The state of mental health and psychological disturbance globally means that 1 out of every 4 people are impacted by mental illness, and to put that in context the disturbance leads to 700,000 people taking their own lives annually, compared to 619,000 people killed by malaria.
Most nations’ health service infrastructure is ill-equipped to cope with such demand. In high-income countries, 5 out of 10 people who require psychological care cannot access the treatment they need. In low- and middle-income countries, this number rises to 9 out of 10 people. Do these statistics suggest that much of our effort to resolve the situation have been proven to have limited success?
What’s less well known is that the vast majority of all the difficulties we face which remain unresolved are typically connected in some way to our paradigms (unconscious mindsets).
In the case of the prevalent paradigm for improving mental health there are several aspects which, rather than alleviating the problem, tends to stabilise it. Underlying assumptions include:
- Mental health support is a service provided by external professionals. For someone in distress believing that the solution is to be provided by someone else has the sub-optimal impact of making the sufferer feel more helpless to solve their own difficulty. On a wider scale this aspect of our ‘mental health support’ breeds a society-wide dependency culture.
- Mental health difficulties are connected to the diagnosis of some form of psychological disorder. If someone is feeling anxious or depressed it is questionable whether a disorder diagnosis will relieve anxiety, build their self-belief or be very emotionally uplifting. In the vast majority of cases mental health conditions impact on self-esteem negatively. If a person identifies with their condition e.g. says to themselves “I am depressed” they are likely to extend the timescales to recover from the psychological difficulty.
- Whilst some medication can be absolutely central to a person’s wellbeing, people approaching a doctor often expect the prescription of a mind neutralising drug. Although this can often provide symptomatic relief it is not likely to address the underlying cause of the mental disturbance. The cause is typically to be found in an aspect of the person’s paradigm. Once medicated many people fear coming off the medication in case it returns them to their previously distressed condition, so dependency is relevant again.
- Non-chemical mental health aids are also often aimed at tackling the ‘symptoms’ in a relatively one-dimensional way. Mindfulness, art, time in nature and yoga can all have a beneficial effect on symptoms but again they do not directly address the underlying cause of disturbance which typically lies in the person’s paradigm.
All of these underlying assumptions stabilise that people have a psychological problem which needs to be managed or fixed, and that at least some of the responsibility for solving the problem lies with an external source or provider.
Rather than ingraining a sense of dependency would we be better off to equip people to resolve any paradigm constraints themselves and empower them to put themselves back in charge of their lives?
35 years of practical research into how to relieve paradigm constraints have enabled the production of mental fitness training Optimising Your Own Performance (OYOP). OYOP provides a multitude of practical tools to empower people from living at the effect of the difficulties in their lives to being in charge of them and transcending their own anxiety and unhappiness.
A proven track record has been built over a six-year period collecting data and individual testimonies. If you would like to know more about how you can empower yourself to achieve all your ambitions you can contact events@achieving-momentum.com.
If you would like to develop yourself as a paradigm-centred mental health coach to help other people develop their paradigms you can join our psychology apprenticeship, to find out more in the first instance contact info@achieving-momentum.com.
