Such a thoughtful piece, Ben. I loved this question that you posed: "Is there a way to start asking why society creates so much mental distress in the first place?" I spend a fair amount of time reflecting on this, thinking about engrained business models that incentivize poor mental health. (In 2022 I wrote a post about news media, a great example of just such a business model: https://beautifulvoyager.substack.com/p/if-i-could-tell-the-world-one-thing. ) In a time of silos, holistic thinking feels like the only path forward. Thank you for giving it a voice in this space. We need more yous!
Thank you for reading it Ben! I think people it is socially unacceptable to question certain things -- like news consumption -- but at this stage of the game I am not going to let that stop me from trying to articulate what I see happening!
"Modern economic structures prioritize efficiency, productivity, and profit at the expense of human well-being." Because economics is based around mathematical and scientific calculations which completely ignore the fact that they are dealing with human lives and not objective numbers.
Thanks for this thoughtful piece. I've been in some frustrating conversations lately with advocates--zealous, committed, good faith advocates for better access to mental health care--who insist that a more holistic approach is "mission creep."
The scarcity mindset is entrenched. We need more "yes, and."
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. If the "mission" was working, we'd have better data to show that continuing to investments was the right thing. But sadly, a lot of what we fund and do just doesn't work. So perhaps they need to have mission creep that brings them closer to a mission that works for the people they are serving. Sounds harsh, but without being a bit pushy on this point, we have a tendency to simply maintain status quo and hope it works better then next time.
I always ask "is the goal better mental health or more mental health care?"
In fairness to a lot of folks, creating more access to care is concrete and mechanically understandable; I'd love to get with some like minded folks to work on an actionable framework for the more holistic vision.
Such a thoughtful piece, Ben. I loved this question that you posed: "Is there a way to start asking why society creates so much mental distress in the first place?" I spend a fair amount of time reflecting on this, thinking about engrained business models that incentivize poor mental health. (In 2022 I wrote a post about news media, a great example of just such a business model: https://beautifulvoyager.substack.com/p/if-i-could-tell-the-world-one-thing. ) In a time of silos, holistic thinking feels like the only path forward. Thank you for giving it a voice in this space. We need more yous!
Oh, love this! Thank you for sharing. I obviously need to do a better job integrating brilliant work like this into these pieces.
Thank you for reading it Ben! I think people it is socially unacceptable to question certain things -- like news consumption -- but at this stage of the game I am not going to let that stop me from trying to articulate what I see happening!
"Modern economic structures prioritize efficiency, productivity, and profit at the expense of human well-being." Because economics is based around mathematical and scientific calculations which completely ignore the fact that they are dealing with human lives and not objective numbers.
Thanks for this thoughtful piece. I've been in some frustrating conversations lately with advocates--zealous, committed, good faith advocates for better access to mental health care--who insist that a more holistic approach is "mission creep."
The scarcity mindset is entrenched. We need more "yes, and."
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. If the "mission" was working, we'd have better data to show that continuing to investments was the right thing. But sadly, a lot of what we fund and do just doesn't work. So perhaps they need to have mission creep that brings them closer to a mission that works for the people they are serving. Sounds harsh, but without being a bit pushy on this point, we have a tendency to simply maintain status quo and hope it works better then next time.
I always ask "is the goal better mental health or more mental health care?"
In fairness to a lot of folks, creating more access to care is concrete and mechanically understandable; I'd love to get with some like minded folks to work on an actionable framework for the more holistic vision.
Thanks, Ben!