Tackling a Touchy Topic Today
Today is the day for an observance you probably don’t know about. By the end of this newsletter, I hope you’ll be planning ways to make this day a better one for you and those you love before October 10th 2024. Today’s observance is all about something I work with veterinary teams to improve – mental wellbeing. Welcome to World Mental Health Day 2023.
First observed in 1992, there’s been a great need in our society for decades longer than that to eliminate the stigma around mental illness. When most of us were growing up, those with different mental abilities were considered “slow” or “nuts” or just plain “weird.” We’ve made a lot of progress as research has identified different mental diseases and conditions, instead of lumping everyone into the same category and “slow learner” classes in school.
Around the world, one in 8 people suffers some sort of mental illness or condition that sets them apart from others. In developed countries, there’s more opportunity for understanding, inclusion, and treatment options. In lesser-developed areas, mental differences are still quite stigmatized, sometimes to the point of physical torture and death.
Think about it – people who have eyesight problems aren’t tortured and killed. People with hearing problems aren’t tortured and killed. People with mental disabilities, even minor ones, still sometimes are.
Our brains are at once astonishingly complex and astonishingly simple. They are designed to automatically regulate bodily functions, while at the same time processing the world around us, reacting through learned responses and the occasional novel response. They can learn language and logic and love, they are constantly judging the sights, sounds, and people around them, and yet can fail to contemplate the rightness and wrongness of the thoughts they dish up regularly. Mental health problems can be caused by almost anything at almost any time in a person's life:
- Biological trauma – abuse, head injury, etc.
- Psychological trauma – abuse, accident, etc.
- Social trauma – isolation, discrimination, etc.
- Genetic anomalies
- Brain connectivity anomalies
One hundred years ago, the causes of heart disease weren’t well understood. There was the mystery of why the heart seemed to be producing or somehow harnessing electricity, which spawned the invention of the electrocardiograph. That breakthrough opened the floodgates of research and treatment for heart problems. Researchers in the fields of neuroscience and mental health are closing in on a biological modeling of the brain, how it communicates within itself, and where and how breakdowns occur. According to Thomas R. Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, mental illness is just like other chronic illness in the body: there are behavioral components and biological components. Dr. Insel said "The only difference here is that the organ of interest is the brain instead of the heart or pancreas. But the same basic principles apply."
If you want to delve into the day-to-day management of mental wellbeing topics, the world’s second-shortest podcast covers them regularly. Each of these episodes is less than 90 seconds long and dishes up evidence-based info and solutions.
Need to quit being mean to yourself? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
Want to keep your brain from cutting you? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
Indulging in regrets instead of dreams? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
With one in eight people of the world’s population affected by mental illness, chances are you or someone you love is or will be affected. Right now, there’s not an x-ray that can diagnose depression, or a blood test that can diagnose schizophrenia. There are affective therapies that can ease anxiety and deal with the symptoms of many, if not most, mental illnesses. There’s no shame in needing glasses or a hearing aid. There should be no shame in getting help with mental illness, either. Understanding, asking for help, and accepting that help are all it takes to ease someone’s pain.
Be the help. Be the understanding. Be the person who doesn’t judge, just loves. Be that person for someone you love, and be that person for yourself if you’re the one affected.
Know someone planning a meeting, retreat, or conference? Please give them my contact information, and thank you!
