How comfortable would you be to tell your colleagues that
you’re in therapy?
A cast on a broken arm becomes a piece of artwork where
friends and family help decorate.
An old sports injury is a badge of honour.
But a struggle with mental health is a source of
embarrassment for us.
Huh?
A trip to therapy is something we hide. We tell people we
have an “appointment” hoping that they’ll assume we’re getting our eyes checked
rather than our mind checked. We’re so ambiguous with our use of “appointment”
that we’re OK if someone concludes that we’ve been to proctologist rather than
admit we’ve been struggling with our mental health. (Sorry to any proctologists
reading this - you’re all very wonderful people I’m sure. Who doesn’t love a
good trip to the bum doctor?)
1 in 5 Canadians is currently dealing with a mental health
challenge, with depression or anxiety being the most prevalent. That’s more
common than the percentage of Canadians who get the flu every winter. So what’s
the reason for all the shame?
Here’s 3 reasons that we can all be a little more OK with going
to therapy and getting a little support.
1) Mental Health Continuum
Too many people think that mental health is crazy or not
crazy.
It’s not at all.
Try to picture a continuum where at one end of the scale
your have perfect mental health, and the other end is very poor mental health.
There are countless factors that can tip the scale one way or the other.
How much sleep
have I been getting?
What season of
the year is it?
What is my
biological make up?
What kinds of
stresses am I currently dealing with?
How old am I?
All of these factors will shift the balance of the scale,
and move us along the continuum throughout the course of our days. We should
assume that some days, weeks, or months we will be more mentally healthy than
other days. Sometimes there is something we can do about it, other times, we
seem to have less control. Either way it’s not something to that is as cut and
dried as many people tend to think it is.
2) Life Long
Learning.
As a society, we’ve pretty much committed to the process of
continually gaining new education.
We need it for our jobs.
Many of the roles we will fill in 15-20 years may not even
exist today.
We need it for our hobbies.
We learn new skills, discover new methods of doing things,
so we continually need coaching and advice on how to be a better fisherman,
soccer player, gamer or musician.
So of course we need it for our bodies.
50 years ago athletes smoked cigarettes in order to relax
and keep their bodies ready to go for the next day.
Hungry man pre-packaged dinners were thought of as a nice
balanced way to make dinner delicious, healthy and quick.
The way you learned to care for your mind when you were
young may not be totally correct. A therapist can help you understand what to
do with unwanted thoughts and feelings. The things we believe our feelings and
experiences can totally change our hormones, stress levels and physical health.
Don’t believe it?… go talk it through with a therapist (See
what I did there).
The best athlete has a coach. The top musicians have
mentors.
Those with the best mental health ask others for advice and
support as well.
3) It’s Just Your
Brain, Not Something Important Like Your Tooth
How many dentist appointments did you have last year? Nobody
is ashamed to say that the way they brush or floss needs a little support from
the dentist, so we go see them every six months. They help us change bad habits
and they support the good oral care we are already maintaining.
Worst case scenario, if our teeth rot… we get dentures. You
could even get gold-plated dentures and flash a little bling.
You get one brain. You have one chance to use it well. Let’s
not be so proud or so stubborn to imagine that we couldn’t stand to be
supported with the epi-centre of our mind. A therapist can re-enforce good
habits, and challenge some negative habits to keep your mind functioning at
it’s peak.
A change in mental health stigma starts with all of us
individually.
Let’s be proud of new mental health habits we learn and talk
about them openly.
Let’s challenge the negative stereotypes we have about
people who are currently seeking out support.
Good mental health benefits us all.
Book a session with a therapist.
Or at the very least give someone a good hair tussle and
compliment their nice mind.
Comments
Post a Comment