Mental health.
In some circles, the term is almost normalized.
But in others, it carries a stigma.
- If you have mental health issues, you’re weak.
- If you have mental health issues, you obviously can’t handle pressure.
- If you have mental health issues, you’re not an actual, functional, productive member of society.
These are some of the false sound bytes you may hear in regard to the discussion on mental health.
But let’s take a deeper look, and talk about what’s really going on.
As it turns out, there’s more to the discussion than the black and white notion of competency.
Not everyone who has a mental health issue is incompentent.
Not everyone who takes a mental health day is a wuss.
Let’s talk about three vital mental health truths that everyone in our modern world should finally accept.
1. The Mind Is An Organ Of The Body, Just Like Any Other Organ
A lot of people seem to believe that the manifestation of ‘conscious thought’ is somehow different from, for example, the pumping of blood through the body by the heart, or the filtering of toxins by the liver.
The simple fact of the matter is that the brain is an organ just like your other organs, in the sense that it’s made of blood, flesh, and tissue.
Now, obviously, the brain is a very unique organ. In many ways, it’s infinitely complex—even to the extent that we still have a difficult time understanding all of its functionality.
But still, to think that just because someone has the capacity to think must mean that all thoughts and brain functions are going to work completely normally and universally across our entire species, all the time, is a pretty tall order, and it just isn’t realistic.
Just like some people develop heart problems, are born with heart defects, or even face issues like heart attacks, the brain is also vulnerable to its own sets of problems and dangers.
And some of these things manifest themselves in our thought patterns.
2. With The Brain Being So Complex, There’s A Lot Of Room For Error
The human brain is truly a miracle of evolutionary adaptation.
But, it isn’t perfect.
We’re still bound to its limitations.
Chemicals still need to carry messages from one receptor to the next.
We still need hormones to go to the right places to make us feel and experience the right things.
A lot of things need to go correctly in order for our brain to continue to function at peak efficiency.
But with all of that complexity, is it really reasonable to assume that nothing is ever going to go wrong?
In truth, it’s actually amazing that our brains don’t ‘act up’ even more than they do.
3. In A World That’s Becoming More And More Complex, It Only Stands To Reason That Our Brains May Need A Break From Time To Time
Not all mental health issues are long term.
Sometimes, it’s as simple as needing a day off to visit the therapist, a week off to deal with an anxiety attack, or a few months on leave to deal with a crippling case of PTSD.
Sometimes, it may mean seeking long-term treatment for a chronic illness like depression.
Whatever it looks like, it’s important to understand that the people who suffer from it are absolutely suffering.
Just because we can’t see a bleeding wound doesn’t mean that someone isn’t hurt.
These are things that the medical community, science, and psychology all agree on.
And it’s time to start taking them a bit more seriously.
