Making sense of the rise in mental health issues

Start from the presumption of wellness, not illness. Sometimes help can come from the most basic approaches.

Connecticut’s mental health crisis, especially for students, cannot be overstated. However, the true instance of mental illness may be far less than repeatedly described in social media. Note the study by the Connecticut Department of Health as reported this week.

The study states that more than a third of our high school students reported having felt sad or hopeless. Less than a quarter said they can often or always get the help they need, the lowest figure on record.

Children, young adults and their parents are far more familiar and well-versed in the various diagnoses affiliated with mental health than ever before. They all self-diagnose, seek medication, psychotherapy of all types, and spend lots of time on the internet searching for descriptors of behavior which seems to correlate to significant, inherent and classified conditions.

Situational and transient anxiety is not necessarily “anxiety disorder.” Clinical “depression” is not the same as feeling blue, avoiding or dealing with difficult situations unenthusiastically. Every bad event does not produce PTSD. Yet families come armed with information about these conditions that seem in line with their child’s behavior.

With the uniquely isolating experience the pandemic produced, the frightening rise in random violence and danger in schools, and parents, teachers, and mental health professionals stretched to capacity, kids understand that a full blown “diagnosis” is needed to get relief from what, in many cases, is an unpleasant but absolutely normal part of adolescence, such as long-term strained family dynamics, or a transient emotional situation that can be transformed without putting on the mantle of a lifelong diagnosis.

We professionals need to “back it down.” Start from the premise of no certifiable mental illness when the client arrives for the first meeting. Believe that practical, daily, structural changes in lifestyle, communication and behavior can produce changes which benefit well-being, mental health and inspire hope, resilience, and ultimately the independence of self-help. With teens especially, family patterns that have undermined a child’s willingness to communicate, to thrive or rebound from difficult events demand a team effort.

Unfortunately, few young folks today have access to a favorite aunt, local cousin, the next-door neighbor who’s always been there in whom they can confide, seek guidance and support on life’s utterly normal difficulties — social, emotional, financial, etc. The wisdom of elders, of trusted adults and “safe” older peers outside of school are gone. When I was annoyed with my Mum, my Aunt Sarah, her sister, listened with compassion. My “Auntie Ann,” actually just my nextdoor neighbor, guided me in ways my own family couldn’t.

The phenomenon of telling your life story to the guy seated next to you on the plane shouldn’t translate to paying a psychotherapist for 6-8 sessions, get a diagnosis, assume the label (only if covered by approved insurance categories) and receive meds to support the route to gladness. Instead, consider therapeutic coaching, based on the notion of looking ahead to develop strategies, behaviors and attitudes that are positive and build upon our intrinsic wholeness. And that in many cases external stress produces transient emotional challenge versus inherent, physiological, mental illness.

Start from the presumption of wellness, not illness. Atypical brain wiring, chemical imbalance and incidence of true trauma-producing events notwithstanding, sometimes help can come from the most basic approaches, where the healing happens gently and without dismantling the underlying sense of wholeness we all need.

Associated Press Visitors to a makeshift memorial leave flowers in front of a large cross at the mall where several people were killed in Allen, Texas.