Why Mental Health is important? Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. (As described by www.mentalhealth.gov).
This is the reason why is so important to have a Mental Health Oversight program or a program where us, each individual, can reach to and get support (low cost), in the course of our lives which is when we need it the most. Being a healthy, happy and successful adult is not something many achieve in their lifetime. There are still many who struggle, cope or look for a solution to their issues for a good life and future. According to Mental Health First Aid organization, 1 of 5 adult Americans have a mental illness, and 1 out of 10 employees have an addiction of some sort. From Social Work License Map statistics, 1 in 4 adults experience mental illness every year, and 1 in 17 lives in a serious mental illness. These statistics may be something many are not aware of. I think we all should be concern of them and be looking to find a short and long term solution for them.
Mental Health is as important as any other resource we have. We all should give Mental Health the importance it deserves.
Have you ever wondered why some individuals regardless of age and sex, have PTSD, commit mass murders or suicides, go homeless, betray or hurt others, are unstable in many forms, have fights and divorce, have an erroneous perception of life, steal and abuse others, have anxiety or depression, feel lost, unappreciated, with no purpose in life and many other social and personal issues? (As for mass murders situations, a certain object is highly publicized and blamed for the murder media used to kill a group of people, “a gun”, a knife, a bo** or a car, instead of, aiming the attention to the individual’s mental health, the reason why he/she did it, and how it might have been prevented).
Mental Health plays a greater role than one may think. It takes a huge effort from each one of us, institutions, support groups, government agencies, education system, and health treatments facilities, to improve and stabilize our mental and emotional health. Even in the military, soldiers should be trained before going into war, to better cope with their fellow soldiers’ death and war visions. This helps blocking or learning how to stay stable through overwhelming moments and not get PTSD. I was in the military and I know what it feels to see a close friend die, (many of them). It makes a huge difference when one is trained mentally and emotionally to cope with this devastating situations.
Referring to a Mental Health Oversight program lasting a lifetime, if an individual from childhood to adulthood gets the proper Mental Health Oversight support, the right tools, coping skills and motivation, he or she can have better chances to manage and handle most situations more confidently and successfully.
Currently in our communities, Mental Health consultation is very expensive and not affordable for many. Some people may not know, but there are ways to direct part of our national budget for this highly needed, and important human resource. When cost of living, low paying jobs, high job competition and low demand on any job, high education expenses, high health and child care cost and many other social issues are present, distributing properly our national resources, can make a huge difference on relieving our daily life burden.
More resources from the national budget could go to the Health and Child Care Systems, Education System, Mental Health Oversight program and/or Universal Income Program. We all know that to produce great technologically advanced and innovative products and services, we must spend lots of money in research, find the right people to make them and invest time and resources for a specific project.
So, several questions may arise from this analogy. Who do we need to talk to invest more on social programs such as Education and Mental Health Systems?, in order to create better, stronger, more capable, stable and well developed individuals? Why we do not allocate the adequate resources in Education and Mental Health Systems to provide the right much needed realistic skills and moral, emotional and physical support? Are supporting other national budget programs more important than supporting our health and metal programs? Who is being narrow minded and bias on our national budget’s choices and only supporting certain people’s interest and agendas? These very important social focused programs, are very critical and beneficial to avoid and address our society’s and individual issues?
The rewards in making the right changes on how resources are allocated and caring for what really matters, can make the difference between forming a caring, efficient, valuable, healthy and successful adult or settling down for a troubled, ignorant, unstable and dangerous adult. An affordable Mental Health Oversight program could alleviate and correct mental disorders at early stages or ongoing issues at a lower cost to everyone.
Counselors, Psychologist and Psychiatrist can help with mental issues, behavior control, poor social skills, and a degraded perception of life. In a few words, quality education matters as much as mental education and support for individual success and value. Not applying planned strategies, raising and supporting our children properly, coaching and counseling our teenagers, young, mature and older adults, can create overwhelming situations each individual may not overcome alone, thus creating failure of the individual. Not every individual have the same resources and is born perfect. The greater the support the greater the chances an individual can live, grow and thrive better in any society.
We are taught in our lifetime some concepts, knowledge and information by our parents, friends, family, the education system, social media and the government. We then learn this world, how people is, what activities we like, goals we want to pursue, how to be and want in life. We inadvertently get programmed in a certain way. As Robert Kiyosaki said, “You are programmed to be poor” in this word. If we think a bit deeper we may realize that, we may also be programmed not to think, question and improve ourselves. If we think deeply and observe how things develop in our life, we can deduct that each individual may develop certain traits and behaviors through their lives, by observation and comparing one thing to another among people. We humans learn from what we see, do and execute in a daily basis. From childhood to adulthood, we mimic or try what our parents and other people do.
Seems like it is a trend to be known, look cool or be successful among our peers, friends or the media. We start mimicking, copying, and experimenting what our siblings or friends do, or what we see on the media or read somewhere. Not until be become adults is when we see the tough reality. Then is too late, we have been programed to have a certain type of behavior and get in the pool of trouble, fun, chaos and struggle. This world is ever demanding and challenging. We always try to overcome any situation with our own skills, resources, and the things we have been taught since childhood.
“In my opinion the key to develop healthy and successful adults is, being able to teach and pass into our children the right knowledge, concepts and mindset. This action provides them with the right effective tools to create, think, solve and cope with any expected or unexpected situation, thus enhancing their strength, determination, troubleshooting skills and confidence”.
By giving them these tools, knowledge and providing lifetime support, we are insuring that these adults can handle many things, stay update and not break down the road. Any mechanism that doesn’t get preventive maintenance, updates and support through its lifetime, it most likely break down down the road. Example: a car, plane, train, spacecraft, even a bicycle, require a maintenance program. If the maintenance personnel fails to provide the scheduled maintenance to a certain item or mechanism, this mechanism will fail and cause harm to the item itself of others. Human instruction, development, and maintenance is no different, don’t care for it and someone will regret it, either the individual or people around him\her.
We may think that the knowledge, information, influences and experiences we receive and learn through our lifetime, are supposed to help us figure out everything in our life such as: get out of school, get a good job, make a family, make lots of money, know how to think, talk, present ourselves well, learn skills, survive and deal with any situation we may encounter in life… it may not the case for everyone. Do we really think these resources, knowledge and experiences are enough for each individual to handle anything, be successful and happy? Probably the answer is, “not completely” or “not really”. This is my point, even if everything seems enough and we are healthy in all aspects, life is so unpredictable and changing. Any change in our life, health, job, relationship, or else can make a huge impact in how we act and perform daily.
If we know something is needed for our success and support, then we should take the necessary steps to get there. We must think how we can accomplish a goal and set the plan. Find the right people to talk to and propose solutions and agree on what to do. At times when the news are playing at home, work or else, and we hear that something terrible happened in the community or elsewhere, and we get a deep feeling of sadness, empathy and frustration. We see how social issues grow daily in the news, social media and in our community. We feel helpless that, no big changes are taking place at the government level to stop the problems, and our families and communities get affected and destroyed again and again.
The problems vary from person to person. We can observe a level of capacity and free time according to our situation and status. Single individuals can handle issues better than single parents, due to the quantity of duties and responsibilities. Adults handle things better than children, teenagers or elderly, but all issues still present in each person’s life and rarely go away. Single parents probably stress the most among all groups in the community. They do several people’s jobs, (Dad’s or mom’s duties, babysitter, maid, teacher and else in their families’ day to day duties.
Many people don’t even realize how stressful and difficult are single parent’s hardships and lives. We would know if we have a single parent friend, we are a single parent or are becoming a single parent soon. This single parent group experiences the worse situations of all groups. High stress, heavy work, longer and harder days, more bills to pay, less time for themselves, kids matters, school, cooking and feeding, and much more. They barely have time to eat or sleep some, They must care for everything their children need and on top of that, handle work and personal issues. The life of a single parent is harder than anything I can think of in the community group. The list goes on, fix the car, doctor apps, puberty issues, home chores, unexpected situations and so on.
Not having someone to turn for help or support, makes things extremely hard, overwhelming and debilitating, thus, diminishing the individual’s strength and will. How about the death of a relative or personal health issues, that makes our job even harder and potentially lose the job. This situation then makes us dependent of others or we end up homeless and lose everything. Having diabetes, being bipolar, having high cholesterol, being autistic or having any mental issues can multiply several times our limits to handle daily duties.
These are just a few examples of our daily lives. Only close relatives and friends really know what’s happening in our lives. Since we all have issues, it seems that, no one can do much to change our reality for a better one. With these examples of what a human person can experience in particular situation, one can conclude that, by having a strong support system in place in our communities, an individual or family could get the right help and support to solve and handle things better. This is the no brainier idea, “help and support is the key for a healthy and successful adult”.
The right plan for the right solution fixes or helps accomplish the goal. We all responsible for our own accomplishments and at the same time we build our communities. Like it or not, we all have an influence and effect on each other. Good and healthy people make life better, bad people or people with mental issues makes life bad and hard.
Ask yourself these important questions:
- What are the people in charge of every major department of the government doing for us, citizens of this country?
- Who is checking on these individuals on a daily basis to seek and implement measures and projects, that can directly benefit our community?
- Where are the reports of their work being sent to, the governor, city major or the news, for us to see there is work being done to benefit the community?
- What laws are being passed that can make a huge impact on solving, preventing social issues and help us educate our children better?
- Are there any changes or proposal being made to improve our Education, Health, Mental and a possible Family Financial Assistance Systems?
- Are there any considerations to propose a continuous Mental Health Oversight program for all?
- Are we waiting for another failure of one of our love ones, a friend, a neighbor or someone hurting themselves or others?
- Is it normal not to feel safe, comfortable and not to trust people in our homes, jobs, schools or communities?
We can prevent or avoid many social issues by improving our Education System and making a continuous Metal Health Oversight program in our communities. We can stop or reduce many highly unwanted social issues such as: Crime, racism, mental disorders, that produce byproducts such as: hate, vandalism, theft, assault, rape, suicides, killings, mass murders, inequality, anger, narcissism, anxiety, depression, lack of self-esteem, and much more. We all can contribute to each other, physical, mental and spiritual health by informing ourselves on ways to help our youth and adults needs. Team work and communicating our ideas, is the first step in a finding the solution to individual and social issues.
Every big accomplishment in life takes hard work. An example not related to this subject but very significant in terms of accomplishment success is, the success of SpaceX company under Elon Musk’s direction. It took 10 years from start to finish to launch a transport vehicle into space. The initial investment to start the project, according to Elon Musk statement, (highest percentage stock owner and and funder), was 100 Million and later he received more funding from other investors. One man will, perseverance, and great management skills, is in great part what it took to start and finish the project.
To lean more on his strategy for success, I reviewed media interviews and information of his projects. On this specific project he mentioned that, part of his strategy for success was to: 1. Hire the right people for the right task. 2. Work along his employees to be a team player, motivate and show support. 3. Work 80 to 100 hours a week. 4. Find ways to spend time and care for his 5 children and wife. 5. Oversee the project very closely to make any necessary or critical changes as the project developed. 6. Make risk assessments, find alternatives to make parts in house and never quit the project. Of course it takes more than this and a great team of engineers and support personnel (now an estimated 6,000 employees) to accomplish this unbelievable task.
In only 10 years this was done successfully. Yes, there were failures, lots of money spent, and the company was almost out of funds at some point, due to unforeseen development outcomes. The project continued despise all the ups and downs, no lives were lost, and the now the company is a success, (worth approximately 2.4 Billion). SpaceX now has contracts with the government and private companies to continue in the space business and beyond.
This is just an example of how one man’s right perception, will, attitude, mind set and unstoppable hard work, can accomplish a huge goal “against all odds”. Elon Musk’s life was not perfect. His parents divorced when he was 10. Later, young Elon moved from South Africa to Canada to continue his studies, but other plans made him leave school to US for greater goals and better future.
I am not concentrating my central point in his personal life, but on his ability to influence and support others. Great results come from influencing and supporting others with confidence, personal growth, good ethics, hard work lead by example, being efficient, motivating, and showing the right mindset. This strategy of good influence and support, makes an individual or group of individuals, achieve a goal a few in a private company has ever seen before.
Lets make a difference in each other life. Nothing comes for free and success is accomplished by a smart plan and hard work. Tomorrow maybe bright or maybe gray, in our hands is the solution for personal and social issues. Now the question is.. What are we doing to find the solution, support and prevention our metal health issues?
I like these quotes for motivation and reasoning: “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way”. “Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die.” “Most people go along with the crowd. They do things because everybody else does it.” Robert Kiyosaki.
A good blog post to get started into learning about psychology and reasoning, is this post I found online from John Doe. It is called “Interesting facts about psychological facts and humans nature 2019”, https://hamarimesh.blogspot.com/2019/04/interesting-psychological-facts-about-human-nature.html Feel free to check it out. I also have some of my favorite articles in psychology and behavior in my Hobbies Page, under articles or white papers if you want to take a look at them. https://arqubits.com/hobbies/.
Sources of mental health are available to the public in form of publications, articles, and from organizations services. Being informed and knowing how address issues, is the first step to contribute to a better Mental Health at home, school, work and anywhere else. Here are some organizations you may reach for help and support.
- http://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health
- https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/at-work/
- https://www.mentalhealth.org/
- https://socialworklicensemap.com/mental-health-statistics-all-social-workers-should-be-aware-of/
Credits: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, http://www.mentalhealth.gov/ Mental Health First Aid, https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org Mental Health Organization, https://www.mentalhealth.org/ Social Work License Map, https://socialworklicensemap.com NetQuote, https://www.netquote.com/
Disclaimer. I, the author of the blog, am not affiliated with any company, website, government department, or any individuals mentioned above, except for ARqubits. The content of this blog is solely my own opinion and serve only for information purposes. Any similarity of the blog’s content or words with any company or website is purely coincidental.