Do You Know the Truth About Mental Health?

Do you know the difference between a mental health myth and fact? Learn the truth about common mental health myths.

Myth: Mental illness will never affect me.

Mental health problems are actually extremely very common.  While not everyone will develop a diagnosable disorder, everyone experiences issues with mental health that are milder versions of a disorder either in duration or severity, subclinical symptoms of a disorder, or manifestations that closely resemble symptoms.  Everyone is equally predisposed to developing mental health issues and whether they do or not is largely dependent on what they encounter in their environment.  

The vulnerability to developing mental health difficulties the types of difficulties we may evidence, are reflections of what it is to be human.  We have feelings about other people and ourselves, perceptions about the world in which we live and the way it operates, individual characteristics that make us each unique such as personality, and ways of relating to those around us.  Each of these areas makes our lives richer but also provides room for problems to emerge.  

Facts: Statistics from 2014 show how common mental health problems are.

• One in five American adults experienced a mental health issue
• 18.1% of adults in the U.S. experienced an anxiety disorder
• 7% of adults in the U.S. had at least one major depressive episode
• 17.2% experienced minor depression
• Globally, one in four people experienced a mental health problem
• One in 10 young people experienced a period of major depression
• One in 25 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression that significantly interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.
• One in 20 Americans experienced a substance use disorder or used substances to the degree that they interfered with at least one major life activity
• Among those who experienced a substance use disorder, 50.5% had a co-occurring mental illness
• Four percent of Americans experienced serious suicidal thoughts.
• There were 41,149 suicides in the United States, approximately 113 suicides each day or one every 13 minutes.

Power Really Does Go to Your Head - Literally

It’s commonly said about people who have reached the top of their field or otherwise wield a great deal of control that they have let power go to their heads.  While this is usually meant figuratively, a new study conducted at Berkeley suggests the saying may be more realistic than otherwise thought.

In depth research conducted in the lab and then generalized to real life settings has shown that several those who hold powerful positions are more impulsive, less aware of risk and less able to see another person’s perspective.  These characteristics are characteristic of those who have experienced brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury.

Power has been found to significantly influence empathy.  In particular, having a high level of social power appears to make people less emotionally responsive to the suffering of others.  They also don’t find the emotional reactions of others who are in pain to be important or meaningful.  Those who hold a great degree of power experience less distress and compassion and more emotion regulation when faced with someone who discloses that they are suffering. 

One explanation that has been given for these findings is that when people attain power they often lose the awareness of what got them there.  A big part of that is appreciation for others efforts in their climb and seeing the world through another’s eyes is related to that.  Often people in power believe that acknowledging that they had help getting to where they are will weaken their power base.  Similarly, those who were given a hand in obtaining power are frequently the least likely to help others on their attempt to rise to the top. 

Neuropsychologists have determined that powerful people fail to mimic others in social interactions.  This is important because this is how our conversations work.  When someone we are talking to laughs we laugh too.  Likewise, when someone expresses sadness we show similar emotions.  The failure to do so leaves the other person feeling misunderstood and unimportant to the person, to whom they are speaking. 

Studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation which measures which parts of the brain are firing found that the neural pathways that cause us to mirror someone else fired strongly in those who aren’t powerful but not in powerful individuals.  Powerful people were also less likely to put effort into increasing their emotional responses to others even when instructed to do so compared to low power individuals.  

It may be the case that those who first attain power, believe that showing a great deal of compassion for others will be viewed as weak so they purposely try to inhibit any empathy they might feel.  In the same vein, powerful people may believe that seeing from someone else’s point of view or being influenced by another’s perspective may be interpreted as If others have the power.  Then over time, these intentional efforts may lead to damage to structures and functions of the brain involved in relating to other people and forming meaningful connections.

 So those whose power has gone to their heads may have suffered damage that cannot be corrected.  However, it may also be the case that these individuals wouldn’t want to change it even if they could.  It can be argued that for those who have to make life or death decisions, low empathy is beneficial.  Yet, this research makes you wonder, at what cost?