I’ve been looking at “To change the behaviour, change the environment(s)” and what that even looks like in 2019, particularly in relation to mental health issues. Trying to put together a list of the complete contemporary life worlds, environments and situations we are all embedded within, and how they affect us. The following are the environments we are embedded within, the worlds we live within and to which we try and adapt:
- bureaucracy in everything
- competition in everything
- money is all we need anymore for anything
- we must all produce
- no alternatives are possible without a lot of money
- little chance of escape or change from the current societal structures
- weak family ties of obligation for any common community good
- a world degrading physically, ecologically, socially and culturally
- social networks based 99% on stranger-contractual relationships
- non-work is luxury
- every thing and every activity must be bought
- the rich control everything
In terms of mental health:
truly, no one is functioning well any more under these conditions
- It is not just you
- Everyone has anxiety behaviours
- Everyone has depression behaviours
- Everyone is embarrassed that they are not functioning optimally and hide it
- Everyone has difficulty fitting into the societal systems
- No one is functioning even close to well
Most people only function at all now by excluding or avoiding huge chunks of reality
- Ignoring massive parts of their possible experiences
- Paying more attention to words than the environment
- Words have priority over experience
- Going along with trite reasons and explanations for what they do to help escape and avoid
- Experiential avoidance to protect us from our poor functioning and lack of alternative ways of functioning and being happy
- Our discourses are either about entertainment provided to us by the wealthy or for blocking out our lack of functioning and happiness
The problem is that some people slip over the edge of functioning according to society and get diagnosed and drugged
Others struggle on and avoid getting caught out by the societal systems
But life is now all about sticking to only those experiences and discourses which avoid and escape our poor functioning and lack of happiness
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But for “To change the behaviour, change the environment(s)”, the real problem is that changing these societal structures has become virtually impossible without massive upheavals, we will continue to depend otherwise on the philanthropy of the wealthy
That is the real problem here and now with mental health
This is directly about mental health
Not some inner demon but external demons
holisticelephants 