Reframing Mental Health as Mental Fitness

[Dabidoe]

It's more empowering to think of your mental health as mental fitness, something that you have direct influence of as opposed to some terminal diagnosis. Now I'm not diminishing any major disorders (I have one myself after all) but just like someone bound to a wheelchair you can still exercise and make the best out of your situation as opposed to giving up, getting fat and feeling powerless to change or improve.

The more I've delved into developmental psychology, philosophy, meditation (thanks leo!) the more I've come to the conclusion that mental health is kind of a misleading term. There are so many things you can do to change the state of your consciousness, memory, creativity, focus etc. that are action oriented - like exercising for the body.

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a traumatic childhood which left me fairly "unhealthy" mentally. Smoking a bunch of pot didn't help longterm (although it did push the pain away enough to avoid suicide which was a real concern for years.) These diagnosis or stories we tell ourselves "I have anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder" can turn into learned helplessness and limiting beliefs.

Obviously depression and anxiety are different from conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar (which don't "go away" as easily) but kind of like type 1 vs. type 2 diabetic you will always have type 1. but you can manage your symptoms to the point where it's not a factor as opposed to type 2 which you can actually cure yourself of through diet and exercise (see Jason Fungs The Obesity Code.) 

[Eternal Unity]

I agree. It is more empowering to think of mental health as mental fitness. You are, that way, strengthening your mind. I have experience with my diagnosed disorder and doing mind-gym for 11 years now.

[puporing]

Yeah it depends on how the individual sees it and those around them. I agree for some it can perpetuate this victim mentality, though I would say during an acute stage of manifestation, validation/recognition of the individual as they are and what injustice/neglect they may have gone through is an important part of moving on/forgiveness. Mental health diagnoses when used in a poor sense by professionals put people in this 'helpless patient' box and can make them feel 'lesser' like something is inherently wrong with them. More than likely they're just reacting to what happened to them and unable to get out of that cycle and internalized pattern even after getting out of the situation. Sometimes the 'professionals' can abuse their authority and continue to perpetuate in the individual that 'they are needing to be fixed' to keep them seeing the therapist, and it's hard for the person to tell sometimes. What I think the best approach is empowerment that the individual can move forward and move towards fitness like you say. 

Like most medical diagnoses, just telling someone what they have (the symptoms) doesn't really solve the root of the issue. Ie, the root of it may be they are still being abused one way or another, and they're not taking action to get out of it; they're not living in alignment with their truths and not moving towards alignment, etc. I personally think the root cause of all these 'mental disorders' can be traced back to a lack of unconditional love. Viewed in that sense we all deserve more unconditional love not less and whatever form that takes is unique to each of us.

Edited February 4, 2022 by puporing

[Cathal]

Quote

These diagnosis or stories we tell ourselves "I have anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder" can turn into learned helplessness and limiting beliefs.

yeah that's a big one, trauma is not in your control but suffering is. suffering will force you to see that at some point... i donno, i don't think there's so much you can do. rationality and beliefs about how you feel make you go around in loops

what we humans need is community, belonging, acceptance, sharing, friendship, relationships - the lack of it just fucks you hard and if you really look at your behaviours you're mostly seeking it out but it's usually dysfunctional

[Dabidoe]

23 hours ago, puporing said:

Yeah it depends on how the individual sees it and those around them. I agree for some it can perpetuate this victim mentality, though I would say during an acute stage of manifestation, validation/recognition of the individual as they are and what injustice/neglect they may have gone through is an important part of moving on/forgiveness.

I hope I didn't come across as judgmental of mental illness or try to diminish the severity of the struggle. It absolutely needs to be treated like an illness to a certain degree but just wanted to share my reframe. Without medication, therapy, effort it's not something you can just snap yourself out of with a Tony Robbins book (the same way you can't just snap yourself back to walking if you've been paralyzed.) 
My main point was that for me at least reframing it as something I can put effort in to improve was more empowering than some dreadful fate I'm doomed to. When I heard about the statistics of bipolar people killing themselves (25%) I worried for almost a decade that I was going to kill myself. Thank god I eventually snapped out of that bullshit and realized that it was my choice to do so and I could simply "remove the option" as Leo said in one of his videos. 

It really bothers me today that so many people seem like they want to brag about their anxiety, OCD, ADD for some sort of weird cultural capital. On one hand it's healthy to be open about it and maybe it takes away some of it's power. It just rubs me the wrong way considering how judgmental people are of severe mental illness (ie: the guy on the corner babbling to himself is "Crazy") but everyday things people struggle with like bouts of anxiety and depression must be treated with the utmost sensitivity.

Mental health is a huge problem spiraling out of control (doubt the internet, social media is helping) and I'm glad that people are treating it more seriously but alot of it is cloaked with doom, gloom and despair perpetuating learned helplesness and victim mentality. 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Dabidoe

[puporing]

@Dabidoe Yeah that totally makes sense detangling yourself from statistics. I think yeah some do use the diagnosis to not try to get out of it or really examine their life and what's contributing to it still, but I guess I have empathy for that it can be really hard to get out of a rut on your own if you have little to no support and guidance... To me there's an individual component for change but also a societal/environmental component and I feel like both contribute to a chronic mental illness. Just hypothetically speaking someone in a rut and for whatever reason find themself completely isolated will find it hard to get out of it, like you say the stigma as well makes it hard for you to find and keep a job, is tied to very practical matters. So I strongly believe both individual desire for change and there being some support to go through a rough patch are essential. 

[puporing]

On 04/02/2022 at 0:34 PM, catcat69123 said:

what we humans need is community, belonging, acceptance, sharing, friendship, relationships - the lack of it just fucks you hard and if you really look at your behaviours you're mostly seeking it out but it's usually dysfunctional

Yeah so true, quality relationships can be really scarce for some of us... And we have to resort to paying a large sum of money to get a little bit of it from a therapist sometimes (if they're good too..). 

Edited February 5, 2022 by puporing

[Cathal]

@puporing hahah yeah i know what you mean, well i would hope the therapy is helping molding the life of a person who creates these relationships for themself because if we can learn to be as vunerable and truly open with people as we are with therapists then connection and bonding creates the feeling of acceptance and belonging

the truth is about that i've realized is stop projecting therapists as authority figures and put the authority inside of yourself and you'll truly not give a shit what people think of you because realizing by being absolutely open about everything (as in being vunerable) you naturally attract the people who are right for you and not constantly worried about rejection or being alone - it's how you shift to the right attraction for yourself like you're a wild bird learning a new dance, it's hard and takes time but it really works

[puporing]

@catcat69123 yes great point, I guess almost like taking psychedelics one can integrate the experience with a therapist to outside therapy.  Glad to hear that it works for you and for sharing that. I've moved on from therapy right now as it has reached its limits of exploration (it's a good thing). I think my most recent therapist was what you would call a 'healer', and a lot of the 'being stuck spinning wheels' to find a source of unconditional love that I have not gotten as a child has been healed... then of course I got overly attached and realized this 'relationship' could not expand more it was time to go and explore on my own again. It has allowed me to be a lot more independent if that makes sense. 

[Cathal]

@puporing haha yes i never worded it like that that's almost exactly the same as me, my therapist (also a healer) is shockingly so wise and understanding of how to get out of the collective traumas we have to deal with that it blows my mind and yes it's really that understanding that you, love/god/source whatever, are always looking for yourself and we get raised up to believe we will find it in some 'thing/person' and then get ourselves so entangeled and emotionally hurt but the joy in knowing it's all within and always was and that independance is who you really