CHANGING THE CONVERSATION TO POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH

This week, 10^th – 16^th May, is Mental Health Awareness Week; a time when people recognise the challenges that many face and improvements still needed in this area. Broadly speaking, there are two different approaches to mental health solutions – the unequal focus on one method can be problematic for genuine change and progress.

APPROACH ONE – FIGHTING FIRES

In his book, Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman comments on the first and most common approach. The entire field of psychology and psychiatry began with a focus on fixing problems. Researchers and therapists would focus on sufferings, mental illness, depression, anxiety, pathologies and all kinds of other problems. Through research and diagnosis they would then develop ways of alleviating symptoms through medications, therapy, and clinical protocols.

This is a highly important and valuable industry but Seligman did note a key drawback: even when patients had gone through such therapies and their negative symptoms had gone… they could be left feeling empty at the end. Just because a problem had been fixed and negative mental health was alleviated, did not automatically lead to positive mental health.

APPROACH TWO – PREVENTING FIRES

Seligman realised that ‘fixing symptoms’ was not enough and so he became an advocate and leader for what is now known as ‘positive psychology’. This area of research focuses on what it takes to help ordinary people, whether they’ve suffered a mental health challenge or not, to boost their well being and happiness.

Some of the key components of positive mental health are:

• Having nourishing social relationships
• Using positive self talk patterns
• Looking after the body (sleep, exercise, nutrition) in order to support the mind
• Labelling emotions for self awareness
• Finding a sense of personal meaning
• Seeing the good in life to stay motivated through challenges

This approach to mental health care is centred on teaching everyone – whether they have mental health challenges or not – the components of positive mental health and how to practically implement them. This allows some people to alleviate their existing symptoms but also allows others to build their resilience and resistance to mental health issues in the first place.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE FIGHTING FIRES APPROACH

Every mental health awareness week we see amazing and inspiring stories of personal transformation. Usually along the lines of:

“I was struggling with X alone until I couldn’t cope. Things got so bad that I used Y service or tried Z strategy and now I’m much better.”

There are a great number of charities and public services that help people in crisis to bounce back, deal with an issue and come out of the other side stronger. These are fantastic organisations who specialise in crisis response, suicide prevention, stress management, and the alleviation of symptoms…

but learning to fix the problem is not the same as learning to prevent the problem entirely.

And this approach does accidentally perpetuate the unhelpful narrative that ‘You ask for help once you are having a problem.’ For some people this is too late, or means even more work has to be done because the problem has gotten so big.

This why Mental Health Awareness Week needs to also be promoting those organisations, programmes and research findings that help people to fortify and grow their positive mental health – to prevent those fires flaring up in the first place.

ARE YOU A DAISY OR A WALL?

In a recent conversation, a client said:

“I’m fed up of being a daisy. Daisies have animals do all sorts of business on them, they get trodden on and they get mowed down a few times each year… but still they bounce back up ready to be chopped down again. I’m tired of being chopped down. I want to feel more like a brick wall – with a solid foundation and without needing to bounce back.”

This analogy perfectly captures the difference between the two mental health approaches:

• Help people to bounce back when they are cut down
• Help people to build a solid state of positive mental health

It also recognises that although building a wall takes effort – in the long run it’s much less exhausting than bouncing back every time there’s a crisis.

HOW DO YOU BOOST POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH?

If you are looking to become the wall – or rather, flourish in your mental health – then luckily there are a number of great strategies that you can implement. And some more good news is that positive mental health is a series of small habits rather than a big lifestyle change.

• Discuss POSITIVE mental health – when you hear ‘mental health’ you probably think straight away about depression, anxiety and stress. These connotations can come with stigma and put people off of having important conversations – especially people who feel they ‘don’t have a problem’. Encouraging more conversations about what positive mental health is and how it can be achieved will bring everyone into the conversation allowing them to recognise the skills of good mental health. The earlier we have these discussions with people the better!
• Gratitude – Swathes of research have found that one of the highest impact, but surprisingly low effort things people can do to boost mental health is to practice daily gratitude. Gratitude has been consistently shown to improve people’s mood, reduce stress, build resilience and help people to bounce back quicker because they are seeing the positives in situations. Try the Gratitude Experience to get started with your own daily gratitude practice.
• Healthy social relationships – Firstly this means investing time in the people who nourish you. Enjoyable social interactions release chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine which help us to feel good. Furthermore if you have trusted confidants in your life you will be more likely to open up about challenges and so find solutions quicker. A flip side to this point is to recognise and reduce the number of toxic or burdensome relationships that you are exposed to. Avoiding peer pressure and learning to set healthy boundaries to protect your own time and values will prevent a lot of stress.
• Review your working conditions – a lot of mental health challenges are exasperated by workplace; high pressure environments, feeling under valued, managers with low social intelligence and not having meaningful work can all aggravate existing mental health challenges. Wherever possible, choosing an organisation based on its values, culture and work ethic can help people to thrive and flourish at work. Feeling like you have purposeful work to do and that your emotional and professional needs are being met are a big component of positive mental health.

If you or your team are looking for support in boosting your positive mental health, then check out the Tools For Happier Living Programme – an 8 week group training programme focused on positive psychology, healthy habits and positive mental health.

Seligman, Martin E. P. Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. Print.