Mental health awareness month

(Originally written May 2024)

This is "mental health" awareness month. Other posts on LinkedIn are unlikely to put "mental health" in quotes like I have. I choose to because I want to call attention to a phrase that rolls off our tongue so easily, so deceptively.

If I diagnose a kidney infection and you ask me what the kidney is, I can tell you. If you ask me me where it is, I can tell you.

If I diagnose a lung problem and you ask me what the lung is, I can tell you. If you ask me where it is, I can tell you. 

But if I diagnose a "mental illness" and you ask me what the mind is, I cannot tell you based on my biomedical knowledge. I have to meander into pop culture, philosophy, and spirituality. If you ask me where the mind is, I again truly cannot tell you based on my biomedical knowledge.

Put simply, the mind is not a domain of biomedical science. Bio. Medical.

So, then, what exactly are we talking about when we talk about "mental" health? And, as I have highlighted before, what in the world do we mean by "health" anyway - a word that is derived from the word "whole?" How many really believe biomedical science understands the "whole mind" well enough?

Many people are suffering in part due to thoughts, feelings, and perceptions they are having. Is biomedical science the right frame to understand, diagnose, and treat what is happening? Is our knowledge of mind deep enough? Is the problem in the person's biology or in the culture and society, or elsewhere, or many of the above? To what extent?

We are overdue for a reframing of how we think about suffering. Perhaps those who are suffering have something to teach us, if only we could bear to drop the philosophies and frameworks we have unconsciously imbibed. 

What if the people considered "mentally ill" are the sane ones? Exhale, and watch the video below.