I had an interesting conversation with a client today, who is in the health and safety area for their large company. We tend to talk a mix of business and personal, and today there was a fair bit of overlap. We were talking about the changes they have seen in the types of issues they deal with and what takes time and resources, and that has very quickly become, mental health issues.
Without diving too deeply into all the possible reasons why this is the direction, it essentially comes down to the environment we have created. And while there is far more awareness, acceptance and support for mental health issues in the workplace today, I also believe that we as a generalised population have become worse in pretty much every aspect of our lives.
You might disagree.
With the client, I broke down my simplified perspective of how I view an individual, where there is the physical, mental, emotional and the social faces, that make up the whole of us. And as I observe it, the way we have engineered our world, has meant that all four of them have degrades, on average.
Perhaps this is the simplest one to understand and also to observe, as we can look at pretty much any country on earth, and see that lifestyle diseases are increasing. Obesity, diabetes, many forms of cancer, heart disorders - and younger and younger ages are being affected. On average, we are getting unhealthier, even if we are living longer.
I separate mental from emotional, as while all four of these things are linked, I look at mental ability, what we are able to do, our skills, as the mental part of the body. Not just what we know and whether we can calculate numbers, but all of our mental skills that we learn in order to create our world. With all the tools we use, we can fake having skills, but more and more it is observable that people are lacking abilities.
We all have emotional aspects, but the way we manage them and use them to guide our behaviour differs person to person. However, on average, we are becoming more impatient, quicker to anger, instant gratifying, depressive, anxious, and a whole host of other things they call "mental disorders" when they might be better described as emotional disorders instead, to reduce the confusion.
And when it comes to our social lives, these too have on average been degrading, where relationship bonds are not as strong, and are far easier to break, or ignore than they once were. We are less close, and more disconnected from each other than we were earlier, and a lot of the emotional problems that lead to mental and physical problems, are enabled and amplified by our lack of social strength. We voyeuristically look at the curated lives fed us, and mistakenly believe that this is being social.
Where are we improving?
All this shift toward individualism and "taking care of ourselves" and being "authentic" and whatnot, yet across the four major aspects of our whole, we are on average, getting worse. We have shone a spotlight on ourselves, made ourselves aware of all of the problems we have, and have access to all kinds of support information, therapists, trainers, and social groups - but we have become worse.
Possibly because the hyper-focus on the pieces, without looking at the whole has meant that we have put too much energy into some aspects, and not enough into others. Or, the constant reminder of all our problems and being too thinly spread across them means that we are always fighting a losing battle with reality. Or maybe it is because we keep avoiding dealing with the things that are important, and taking some other road out of convenience. But for the purpose of this article, it doesn't matter. Because whatever the cause and whatever we are doing to treat the issues,
It isn't working.
While this is in no way going to be accurate, I thought I would reflect a bit on these four aspects of who I am and give each a rating out of ten of the level I feel I have right now. Granted, some areas like the physical self will be affected by age naturally, but I am rating it based on current state for my age. And then after, what I might have rated myself ten years ago.
Physical - 5
Mental - 6
Emotional - 6
Social - 3
Physical - 7
Mental - 8
Emotional - 8
Social - 9
While I am sure I have improved in some things, I believe that in each of the four aspects I have degraded on average, and as a whole, I am worse than I should be at this time. I believe that the negative shift isn't only influenced by my own behaviours, but also through the behaviours of others who influence me also. This isn't shifting blame, but I suspect that most people are actually worse off than they might at first believe themselves to be. And I think this because most people, are doing less to improve, and becoming more reliant on others and tools to do things for them.
So as a little reflective group session, what do you think your numbers would be?
Taraz
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