Marilyn Johnson shares her testimony of health

Marilyn Johnson faced challenge after challenge in 2020.

Temporarily laid off in March as COVID spread through the US, she learned two months later the layoff was permanent. Her sister Mary passed away two weeks before while hospitalized. Ms. Johnson gave the eulogy at her sister’s service. Four months later Ms. Johnson moved to High Point, N.C., after “finding the courage and leaving an unhealthy relationship,” she said.

“I was just struggling,” Ms. Johnson said. “Those three situations were just so much. I wondered where I would begin. That was the scariest part. I’ve been through some things in my life but never in that capacity and all intertwining with each other. I couldn’t even grieve for my sister.”

Now unemployed and uninsured, Ms. Johnson signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Snow Hill Medical Center showed up as a local option under her new insurance. (Snow Hill Medical Center on Greene Street in Snow Hill is now Contentnea Health-Greene on Kingold Boulevard in Snow Hill.)

“When I started coming to (Contentnea Health), that changed my whole life,” Ms. Jonhson said.

Healing the Body 

The Contentnea Health staff scheduled an appointment for Ms. Johnson with Deborah Deena, a nurse practitioner for nearly eight years at Contentnea. “Whew,” Ms. Johnson said. “After that first visit – I thought ‘this is not going so well.’ I didn’t know what to think.”

Ms. Deena was direct. She was thorough. She was attentive. And she asked a lot of questions.

“When she asked a question, she waited for an answer,” Ms. Johnson said. “I went back because I realized she wasn’t trying to be hard. She was trying to be real. Her approach made me kick into gear. She was on target.

“Miss Deborah (Deena, nurse practitioner) kept it real,” Ms. Johnson said. “I think I took a lot of time with her that day,” she said. “I shared my situation. She could tell from my body language something was going on in my life,” she said.

Ms. Deena says her approach with Ms. Johnson is her approach to care. “I believe in individualized, holistic care,” she says. “When a patient comes to establish care with me, I look at everything. What do you eat? Do you exercise? Do you drink? Do you smoke? I want to know your social history, your family history. I want to know you. I’m going to complete a physical exam on you from head to toe. I’ll order labs so I know what’s going on inside too.

“My goal for me and my patients is to create an atmosphere of partnership,” Ms. Deena said. “I tell my patients what I believe will help them get healthy and stay healthy. I back my direction up with details. I also share with them the consequences of their inaction. I’m going to be honest with my patients, and I want them to be honest with me… We’re in this together.”

“Miss Deborah gave me assignments – drink more water, eat less sugar. She stressed the importance of taking care of myself,” Ms. Johnson said. “Every time I went back for a visit, she’d want to talk about what progress I’d made since the last visit. From there she’d give me little assignments so I could keep taking one step forward.”

Ms. Johnson was all in – going so far as to recommend a course of treatment for herself to the nurse practitioner. She wanted Ms. Deena to put her on a new cholesterol medication after withdrawal from her previous medication caused daily muscle and joint pain.

“Miss Deborah pulled up my lab work from 2020,” Ms. Johnson said. “She showed me my cholesterol results, starting in 2020 up to the most recent ones. They were normal. She told me, ‘If you needed meds, I would have called you some in.’”

“Miss Deborah, I’m going to stay in my lane,” Ms. Johnson responded. “You’re the provider.” Ms. Johnson said they both laughed about that interaction.

Ms. Deena’s care didn’t end with just a medical visit. Ms. Johnson heard from her about other Contentnea Health services. The variety of services surprised her, she said. Those services included medical care, like on-site mammography. The services also included behavioral health.

“There are so many people you can fool, but not Miss Deborah,” Ms. Johnson said. “She’s an observer. She wasn’t a family member or friend at the time. I consider her a friend now. She could hear and not be attached.” And what Ms. Deena heard that day led her to share Contentnea Health’s mental health care services with her new patient.

Healing the Mind 

Ms. Johnson moved to High Point in September 2020 – in part to leave what she called “a very unhealthy relationship. My relationship was like someone giving you an ice cream cone,” Ms. Johnson said. “You get ready to take a lick and they slap it out of your hand, with a smirk on their face. I felt alone, isolated in what I was experiencing and always walking on eggshells.

“I moved to High Point to get away,” she said. “I have a niece and a sister (at the time) living there. I was depressed and experiencing anxiety. I didn’t know what was wrong. I just knew I wasn’t Marilyn.” Was behavioral health counseling the answer?

“There’s so much stigma around mental health,” Ms. Johnson said. “I had to put that aside. What other people thought. Even what I thought. I had questions and I needed answers.”

In November 2020, “I put my pride aside and reached out to a Contentnea Health behavioral health therapist,” she said. “The journey of healing began.” When her therapist left the organization, Ms. Johnson took her recommendation for another therapist. Kim Dixon has worked at Contentnea Health’s Greenville office for nearly four years.

“What are your goals and boundaries is what Kim first asked me,” Ms. Johnson said. “I didn’t have any.”

“We believe in a whole health model,” Ms. Dixon said. “Medical, mental, spiritual, financial, occupational, familial. That’s what we address. You need a support system. I don’t want you to cope forever, but I do want you to have coping skills. Learning how to breathe correctly when you’re struggling is important. Finding your support system is just as important.” (Studies show breathing exercises can reduce stress, manage anxiety and improve concentration and energy.)

“I want to make sure whatever they have on the outside is strong enough and healthy and can get them through their struggle,” Ms. Dixon said.

“Marilyn leaned on faith, even though she was struggling with her faith at the time,” she continued. “Her faith was even strong enough to get through that struggle. Her coming in with a strong faith…was a strength. She has a compass. She has beliefs. That foundation was very helpful. From there we started working toward empowering her to take care of her own life.

“You have to take the wheel and start driving,” Ms. Dixon explained. “My question to patients is ‘What can you do in your life to create the life you want? How can you transition from victim to survivor?’ She leaned on her faith. We just gave her knowledge on how she could use her faith, how she could use her beliefs, to lead her in a path to health. It was great to see her transition from victim to survivor.”

Living in Healing 

“I had a decision to make, “Ms. Johnson said. “How do I get better? Where do I go from here? I had to do the work.”

Ms. Dixon’s question prompted Ms. Johnson to think – “What is my plan?”

“I had more work to do,” Ms. Johnson said. “I took the next step of healing, growing and re-establishing my life.”

Today, Ms. Johnson, known by many as “Elder Johnson,” serves as an Associate Minister under the leadership of Pastor Donnie McLean at Antioch Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ in Hookerton.

She also works as an administrative assistant in the Real Estate Department at White & Allen, P.A., in Kinston, where her confidence is strengthened, she said. “Nothing is out of my reach if I want it.” She uses lessons learned from her last relationship to advocate for and educate other women, and she’s earned certification as a mental health coach.

Ms. Johnson is finding joy in her life as well. She joined her extended family on a five-day Western Caribbean cruise to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cayman Islands.

“My family was and is a great support system and that means everything to me,” she said.

“I’m so glad they didn’t brush me off, brush my experiences off,” Ms. Johnson said of the Contentnea Health staff. “They listened to me. They take what they do seriously.

“I’m not the same person I was in 2020,” she said. “Self-care and having boundaries are very important. I’ve learned to put myself first – taking care of myself and standing firm on my boundaries. It is my faith in Christ and trusting Him during the most difficult time of my life that I’m able to share this health journey.

“I have all the areas covered,” she said. “I have my spiritual life, my physical life and my mental health life all covered. Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. To God be all the glory. I’m living my best life,” Ms. Johnson said.