It will be rude, and maybe factually incorrect to say that many people don't think. But I believe that there are people who would agree with me that many people do not think about their mental health. Let's face it, why should people care about their mental health? It's not like it affects every other thing including the things that people, most people think is important.
It's not like your mental health affects your productivity in any field of endeavour. It's not like anxiety and depression can completely mess up your life and the life of those around you.
Oh no! It looks like it can.
It looks like mental health is important for everything. It appears that if you ignore your mental health everything else suffers. People have gone from very responsible members of the society and respectable achievers to less than nothing all because they failed to take their mental health seriously.
So, if mental health is that important, why do so few people think about it? Maybe it is the culture around mental health that's stigmatises people who seek help. Maybe it is the feeling that everyone else will think that they are going crazy if they get to talk about their mental health.
Whatever the case, it looks like we need to talk a lot more about mental health and how the changing world is affecting us. It looks like we need more conversations around coping mechanisms and therapy for people who struggle with mental health issues.
Garbage in, Garbage out
A lot of people do not realize that they are a summation of their individual experiences both the good and bad. Mental health as well as resilience are both a product of what we feed our mind with. And it looks like in today's world, there is a lot of garbage being pushed in our direction. Therefore it is no surprise that a lot more people are struggling with their mental health.
Television, social media, as well as the changing political landscape worldwide can be said to be responsible for a huge fraction of the declining mental health of the world.
But, the reality is that TV and social media are here to stay and there is no use whining about it. This raises the question, what can we do about it?
The way I see it, we can either let ourselves get concerned by the negativity and the garbage that happens on the TV or social media and see ourselves gradually go down... Or we could use this as an opportunity to grow our resilience and become better members of the society.
But we cannot do this if we don't think about how these things affect us. We cannot get ourselves to the point of building resilience if we don't even understand or think about our mental health.
What is my point?
Well, my point here is this... You and I need to start thinking a lot more about what goes into our minds, from the movies we watch to the conversations we have with people as well as the news that we see on TV. I am not advocating going off grid. Some people do that. I don't know if it works for them.
All I am saying is, take some time to think about what it is that you are consuming on social media, on TV, etc... knowing that we are a product of influences whether it be virtual or physical. Ask yourself how all of it is going to affect you. Maybe if each and every one of us did that we could have some form of control over our mental health. Maybe we'll have more resilient members of the society, and maybe a lot more fruitful lives.
What do you think?
Thumbnail was made with canva
Yeah there are a lot of factors involved with the mental health landscape. It doesn’t get any easier the more things we add to the mix which is unfortunate!
My husband has noticed he has been more irritable lately but can't figure out why.
I said to him, "It's the content you've been ingesting lol political garbage, drama about influencers that don't matter, children's songs 24/7 (we have toddlers)." When we first met he would fill his head with history, philosophy, sci-fi...
The difference is night and day. Anytime my husband starts acting out of character, I make note of what he's been watching, it often solves a lot
Sounds like you are quite a perceptive individual.