Playbook: How To Break Free From The Mental Disorder Model
I was born on July 29th, 1988 to two wonderful parents.
While we didn’t always have a lot, we had everything we needed and I was gifted with every opportunity to explore, in a home with a lot of love.
But I was also born with a suppressed gene that keeps me from regulating serotonin normally in my body.
Serotonin, as you may know, is a key chemical that helps us to regulate our mood and our mental health.
Because of this, I am more susceptible to experiences of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. Three things I suffered with deeply throughout my life.
It also makes me a poor responder to things like antidepressants and talk therapy, the two primary treatment methods for mental health in North America.
I experienced my first suicidal thought when I was 10 and for 20 years I suffered in silence as I tried to work within our western healthcare system to find an answer.
It failed me over and over again.
But after many years of struggle, seeking to find answers to seemingly impossible questions, I finally figured out why.
And I realized along the way that I wasn’t alone.
Most of us will do pretty much anything to avoid having to think about our mental health…
Our anxiety, depression, loneliness…
Our OCD, ADHD, PTSD, BPD…
All the titles we label ourselves with to try and make sense of this complex human experience.
It’s tough, and it’s a lot.
Every year, we spend billions of dollars on things like private counselling, coaching, medications, memberships, supplements and other alternative methods to cope.
But it’s not working…
Generalized anxiety and depression diagnosis have increased globally by close to 50% over the last decade. [1]
In Canada 1 in 5 people over the age of 12 report needing help with their mental health and close to 50% say their needs aren’t being met. [2]
And worldwide, one person dies every 40 seconds due to suicide. [3]
But why?
With all the incredible advancements in modern health and technology, why are we suffering more and ending our lives so rapidly?
It starts with this:
Our society’s perception of mental health is heavily influenced by the medical model of mental disorders; the model used by healthcare professionals all across the world for diagnosing mental health conditions.
The problem with this model is that it largely presents our mental health as as symptom-based, biological disorders without substantial scientific backing, often overlooking the interplay of environmental, psychological and social factors.
Because this model is so widely used, we now live in a psychiatrized society that treats natural emotions, thoughts and behaviours as symptoms of diseases that need to be suppressed and treated from a medical perspective, rather than investigating the root causes across all areas of life.
We treat the human experience as a condition that needs to be managed, rather than an experience to be explored and evolved.
We live in a world where focusing too much is a disorder, not focusing enough is a disorder.
Being too organized is a disorder, and not organized enough is a disorder.
Having too much sex is a disorder, and not having enough is a disorder.
It’s fundamentally human to want to classify phenomena like suffering, but the medical model we follow doesn’t just do that.
There have been tremendous flaws in this model dating back to the 60’s and 70’s when things like psychiatry weren’t taken very seriously in the medical community. Desperate for change, the industry shifted to attach science to their diagnosis.
The issue though is that there was, and still is, very little scientific evidence to support the patterns of suffering classified in the medical model actually lead to disease.
(Read more on that here, here and here.)
Okay, so how do we fix this then?
I believe that it’s not by trying to prevent the symptoms we call disorders, but rather reframing the concept all together and learning how to nurture what it is that makes us human, not repress it.
We need to move beyond the deficit model of disease, into a progressive model of wellbeing.
And it starts with us as individuals, working from the inside out to build our own playbook for a healthy mind and body.
Here is the model I use:
The 360° Wellbeing Design Playbook
A core factor of our overall wellbeing is our mental health, it’s a major component to what gets us out of bed each day and allows us to be who we are for ourselves, our families and our communities.
Without a healthy mind everything else can suffer.
But to create a healthy mind we must look beyond the brain and our biology and explore every component of what makes us well.
This is where wellbeing design comes in and having a 360° view of all of the components that make up a healthy human.
Here are the components:
Top-Down:
Nurturing our mental processes is crucial for maintaining clarity, and emotional stability. Centred on introspection and self reflection, we explore our thoughts, emotions and beliefs. From here we can understand our nervous systems response to past, present and future experiences.
Bottom-Up:
Supporting our physical health is essential for ensuring that our body’s systems work in harmony to sustain mental wellbeing. Taking time to get screenings and non-insured tests to understand our hormones, genetics, immune system and gut health can go a long way to enhancing our present state of health. Our physical health is much more than just our diet and exercise routines.
Inside-Out:
Understanding and developing a strong sense of self is key to building resilience and maintaining balance in the face challenge. Similar to Top-Down, we work to understand our inner dialogue, our mindset, and our purpose and meaning. This is all vital to creating a healthy state of mind and body.
Outside-In:
The world around us deeply influences our inner state. Creating a healthy environment is crucial for reducing stress and maintaining long-term health. This is all about the outside forces in our way, from what we consume, to how we work, how we relate and how we connect with the natural world.
Now, the key with all of this is to look at it from a lifestyle design perspective where you can start to influence areas little by litte, rather than trying to bite it all off at once.
I have a really useful Notion template that I use to outline this for myself and it has a list of tools and activities that I can tap into when one area is needing more attention. If you’d like a copy of it, feel free to send me an email.
A Moment To Pause
If you have a moment now, pull out your journal and a pen.
Write down these four buckets on a blank sheet.
List down the elements that resonated with you from the above playbook and try to identify one area within each bucket that you think you need to spend some more time on.
This could be a habit to change, a medical appointment you’ve been putting off, or some activity you’ve been wanting to try to support your wellbeing.
Now, rather than trying to do it all, pick one.
Highlight it or underline it.
And write out the first 3 steps you need to take to get it done and by the end of the day take the first step.
That’s it. Make it super simple.
Unlike the current deficit model, this type of playbook is progressively designed from the perspective that we are already healthy, we are just evolving.
Evolution takes time, so take it slow.