Living with mental health struggles shouldn't be 'normal'. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should marginalize, discriminate or put stigmas on mental health struggles either. But is making it 'normal' the right thing to do? Or should we be looking at how the lives we currently live are perpetuating mental health struggles and look at the changes needed so that we can live with healthy minds, rather than accepting mental health struggles as part of life?
If we lived in societies and environments which supported us as human beings, would we be seeing the levels of mental health struggles that we are currently seeing? And can we 'cure' our mental health problems through creating the right environments that we can flourish and thrive in, rather than struggle in?
It took me a little while to get my head around this idea at first. I have been on and off, on and off, and back on anti-depressant medication for anxiety for the last 13 years, and have struggled over these years to come to terms with the fact that I 'need' medication to live my life to the fullest without general anxiety and panic attacks getting in my way. So to suddenly consider that there could be a scenario where I don't need medication was a bit of a head spinner.
It's not we as human beings that are the problem, we have survived for hundreds of thousands of years, and I don't think the levels of mental health difficulties we are seeing have been around for all of those years. It is the environments and societies we have created which are the problem, and I think that is why so many of us are now being drawn to creating more simplistic lives, living like our ancestors did, going off grid, tiny houses which cater for only what we need, rather than what we want (or think we want).
I don't know the answers, but I hope it gets you thinking like it gets me thinking.
Blessings x