The problem with mental health solutions today
Social emergencies, system-wide failures and negative mental triggers are here to stay. They can change shape, they cannot be destroyed.
“If we were to acknowledge the social realities that give rise to mental health conditions, we could stop looking for some mysterious biochemical or genetic origin that keeps innumerable research labs in business and start putting our resources into becoming a public health system that focuses on prevention and repair, creating optimal conditions for children and young adults to develop and to thrive.” — Bessel van der Kolk
Therapist based model is not the panacea for mental health. One, the model works for diagnosed conditions, so it’s mostly after the condition has set in. It’s hugely resource intensive. The process to get admitted is laborious. Not everyone can afford the costs. And there are not enough therapists in the world to make this model scalable.
The solution, then, is to help people interact with themselves to make sense of the situation much better — the individual is the best person to solve for his or her mental health challenges.
We need to focus on the line separating challenges and condition when it comes to mental health — and self-talk is an accurate depiction of a person’s state of mental health.
Some mental health conditions can happen in specific situations — triggered by a trauma for example. Some happen due to our work and life situations. Whatever they are, it is important to build a solution that helps people traverse through their own fears and figure it out by themselves. That’s the strongest skill we can help people develop.
Rapidly changing social fabric, new innovations and a changing world expose the psychology we developed in our formative years. The world is going too fast for many of us to adapt. We have to stop blaming our DNA and brain chemicals for our mental health and start looking at these root causes that trigger our mental health challenges.
New innovations and changing world expose our inner-self to risks. People with exposed inner-self end up with mental health conditions. The solution then is not to look into our brains for what chemical has gone haywire but to help people navigate the challenging aspects of their own psychology.
Calmness is helpful, it’s a first step. But it is not enough. We need ways to explore our own psychology to figure out what aspects are stopping us from proceeding, what is making us stuck, what is creating the conflict inside us all the time. Only when technology helps people face their demons and move forward, we can say that there is a solution to mental health challenges. Till then, all we are doing is giving pain relief. It might solve for the headache now but not the deeper troubles inside.
Harish is an entrepreneur building products that help affect our emotion, feeling and psychology
