The Missing Key to Mental Health
We don’t need more information. It’s imagination that we lack.
In 2016, I left my tech business to study mental health. Like so many in the industry, I was burning out, but looking back now, I know the issue ran deeper than that. My discomfort grew out of a crisis in faith — I wondered if the bits of code we were pushing out on the world were really changing it for the better, if the long days, the lousy sleep and constant anxieties meant anything to anyone.
Looking back, I probably needed therapy but I wasn’t ready to be helped. Instead, I decided to learn as much as I possibly could about the reasons people struggle and how they bounce back. I spent many months talking to various professionals, creatives and entrepreneurs, I interviewed health experts and psychotherapists, and pored over any research I could get my hands on.
Mental health apps — turns out, we’re just not interested
One thing jumped out at me during these talks. People would gush about some mental health app that was supposedly really great and helpful, but when I asked them if they were using it, they’d say “no”. Surprised, I’d ask what they did when they were struggling.
A large number of people told me “I play video…
