Without realizing that the past is constantly determining their present actions, they avoid learning anything about their history. They continue to live in their repressed childhood situation, ignoring the fact that it no longer exists. They are continuing to fear and avoid dangers that, although once real, have not been real for a long time.
Following is a bit of a rant. I’m not a doctor. I know how debilitating depression can be. Read-only if you think you can.
It makes me sad when a young person is diagnosed with a mental health condition and told that they need medication for life. It is especially troubling when the medication prescribed is associated with life-threatening side effects.
Mental distress is seldom a drug deficiency disease. Although drugs can provide temporary relief, creating dependence is disempowering and disingenuous.
When a diagnosis becomes part of our story, we are victims. Going from victim to victor, from feeling helpless to having agency in a country that prides itself on providing universal healthcare, becomes more probable when more tax-payer funding is allocated to the right programs. We need to reach a wide audience.
There is no shame in succumbing to a mood disorder. Canadian government statistics show that about 11% of men and 16% of women in Canada will experience major depression in the course of their lives. Social distancing and fear-based marketing have increased these numbers. Getting professional help is prescient.
A current study published in The Lancet concluded that:
This pandemic has created an increased urgency to strengthen mental health systems in most countries. Mitigation strategies could incorporate ways to promote mental wellbeing and target determinants of poor mental health and interventions to treat those with a mental disorder. Taking no action to address the burden of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders should not be an option.
Finding trauma-informed care specialists who can help address adverse childhood events (ACEs) may be key to sustainable recovery. Trauma and ACEs are determinants of poor mental health. Any traumatic experience that causes a child to feel stuck and unable to fight or flee can impair their ability to cope when feeling threatened later in life.
Focusing on what happened to the child rather than diagnosing someone with a mental health condition is the way forward. Creating awareness is the first step in letting go of childhood programs that may not be serving one well.
How I got here
Between 2006 and 2012, I volunteered for a public health program designed to help parents and caregivers raise happy, healthy and resilient teens.
When it came to mental health, parents were instructed to look for signs of distress in their children and encouraged to seek help. For an inability to concentrate or depressive mood, medication was encouraged. The message that the brain was broken and in need of repair was loud and clear.
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Raising the possibility that nutrient deficiencies or inflammatory foods might be contributing to chemical imbalances in the brain was dismissed as not evidence-based. The mind-body disconnect was blatant. Asking parents and caregivers to look back on what happened to the child, to consider any adverse childhood events that may have contributed to the child feeling insecure was discouraged. My intent was not to blame but to help address the underlying cause sustainably.
This volunteer experience contributed to my perception that ill-advised public health policy had the potential to create patients for life.
When I was in high school, common mood disorders had yet to be labelled a disease. I count my blessings because, had they been, I too may have become a victim of over-treatment with lab-made chemicals.
What can we do?
Trauma need not become a life sentence. Trauma-informed care, along with addressing physical and spiritual aspects of distress, can lead to post-traumatic stress growth rather than disability.
Instead of promoting better life through chemistry, we need to help empower people with the knowledge and resources to help prevent distress and dysfunction. Public health initiatives to:
educate future parents
counsel children and adults who have experienced adverse childhood events
offer programs that empower one to reframe stress and anxiety as helpful not harmful
create a new model of healthcare that treats the person, not the average or the condition,
are key to success.
Numbing symptoms with lab-made chemicals is not the answer for recovery from mental distress. We can do better. We need a healthcare team trained to:
find out what happened to the patient
create a sense of safety and trust
involve the patient in healthcare decisions
see the patient not as a victim but as a potential victor.
Implementing widely trauma-informed care, as linked, will help a traumatized population of young people recover and cope better. If your caregiver is unaware, inform them.
Check out the work of doctors Gabor Maté and Peter Levine to learn more about how trauma and adverse childhood events impact health. We need not dwell on the past. But awareness helps create change.
Beautiful Mary! informative .