What started the mental health crisis?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few decades, you’ve probably noticed the world getting much, much crazier. Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse unless we do something about it. I don’t think anyone can actually pinpoint an exact time or place in history this happened, but rather more of a cultural shift in our ideology. I don’t necessarily believe that previous generations didn’t have mental health problems, but with the advance in technology (especially social media), the promotion of materialism, and the advancement of victimhood mentality, it’s been like throwing jet fuel on an already smoldering fire.
Summarily, in this article we will look at how we got here, assess/acknowledge the problem, and propose viable and practical solutions to fix the mental health devastation that’s occurred in our culture and society. Buckle up my friend, cause we’re about to take a deep dive into madness.
Victimhood Ideology
For as long as I can remember, there has been this obsession with “playing the victim” in modern western countries. I think it probably started shortly after WWII, but didn’t really hit critical mass until fairly recently (past 10-20 years). I don’t know when this obsession became mainstream, but nevertheless, it has taken over modern Western culture in several critical areas.
To be honest, if you really get deep into where this mindset comes from, it’s ingrained in our DNA. It’s always been there. If you look at the rise and collapse of any great civilization, you see a shift in ideology that exacerbated their eventual collapse. People became complacent in “victimhood” because it was easy. Consequently, they lost the drive to perpetuate the greatness that brought their civilizations to the pinnacle of society they so deserved. If you’d like to learn how to not be a victim you can follow the link HERE.
3 Reasons Victimhood Ideology DESTROYS Mental Health
1. It replaces your God-given desire to build, but rather, with a desire to bring down and DESTROY
Once you replace a desire to build things up with positivity in your life to an obsession to tear down others with negativity while playing a victim, you replace a positive ideology with a negative one. This is doomed to failure. Even if on the surface it looks as if you’re being positive and building people up, the inevitable destruction of your legacy and self-worth will result in your intentions. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
It doesn’t matter what your gender, political affiliations, social connections, etc.; it will fail. You may see short-term prosperity or success even until your death, but eventually the truth will come out on your true intentions. Thing may seem fine and dandy on the outside but your conscience will lead you down a path to a mental health crisis. It doesn’t matter how or when, there is a 100% chance you will personally witness a mental health crisis in your own life if you choose to go this path of negative destruction rather than positively building others up.
2. Victimhood is the ideology of a loser
Bad things happen to us all. How we react to those things defines us as individuals. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes it feels good to be a victim. You get attention and condolences while people bend over backward to accommodate your every want and need. There’s actually a psychological disorder that has been identified to describe this in people. Munchausen Syndrome is the mental disorder that people harm themselves or people they are caring for to gain sympathy and attention. This has never been more true than today as social media has supercharged this phenomena.
Never before in history have we seen such a rise in these ideologies that have not only harmed individuals and families. These same ideologies permeate our culture and institutions alike. Victimhood has been praised on social media, our educational institutions, our businesses, and our leaders. If you can put two and two together you can see that this victimhood ideology promotes people to radiate a negative and harmful representation of themselves or class groups in order to gain favor or cultural points in the past, present, and future. Make no mistakes, this is always for power, money, or attention/fame respectively. Even if you gain in the short-term, if you adhere to victimhood ideology, it will take over your entire life and you always be a loser.
3. Victimhood ideology will break your positive mindset.
Like an electrical current, you cannot possess a positive and negative mindset at the same time. This, in turn, will break your mental health. As I said before, your intentions will drive your mental health. If you embrace the victim ideology and continue to permeate the thoughts and actions, you will bring more negative actions and interactions in your life. The law of attraction isn’t just some esoteric philosophy. Your quality of life will depend on what you surround yourself with.
The Rise of Social Media and the Detrimental Effects on the Mental Health Crisis
Up until the introduction of social media you didn’t particularly see such insanity in the world. I’m sure people were in mental health crisis all over the world, but I truly believe that social media exasperated the problem and caused much more damage than the benefits it provided. Look, I use social media just like billions of other people around the planet. I’ve witnessed first hand, in my own life and in others, the positive and negative effects of being active on social media. People have the choice to use it responsibly or use it as a mental crutch in their lives. Unfortunately, I believe, as a culture we have used it as the latter and it has caused devastating results in our lives individually and collectively as a society. Here’s three reasons social media is destroying people’s mental health.
1. Social media is not reality
People post their highlight reels on social media and often times leave out the negative. They only post the good times of their life and are negligent to post bad things that happen to them. This is human nature and we’re all guilty of this phenomena. Surreptitiously, we abide by these social norms through the mind-lens of prosperity. Not all posts and actions are the same, but overall, most users project an exaggerated form of themselves either positively or negatively.
This LARP (Live Action Role Playing) is not only addictive in nature, but often times, it harms a great deal of individuals’ mental health. They start to believe the lie they’ve portrayed perpetrated on social media. They’ve cherry-picked key photos and stories to frame a profile that is completely skewed from the actual truth. This is unbelievably dangerous as more and more people isolate themselves and believe the empty shell of the persona they’ve created while ignoring very serious issues that need to be addressed in their own life. They inevitably realize they have been living a lie and fall into a mental health crisis resulting in massive episodes of anxiety, depression, and much more escalating in these times… suicide.
2. Social media is designed to be addictive
All social media is designed to be addictive. It was designed to assimilate to the same key factors and subconscious psychological cravings that casinos were built upon. The more time you give to browsers and social media apps, the more money they can make off of advertisers. It is on purpose and it is incredibly profitable. Unfortunately, this is the way of the world. The algorithm is designed to keep you on the social media site as long as possible because the longer you stay on, the higher the analytics can be sold to advertisers.
Not only that, but these companies use your data and sell it domestically and internationally to the highest bidder who could care less about your mental health. There is no rhyme or reason except for profit, but you should be aware that social media is not designed to be helpful, but rather, to generate profit regardless if it hurts you or not.
3. Social media algorithms promote FEAR, SEX, and VICTIM ideology
Nothing sells better than fear, sex, and being a victim. PERIOD. These companies know that fear and sex sells even if they know this hurts the people consuming the content. This has caused unprecedented mental health crisis in the entirety of the world. The algorithms undoubtedly promote content that’s going to piss you off or turn you on because they know that’ll keep your attention. Content creators have figured this out through trial and error and it reflects in the thumbnails and topics that creators cover.
Positive stories rarely get as many views as more people are addicted to the fear porn portrayed in legacy media as well as individual content creators. The undying fact is that whether these are individual creators or massive publications, the process is the same. These algorithms promote fear, sex, and victim ideology regardless of politics, race, sex, or creed because it is PROFITABLE. Regardless of politics or personal belief, if you embrace this content you will hurt your mental health
3 Solutions to the Mental Health Crisis
1. Find and keep your purpose
One of the biggest problems we have in our culture and society is that so many people today have no purpose. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been there and it’s an ongoing struggle to find and keep your purpose in life. So often we try to substitute this lack-of-purpose with materialism, relationships, substance abuse, obsessions, etc., that we wander through life with no purpose. We ask ourselves, “Who am I? Is this all I was meant to be here on the earth is just consume?”
Finding your purpose is a difficult but necessary action we all have to take in life. Otherwise, the alternative is a life of empty proclivities, everlasting wanting, sadness, loneliness, and death. When you live without purpose you sacrifice a life worth living and substitute it with a life of ignorance in rebellion to your God-given gifts. We are all gifted with certain gifts and it’s crucial that we have enough self-awareness to unlock these gifts and find our purpose in life using positive principles to build yourself and others’ up.
2. Keep away from abusing drugs and alcohol
Unfortunately, this detriment to society is a key component to the mental health crisis. It’s almost cliche to bring it up, but we know that abusing drugs and alcohol harm us, yet many times we continue to use and abuse them at the destruction of our physical, spiritual, and mental health. There are countless articles on the horrifying effects of abusing drugs and alcohol so I will elaborate in further articles, but drugs and alcohol account for a massive portion of top reasons in mental health crisis.
Drug and alcohol abuse are directly correlated with the destruction of relationships, careers, depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and overall mental health. Look, I am not a purity-minded abolitionist, but your life will be significantly better staying away from drugs and alcohol. Not only do they directly contribute to many negative aspects of life, they dull your connection with the Source and distort the reality of your current situation and purpose in life.
3. Be honest and reliable with others, but more importantly… to yourself
The more you go down a negative path in life, the harder it will be to correct the process and shift into a positive life-building path. The escape from reality is a life-hatch to hell. If you continue to lie to yourself you will pay the consequences of poor living regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not. If you are not honest and reliable with others they will simply just keep away from you. But if you aren’t honest and reliable with yourself, you will find yourself in a mental health crisis.
Keep your promises to yourself and others with the intention of building others up. This, in turn, you will build yourself up in the process. The universal truth of this will give you virtue, happiness, and love in return. This will give you a solid positive foundation of love that will help you immensely throughout your life.
In Conclusion
I haven’t even skimmed the surface as there are so many other factors to the mental health crisis. Financial, social, governmental, medical, and societal factors are nuanced in every second of every day. We are constantly bombarded with more and more distractions every day and it continues to get worse. These are trying times for us all and that’s why its even more important to be on your purpose with a clear head and solid foundational principles.
I hope this first introduction article has highlighted some features to work on in your own life and give you some insight on things you’re succeeding on and some things you may need to work on to live your best life. Stay tuned for more articles in this series and subscribe to the newsletter to get personal emails and bonus content. If you’d like to learn more about fitness, nutrition, or living your best life just follow the links. Peace!
