Why the term 'mental health' is flawed
This is something that I really want to share in the hope that if you have experienced any form of emotional distress you will resonate with it and realise that you make sense. I posted this on Instagram a few weeks ago.......
We are way more than our minds.
Our mental state arises from our physiological state – our nervous system and how that interacts with our environment. We are a system that is interconnected with our environment and each other. We are part of an eco-system. We are relational beings.
For example – anxiety is not a mental issue. If you’ve ever had a panic attack, you will know that it isn’t just happening in your mind – it’s a full body experience! Your stomach churns, you heart pounds, your breathing becomes shallow, your body is flooded with adrenalin and cortisol, it's exhausting, you're restless..... The physical state of our nervous system and how that has developed and adapted to our environment over our lifetime creates our anxious thoughts.
That’s why the term ‘mental health’ is flawed, because we are only looking at the thoughts in the mind (the symptoms). To be able to heal we have to work with the conditions that created the thoughts in the first place (the body and how it relates to the environment).
So to label and treat any form of emotional distress as a ‘mental health’ issue is limiting and is just one piece of the pie.
If this has peaked your interest, I had a great conversation with my good friend Dr Jen Daffin on the podcast this week. You can listen in here or in your own podcast app.
Jen is a Community Clinical Psychologist with a passion for social justice. She has 15 years’ experience of working in NHS mental health and learning disability services and now works for a mental health charity called Platfform.
She recently started her Instagram account @fair.play.psychology where she shares information about how our social and political circumstances determine our mental health.
Jen and I had a great conversation about the bigger picture of what we term our ‘mental health’. That we are more than our minds, and that for humans to thrive we need to nurture our minds, bodies and communities.
In this episode, we cover A LOT, but here are some key points:
What is ‘trauma’ and how does it impact our mental health
Is the term ‘mental health’ still valid, given how much more we know about how humans work?
How childhood adversity impacts our total health as adults
How the pandemic has created chronic stress AND given us a golden opportunity to reconnect back to ourselves and each other
A conversation of hope for anyone who feels alone – reminding us of our common humanity