Mental Health Awareness: Finding Peace of Mind in the Days of Fear and Loathing

Hello everyone.

How are you feeling today?

A little anxious?

Unsure of what's happening in the world?

Let me engage in the fine art of understatement.

We live in challenging times.

It often feels like forces beyond our control press in from all sides.

Climate change, economic upheaval and inequality.

The fear that society is tearing itself apart.

The more we try to keep all the balls up in the air, the more likely it seems they will all come crashing down with the realization that it is all unsustainable.

And then there's the elephant in the room.

Donald Trump and his minions.

Dismantling of American democracy.

These are the days of fear and loathing.

In this short episode, I want to talk about mental health depression in ways we might find despite it all, some peace of mind in a turbulent world.

Life would be a sad place without the blues.

That feeling of occasional melancholy.

The ups and downs in life bring some of our most sublime moments of expression.

It adds color and dimension to our lives.

We all have occasion to sing the blues.

Depression is different.

It's a cold, gray, one dimensional place that leaves those it afflicts without hope, without purpose, and often without any apparent way out.

The most severe cases lead to suicide.

As it is with addiction and many other mental disorders.

Clinical depression eats away at her humanity, self respect and spirit.

Accepting and taking responsibility for dealing with her mental health doesn't always or ever mean understanding why.

Though arguably a global pandemic and the jarring shift in the overton window under Trump 2o has helped to raise awareness of mental health, treatment nonetheless remains hindered by the stigma associated with mental disorders in today's culture, depression is still often considered a sign of uncontrolled emotion or weakness, especially for men.

It takes work and acceptance to pin down treatment and move forward.

The many stats on depression I could cite are, well, a little depressing.

According to recent CDC data, overall rates of depression in the US have nearly doubled since since 2015.

This dramatic rise represents a significant public health concern.

It may not be surprising given what's happened in the past decade, for these are the days of fear and loathing.

But for many of the 300 million people on the planet diagnosed with some degree of clinical depression, the treatment for those who get any often begins with antidepressants, which can be controversial and perhaps counseling or cognitive behavioral therapy a better option in my experience.

So let me tell you a story.

My experience with depression happened a little over a decade ago.

In the spring of 2014, I found myself in a black hole and I wasn't sure why Every morning I awoke and gazed into a black pit of what I now know as depression.

Despite having a good life, being loved and respected by my peers, and being grateful for my many opportunities, it seemed pointless.

I felt like giving up on myself.

I'm not talking about physical suicide.

It was more like a psychological or emotional suicide, the kind that Albert Camus writes about in the Myth of Sisyphus.

I began succumbing to the voice inside my head, ceaselessly whispering that nothing I had ever done, was doing or would ever do could possibly make a difference.

Nothing much mattered and the world was going to hell anyway.

And might I remind you, this was in 2014, which, looking back, seems kind of like good times.

But sure, I could correlate some life changes to the slump.

This time felt different, even for a solitary, melancholic sort like me.

Then one day I went for a walk.

For a time in the afternoon sun, anxiety's knife edged eased, rolling away with the tide.

As I sat in San Francisco's Aquatic park, the chatter in my head quieted.

I watched the boats, the brave swimmers and Alcatraz shimmering across the water.

In the warm slanting light, I felt better.

I made it an afternoon habit, either up to Lafayette park or down to the bay.

More than any pill, contact with nature, green space, a parklet with a tree mitigated my physical response to anxiety.

John Muir spoke eloquently more than a century ago, saying thousands of tired nerve shaken over civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home, that wilderness is a necessity, that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.

As magnificent as they are, we don't need mountains, just a shady green spot to set.

I self medicated and still do every day.

Later that summer I began cognitive behavioral and talk therapy, or a fancy way of saying I started seeing a shrink.

Opening up to a stranger in their office isn't easy.

What is easy is BSing the therapist, which actually is just BSing yourself.

So what's the point?

I was depressed.

I knew it.

So I decided not to BS just to see what would happen.

The relationship between therapist and patient is at once familiar and distant as it must be.

That is not to say there is no connection.

I felt at ease from the first appointment.

I sensed compassion and empathy as I laid out my tale of woe.

My therapist was someone I wanted to talk to, even confide in.

In any case, after a few months of afternoon walks and weekly therapy, I wasn't so depressed anymore.

There was a glimmer of hope.

I got better.

I no longer see a therapist, but I do make sure I get outside every day for a walk.

Nature does her magic and I come back to my work and life better for it.

I'm not offering specific advice on dealing with depression or mental health issues.

I can only say what's worked for me.

Which brings us back to where we started.

We should all sing the blues, for these are the days of fear and loathing.

But we can buck the trend.

We can find courage against the fear and compassion rather than loathing, which is easier said than done as we live in scary times, at times an utterly unkind world, one that appears increasingly untethered to a sense of rational thought, a connection to the rest of the planet and each other.

In a world gone mad.

Mental health suffers.

People cower under the weight of despair, rage, fear or loneliness or isolation.

Conversely, awareness increases the idea that seeking counsel is a source of strength and not a sign of weakness.

Resisting and countering all those forces I alluded to at the outset will naturally inspire fear, anger, rage and even despair.

Our job as conscious, caring citizens and human beings is to seek a healthy mental state in order to meet that challenge.

Human heal thyself.

Be thus in the world and see what happens next.

Be well, be brave, and be kind.

As T.S.

eliot said, to do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate, the beautiful thing that is enough for one man's life.

And this, my friends, are the thoughts of a simple man.

I'm your host, Tom Schuenemann.

Thanks for listening.

Join us next time on global warmingisreal.com SA.