Life is stressful. This is a given whether you are Prince or pauper. There is good evidence from recent scientific papers to suggest that as a society we are finding it harder and harder to cope with the demands of modern life. The rates of mental health issues, self harm and self neglect are rising year on year, and there doesn't seem to be an easy solutions. In the UK the prevalent treatment for mental health conditions is medication to control the symptoms. I can understand that this is the start point in treatment since with most mental health conditions, the symptoms can be a block to effective treatment of the underlying condition. The problem comes in the lack of professional support once the symptoms are under control. This is in part a function of the lack of mental health professionals in the NHS and in part because we still do not take a holistic approach to health care.
When you look deeper into the whole question of mental health there is an underlying theme. It appears that for a great many people modern life is unsustainable as it is currently lived. The pressures that we place on each other to perform and achieve leads to a general feeling of dis-satisfaction, not just with other people but with oneself, and this leads initially to depression and subsequently to more serious mental health problems. We are finally beginning to understand the complexities of the brain, and it is likely that from this research we will begin to understand the far more complex question of mind, the function of the brain that defines who we are as individuals, and how we perceive reality.
So, what is the solution? That really depends on the root cause of the problem. Personally I feel that there is a good case to be made for the lack of a sense of community in the sense that we live in a heavily populated world but certainly in the UK rarely know who our immediate neighbours are. I think a strong case can be made for thinking locally and developing strong supportive communities such as those seem in the interwar period when extended families shared in the duties of care for each other and problems were shared between a small tight knit community. One potential downside of this is the fracturing of "Big picture" society into discrete social units that would potentially then compete for finite resources. I think it is worth a try though.....
When you look deeper into the whole question of mental health there is an underlying theme. It appears that for a great many people modern life is unsustainable as it is currently lived. The pressures that we place on each other to perform and achieve leads to a general feeling of dis-satisfaction, not just with other people but with oneself, and this leads initially to depression and subsequently to more serious mental health problems. We are finally beginning to understand the complexities of the brain, and it is likely that from this research we will begin to understand the far more complex question of mind, the function of the brain that defines who we are as individuals, and how we perceive reality.
So, what is the solution? That really depends on the root cause of the problem. Personally I feel that there is a good case to be made for the lack of a sense of community in the sense that we live in a heavily populated world but certainly in the UK rarely know who our immediate neighbours are. I think a strong case can be made for thinking locally and developing strong supportive communities such as those seem in the interwar period when extended families shared in the duties of care for each other and problems were shared between a small tight knit community. One potential downside of this is the fracturing of "Big picture" society into discrete social units that would potentially then compete for finite resources. I think it is worth a try though.....
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