A few days ago, Financial Times published a very interesting article on workplace wellbeing, and more precisely on the increase in work-related stress and health issues. This was perfect timing for this newsletter, following up on my previous editions; ☠️Are Corporations Gaslighting Psychopaths? and 😱 Of corporations, fear and mental health.
I realize that my last two pieces have pushed the buttons for many of you. This was a necessary evil to set up the stage in order to discuss our health, mental and physical. The first step to a better health is to know what difficulties we are facing, and what our current state is.
By looking in details at the challenges in our environment we can be more alert in order to detect the negative impacts they might have on our health.
It is always interesting for me to discuss with reformed corporate employees who realize that, unbeknownst to them, they have been experiencing anxiety, high-level of stress and the full gamut of mood, sleep and digestion disorders.
So yes, we need to talk about the negative environments some of us have to deal with in order to properly assess our mental health situation. And these environments can be work, but also (and unfortunately not mutually exclusive), our home, school, religious community, family, friends and so on.
Repressing our emotions and thoughts, when it comes to the challenges we are facing that might impact our health, is actually not helpful and will likely create more negative impacts in our health.
I was one of the people who realized VERY late that I had mental health issues, I just had lived with them for so long that I thought they were a “normal” state of being. These patterns were indeed very familiar, but this didn’t mean that they had to be my forever reality. I have had always powered through anxiety, depression, stress and phobias. I was never one to avoid doing something because of the internal turmoil that was created as a result. So my world didn’t get smaller, it just became extremely exhausting and challenging, until I could not take it anymore. Others make another choice, which is trying to control their environment to avoid any problematic situations, making their sandbox smaller and smaller, while draining the life out of them.
Mental Health Challenges - Born and Made
Although the exact cause of most mental illnesses is not known, it is becoming clear through research that many of these conditions are caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors. For the longest time I believed that mental illness was binary, you were ill or not and that genetics were the only driver. Was I wrong or was I really really wrong?!! From social or cultural expectations, death, divorce to emotional abuse, low self-esteem, unresolved traumas, they all actually contribute greatly to mental health challenges over the course of one’s life. Had I known this fact earlier I might have looked into my own mental health well before being in my mid-40’s. 🙄
What I have been realizing more and more is the massive impact of authenticity on mental health. The more inauthentic our lives, the more mental challenges we will face and vice-versa. So how does our Authentic Self get derailed? Unsurprisingly, this starts with childhood conditioning. Most of us (all of us?) have to give up who we are (or in the best case scenario only a piece) to stay connected to our caregivers (usually our parents). To survive, a child very quickly learn that listening to parents, teachers, and others authority figures is non-negotiable. And depending on the environment we are raised in, this might mean a very large abandonment of who our Authentic Self is, in order to fit in and be accepted (albeit conditionally).
This is when we start doubting our inner feelings and thoughts to the benefit of the current external dogma. Hiding and pushing down our emotions, believing that someone outside of us knows better than us what is good / appropriate for us. And I am not referring to a kid wanting to eat a third ice-cream or to run outside without a coat, in January, in Montreal. I am referring to core beliefs. A good example would be a child who is denied the expression of her needs and wants because it is inconveniencing her caregivers. She will grow up thinking that her needs are selfish and that she should not want anything for herself. This cognitive dissonance between her acquired “Thou shalt not ask for or receive anything” belief and her authentic desire for self-actualization will create a deep internal tension that can turn into mental illness, such as, anxiety, and depression.
I came to see most of us (all of us?!) as suffering from some sort of Self-Love Deficit Disorder (a term coined by Ross Rosenberg, founder of the Self-Love Recovery Institute) at some degree or another. This foundational feeling of “not being good enough if I am my Authentic Self” might not be obvious to many, as we have learnt to live with this little voice for so long, but it can nonetheless create serious mental challenges. Especially when facing hostile environments.
What has been called a mid-life crisis might actually be seen as people trying to recover their Authentic Self and heal their SLDD.
The frequent mental illness one can, and likely will, experience at some point or another in their life, and to various degrees, are;
Stress;
Anxiety;
Depression;
Addictions.
Physical Health Challenges - Of Causes and Effects
In Western medicine, our physical health tends to be looked at in isolation, as if our body parts were independent of one another. However, our body is a whole, one organ impacting the next, triggering cascading effects over time.
Mental and emotional pain can also create physical pain. In parallel, greater mental health generally equates to greater physical health too.
Heal your body by Louise Hay is an interesting body of work linking physical ailments to mental causes.
Accordingly, the frequent physical ills one can, and likely will, experience at some point or another in their life and to various degrees, are;
Back pain;
Sleep disorder;
Digestive issues;
Headaches.
Shoulders, neck and upper back pain are usually seen as linked with too much responsibilities and not enough support.
Key Takeaways
Mental health challenges can be unbeknown to us;
Mental illness comes from multiple causes, including hostile environments;
People who live more authentically are prone to greater psychological well-being;
Childhood conditioning derails our Authentic Self;
Self-Love Deficit Disorder is real and painful for most of us;
Mid-life crisis might be an attempt to recover our Authentic Self;
Mental and emotional pain can create physical pain;
Specific physical ailments have been linked by some to mental causes.
Next week, I will explore How to recover our Authentic Self!! YAY!! 😊
Please share your comments and questions as this is a dialogue that I believe deserves to be in the open.
If you are interested in knowing more about me, you can visit my website or my YouTube channel.
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Thank you for reading 🙏