older self probably is also looking at me and saying, oh, it will be okay, that is a really comforting thought to me.

And finding a community, as we said earlier, having friends and family to understand what you're doing and support you. Because I think being a mental health advocate sometimes requires like very certain traits and in a way, all of us are really hopeful, but then at the same time, it can be so easy to be bogged down by what's happening, like on a daily basis.

And you're like, Oh, like, when are we going to actually get this solved? Which is, It's, it's a big issue. And so one thing that I can encourage people to remember is that this is not a Marvel movie. Um, you're not going to single handedly solve this issue. You are going to be a part of a bunch of people that will one day solve this issue.

You're not going to single handedly save all the youth mental health problems. So I think that's a very important reminder that I have to tell myself sometimes. So yeah. It's really important.

Pippa: All right. Thank you so much. That's awesome. Thank you for letting me interview you and stopping by. This was so fun.

Fiona: Thank you.