"How do YOU Feel?"
While the phrase used as the Title to this column has been around for many, many years it’s actual significance seems to remain minimal, at best. The phrase is commonly used as an acknowledgement rather than as a genuine inquiry between humans. The time to change that has, truly, come. In the year 2023 America has found itself in something some are calling a “mental health crisis.” In truth the “crisis” today was just as prevalent well before COVID-19, the difference seems to be that people are starting to realize, sometimes, life just SUCKS! While few of us were around during the Great Depression (other than as very young children) we all, likely, got a taste of what it was like growing up at that time. Then, many American families lived in poverty or at its almost literal edge. Now, American families have been isolated albeit not because of poverty but because of a near total lack of face to face interaction with friends, family and associates.
I don’t know with certainty but strongly suspect that the experience of physical isolation has forced many Americans into being introspective. In the 21st Century (and certainly for years prior) children are NOT taught to think critically nor have they received any real education or training regarding being introspective. While the reasons why our society has failed in this regard are legion, one of the most compelling has been the de facto conversion of our educational system into an assembly line for obedient workers, but I digress (not really but that’s something for another day). Today, our educational system is plagued by vapid goals that have no real impact on one’s ability to learn AND use new information instead favoring regurgitation. If only we were birds that might be enough, but as a societal species it never has been and never will be. Instead, the impact of our regimented, meager educational system on physically isolated pupils has been horrible as for a time it was no longer even available to serve one of its most important roles - socializing young humans. Enter the “mental health crisis.”
During the lengthy lockdown of school-aged children while COVID-19 infection and death rates soared children with little exposure to the methods and reasons for introspection were left to figure the processes out themselves. While mom and dad too were likely left with more time on their hands than they were used to one would hope they, at least, knew a few things about being contemplative and introspective. Now, when we hear a phrase such as “mental health crisis” we’re really just hearing our for-profit “news outlets” making note of a surge in younger folks seeking help dealing with various emotions, feelings and thoughts (none of which are in any way new for our species). Certainly, their “reporting” is of interest but, as with all things driven by profits it is extremely superficial. What has, in fact, happened is that average Americans were forced, for a significant time, to be “alone” with themselves. Turns out that’s not such an easy thing after all.
Prior to writing this I listened in to a conversation on an actual radio show (still not a fan of the podcast as a means of communicating). The caller was a young woman who had sought and obtained help dealing with her own mental health issues. The unusually bright fellow on the radio asked her if she was finding there was still a “stigma” associated with seeking help with one’s mental health to which she quickly replied - yes. Her response may have surprised some but it could never surprise yours truly because I realized decades ago that our society thrives on the virtually insane notion that if it’s “all in your head,” it doesn’t really exist. Indeed, I’ve recently found myself frequently recalling my questioning of a medical doctor at an administrative law appeal several years past. My client had been diagnosed with “clinical depression.” The “doctor” first testified that my client’s aches and pains were “all in her head” and, without knowing it, he stepped both feet first into what came next. I proceeded to hammer him on his ridiculous statement for several minutes until he finally recanted and stated, on the record, that humans who suffer from depression can and often do suffer physical pain as a direct result and, in fact, ALL physical pain in humans ultimately resides in the human brain. I won that appeal.
Today’s radio program reminded me that, as a society, we continue to view mental health as some sort of excuse even though, objectively, one’s mental health can and does impact every aspect of our waking day. Despite this we continue to look at those who seek “help” as weak and we dismiss their issues out of hand. In a nation where mental health is viewed as a given except for a few mentally feeble individuals why is anyone surprised to learn about mass shootings by people most would describe as “quiet,” “introverted,” “kept to themselves” or otherwise unhappy with their lives. Why should we be surprised that many combat daily feelings of hopelessness, doom and insatiable anger? When those who seek help dealing with such feelings and thoughts are effectively punished for doing so they are FAR more likely to suppress such feelings until they simply can’t any longer. Perhaps it’s time we actually make mental health at LEAST as important as diet, nutrition and every other medical condition for which one might see a doctor. While we have never lived in a world where happiness is ONLY in our own hands, I believe such a world is possible and it would be immeasurably better than the one in which we now live. If help with “mental health” is what it takes to bring it about then I’m all in.