Mental Health is not the problem — it’s the symptom
Mental health costs the Australian economy between ~$43bn to $70bn each year of which around 30% to 60% is due to productivity loss from lower participation absenteeism and presenteeism (Productivity Commission, 2020). While people are talking more about mental health issues and there is a wider variety of studies and literature that can help people understand, articulate and discuss mental health, a systemic problem still persists. Mental health is dealt with only when it becomes a problem that impacts ourselves or our nearest. It is dealt with through curative intervention — costing us time, money and uprooting our day-to-day lives.
Unless you are someone who is health literate and able to access mental health services or support before your symptoms manifest into a serious mental health issue, the system does not operate to proactively prevent you from reaching a critical mental health point (which 80% of us are likely to encounter in our lives).
This is because mental health is the symptom not the problem.
Current solutions are directed towards treating the problem of poor mental health, but these ignore the root cause of the problem. Societal, personal and work pressures are the problems that need to be tackled. Poor mental health is the symptom (or our reaction) to these pressures which becomes especially serious when we are predisposed to a chemical imbalance in the brain.
What we need now is tools to support us in dealing with the pressures that trigger us most so we can treat the problem before the symptoms surface.
If we don’t proactively identify and manage the impact we feel from these broader pressures we will find ourselves fighting a battle, unaware of how it started or how we found ourselves in the middle of it. When we find ourselves here, it is incredibly difficult to find our way out or find some kind of resolution within us.
I emplore you to think about how your life could different if you had the tools and support network available to you before your mental health symptoms surfaced.
