America's Washed Mental Health

How did the economic "Bootstraps Narrative" become an emotional/psychological narrative too? And why are there so many bad therapists?

I’ve written about mental health on and off for six years now, probably because I’m some small degree of crazy with various slices of problems. I also just find it hysterical that we have a relatively small country of 330 million people, with tons of money coursing through it, and we are so bad at helping people mentally.

I think I can explain a little bit of it, though. Let me quickly walk through some of the problems I’ve seen and then I’ll see if I can do anything about solutions.

The Self-Care Paradox

In the last 10 years, there’s been a big push towards “self-care,” which is nice and admittedly people do deserve that. The problem is: often, “self-care” means getting rid of anyone that makes you uncomfortable, and usually people like addicts and those struggling and those in your orbit who are depressed will make you uncomfortable. So you push them further away, which in the process alienates them more, but you feel better. That’s a lose-win, not a win-win.

The Friendship Recession