Dr Karen Sullivan Of I CARE FOR YOUR BRAIN: 5 Things You Should Do To Optimize Your Wellness After Retirement
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Keep up with meaning making: One of the beautiful things about aging is that what we value becomes clearer. By the time most people are ready to retire, they have been able to figure out what are the most important things in life. Spending time serving those purposes will always pay dividends towards your wellbeing.
As a part of my series about the “5 Things You Should Do to Optimize Your Wellness After Retirement” I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen D. Sullivan.
Karen D. Sullivan, Ph.D., ABPP is a caregiver turned board-certified neuropsychologist and licensed psychologist. She offers evidence-based and compassionate brain health education to the public through the I CARE FOR YOUR BRAIN with Dr. Sullivan program on her YouTube channel.
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?
Sure, my grandmother began showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease when I was in my early teenage years. Anyone who has been personally touched by dementia knows that the experience is life changing and it sure was for me. After seeing her symptoms firsthand, I developed an enduring desire to provide comfort and understanding to these people and their families. I then spent the next seven years as a caregiver for folks with dementia in my communities in New Jersey and Boston. Over time, I decided that I needed to compliment my real-world experiences with academic knowledge and eventually got my doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Boston University, finished my fellowship in Neuropsychology through Harvard Medical School and became a board-certified neuropsychologist. I still draw on these early experiences to guide the care of my patients now that I am a doctor.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
That’s a hard question because every day as a neuropsychologist is genuinely very interesting. I can share with you one of the most touching things that has happened to me. When I was 19 years old, I moved from New Jersey to Boston by myself with no real plan and nothing to speak of in my checking account! I moved into a less than ideal situation in a rooming house and was struggling. After I was there for a few weeks, I got a card in the mail from a previous patient’s daughter. The patient was a wonderful man who had had a few strokes and needed help in his home. We developed a special relationship up until he passed away a few months before I moved. In the card, she had signed over his tax refund for that year to me which was a couple thousand dollars. I still tear up today when I think about it. It’s a beautiful example of the times in life when we give a helping hand and the times in life when we need a helping hand.
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?
After I finished my fellowship, I accepted a faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In my first few weeks, I had a patient walk out of an interview with me without saying a word. I was so confused. I went out into the hall to ask him why he had abruptly left, and he informed me that if I was going to use cuss words that he had no interest in me being his doctor. I honestly could not remember having said any such words! He finally explained that I had said the word “darn” and that this was offensive to him. This was my first introduction to the learning curve in being a person from the Northeast practicing in the South. I learned that I had to watch my words more carefully after that! I also learned the difference in what is considered an offensive word in different parts of the country.
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?
It really does take a village with all types of support to be able to live your dreams like I have. My longest, and most passionate, supporter is my Mom. She is a social worker who has organized her life around service to those in need. She gave me so many examples of how to support others from developing the first program in our community for women effected by domestic violence to paying for people’s groceries at ShopRite, helping others was an everyday, normal thing. The question was always who will I help, not how will I help? She has always been my biggest fan and still cheers me on today.
What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?
The most important thing is take quality time for yourself. You can’t give from an empty tank. Taking responsibility for the health and wellbeing of others requires a lot of mental energy. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but it requires that I build in regular breaks that I can count on, where I can fully disengage from my professional identity for a few days at a minimum to remember who I am as a human being and not just a medical provider. Find a special place that you can go without your laptop, without a to-do list, where your only job is to recharge.
What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?
Increase your emotional intelligence. The research is clear that what people want in their leaders are relationship skills over technical skills or insider industry knowledge. We want leaders who are emotionally aware of themselves and attuned to the mental wellbeing of others who use these insights to develop healthy, collaborative relationships with their team. That’s how we get the very best out of people.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
I have found the quote, “It is always darkest before the dawn” to be true. On the outside, it can look like medical providers live a kind of charmed life. There’s a no doubt many of us have received tremendous opportunities and blessings. But the truth is that there are also many trials and tribulations that come along with trying to integrate as a service-oriented provider into modern day healthcare systems. It is hard work on many levels and there’s not nearly enough positive reinforcement for doing the good work of taking care of people. There have been times where my faith in the system has been completely rattled and I have had a crisis of faith. But consistently, and I mean every time, very soon after my darkest times, I am given an opportunity that moves me closer to my true values and the obstacles move away. The lesson here is to hold on to the faith in yourself tightly and remember that just when things seem the most hopeless, a crack appears, and the light gets in.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, Health/Wellness and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them!
Anyone who knows me knows what this answer is going to be! I would love to have lunch with Jon Bon Jovi at his Soul Kitchen restaurant in Toms River, NJ. It’s he and his wife’s non-profit. It’s run by a team of volunteers and people pay what they can. It supports the community by taking away the stigma of going to a soup kitchen. I was invited to be the first member of his international fan club “Backstage with Bon Jovi” by his mother, Carol. She lived in a part of New Jersey where my other grandmother lived, and we became friends. She invited me into many once-in-a-lifetime experiences that I will never forget. It was a wonderful few years of my life and I am still a huge fan. Bon Jovi has provided the soundtrack of my life and I am so grateful.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
My YouTube channel, I CARE FOR YOUR BRAIN with Dr. Sullivan has over 150 videos to learn from or my website www.icfyb.com.
From your point of view or experience, what are a few of the reasons that retirement can reduce one’s health?
Research tells us that it is the dramatic decline in socialization that is the biggest determinant of health after retirement. Working provides us with many opportunities throughout the day to have rewarding social interactions. These interactions run the gamut from solving meaningful problems together to having someone light a candle on a cupcake for our birthday. At work, we are asked our opinion, we are valued, we are a part of something, we are embedded in a social milieu. Outside of our immediate family, our work family is the major reference point in our lives. We oftentimes see this group of people more than we do our family in a given week and they become central figures in our lives. We have neural networks that become devoted to these people that are reinforced daily and grow strong from our multi-layered interactions with them. Frequently activated neural networks create a healthy, well-connected brain that can better withstand the impact of aging and age-related cognitive disorders including dementia. When we retire, many people’s social network dramatically reduces and they feel it, they feel socially isolated and less cognitively stimulated. For some people, the social losses that come along with retirement take them by surprise and this lack of daily connection can lead to depression and loneliness. These two conditions then create additional risk factors for less-than-optimal health.
A few other things are a loss in people’s sense of purpose. Especially in American culture, so much of how we identify our value is through our work: our role, our title, how many things we are in charge of. When we lose our work identity, we are at risk for feeling adrift and without connection to something of greater meaning.
I think we need to use the term “retirement” in a more progressive way. Instead of looking at it like you are retired from work in the broad sense, it is more helpful to think that you are no longer working in one specific role and that you are transitioning and continuing to work in several other meaningful life roles. These can include hobbyist, family person, music aficionado, hiker, philanthropist, etc. We need to get rid of the notion that retirement means a final ending but rather use it as a term that signals a shift to a new phase of life that can be just as purposeful.
Can you share with our readers 5 things that one should do to optimize mental or physical wellness after retirement? Please share a story or an example for each.
-Stay social: Social health is finally getting its due as a major contributor brain health. We now have indisputable evidence that our social health contributes to all aspects of health: emotional, physical and cognitive. Continuing to find ways to engage with people is critical to optimizing health and wellness after retirement. What matters is that the degree of socialization is on par with the person’s personality and interests. Someone can be a strong introvert and not enjoy large gatherings and still be very socially satisfied with lunch twice a week with one dear friend.
-Keep up with meaning making: One of the beautiful things about aging is that what we value becomes clearer. By the time most people are ready to retire, they have been able to figure out what are the most important things in life. Spending time serving those purposes will always pay dividends towards your wellbeing.
-Return to a loved hobby: A very rewarding part of having a more flexible schedule in retirement is you now have the time and mental focus to return to a hobby in a way that wasn’t possible when you worked a full-time job. This is particularly powerful for brain health because you have multiple networks in the brain that remain all throughout life based on any activity you have done repeatedly even if it was piano lessons in the second grade and these can be reactivated at any time. The stronger and more connected brain networks are the more they are resistant to the impact of most subtypes of dementia.
-Prioritize your vascular health: Heart health equals brain health! Some of the biggest negative influences on brain health are hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. They all exert a similar effect in narrowing blood vessels and reducing the amount of oxygen and glucose that can get to brain cells. By reducing these modifiable risk factors for less-than-optimal brain health, you can expect a significant cognitive return on your investment.
-Engage in group exercise: Group exercise offers 2-for-1. You get those vascular benefits that are so powerful to brain health alongside the benefits of socialization. Research also suggests that we exercise significantly longer when in a group. The next time you think about going to the gym, look on the calendar and join a class instead of just going on a machine by yourself.
In your experience, what are 3 or 4 things that people wish someone told them before they retired?
I’ve heard many people say that they wish they would have found a way to keep using their job skills. Our working life can be so demanding and not offer much time for reflection. Once we’re able to slow down and reflect on our life’s work, many people realize just how much expertise they have accumulated, and they see for the first time the enormous value they have to offer. Therefore, it’s so important that people get involved with a vital volunteering experience like mentoring post-retirement and use those skills to better their communities. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if companies offered this as a standard part of a retirement package? That they will provide you with the infrastructure to return 5 hours a week to guide and support the younger folks coming into the company? What a difference that would make for everyone.
Is there a particular book or other resource related to this topic that made a significant impact on you? Is there a resource you’d recommend to those nearing or in retirement?
One of my last jobs before grad school was working for the visionary psychologist Erik Erikson at his Home Care Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was a Therapeutic Companion for older adults with dementia. The philosophy of care we were trained in at this Center was based on the eighth and final stage of his theory of psychosocial development: integrity vs. despair. This stage starts around 65 and ends at death. It is a stage of life when we engage in a very personal process of life review. It is when we reflect on our life’s journey and conclude if we have lived a life of integrity or not. Integrity, in Erikson’s model, means that we have arrived at this stage of life with wisdom earned through personal growth and meaningful accomplishments. If we can’t see more things to be proud of than not, then our inner world is at risk for becoming filled with despair. This despair colors the rest of our days and can cause us to have poor health and low psychological satisfaction.
Erikson first wrote about this theory in 1982 and, luckily, the experience of aging has advanced a lot in that short amount of time. Nowadays, people can have a whole other career after the traditional retirement age. Working at the Erikson Center showed me that the essence how we decide if we have lived a life “well lived” is based on our own judgment. I have carried that with me at challenging points in my career. It’s been helpful to remember that ultimately, I will decide what added meaning to my life and where the important growth happened, not other people.
If you could start a movement related to your specialty that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
That’s easy! I would push the person-centered approach to healthcare movement forward especially for those effected by a brain health challenge. A brain health diagnosis presents a unique, sensitive, and often poorly understood set of human needs that lie between the most tender parts of ourselves: the physiological, the psychological, the cognitive and the social. The standard approach to diagnosing, treating, and supporting people with brain health issues is typically too brief, too emotionally detached and not nearly as empathic and educational as people need and deserve.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Dr Karen Sullivan Of I CARE FOR YOUR BRAIN: 5 Things You Should Do To Optimize Your Wellness After… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
