Where is mental health going?

There was a time I was happy that mental health was being discussed, simply because it normalizes that many people, at least temporarily, endure challenging times with depression and anxiety. The need for others to take mental health seriously is important because it supports and encourages people to address their issues, but it also fosters a sense of community that merits the value of not ignoring or denying underlying concerns.

I still think this is important, even though I feel that mental health messaging has become trite and platitudinous, no doubt because it is now a market that needs strict control of messaging for profiting and brand development.

I feel that two problems have emerged from this.

Firstly, even though the realization that comes with understanding one’s own mental health is empowering, there is a key personal choice that follows – how will you live the rest of your life with this information? I would argue everyone has a responsibility to themselves and others to structure their lives in a way that allows them to live optimally with their mental health concerns. Simply speaking, a diagnosis is not a long-term excuse for maladaptive behavior.

Secondly, the sheer number of people to come forward with concerns about their mental health is mindboggling. This raises the very real concern of taking a look at society and expectations and making long-term, systemic changes that minimize declines in mental health. My fear is that mental health is becoming a reliable market, and as such, in order to profit, the mentally disordered become necessary. This is not unlike establishing a private prison system, which needs prisoners to justify its existence.

One cannot help feeling that we find ourselves at the concluding end of a system where we will have to go back to some sort of beginning again to rediscover who we are and what we need.

The vigilance we need to keep track of what is being normalized is exhausting.