A World of Grey

I often think things like, “Today was a good day” or “He’s  an idiot” or “I can’t play guitar.”  Black and white statements.  What about Mental Health?  If I say someone has mental health issues , it’s kind of like flicking a switch or checking a box.  Suddenly I put them in a group with all the other people I think have mental issues.  Wow, not much grace in that is there?  No effort to separate those clinically diagnosed from those feeling a little down.  Nope, let’s just put them all in the same box labeled “contains nuts”.

When  I look at myself and those around me I see something different.  Most people I know, myself included, engage in some behaviours that reflect an unhealthy mental health habit.  We may not have habits severely interfering with our lives but they’re certainly not helping us.  If I really took a look at any given day I’d be hard pressed to say that everything went well or poorly.  More often than not if something goes bad early in the morning, I know I can dwell on that and it casts a shadow over the rest of the day.  When I honestly look at anyone I’m having trouble with, it would be a stretch to say that everything they do is stupid or mean.  More often than not I can stew in the bad feeling and that will be the filter I see the rest of their behaviour through…until I get over it. Not really helpful

On a website I saw recently there is a statistic quoted, “one in three people will experience a Mental Health problem in their lifetime”.   At first blush this seems to me a ridiculous number.  My suspicion is the quote came from a questionnaire that had a very broad definition of mental health problems.  Maybe that’s the heart of the matter though:  we can’t talk about Mental Health unless we first acknowledge that it’s one of the balancing acts in all of our lives.  There is a quote “to not forgive is to burn the bridge we ourselves must walk”.  I believe part of the problem with stigma is thinking we are not “tainted” with the issue.  When we don’t see Mental Health as something everyone manages, we crucify ourselves in advance when our lives don’t work out like we hoped or planned.   Mental Health is not a taint,  it's part of being human.

A while ago I tried to print a picture in strictly black and white and the image was barely recognizable.  I tried again using greyscale and the result was far more accurate.

I still can't play guitar though.