We obviously have a mental health crises. It is worsening over time. I’ve alluded to this in previous posts. Briefly, here’s how are politicians are addressing the issue:
The Left’s Solution
More funding, expanding coverage via Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare, expanding coverage for substance abuse, emphasizing social determinants of mental health – education, poverty, housing.
The Right’s Solution
Focus on state (instead of federal) funding, private sector, leveraging faith based organizations, strengthening families.
Both sides call for an increase in access to mental health care.
Why Both are Wrong
Personally, I agree with all of these interventions. Both have the right intentions. The problem is they entirely miss the fundamental drivers of our mental health crisis. The big factors are social isolation, lack of exercise, too much time spent indoors, outdoor environments are increasingly artificial, poor sleep and yes processed foods.
Modern day hunter gatherers seem to have excellent mental health where food scarcity is not an issue. Why so? Because they spend time together. They spend time outdoors in natural environments (*once upon a time, being outdoors automatically meant being in nature, sadly today we have to differentiate). They consume natural whole foods. They are physically engaged and they sleep well.
Today we almost take it for normal that large segments of our population should be afflicted with mental health problems. Not true. Depression, anxiety and most mental health disorders should be rare.
The point is that unless we address mindless consumerism that engineers away healthy living, we’ll only make progress along the margins at best.
BOTTOM LINE: THERE IS A BETTER WAY!
- As John Maynard Keynes said a century ago, people of our time ought to be largely independent of our employers for our income – unfortunately, due to “mindless consumerism”, we are not.
- Mindless consumerism is the underlying reason leading to the rise of chronic disease for 3 major reasons:
- It ties us to dependence on our employers and modern day employment is a health hazard for most (in part due to the sedentary nature of most jobs).
- It has led to environmental changes toxic to our wellbeing:
- (a). We evolved in and are best suited to natural environments and instead we live in increasingly artificial environments.
- (b). Overconsumption has lead us to engineer out the need for meaningful use of our legs for ambulation.
- Finally, it transforms workers to work with blinders on – instead of working for the product or service and receiving money as a side effect, workers focus on making money and the product or service is instead the side effect. The results (with respect to health) is that “food” is no longer food but changed to maximize pleasure and extract profit in spite of the toxicity to our health.
- Based on the science of wellbeing one can derive the philosophy that once basic needs are met, “The best things in life are free” therefore —>
- Most people can live far below their means without sacrificing happiness AND by investing the rest, they can become financially independent of their employers enabling them to be —>
- Happier. Healthier. Wealthier. More engaged. Simply better.
