Yet again, the news today highlights the inadequacy of the NHS in dealing with mental health issues. The Quality Care Commission found that 42% of people in mental health crisis failed to get the help they needed. The obvious question is if people in crisis aren’t receiving sufficient care, then what is being done for those who’s issues aren’t so severe?
People turn to the NHS for all kinds of things, from tummy bugs to sun burn. These are considered fairly minor and are treated more or less immediately. However, people who suffer from anxiety, panic attacks, depression etc are often prescribed anti-depressants and beta blockers that may alleviate the symptoms but it can be weeks or months before they get to see a trained therapist to deal with the problem itself.
Why do we have such an apathy towards treating mental health issues properly? Whatever happened to the wise woman? In every culture across the globe, there has been historically a place for a wise woman, an elder, a shaman or medicine man. These people dealt with all ailments and provided counselling and support to anyone who needed it. In fact, the medicine available was so rudimentary that their psychological interventions were sometimes considered to be more powerful! In those cultures, it was considered normal to seek the help of special people and rituals to handle life’s traumas. From coming of age rituals to the way communities handled death, full social support was available to anyone who needed it.
So what changed? It’s hard to pin point the time when we became less concerned about our mental state or that of others in our society. Personally, I think it had a lot to do with the advent of money as currency but that’s just my speculation. By the time we reached Victorian times, the idea of the ‘stiff upper lip’ was firmly entrenched. These days, people are more likely to spend money on their appearance than their mental wellbeing. We pay more for a meal out, a hair cut or gym membership than we invest in our headspace.
I guess it’s a chicken and egg situation. If society becomes more accepting of receiving help for mental stresses, then that would filter in to the NHS. If the NHS provided more support, it would be more readily considered to be the ‘norm’ by society. However, in the seven years that I have been a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, the one trend that has been clear is this – the people who seek help for themselves are the ones who are more likely to develop the self awareness to change their lives for the better, long term. Those people with the foresight to know that they can’t go it alone are the ones who stand the very best chance of making significant improvement in their lives. Therapy isn’t easy. discovering and accepting things about yourself and your situation can be challenging but unless change is attempted, no benefit can occur. As Tony Robbins famously said – “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten”.
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