{"id":4978,"date":"2022-10-11T10:04:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T15:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/?p=4978"},"modified":"2022-10-11T10:04:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T15:04:18","slug":"finding-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/finding-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finding mental health in a culture that misunderstands, stigmatizes, and sometimes views necessary life adaptations as a disease, is not an easy task. But it\u2019s a good topic to explore this week of World Mental Health Day<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before reading, please be advised\nit is not a how-to. It\u2019s an exploration of the way we discuss and view mental\nhealth and the forces that make it hard to find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Protecting and improving mental\nhealth will sometimes mean a fight against culturally accepted norms and\nestablished clinical protocol. And practicing good mental health daily will\nautomatically put you at odds with the over-worked, over-obligated, under-still\nlifestyle we encourage in the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a lot of momentum to\novercome, even for those who are generally stable and balanced. For those of us\nwho have no specific mental disease but have experienced neglect, abuse,\nviolence, accidents, disasters, family loss, or other trauma that significantly\naffects how we move through life, it is often difficult to find trauma-informed\ncare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone can look perfectly normal\non the outside and function well while struggling internally. They can do it\nfor years. What you may not see is the toll it is taking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes that will show up as\nphysical symptoms. Other times, it may result in subtle depression that quietly\ndiminishes a person\u2019s ability to experience joy. Or it may sometimes lead to\nwhat appears to be a sudden breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnout, lashing out, perpetual\nanger, perpetual sadness, mood swings, multitudinous failed relationships,\nsubstance use, drinking, and overworking can all be indicators of a difficult\ninner life. But where we draw the line between adaptations that preserve sanity\nin unthinkable circumstances and mental disorders or illnesses is somewhat\nsubjective. It\u2019s also vulnerable to the unreliability of self-assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better definitions, more specific\nlanguage, and more accurate expectations would be helpful in guiding all of us\nin finding mental health. Current discussions paint with such a large brush\nthat what may be a normal response to the ups and downs of life seem to indicate\npoor mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have people struggled with the\nchanges brought by a pandemic? Of course! But that doesn\u2019t, by definition, mean\na person is experiencing decreased mental health. It may mean I feel discomfort\nfor a period of time while I adjust. During that time, I may feel a sense of\nloss. I may feel anxious or worried. I may feel frustrated or angry. I may need\nmore rest. And, for a time, I may feel depressed. If I did not experience these\n\u201cnegative\u201d emotions, I would not fully adjust and again find equilibrium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describing a healthy progression\nthrough negative emotions as decreased mental health feels dicey to me. It\ncreates the idea of a problem where there would otherwise not be one. And the\nbelief something is \u201cwrong\u201d can exacerbate the difficulty of moving through the\nprocess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can make one step along the\nway appear insurmountable. That may lead us to seek help. That help may\ndiagnose an adjustment disorder. But is it really a disorder or did I fail to\nlearn skills that would make adjustment tolerable? Should a lack of skill be\ncharacterized as a disorder?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the slippery slope we\u2019ve\nbeen sliding down for years. Has that resulted in positive benefits overall?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labeling with an inappropriate\ndiagnosis can place the blame on victims and create social isolation or\nrejection. And it can cause practitioners to dismiss a patient\u2019s experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicating for a short period may\nbe helpful or it may prolong the healing process. It rarely solves an\nunderlying problem without being combined with other therapies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw a statement flash across my\nscreen today that said reducing intimate partner violence will improve mental\nhealth. The way I read that, the victim of violence is the one with diminished\nmental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, a victim may have a\nnegative response to abuse. (I hope so!) But that seems NORMAL and not in any\nway maladaptive in and of itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that scenario, maladaptive\nbehavior could include failing to report the violence and remaining in the\nsituation. But staying for awhile until supports are in place may be the only\nway to safely exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is it that we turn a victim\u2019s\nexperience of helplessness, hurt, betrayal, loss, anger, frustration, and resulting\nlow self-esteem into an indicator that the victim has a mental health problem? Uh,\nno. The victim is a victim. And that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re weak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way we view this is\nbassakwards and stigmatizes the wrong party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we need so badly to believe\nthat could never happen to us that we need to put all victims in a \u201cthem,\u201d not\nme category? Lobbing the mental health problem identifier at victims certainly\naccomplishes that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping the identity of victims\nsecret also serves to create the illusion that they did something wrong. If we\ndon\u2019t believe a victim will be stigmatized, why do we need to keep their\nidentity secret? Or asked another way: If we don\u2019t believe our society will use\nthe victim\u2019s vulnerability against them, why keep their identity secret?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the truth is, we do\nstigmatize and use vulnerability against victims all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it possible to find mental\nhealth in the midst of the morass I\u2019m exploring? Yes. But it may not look like\nwhat you expect. And that is a great place to begin. If you\u2019re able to let go\nof expectation and willing to experience life as it comes, you\u2019ll be much more\nlikely to find mental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it may look different for you\nthan it does for your father, mother, spouse, or children. That is okay. It may\nlook different today than it does tomorrow. That is normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wonderful thing about humans\nis that we are each unique and capable of adapting and learning. These are\nthings to be embraced, built on, and celebrated. Unfortunately, we create\nenvironments that often make us feel we must hide our best qualities in order\nto be considered \u201cnormal,\u201d well-adjusted, and mentally healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can change that by keeping in\nmind, we are not the same. We don\u2019t need to be. We can grant each other grace\nto find our own paths. We can be different and still deeply connect and\nunderstand each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mental health has many faces\nwaiting to be found. If we create safe environments in which to explore, we\u2019ll\nbe closer to finding mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finding mental health in a culture that misunderstands, stigmatizes, and sometimes views necessary life adaptations as a disease, is not an easy task. But it\u2019s a good topic to explore this week of World Mental Health Day. Before reading, please be advised it is not a how-to. It\u2019s an exploration of the way we discuss … Continue reading “Finding Mental Health”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2538],"tags":[3278,668,3277,3167,3276,3275],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4983,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978\/revisions\/4983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}