Mental Health Symptoms vs. Root Cause
A Faulty Model of Healing
America has a big problem right now. Regrettably, our prevailing model of mental health aims to mute symptoms instead of healing the root cause.
Have you ever noticed how we say things like “Anxiety Disorder” or “Mood Disorder”, as if the feelings themselves were the problem? Feelings are nothing but indicators that something in our soul isn’t right, like a thermometer that takes our soul’s temperature. Imagine if we called a fever a “Thermometer Disorder”, and our treatment interventions focused on getting the thermometer to read 98.6 degrees no matter how hot our bodies were?
We’d be in for real trouble.
So why is American mental health treatment aiming for the wrong target? Why are we just trying to reduce symptoms (anxiety, depression, etc.) rather than understanding and healing the root cause?
We’ve become shallow; somehow we’ve become a culture obsessed with avoiding pain instead of living a meaningful life.
If we have nothing higher to live for than our own happiness, then attempting to self-medicate away all our emotional pain sort of makes sense.
But pursuing happiness for happiness’ sake is empty; it satisfies us the way cotton candy satisfies the famished.
The Purpose of Feelings
But what if we are more than flesh stretched across some bones? What if our life’s purpose is not something we make up according to our mood that day, but a sacred charge given to us by a holy Being external to us? Then it would follow that happiness is not the end in itself; rather, it’s a biproduct of a life well-lived.
If we are created for a purpose, then feelings are more than mere annoyances. They are tools that give us valuable data about the state of our souls. If we are soul, then the most effective mental health treatment will teach us to attend sagaciously to our emotional thermometers.
Integration of Body and Soul
Too often our souls get ignored in mental health conceptualizations. But it’s important to note that we are not just soul; we are also body. God has seen fit to intertwine soul with the brain, nervous system, and five sense that make up these earthly bodies.
The physiological parts of us contributes to how we feel on a day to day basis. We cannot ignore soul; on the other hand, we cannot turn a blind eye to our physiology in favor of a heavenly mindset.
Being body as well as soul impacts our emotions in all manner of ways, some subtle, and some loud and jarring. This bodily influence over our feelings can be in the genetic, such as a predisposition towards anxious assessment of our life affairs. The bodily influence could be a chemical imbalance caused by natural life events such as childbirth, or unnatural ones such as strong medications taken to treat a disease. The bodily influence could be in the form of any number of unhealthy lifestyle choices, from drugs to chronic sleep deprivation. The bodily influence show up in medical struggles like unstable blood sugar or a brain tumor. Any and all of these factors make us feel. Feelings are intricate outworkings of the complexity of being both body and soul.
When we react inappropriately to our big feelings, suffering follows.
When people don’t know how to pay attention to their feelings, get to the root, and take appropriate action, they use the alternative strategy of trying to control their feelings by using what we can call “antidotes”. Antidotes are a variety of strategies people use to feel better without actually getting to the root issue. It’s like slapping a bandaid on an open sore instead of really getting in there, figuring out what is causing the problem, cleaning it out, dressing it, and allowing it to heal. This strategy causes a myriad of problems, which is what I see in my office each day!
Antidotal strategies to control our pain vary greatly. Here is a brief sampling:
Addictive behaviors (alcohol, drugs, shopping, etc)
Playing the “victim” or “martyr”
Sexual acting out (porn, masturbation, affairs, etc)
Trying to control our environment and everyone in it
OCD behaviors such as hand-washing and repeated checking
Constant need to be reassured that someone loves us
Taking pills as a substitute for addressing why we feel what we feel
The “Spiritual defense” in which we use Biblical-sounding language to minimize the impact of our emotions, e.g., “God is good so I have no reason to be sad.”
Pollyanna-ish positivity
Disordered eating patterns
Unfortunately, antidotes only mask the symptoms but never solve the problem.
A classic example is an insecure girlfriend who insists upon constant contact with her boyfriend to be sure of his love. Hoping to soothe her anxious heart, she texts him incessantly, needing an immediate response. Or she obsessively checks his social media to reassure herself there are no hints of infidelity. These “checking” behaviors may quiet her fears for an hour or two. But she is only managing the symptoms of her insecurity, rather than its root cause. The root cause is her deep-seated belief that she is defective and unworthy of anyone’s love. She will need her boyfriend’s reassurance an infinite number of times, because although it temporarily makes her feel less bad, it never fills up the gaping hole in her heart.
A person who suffers from social phobia drinks like a fish for an evening of liquid courage. But when his brain goes back to its sober state the next morning, the insecurity at the root of his social phobia returns with the rising sun.
A chronic overachiever sets the next big goal, believing that once he achieves it, he will finally feel worthy as a man and make his father proud. But no matter what he accomplishes, what laurels and trophies he amasses, it never feels like enough. There is always something bigger out there to aim for.
Self medication is our new normal
We are a culture who self-medicates symptoms without even thinking about it. We live in an age of modern convenience where feeling better is just a pill away. So, why shouldn’t we?
We drink coffee to feel energized and awake at all times, ignoring our body’s natural patterns and need for rest. (I am guilty of this!) We go shopping to get cool stuff that will minimize our loneliness for a few days. We go from one codependent romance to the next, trying to outsmart our own impotence and sense of worthlessness. These behaviors ease our suffering temporarily by distracting us from our deep sense of shame. But their effects inevitably wear off. Why? Because they do not address our profound needs, the cries of our souls for meaning, significance, and love.
