My name is Sana Johnson-Quijada and I’ve been a physician licensed for practice, psychiatry and board certified since 2002. I have the privilege of working with NAMI Temecula Valley as a board member and in the community of the Riverside County. I write a column called, “Ask The Psychiatrist, just for the fun of it and to connect. Please send in questions of any idea, tree branch, or thread. I can’t wait to hear from you.
This is the latest: “How do I quiet my thoughts?”
Many, like Joanna, come to see me hoping I can answer this. Joanna was a young mother—five children, all between 9 months and 9 years—and I supposed she had heard of the others’ answers to her question:
“Well, what did you expect?”
And there is some truth in that. Five kids between 9 months and 9 years makes for a lot of sound, outside and inside of a young mother’s mind!
She was 19 and a half when she started having kids, and I wondered if 9 was her lucky number. But this was her time for healing and for an answer.
Joanna had asked herself,
“Joanna, look who is telling you—and look who is answering?”
Your own mind. And the telling and the answering come from the condition of your mind. There is very little you can do above the health your mind starts from.
When you hear the story of the talents…
…A man had three servants.
To one he gave five talents.
To another, two.
And to the third, one.
The one with five talents invested wisely and returned with ten.
The one with two also doubled his and returned with four.
To both, the master said,
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
But the one with one talent came back and said:
“I did not want to lose it in an investment, and I did not want you to be angry with me if I did. So I buried it.
Here you go. Here is your one piece of silver—safe and sound.”
If we consider Joanna’s brain as a bank, and all the good in her as something she is commissioned to do well by – her children, her community, her own self, and the one who invested in her—what shall she do?
How shall she deal? Right now she is spinning, almost like being buried in fear.
Her thoughts turn to how. The thoughts come fast. The story invites her to consider what she can do with what she has been given in her biology, in her health, or in her illness.
Joanna, you have bank, and the question of what can you do both with your bank and to get more bank is important. But try don’t value yourself based on a greedily given value system. Value comes from your character, but most importantly, from the One who made you—who gave you your bank. Your value doesn’t depend on the quantity of your “talents”, or money, or even what you can do for others. No. You are valued because you are you in any condition you come it. But! But… it is true that you have more to give if you are well. That is a different value system. And to get that kind of bank, it takes hard work. It takes courage. And it may take medical care as an investment in you that will then in turn bless others with your health.
"So how can I quiet these thoughts?”
My area is brain health; psychiatry. If emotions and behaviors come from the brain, then one could say:
Healthy brain, healthy emotions behaviors and thoughts.
Not many like this take. It is impersonal.
I partly agree. In a way, it is… the beginning. Not magic. Not a single answer. But it is a place to start—where grace and biology meet. Where Joanna’s noise can be understood not as failure, but as a signal:
It is time to tend to the bank. To take inventory. To be honest about what is there—and what is not. And from there, to invest again. Gently.
Starting with brain healing—such as through medication, for a medical condition like generalized anxiety—is a great place to begin quieting the noise. It means being accountable to yourself and to what you have gotten. There is no judgment in your condition. It is simply where you are starting from at this point in time. There is hope for where you go from here.
Self-Care Tip: Invest in your mental health to invest in others. Keep on!