Why is mental illness rampant in modern society? We seem to be almost all be struggling with some amount of post traumatic stress and anxiety. To explain this massive increase in mental illness symptoms over the last 100 years, we need to look at what has changed in this time frame to hypothesize about contributing factors.
In the big picture, we do need to acknowledge that we are wild animals, and that we have slowly domesticated ourselves. This started more than 10,000 years ago with the advent of agriculture, but has rapidly increased since the industrial revolution. We have to look at all of our behaviors in the context of where we evolved to be living, and what our natural state would ancestrally have been. The natural state is not a utopia- the natural state can be very harsh. We have to acknowledge that humans evolved along side drought, predation, tribal wars, poisonous plants and animals.
Because of this, humans actually do best with a certain amount of hardship in their life. We use this as catalysts to grow toughness, resilience, and to self actualize, or to become better people. If you never have any hardship in life, you do become weak and neurotic. Your mind will create adversity, even if there is none. We can become selfish and egoic if we do not ever experience struggle.
At the same time, many people today are experiencing excessive hardship, especially during early childhood, unequipped with the tools and resources we need to overcome these experiences. Hardship must be balanced with support, love and self confidence. Take initiation rituals in traditional cultures. Coming of age ceremonies in many traditional societies may seem quite harsh or even brutal to Westernized people, but they are experienced in the context of complete community support. These children have been equipped with all the tools needed to overcome and even grow from these rituals. If this kind of violence was experienced in another context, it would be objectively traumatizing.
We are dealing with a perfect storm, culturally speaking. We have no structured ways to help children experience the kind of love and support they need to feel confident in themselves and their ability to survive, and very little help on cultivating their mental and physical strength that allows them to overcome hardship. And yet, our children are experiencing a massive amount of trauma, often in the context of their own family, school and community. This is so different than a traditional context, where people experienced hardship as mostly coming from outside their home or community environment (a predator, a drought, a warring tribe, etc.).
Trauma is not so much about the experience itself. It is about the context the experience happens in, and how well your body is resourced to overcome the primary threat of the experience. People today are not so much getting traumatized by being chased by a bear, they are experiencing neglect as an infant, abuse from a family member, betrayal from a medical or religious institution. Children today are not often taught how to regulate or understand their own emotions. They experience humiliation without an adult standing in and protecting them. These are not traumas our nervous systems were designed to handle.
In traditional societies, child rearing is very different. Children are showered with affection, love and support any time they feel emotional distress. But they are also allowed to play with knives, and expected to fill heavy roles in the community at a very young age. They have strong attachment bonds with their family and community, but are allowed to take risks and to get hurt. Today, children are often growing up with disconnected or emotionally stunted parents and do not get the kind of secure foundation of attachment they require to feel self confident and capable. At the same time, they are often over protected, not being allowed to climb, jump, experiment, and take risks. Parents say over and over again, “Be careful!” and “Don’t make a mess!”. Children become more and more deflated, not knowing how to process and manage their emotions and also are conditioned to be afraid of the world, and afraid of their own impulses for creativity. The obvious outcome is a society of traumatized, anxious and mentally people.
The truth is, we can recover. We can reprogram our brains and nervous systems. We can build resilience as adults. We can “re parent” ourselves to get the love we always wanted, and release the stuck tension from the fear and trauma we have experienced. We can retrain our brains to see the world as safe, and a place where we can grow, learn and explore. In our coaching programs, we use techniques like Neuromeditation, EFT Tapping and Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises. These are excellent strategies, especially in combination, because they address both a “top down” and “bottom up” approach. This means that we have to actively retrain our habitual brain patterns that may be stuck in a place of trauma, fear and doubt, and we also have to experience our bodies and nervous system in a different way. In my clinical experience, this work must be done in tandem with a therapeutic nutritional protocol to rebalance the gut microbiome and replenish likely nutrient deficiencies. Resilience comes from our gut and our nutrition as well. If our nervous system is malnourished, we are going to be inherently less resilient.
Once we understand how the roots of our mental illness, post traumatic stress and anxiety develop, there is a clear path to recovery. It requires addressing the entire Gut Brain Axis, and shifting the way we understand our symptoms in the context of the modern world.
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