I have been working in the mental health profession for the past 10 years and as an enthusiastic practitioner of understanding and finding new ways of thinking about old concerns, I am particularly engaged and motivated after having spent some time attempting to understand how different influences or notable practitioners around me could help further discover and create resources concerning more about the healing of our minds, hearts and souls. I know it is a lengthy intro and there is more to come before getting to the core of my new perspective, but it’s this idea that

“the pursuit of knowledge increases awareness, and the pursuit of awareness motivates and provides the catalyst for application and understanding that would lead to increases in wisdom to effect the behavior and guide conversations”

I have a small hope that such an endeavor or discussion will meet needs of the constituents I serve and local populace around me and those that read these thoughts in the area of mental health.

So, with this in mind lets get started…

I recently came across a former protagonist that had effected how I view addictive behaviors. He helped me review my thoughts and focus toward what the motivation is of individuals that are caught up in using external substances that are harmful to alter moods and behaviors. A component of this dialogue and concept that he presented, helped me ingest and view how such external focus and ingestion of harmful substances, is something that is hindering the general populace’s ability to meet the true internal need that humanity is attempting to soothe. Essentially, I have learned, the use of such external measures ended up creating the avoidance of pursuing understanding and resolving the internal angst many of us experience. Perhaps for a small while the external measures - say it was gluttony with utilizing food, but be welcome to consider placing any type of object, thing or substance that can be ingested or experienced in this place - gave some small amount of pleasure or soothing to the internal imbalance of disharmony within, but it was not long lasting or effective in the long term.

However, my intent isn’t to focus on this but just give thanks to Johann Hari for his willingness to encapsulate or bring together concepts that are known by some but not all and place some thought, call into question societal norms or increase the ability to engage our own thinking to see if we have accepted something as true that might not be absolute. Thanks Johann!

True we haven’t met in person and there are a lot of people that I haven’t met in person, but the nature of media seems to create abnormal belief’s within us that we are somehow known or connected. I know, I know… far from the truth except in some distant quirky reasoning that doesn’t really pan out in the long run.

The fear thought that I have after stating such a sentence (Thanks Johann! not included, but the part that our external pursuit creates avoidance) is that many “institutions or beings”, in the interest of adding to their wealth of all different types, could take a certain viewpoint because simply because they mean only to benefit their pocket book. Admittedly I am about caring for my needs, and find even in writing statements, using this blog space, I subconsciously am checking my motives in doing so; but I find myself wondering if I am being a pest or projecting on the general populace that would be interested in reading my thoughts, things that they may not be asking for or wanting. I recognize we have become so hyper focused on not causing harm or creating space for all forms of thought and protecting relativism as a culture. Still, I don’t think that it is a sin to express and state something or participate in making a living by expressing what is known to be truthful and well thought out.

I rather justify my thoughts and actions to be a calling in a great form in the last 10 years to utilize my experience and abilities as a mental health counselor to be responsible in taking care the needs of my patients which translates into adequate care of my own financial needs and benefits those around me whom I love deeply. I am thinking, however, society would call into question a choice to not be responsible or care for my needs or family. I am quickly coming to the conclusion that I am sure that I would be criticized either way if I were not to attempt to care for my personal needs and be completely dependent, or apply the reverse and be aggressive about doing so and taking from those who have none. Either would be called out as offensive by many in the culture.

This is obviously all a tangent and aside from the topic at hand, but something that I found I needed to address. The cause for me addressing this is because I researched some of the thoughts that others have said about Johann Hari and his quest to explore and define mental health issues in society and they - those questioning Hari - have called into question his capitalist motive or intent. Namely that he has pursued such gain, attitudes or focus through some type of plagiarized exposition that cost him dearly.

My opinion of this is that I am not one to judge because I am just as guilty of many things, as well. I think this attitude of displaying Hari’s faults as a journalist is egregious and unfair on the part of those who are calling out his mistake. Making a living by being a fault finding person, criticizing someone’s work enough to demean the person is not a tone of love that I am called to pursue in all human interactions. It’s within me to believe there is some intrinsic value people have, who have made mistakes, who own their mistakes, who can recover and express quality work or be known for their contribution to society, rather than their faults or mistakes.

Should I have conformed to the ideal that only original ideas can be spoken or published, then it reasons in my mind that I could not plagiarize (repeat, disseminate) any viewpoint that was not my own. Or even if to the extent that all items or thought need to be attributed to a source, then let me publicly state that I am not an author of any of my own expression, because none of the language that I convey or speak in is my own unique formation and knowledge. I have learned it all and I am not my sole source.

This honest admission in my view does line up and jive with my worldview and I work to understand who I am in the context of my existence, and my pride is not damaged in any way, to admit that I am influenced by many and much of what has come before me. Chiefly and namely God the Father Himself, as I know him and as I have pursued a personal relationship with Him to know and be known fully as I am able to understand by Him and for Him.

I also assert at this point in my life I know I have the conscious choice to believe and follow blindly, or be discerning and choose to follow only aspects of a persons platform that make sense and harmonize with absolutes and morals that are found most in what I know to be the arena of spiritual faith and Biblical absolute. Perhaps I just lost a bunch of you after that statement, because it is incongruent with your own worldview. Sure, there could be a scientist entrenched in their belief that existence is only attributed to chance and self preservation. Who is laughing and ready to comment on this writing at this moment because of the scoffing in their own mind of the thought that he or she has regarding how faith is not valid or not emphasized for themselves in their personhood in a religious or spiritual sense.

I am willing to take the risk to hear such cacophony and noise if there may be one who would find new life or freedom in the pursuit of living life in a different and greater purpose and existence.

Thanks for that digression and huge diversion from the origin of the treatise before me, but also I am a proponent of finding out if there are alternatives or parts of mental health care that have been less emphasized due to their lack of capital benefit to corporate America which may need to come back into collective conscience in the life of Americans who are truly injured and hurting. Also new generations of global humanity are coming online through the birth process and need to be aware of how to manage and care for their mental health needs that they may face in their lifetime. I say they may face, because not all persons experience pain in this area. Should it be all, then we would have a very absolute epidemic on our hands. I also just heard some faith leaders who are reading this say… oh but there is Andrew! There is an epidemic!

Man! - I am getting into an analytical battle in my own mind for sure between the journalist, the scientist, and the pastor within me. OK back to the topic and thank you for enduring…

As I was discoursing previously, I appreciate Johann Hari for his effort to bring conscious awareness to the understanding that there is more than one way of supporting people who are suffering from mental health concerns. He expresses even in his own dialogue in this 20 minute TED Talk in October 2019 “This could be why you're depressed or anxious”, that he struggled with his own concerns about his well being mentally. This TED talk is a big reason for me coming to this blog platform and posting all this dither and blather, but I am hoping my lack of deference to myself and my words would help to bring some desire within you to consider that there are options as unique as the DNA you have that are a positive recipe to alleviate symptoms and pain related to mental concerns. As a short aside, this is a big reason I attempt to fight my bias and memory in order to consider all who come to counsel with me in my private practice as unique and worthy of being respectfully heard as though they are the only one I have heard.

So I pick up on a couple of points that spurred me to write and could be viewed as being“plagiarized” from Johann. (Johann was implicated and found to be culpable in something he plagiarized when he was a pursuing work for journalistic purposes) So - in some ways I am simply acknowledging that if he is a sinner in this regard, I am as well - and I am expressing my own version of sarcasm pointed at the worlds shifting tides and belief as to what sin is... Thank God there is a Savior! - but again some points I would like to focus on are.

1. Mental Health and Well Being is not found in a pill.

2. Mental Health and Well Being is effected by various forms of isolation.

3. Mental Heath and Wellness is multifaceted.

4. Mental Health and Wellness while talked about is most effected when change is embraced.

PILL

Why do we have this idea that Pill is the sole source and benefactor of feeling balanced, safe, happy, or any variant of positive that gives us well being and life? Perhaps it was most glaring as I listened to Johann’s expression of his view of the facts in the TED Talk that the Hamilton Scale in modern medicine which has been known to be a common standard for evidence of Mental Health and Well Being only attributes a change factor of 1.8 points on an average basis among all those who have participated in the drug manufacturers focus to cure the maladies they are expressing through ingesting a medical drug or solution for curing their concerns. I noted that Johann was very cautious to advocate for such use as he himself was a protagonist and utilized such means to create different for himself. I also noted that he never at any point suggested negative thought or disagreed that such use of prescribed medication is extremely useful. I also find this to be a stance I take on all matters. I am a counselor, and not a medical doctor, and I find that all of my years in working with psychiatrists in side by side concerted effort to change to mental states of mentally challenged folks bed ridden in severe states, that providing a place of rest, balancing nutrition, providing medication support, and giving opportunity for open dialogue in groups and individual ways, greatly influenced the duration of symptoms and altered the trajectory of life for those that were able to find relief. This however brings about the next point.

ISOLATION

In bringing people to an environment in a hospital setting where these things could be purposefully focused on, measured out, maintained, and given forum to, it was a way of decreasing their self imposed state of isolation. Many of the chronically ill that I assisted, were in economic disadvantaged situations. Mounting healthcare cost, chronic pain, and lack of resources were invariably an addition to the mental burden they each endured. Yet in creating space that allowed them to lessen their isolation, I saw measured results on all of my hospital clients who took a standard inventory before and after to make record and measure the change that had happened during their treatment. Without a doubt in my mind there is concrete factual evidence in numerical form of people’s expression of change. OK, go ahead and argue that the change was subjective to the patients perception and influenced by the care they received. EXACTLY! I had many multiple repeated patients in my care that I think were back because they knew they could learn more, or be influenced in altering their old mindsets to a new mindset that would be able to extend their ability to cope with their isolation or change their internal worldview and belief to such an extent that they would be able to make resolutions that they would stick to to change their thoughts, emotions and behaviors.

MULTIFACETED

One can’t ignore this thought or approach. It’s already been spoken of through out this article. Each person is unique. There is not a one size fits all. Their are many approaches to well being. There is diversity, but while there is diversity, I also attribute a strong sense within myself, and I am still pursuing its validity, that there are core values and focuses that human beings can find to create absolute change in order to manage and create a different trajectory for their future. The causes of depression and anxiety are many. The ways of dealing with them diverse. The expertise gained over the years that was shared with me and gained in my own interactions with my own struggles and the struggles that patients and clients present are too many to count at this time. But at any rate, while there are common occurrences and subjects, each occurrence has been most effected by the choices that were presented to them to cultivate, push through, challenge, find a different mentality and heart toward themselves and others and utilize all of the care, concern, and resources they could to redirect their circumstances.

CHANGE

Embracing and making intentional choices to tend to things that have been avoided or not valued in the past is a huge factor in creating new wellness. It’s the thing that I believe happens when I meet with clients on a weekly basis. We review, work on, and challenge our old habits, hurts and hang ups. We express things that have not been expressed. We create plans to make choices that are going to bring new ability and choices. We seek out amends. We view our circumstances as challenges and not life sentences, and we cope by being transparent and open with ourselves, our spouses, our families and each other.

So, while this has been a long post, and maybe I have been saving it up for a while, I hope that it helps to let you know that I am in the pursuit of wanting for your best, seeking out new information that inspires, and growing in my effort as a counselor to be a catalyst for future endeavors of clients who are created to be the persons they are in the balance of this life we are living together.

And in reference to the recorded work of Johann - may each of you have moments where the people around you give you a cow.

Grace and peace to you. - Andrew