I watched the new PBS series This Emotional Life over the last two days and I would highly encourage anyone who is struggling with mental problems to give it a watch.  Especially part two that is about Rethinking Happiness.  Not only was all the material handled well, (balanced) there are many experts that speak throughout the show that could be useful resources in their own right to help an individual along the path.  

The show inspired me by reminding me of the following (now scientifically proven facts):

1)      The level of happiness I experience in my own life has a positive impact on others that I touch directly and indirectly up to 4 degrees of separation!  This means that the personal work I do is of great service to the world.

2)      It only takes one positive social connection (like a mentor) to turn a person’s life around. 

I would like to invite you to join me in contemplating the following question –

If someone is injured in an accident that leaves them paralyzed they will likely undergo physical therapy to regain mobility in their life.  My question is what is the equivalent of physical therapy for the emotionally/mentally tormented individual?  

This question was sparked watching the story of the 18 year old with depression shown in This Emotional Life who ended up opting for ECT to aid her recovery.  I noticed that she was watching TV all day if she was able to get out of bed at all.  I know that when I was in her shoes the same was true for me.  I was either asleep, watching TV (when it could hold my attention) or simply sitting in the dark smoking cigarettes and ruminating about my failed life.  I don’t know about you but I cannot watch very much TV without feeling a bit down, in fact I choose programming very carefully, do not listen to commercials and only watch about 4 hours a week.   

Since recovery plans seem to be an individual matter, I wonder if we could devise a physical therapy plan for the mind that could aide people when they simply don’t know what to do.  I envision this plan could include things like…

1) B12 Supplements and other nutrition that’s known to help

2) Taking a thirty minute walk outside (with a friend/mentor to get the social interaction too) 

3) Forgiveness Training

4)  Meditation

5)  Music and Art (engaging with the beauty of life)

6) Journaling (specifically directed)  

7) Education about their mind and body

8) Thinking Focus – providing daily thoughts to interrupt the negative spiral of thinking  

 

We are thinking of developing such a plan and would like to hear from our community about this concept.  

 

Tags: anxiety, bipolar, depression, healing, mental health, recovery, wellness

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 4:39 pm and is filed under The Depression Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.