254: REPLAY: Neurosurgery and Poetry with Paul Kaloostian
The Addicted Mind Podcast
Duane Osterlind, LMFT
4.8 • 621 Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2023
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why is addiction so hard to control? Does that mean addiction can’t be treated? On today’s episode of The Addicted Mind Podcast, Duane talks to Dr. Paul Kaloostian.
Dr. Paul Kaloostian is a neurosurgeon in Los Angeles as well as an author. His books include The Young Neurosurgeon: Lessons from My Patients and two different poetry books, From The Eyes Of A Doctor and My Surgical Cases Told In Poems.
As a neurosurgeon for 17 years now, Dr. Kaloostian has dealt with thousands of cases of people with neurological conditions. Seeing the need for awareness of mental health, he took a poetic approach to his books to make it easier for the world to understand what it’s like for patients who are going through neurological conditions, some of which are caused or aggravated by addiction.
On today's episode, he talks about the brain, his patients, and why we do some of the things we do even when we don't necessarily want to do them.
No one wants to be addicted. But the brain is such a powerful organ that what our brains decide to do is what we do. We don't really have that much control. That’s why addiction is a hard problem to fight and beat. The brain is a powerful organ so once it gets stimulated, it's difficult to change. It takes work and energy – but it's not impossible.
Because of Paul's compassion for his clients and his appreciation for the vulnerability of his clients to come and seek help, this is an episode you need to listen to. While you may not fully understand what people with neurological conditions are going through until you’ve gone through the same experience, having the ability to understand these concepts today is a good way to start to develop empathy.
In this episode, you will hear:
- What drew Paul to neurosurgery
- Why he took a medical poetic approach in writing his books
- The need to show empathy to these patients
- How the brain is linked to addiction
- Areas of the brain responsible for addiction
- Why addiction is a pathological condition
- Why addiction is so hard to control
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Supporting Resources:
The Young Neurosurgeon: Lessons from My Patients
My Surgical Cases Told In Poems
Episode Credits
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, welcome to the Addicted Mind podcast. |
| 0:11.1 | My name is Dwayne Ostreland and I'm your host and we are on to another episode. |
| 0:17.7 | My guest today is Dr. Paul Kalustian. |
| 0:20.8 | He is a neurosurgeon in Los Angeles, as well as an author. |
| 0:28.2 | His books include The Young Neurosurgeon Lessons from My Patients and Two Different Poetry Books, |
| 0:35.6 | From The Eyes of a Doctor and my surgical cases told in poems. |
| 0:42.2 | Dr. Paul Kaluestian comes on to the podcast and talks about his patients, talks about the brain, |
| 0:51.5 | and why we do some of the things we do even when we don't necessarily want to do them. |
| 0:59.0 | What was most powerful for me about this episode was listening to Paul's compassion he had for his clients in the appreciation he had about the vulnerability of his clients to come |
| 1:21.0 | and seek help and be in a way in the most vulnerable state you could be with your brain open and being worked on. |
| 1:33.0 | You could really see and hear Paul's passion for helping his clients overcome really difficult and painful situations. Also, a great treat is that Paul |
| 1:54.0 | reads two of his poems at the end of the episode. It was great to listen to them and I really enjoyed meeting Paul and |
| 2:07.7 | talking with him. I hope you enjoy this episode as well. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Addicted Mind podcast. I have a wonderful guest today who we were just talking and I have a lot of questions. Dr. Paul Kalusteen, who is a neurosurgeon and he's going to talk about the brain and addiction and all the different |
| 2:36.3 | parts of that and what's going on up there. So, Paul, please introduce yourself. Well, good morning. |
| 2:41.9 | Thank you so much for having me on. I'm a big fan of yours and I'm a neurosurgeon. I deal with |
| 2:48.1 | a wide variety of problems affecting the brain, the spinal cord, and variety of our nerves throughout our body. |
| 2:55.8 | I've been working for about 17 years now, and the brain has really been such a fascinating organ. |
| 3:02.6 | I remember going through training and going through my first few surgeries where the skull was opened up, |
| 3:08.5 | the covering of the brain was opened up, and you see the actual pulsation of the brain and the |
| 3:14.4 | structure of it. It just always fascinated me. And to this day, I mean, it's just, it's really awe-inspiring. |
| 3:20.7 | And it really is so important that we really understand our brain and our spinal cord functions |
| 3:27.0 | and really become more appreciative of what they do for us on a daily basis. |
... |
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