A quirky young YouTuber called me a couple of weeks ago to ask if he could interview me about mental health. He was keen to speak about what it actually means to be psychologically well.
I liked his curiosity. The concept of psychological wellness has been confused since it became a concept in the first place. Becoming popularised by the Western medical model which emphasises disease, psychological wellness was introduced to us as “mental illness” – a state of sickness that’s beyond our control and must be managed with medication.
With this completely disempowering message, it’s no surprise to me that most people won’t even consider therapy because they fear being associated with disease and powerlessness!
For me, mental health is about being psychologically fit. This means to have an attitude of empowerment as opposed to one of helplessness. It’s the commitment to myself that no matter what happens to me, I’ll create something good out of it. This isn’t an easy feat, and it’s not something we can always do on our own. In fact, a massive part of empowerment is seeking external guidance when we need it; looking to mentors, friends and family to support and challenge us to overcome obstacles.
It’s normal to go through periods of “dis-ease” and emotional upset. Do you need to be labelled and medicated every time you go through one of these periods? No, absolutely not. All we need is education on how to understand our suffering, so that we can heal, grow from it, and share the richness we learn from that suffering with the world.
Here’s the video that arose from my meeting with Jeremy. In it we discuss the difference between empowerment and helplessness. We delve into how men’s suffering can be different to women’s due to their lack of emotional awareness and expression. And we acknowledge the importance of using our emotions as guides to designing and creating lives we actually enjoy.
With love,
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