This week we looked at common mental health problems and possible reasons for their incidence in society. Mental health problems could be seen as skewed rules that people are trying to live their lives by. These abstract rules are mostly developed alongside the organism as it grows and learns to navigate this world we live in. These self-created rules form our self-concept, a selection of values that we have to live by, or feel incongruence. This incongruence between our inner values and our outer expressions cause a lot of mental health problems.
As an example, a boy may be ahead of his peers at school, and flying high. His teachers and parents tell him he’s clever, and this is reinforced when he is rewarded for achieving so much. The boy takes the opinions of these other people and uses them to create value inside of himself – this is called having an external locus of evaluation. The boy lives by the rule that if other people see that he is clever, then he is valued. When he inevitably comes to something that he struggles with, and does not achieve his usual fantastic results, he feels the incongruence between what he understands is his truth and what he experiencing in the real world, right now. He is not clever at that moment, so he doesn’t feel valued. He feels the tight tension of being worthless in his chest, because he is only worthy of love and acceptance when he is showing and proving how intelligent he is. This could manifest itself in a myriad of different ways, from overeating or abusing substances to numb the pain, turning inwards and not connecting with people, or pathologically lying about anything and everything to maintain his image of perfection.
In a counselling scenario, if this boy ever became a client, he may, with a counsellor, challenge this condition of worth, and ask questions about whether he is only loved when he is achieving great results. This would move the client to an internal locus of evaluation – in that if he knows he’s tried his best, and that he’s loved regardless of whether he’s achieved the top results, he won’t feel so confused about it all. Of course, this would all have been avoided if his parents and teachers reassured him that it’s ok to make mistakes, that sometimes the best lesson comes from learning from a mistake, and that he is loved whether he is top of the class, bottom of the class, or anywhere in between.
Some of these rules are unconsciously developed by survival stimulus – for example if the organism needs to behave a certain way or risk losing its life, thus denying it the chance to reproduce and further its attempts to achieve immortality. A person may not realise that they behave a certain way because of something that happened in their childhood. For example, if they were ignored when they cried with hunger when they were infants, or worse still, punished for crying with hunger instead of being fed, they may not be able to communicate their wants and desires effectively with other people when they grow up. Neglect or abuse like this is linked to increased aggression, impulsive behaviour and violence later on in life as the children develop an overactive adrenaline system to cope – a prime example of an internal system being developed to aid in survival when younger, but then causing problems later on.
Some of these rules are consciously developed, for example by mimicking organisms around it – they see success on the part of family or friends, but may misconstrue its true attribution. For example, this could apply to a teenager developing body dysmorphia, in which they end up hating their body because they don’t look like the supermodels they see on the television. This then also creates an external locus of evaluation. Social media contributes massively to this particular mental health problem, in that such high standards are reinforced by social approval ratings. The most beautiful people or the ones that display the most extravagant riches are “liked”. The ones with the most “likes” sit at the top of the scale, and are presented as the ideal, or the pinnacle of human society. The vast majority of people cannot rise to such standards due to genetics or luck or opportunity or whatever – let’s be honest, it’s just not possible for the average person to look like a supermodel no matter how hard they try – and this causes a widespread dysmorphia among the people that look up to the ones at the top of the popularity scale.
A lot of the common mental health problems that we’ve looked at have a fair degree of overlap, with shared symptoms and common effects on a person’s behaviour. Just to take obsessive compulsive disorder as an example, the main symptoms are having thoughts and images that keep coming into the mind and are difficult to get rid of (which are called obsessions), and strong feelings or impulses that the person must carry out or repeat certain physical acts or mental processes (which are called compulsions). This overlaps with generalised anxiety disorder, in that both have symptoms of not being able to get certain thoughts out of their minds.
They also both seem to be precursors to the panic disorder, in that they worry things will eventually be uncontrollable – in generalised anxiety disorder it would be that the worst happens because of unforeseen circumstances that no amount of worrying would ever get to the bottom of, and then in obsessive compulsive disorder it would be an unknown disaster waiting to happen if they don’t perform their controlling rituals. Continued performance of the obsessive compulsive rituals would also lead to depression if not managed properly – the need to enact controlling behaviours tends to multiply massively if left unchecked.
Doing this research on mental health problems has made me think that my multiple diagnoses of “depression” over the years may have actually been misdiagnoses. Looking at it now, and holding the evidence up to the light, has made me see that the symptoms didn’t quite match. Sure, I had a sour mood for a prolonged period of time, and I didn’t want to go out or do anything or try anything new or take any risks, but it was due to the fear of doing all those things, rather than me just not wanting to do them because I was depressed, or for no reason. I was simply scared of everything. The symptoms may have matched depression, but depression was the overall symptom caused by the generalised anxiety disorder, not the other way around. I’ve always had an issue with being scared to do things out of my comfort zone to the extent that I would lie and do my best to get out of things by any means necessary. It’s an interesting revelation for sure. Self-awareness is never-ending.
Whilst I was going down the list of symptoms, the only thing I’d not experienced in any degree was an actual panic attack. But saying that, I do believe being scared of doing things and the anxiety I have felt because of that was the precursor to having a panic attack. I didn’t feel anxious because I had previously had a panic attack; I felt the anxiety because I didn’t want to experience the panic attack in the first place. I honestly can’t be sure though to be honest, I may well have experienced a panic attack when I was too young to remember it, or I have repressed the memory. Either way, I don’t remember ever having actually experiencing a panic attack, but thinking clearly about it now, and reading descriptions of panic attacks, I feel like a panic attack is what would have happened in a worst case scenario when I was feeling overwhelmed due to anxiety.
Positive mental health is something we should all strive for. I don’t think anyone would ever say that they could have “perfect” mental health, as we all feel down from time to time, and that is perfectly ok. We all go through phases of having such feelings. It is a part of the human experience. It’s when the symptoms like sadness, low mood and lack of motivation become persistent and have a noticeable detrimental effect on someone’s life; that is when the usually benign symptoms become problematic. I think a good way to classify positive mental health would be if it is generally working with a person towards their goals and aspirations, rather than against them. Congruence plays a part here; a person should not have to fight with aspects of their personality to get along in life.
There are lots of things a person can do to promote and nurture their own positive mental health. Getting enough sleep is one such activity, as we all know how grumpy we can be when we are tired. A good diet also helps, as our body reconstitutes itself out of the things we consume – we really are what we eat. Exercise, even if it’s just a little walk out in nature, provides us with lots of feel good hormones. Socialising or spending quality time with loved ones is also a great way to feel loved, or part of a tribe – better than wallowing in loneliness. On the flip side of that though, it is important to be able to spend time alone, to recharge and unwind in private. Learning to take criticism in your stride, and dealing with failure are key aspects of a healthy level of self-esteem or positive self-image.
Those are the basics, but I do feel there are more that can really help in times of trouble. Journaling or simply writing down your troubles can be empowering, and there’s something magical in seeing your problem on a bit of paper in front of you – it really is like physically taking the problem out of your head. Meditation can also be beneficial, as it teaches you not to put all your belief in the random thoughts that pop into your head. Recognising that you may need help and asking for it is another idea, and this also reinforces social bonds. Also, recognising when you are in a draining situation or around negative people is important. Having the courage to remove yourself from such situations is rarely easy, but your environment and the people you spend the most time with are reflected in your mental health.
The final thing I will mention is counselling, as I feel that it can help greatly with obtaining and maintaining positive mental health as it helps make people aware of any underlying negative psychological mental health issues they may have. Understanding yourself, and sorting out faulty thought processes is a game-changer. Counselling is a positive thing, and as a society we should be working towards removing the stigma many people feel towards it, and let people know that it’s ok to go and see a professional. We all have problems, biases and unconscious ways of living our lives that were formed when our survival depended on them and are now redundant that could be holding us back from self-actualisation. Counselling brings these issues into the light so they can be examined, understood, and overcome. It is not good to dwell on these things, or believe them to be immutable, unchangeable attributes that are forever a part of you. It is possible to get out of these destructive or unsociable patterns, but I do understand that the first step, to acknowledge the problem exists, is very hard for almost everyone that suffers from them.
