Mental Health – A Global Concern
It really concerns me that Governments worldwide do not take mental health issues more seriously. Mental Health often gets the short straw when it comes to funding, yet as a mental health professional, I can see that Mental Health often underlies the other conditions that actually do receive the necessary funding.
1) Productive Society
Modern day living leaves us in fight/flight/freeze mode for extended periods and this exhausts our bodies. When stress isn’t correctly dealt with (this happens in the majority of cases), the body begins to manifest physical symptoms. Symptoms such as bad digestion, heart palpitations and lack of sleep are just a few of the side effects of stress. The mind-body link is irrefutable and they affect each other on a consistent basis. It’s no good dealing with the physical symptoms without addressing the underlying reasons for the stress in the first place. Mandatory stress related systems in business would stave off a lot of sickness, missed days of work and unnecessary lapses of active, effective living.
2) Psychological Wellbeing training for parents
Screwed up parents often produce screwed up kids and societies continue to perpetuate brimming madness. The cause of many personality disorders, anxiety and mood disorders can often be traced back to bad parenting. Parents who do not know how to deal with their own stress tend to project their frustrations on to their kids. The kids then have to find some way of ridding themselves of that negative energy ‘dump’ – bullying at school and other anti social behaviour thus emerges. Children are offered conditional love and insecure parents foist their distorted fears on to their children. I see it all the time. Show me an anti-social child, and more often than not, I’ll show you an unenlightened parent who is messing up their child’s mental health.
3) Crime Reduction
Making Mental Health a priority would almost certainly lead to a reduction in crime, a reduction in dishonesty and in all likelihood, more tolerance for others.
4) Lower divorce rates
Those who rate their mental health as good tend to have happier, more successful relationships that last longer. There are more balanced expectations when both partners are grounded and stable.
5) Less Greed
I’m going out on a limb here but I do believe that if we lived in a world where was less mental dysfunction and irrational beliefs, we would view material possessions and money as less significant. We want money not because it’s money but because it can possibly lead us to being happier. What we are really after is happiness. If we possessed the skills to nurture ourselves instead of expecting external sources to provide our internal happiness, we would be a lot more self reliant and less focused outwardly.
We can all be guilty of chasing the wrong things and at times expecting money and possessions to make us happy. The thing is, once you have experienced having a lot of money, you realise that it can’t buy you confidence, it can’t make you love yourself or make others like you or respect you.
A world with better mental health would provide a place where kindness could flourish and where people and the quality of our interactions become more important than making more money.
Every country should have a Mental Health Minister to protect our sanity and promote emotional well being. Tolerance, empathy and critical thinking would make an immense difference. Many modern day problems would be addressed as a positive side effect and I do believe the world would be a much brighter, happier place for everyone.
Mandy X
Photo by Purple Sherbet Photography 
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
