Mental Health: Equal Health
Written by: Victor E. Moseley
Email: [email protected]
First things first is we must wrestle this false superiority of knowing what is mental health away from the general conversation about it. Five years of Mental and Behavioral Healthcare experience has allowed me to uncover many expert opinions about it, and all such opinions deriving from seemingly enlightened patients. Granted some self-care explanations were on track, but being close to the answers cannot be the standard.
Therefore the philosophical nature of mass expertise is counterproductive and harmful to societies understandings about mental health in general. What then can psychological professionals do to dampen such a kaleidoscope of untrained sufferers diagnosing complicated mental disorders? My suggestion would be to produce a weekly periodical. A digital application on a smart phone with current news in the field. Produced along with a bevy of relatable leaders in the field cast on a short 30 minute weekly video. These non-stoic professionals will raise mental healthcare to the same respectable level as physical healthcare.
Many changes have led mental health to being reconsidered as a crucial opposite to the same coin of physical healthcare. More promotion is required if mental health is to achieve the position of equality it deserves for the benefit of humanity.
Issue 2: What Coping Skills Are: What Coping Skills Are Not
Coping skills have somehow settled into a low level grouping that’s unfortunately akin to a ship loaded with cargo never leaving a safe harbor. The cargo is bought and paid for, but the risk borne by the deliver is separated from the process. What then you ask? Most people delay the voyage until the cargo wears down the vessels it rests within.
Yes, even iron starts to rust if it stays too long in an environment directly exposed to the elements. The greatest element is the passage of time. Time when it comes to avoiding confronting an issue is like stacking heavy items over their recommended limits. That’s an example of what coping skills are not. Coping skills are not used to avoid addressing what issue is tormenting you. Coping skills used in such a manner are an added weight over the recommended limits of the time you have to get out from under the issue.
In other words, start to lessen the weight bearing down on the parts of your life beneath it. That’s what coping skills are. Coping skills are used to give you some breathing room until you clearly identify the issue. After that, coping skills must be slowly pushed aside so you can clearly advance directly at the issue you’re having. Only then will you face the issue you’re having and not wallow in avoidance of the issue falsely believing using coping skills that way is helping the matter be resolved.
Now to review. Cargo is always offloaded. Metaphorically your mind is designed to offload things that are unneeded or irrelevant also. Physically, the human body is quick to discard something inside it that it deems unnecessary. If your stomach has something on it that doesn’t sit well you will be immediately notified to tell the body to run. Run somewhere cause it’s coming back up! Spue it out. If you have a sudden and violent bowel movement you would scramble to the nearest toilet.
Remember this very important point again. If you can’t sort through an issue of the mind please seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
I will refer to the Holy Bible. I use the Holy Bible authorized King James version as a trusted reference, and to verify that the way is clear how to sort through the issues of life. The Holy Bible is not my only source of reference mind you. I couldn’t shame or prod these so-called Christian people to let it be shared in simple understandable terms. Those assumptions I’m happy to say if I also indulged would deliver the same erroneous knowledge I thought the clergy possessed. Baggage offloaded.
It’s okay people. Use coping skills in ways that allow you to get a metaphorical breather which purposefully can give you the energy to get at your issues from a renewed position of strength. That’s normal. You don’t need to believe you have to stay with an issue until you resolve it. If you’ve given it enough attention to fill a day, then give it a rest. It’ll still be there. Maybe even putting an issue aside for a while can open new possibilities you couldn’t see because you were hell bent on getting it resolved.
That is another part of what coping skills comprise. An ability to know when to keep at an issue, and when to set it aside until you can put more energy towards it.
It is fine to do that. Just know yourself better first. Look, the problems we all face are different and similar at times, but let them be handled with personal responsibility. If that isn’t enough, then seek the help if you are able. If you aren’t equipped internally to counsel others or yourself, then make sure you refer them and yourself to a professional.
Now from the Authorized King James version of the Holy Bible Luke 6:48. I’m not going to insert the entirety of the verse here, but I will share my understanding of the words and the meanings behind the words. It speaks of a man (which could be any human being) that chose a rock to build his house. He dug deep in laying his foundation.
Right there I take the instruction to mean that a search was made for the right information. Once the information was found and verified to be accurate; the person dug deep to securely trap the knowledge so it would serve whatever needs required of him by not faltering under the stressors that would beat against it. (Don’t try me. It takes time to properly dig, lay and settle a foundation. Be stupid somewhere else, not here!).
You can’t be shaken or shifted by the force of issues because they bring with them strong currents that will seek to knock you off your footing. So, I take the meaning to be that strong forces will crash against your fortifications. In order for them to withstand blow after blow after blow; you must have your defenses and counter offenses already established and settled. Then you just have to bring them to bear every time you’re under attack with the confidence you’ve built strong mental defenses and offenses that will hold!
This is what everyone faces. Human issues. The avoidance of these issues of life is what I’ve seen is the enemy that defeats most people. Pretend issues are not there. Right? I’ve asked probing questions since I was a little boy. I didn’t care what ‘time’ period covered the sensibilities of my parents. I wanted to know. If they couldn’t answer my questions because of some hush hush tradition, I did not overlay their beliefs as a governing philosophy over my life. Period!
Listen to me. I will close out this issue with this universal truth. ‘There are no off limits subjects in Therapy!’