This week I want to share a new Profectus article from my Head Out colleague, Dr. Camilo Ortiz.
More people have therapists than ever before. But rates of depression and anxiety have not fallen. Not only do we have more mental health professionals, but we also have more awareness campaigns, more educational initiatives, more therapy and wellness apps, and more movies, television shows, podcasts, and even video games bringing attention to mental illness.
As I discussed in my latest New York Times essay, over the past several decades, the mental health of Americans appears to have gotten worse even though our culture has become much more focused on it.
This is why our team at the Archbridge Institute’s Human Flourishing Lab launched Head Out, a public education initiative that offers a different approach to mental health. As I discussed in a previous newsletter, Head Out is not anti-therapy. Individuals who need professional help should get it, and we should continue working to remove barriers to accessing treatment. But people have more power to help themselves than they often realize. The Head Out resources we have published, including the article I am sharing today from Dr. Ortiz, are aimed at helping people actualize that power.
Dr. Ortiz is a board-certified clinical psychologist, psychology professor, Human Flourishing Lab fellow, and author of the Head Out toolkit, How Do You Know If It Is Time For Therapy? In this new article, Therapy Is Not For Everyone, Dr. Ortiz expands on his Head Out toolkit to help people better understand when it is time to seek professional help, how therapy can sometimes make things worse, what individuals can do for themselves before seeking help or while waiting for their first session, and how to get the most out of therapy.
It is an excellent article, and I think anyone considering therapy would benefit from reading it. Even if you are not seeking professional help, it is a useful read because it discusses issues that affect the broader cultural conversation around mental health.
I want to highlight what I believe is one of the most important points in Dr. Ortiz’s article. Whether you see a therapist or not, improving your mental health is going to take hard work. Therapy can guide that work, but it can’t replace it.
I made a similar argument in a previous newsletter about how a meaningful life takes work. Scientific and technological progress has made our lives easier and more comfortable, and we should be grateful for that. But ease and comfort don’t generate meaning. We have to roll up our sleeves and do the work of developing our talents, strengthening our character, and finding ways to contribute to the world around us. This applies to every aspect of human flourishing.
You can read Dr. Ortiz’s article here. And you can learn more about Head Out here.
Have a great weekend!
Clay