Treatment For Mental Health

What constitutes mental health treatment? People who are suffering from poor mental health seek treatment in order to hopefully get better. Mental health has been a plague on the human race and it wasn’t until the 21st century where mental health and the issues that have come with it have come to a forefront. Social media, school, and home life can often be factors that contribute to an average person’s mental health. However, what truly affects mental health is whether or not the afflicted person seeks treatment for their mental health issues. Treatment is the main way of resolving issues that have come to light because of mental health. Normal treatment for those with bad mental health would be to see a therapist or counselor. It’s interesting that the most well known way to treat mental health problems would come in the form of talking about an individual’s mental health to someone else. Students within schools are even given the opportunity to speak to a counselor if they are having trouble. The thing is, talking about problems to someone else may not be a viable treatment as society had once thought. 

It is said that talking about mental health problems is a way to feel better. However, the person with bad mental health is not always going to accept treatment. In fact, they may refuse it entirely. For children dealing with issues, it is up to the parents to decide what is best for their child. Meanwhile for adults, they have the right to turn down help. In their book, The Right to Refuse Mental Health Treatment, author Bruce Winick claims, “This situation has begun to change in response to judicial and legislative recognition that mental patients possess at least a qualified right to refuse treatment.” The option to seek treatment for mental health issues is entirely in the hands of that person. This would definitely lead to many instances where the person straight up refuses care. Even if the person direly needs help, it is still within their right to turn down treatment which can obviously lead to complications. It would no doubt cause trouble if the wrong people were not being treated.

Though a person may refuse treatment, there is still ideas as to why someone would refuse therapy. 

One of the main dilemmas when it comes to people and therapy is that people fear that the expression of their thoughts and feelings could be a cause for concern. The last thing people suffering from mental health problems want is to be reported to the police because the therapist misread their signs of expression. This would be another reason for people to refuse mental health treatment. Opening up to someone is a very daunting task when there is the threat of being reported and ridiculed. In a way, this could also feed back into mental health issues, as this may cause anxiety in which the person may never want to open up about their problems because they fear what others might think or say. 

People refusing mental health treatment altogether is only the beginning. Because people may not want to open up to another person out of fear, these individuals could turn to drugs in order to cope with the issues associated with poor mental health.

Drugs are a main source of coping when it comes to mental health. Many of those who suffer from anxiety or depression, two common mental health issues, turn to drugs in order to deal with their complications. The most common drugs students turn to are marijuana and nicotine. While these drugs may seem like the solution, they’re not. In their article, “Mental Health & Drugs; A Map of the Mind,” author Wylie Jones Jordan states, “New names have been coined for disorders, and synthetic drugs are advertised as a solution to every problem, but the causes are still unknown and, although spontaneous remission can occur, there are no cures.” It is bad enough that students are turning to drugs instead of seeking help, but now even corporations are advertising to people new drugs that promise to make their problems go away. With all of these promoting the use of drugs, it is clear that drugs have been opened up as a pathway for people living with bad mental health to go down instead of finding a permanent solution. 

A safer and healtheir alternative to drugs that people use instead of therapy is going to the gym. There are plenty of people around the world who feel that instead of going to therapy, they need to better themselves by working out. The gym has made a big comeback in the past two years. There is a lot of people that see the gym as their therapy. It certainly makes people feel good about themsleves which perhaps might be what therapy is supposed to do for an individual. In Konrad Janowski’s article, “Motivation for Physical Activity and Mental Health Indicators in Male Gym Attendees,” Janowski claims, “physical  activity  plays  a  cathartic  role  by  fostering  the release of tension and stress, and is also a way to release emotion and escape from everyday life and duties…” For those suffering from mental health, this is the goal. Individuals with poor mental health long to be free from the stress of everyday life. Therapy does not provide this as made clear by those who refuse therapy out of fear and/or turn to drugs. 

The reason why therapy fails is because it instills fear in those struggling with mental health. This fear is a result of a social norm that anything that comes across as threatening will be reported to the police or their parents, depending on the context of the situation. It is due to this fear of therapy and opening up to someone that these individuals will turn to drugs to solve their issues. But therapy may not always be the best way to go as the gym can be used in order to cope with mental health. 

References

1.   Jordan. (2020). Mental Health & Drugs; A Map of the Mind. Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences, 7(2), 133–140. https://doi.org/10.22543/7674.72.P133140

2.   Awruk, & Janowski, K. (2016). Motivation for Physical Activity and Mental Health Indicators in Male Gym Attendees. Physical Culture and Sport Studies and Research, 69(1), 65–73. https://doi.org/10.1515/pcssr-2016-0003

3.   Winick. (1997). The right to refuse mental health treatment. American Psychological Association.