A Holistic Approach To Mental Health: The Root Causes of Mental Health Concerns
The most common question I get in my practice from clients is “Am I crazy? Or is it [my hormones, biology, society, a spiritual awakening, etc.?]. When we’re going through pain, suffering, extreme states, or feel out of control, we want an answer. We want someone to tell us whats wrong. However, taking our time answering that question, and not jumping to a quick conclusion, is one of the best things we can do for our healing process.
The western world has a very narrow definition of what’s “normal”. We believe pain and heavy emotions are things to be eradicated. Chances are, if you fallen outside that thin line of “normal” at some point or another, you were probably given a mental health diagnosis or given medication to treat the symptoms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with utilizing diagnoses or medication. Sometimes a label for what’s happening to us can help us feel not so alone. It can give us an answer to the question: why am I feeling or behaving this way? Yet, if we don’t ask questions beyond diagnostic labels, the chemical imbalance theory of mental illness, and what it means to be “mad”, we miss out on a much deeper level of understanding the complex interplay of factors that co-create our mental health. We also miss out on a world of possibilities for our healing.
Psychiatry And Its Discontents
Psychiatry is currently going through a huge turning point, yet grasping on for dear life at old outdated models and theories.The chemical imbalance theory of mental illness, despite billions of dollars in scientific research, has been debunked. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has repeatedly been shown to be statistically unreliable and invalid. This means you could see three different psychiatrists and receive three different diagnoses, these diagnostic categories may not be measuring what they’re supposed to measure, nor are they necessarily indicative of a disease that exists in the world with a known pathology.
In addition, the prior head of the National Institute of Mental Health, Thomas Insel, who ditched the DSM to start his own diagnostic project called RDOC, just released a book that outlines the ways in which psychiatric research has yet to show any true benefits to patients, producing no accurate tests or biomarkers for mental illness, and abysmal effect rates for treatment. After his decades long career, Insel writes what seems to be a poor apology for not focusing on community and wrap-around mental health support sooner. As a grassroots activist in the mental health space for years, it is maddening to repeatedly hear people with lived experience cry for systemic changes within mental health for decades to no avail. We have frequent (pharma funded) campaigns to “increase awareness of mental illness" but consistently miss opportunities to truly listen to people who have been fighting for justice and stating that mental health is far more complex than a disease of the brain. Not to mention that adequate housing, access to healthy food, a fair minimum wage, reliable healthcare, peer support, and basic human rights go a long way when it comes to mental health. If we want to know why we experience depression, anxiety, mania, psychosis, or more, we have to be willing to look beyond the brain.
A Holistic Lens To Mental Health
There are hundreds of practitioners who work holistically to see the whole person when it comes to mental health. The problem is, many of us are siloed off in our own niche. There are functional medicine doctors exploring the gut-brain connection and inflammation's role in mental health, building a new field of functional psychiatry. There are spiritual counselors and energy healers helping people heal ancestral trauma and energetic ailments. There are advocates and activists naming the role of systemic oppression and institutional abuse in mental health issues. There are harm reductionists and housing specialists fighting for people's rights and basic needs. There are trauma specialists healing the nervous system and supporting somatic release of emotional pain, and so much more. Each of these practitioners understand a vital part of our mental health. Many who utilize integrative practitioners gain opportunities to explore the many factors that shape our health.
A holistic lens is necessary now, at a time when we are less emotionally well than ever, and traditional systems are no longer working for us. Holistic healing is not about choosing the right modality for us, it’s about bringing ourselves to truly investigate the roots of our pain. Historically, privileging western medicine has led us to believe our pain is bad, indicative of something wrong or broken in us. But what if pain was the messenger, not the problem? What if pain was a signal that something needs to change, not only within us but in the world around us? I believe we can validate our suffering without pathologizing ourselves, and it begins with our willingness to see the whole picture.
Root Factors Of Mental Health Concerns
1.Biology: inflammation, autoimmunity, food allergies & more
I always say “it’s not all in your mind, but it’s not all in your brain either.” In other words, you’re not crazy or making it up, but it’s not just your brain that may be suffering, the rest of the body is crucial too. Our biology is undoubtedly an important part of our mental and emotional wellbeing. It’s easy to ignore the fact that lack of sleep, rest, nutrition, and basic self care can completely shift our mood. But that's only the surface of it. Rates of autoimmunity and chronic illness have skyrocketed, our nervous systems are fried, many of us live with constant low grade inflammation. Our bodies pay the price. There are so many conditions that slide under the radar than can contribute to mental/emotional distress or are even correlated with mental health diagnoses: hypothyroidism, food allergies, viruses, Lyme disease, autoimmunity, vitamin deficiencies, and more. Many people don't realize that one of the first signs of these conditions are mental health symptoms.
So before you blame your brain chemistry, ask: what else may be happening in my nervous system, immune system, endocrine system, nervous system, and my body as a whole?
You can find a list of functional medicine practitioners here.
2. relationships: Ancestral, familial, and communal trauma, norms, and beliefs
Our ancestry, where we come from, the roots of our blood and bone, matters. The experiences of our ancestors impact our familial and cultural norms, our sense of belonging, and our ways of relating to others. Even if we know very little about our ancestry, our connection or disconnection impacts many facets of our wellbeing. For white folks, what our ancestors had to give up in order to be known as white has far reaching consequences. Many of us feel ”culture-less" swimming in the waters of white supremacy culture. We may feel empty or like something is missing. For folks of color, our ancestors faced immeasurable violence, a legacy that’s still alive in the structures of our system, compounding the trauma and gaslighting. Those who are mixed race, like myself, often feel caught at the intersections.
When we move from a historical or ancestral perspective, down to our unique family traumas, we may find many things swept under the rug, the things we don't talk about. Often, the person labeled as “crazy” or the "problem" within the family is the one carrying lifetimes of unacknowledged grief and shame, or simply trying to survive the unconscious family dynamics. To draw on our community, family, and ancestral history helps us frame mental health within living narratives.
Ask yourself: what unacknowledged family and ancestral legacies am I carrying within me that may be influencing my mental health? Are there any stories, fairytales, or traditions from my ancestry that may help me understand myself and my pain or differences better?
3. Transpersonal: spiritual emergence, existential crises, and finding meaning
Mental health is inseparable from the transpersonal and existential dimensions of our lives. Our very human existence puts us in an enormously uncomfortable position, seeking meaning and purpose, yet living in a constant state of unknowing. To be human is to both be grappling with the past and hurling into an unknown future. No one is exempt from asking the big questions in life, whether you’re religious, spiritual, atheistic, or somewhere in between. What we find hope and meaning within beyond our existence plays a huge role in our emotional and mental wellbeing. Many of us who are labeled with mental health diagnoses experience existential crises, spiritual emergency, dark nights of the soul, or quite simply struggle to find meaning and purpose.
Consider: How has the existential or spiritual realm impacted your mental health? Where have you found meaning, and how has this changed you or your conception of self?
4. Society: institutions, structural oppression, and social norms
You may have asked yourself at one point or another : what the hell does it mean to be "normal" anyways? Who made up the criteria for what falls within the normal range of human emotion (answer: white cis male doctors trained exclusively in western medicine - not who I would consider the epitome of "health")? Which body-minds get the privilege of being considered normal, valuable, productive, or functional? Who gets considered disposable, invalid, disabled, broken, or dysfunctional? If we can agree that the water we are swimming in is poisoned, is it a a measure of illness to be thrashing about? In other words, much of what we consider mental illness can also be reaction to the trauma and stress of living within an oppressive society, or in the words of disability justice activist, Patty Berne, "a global system that is incompatible with life."
For decades now, top health experts have shown that areas of poor mental health directly map onto areas of high poverty and marginalization. It’s impossible to ignore that denying people basic human rights like good food and adequate housing will poorly impact mental health. Yet all of us on a daily basis, to greater or lesser degrees, face systemic and institutional factors that shape the context of our health. Whether its knowing your chances of incarceration or death are higher because of institutional racism, being refused educational accommodations, or being gaslit by specialists who don’t believe your pain despite being privileged with access to good healthcare, we can’t escape the systems that shape our lives. We all face the stress and overwhelm of living within a collapsing dysfunctional system built on values that are incongruent with healing.
Consider: How is your emotional and physical wellbeing impacted by the context of your social environment? Which institutions have shaped your understanding of what’s healthy, normal, or functional, and what’s not?
5. Personal: Integrity, belief systems, and life transitions
Considering all of the other complex factors we already covered that impact our wellbeing, we know that our belief systems, thoughts, emotions, actions and choices don't operate within a vacuum. They are heavily influenced by our life context. However, it would be remiss to ignore the responsibility and the choices we do have when it comes to our mental health. Beyond simply making healthy choices in what we eat, who we spend time with, and how much sleep we get, I believe that taking care of our mental health has even more to do with how we protect our integrity. How long do we spend in situations that we know are not right for us: the communities, cities, belief systems or jobs that cut us off from who we really are?
The moments in which my own mental health was at an all time low, I realized I was being forced to reckon with ways of being that were outdated. Often, in these situations, I was terrified to make a choice or didn’t realize the choices I had. Whenever I kept “pushing through” with a life I was secretly unhappy with, ignoring the tiny voice in my heart that said “something isn’t right here,” my body and mind would yell and scream louder to get me to wake up to the truth.
Conversely, whenever I chose myself, my integrity, and got very honest with what I wanted, needed, or could no longer tolerate, I got healthier and more joyful than ever.
Ask yourself : What areas of life feel like they are out of alignment with your integrity? What do you feel burned out, angry, resentful, confused, sad, or upset about and what messages do these emotions hold for you? Without needing to make any big decisions now, what's one thing you can do to honor what you truly need and desire?
Multiplicity: You are Dynamic & So Is Your Healing Process
Our mental health cannot be reduced to a single narrative. We are way more complex and dynamic than we realize. When we deeply explore the biological, relational, personal, spiritual, and societal factors that co-create our emotional and mental wellbeing, we open up doors of possibility we never had before. Healing is a winding road that requires our creativity. There is no one person that will ever give you the answer to why you feel this way. Only you can tell your story the way it needs to be told.