The big gray matter between our ears. Sometimes it works like magic. And other times, it hits a glitch.
Here is a little item about the health of our minds:
An estimated 26% of Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. That’s one in four of us. And a lot of times, people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Like depression co-existing with anxiety. Bet me.
But when our minds go a little on the wayward side, plenty of people are around to help. According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 577,000 mental health professionals are practicing in the United States today.
Psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and more.
Webster shows us this. The following definitions are worthy, so read along if you like:
psy·chol·o·gy | sīˈkäləjē |
noun
the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.
psy·chi·a·try | səˈkīətrē, sīˈkīətrē |
noun
the branch of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness.
And this from Psychology.Com. A bit about the difference between psychologists and psychiatrists.
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“Psychologists must earn a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in psychology. The educational process to become a licensed psychologist takes about 8-10 years.
To become a psychiatrist, candidates complete a bachelor’s degree before attending medical school. Prospective psychiatrists study pharmacology, anatomy, biology, neurology, and disease, acquiring the knowledge necessary to prescribe medication. Graduates complete a residency, which typically lasts about four years, before seeking licensure. The process lasts about 12 years in total.”
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There are differences — big differences — in the way they practice.
Both psychologists and psychiatrists can provide psychotherapy. However, most psychiatrists treat patients primarily by prescribing medication. Psychologists mainly rely on providing talk and/or behavioral therapy.
Okay, enough of the background information.
Here is what I think. Get out your salt and have a grain or two, as I am a person not trained in these things at all.
I have seen good football players and bad football players. The same thing goes for chefs. Or accountants. Lawyers. Bus drivers. Just because we pick a field of “expertise” doesn’t necessarily make us good at the thing. Politicians are a prime example.
Which brings me to this. Psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and anyone else in the mental health profession are no different. There are good ones and bad ones.
Of course, I talk about this because today marks the death date of Sigismund Schlomo Freud. Sigmund Freud. He is known as the “father of psychology,” having founded psychoanalysis.
Freud was born in 1856 in Austria. You could hear Austria in his voice. And as mentioned, he died on September 23, 1939, at 83 years old. Freud died by suicide after a long and painful struggle with epithelioma.
But while he was younger and healthier, he could pick apart your dreams like no other. He always suggested that his patients should lie back and relax on his couch while he treated them.
But with all his theories and studies, Freud provided the foundation for psychology. His work would quickly become a principal force during the early years of the science of the mind and behavior.
But even though he was one of the first ones on the scene, it doesn’t make him holier than thou.
You see, his ethics could be a little shaky. His critics argue that Freud would sometimes manipulate the behavior of his patients. He himself said he was an “intellectual conquistador.”
Yes. He liked to conquer others mentally. He was in no way a scientist. He was not even a decent clinician in the sense that he was consistently misrepresenting what he had found. He frequently used deceptive outcomes to suit his own ideas on things.
He hated the United States and most things about it.
He liked to use cocaine. For himself.
Enough about Freud.
Back to our mental health. Mental health and mental illness are not the same. For one, a person can experience poor mental health and not be diagnosed with a mental illness. Regardless, the state of our minds can be a challenge, at times, for any of us.
So we must be gentle with ourselves and always seek help when we need it.
And on we go.
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There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.”
― John Green
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“You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared, and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a negative person. It makes you human.”
— Lori Deschene
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“Sometimes, the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.”
— Joubert Botha
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The mental health of things, good and bad.
