General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I deeply regret ever having sought mental health treatment. [View all]patrice
(47,992 posts)be to be a lot less fast and free with certain labels, e.g. "mentally ill" and "sick".
There are perspectives in Psychology which regard the medical model to be part of the problem; what we call mental illness in many (most?) cases is a reaction to a toxic personal culture, a pathological emotional environment. It isn't the person who is all that sick; it's their place in their world and their dysfunctions are like anti-bodies, or an over-active immune system trying to get healthy against over-whelming odds.
Yeah, I know this implies one awful hell of a lot of psycho-linguistic re-programming in the culture at large, but maybe that could begin if community mental health centers were universally available and as easily accessible as churches, though I for one would be extremely cautious about the role of religion in mental health.
People should be able to go to mental health centers at the drop of a hat, to talk about and to work out ways to discover what to do about their difficulties. It should be so uniersal that it is widely understood that it is not necessary to be "sick" in order to engage in mental health activities, just like it isn't necessary to be sick to engage in physical health activities at you local health club.
Hey! Wouldn't it be great if the two, mental and physical health promotion and development were available at one-stop community resources for everyone that one wouldn't need to subscribe to somekind of belief system and donate to the businesses of "holy" men in order to avail themselves of.