Needs Met =Depression Lifting

Hi

I recently read a really interesting article by Hypnosis Downloads.com called Mental Health:Let's get back to basics on 11/10/2011 about improving mental health, which also discussed how it was possible to recover from even the most severest mental health conditions.

What was even more interesting was recent studies by the World Health Organization show that the rate of recovery from severe mental illness is much better in third world countries than in Western industrialized countries, which gave rise to the question are these other cultures better than ours at helping these people meet their needs to regain good mental health. It also challenged the idea that our culture had a greater degree of 'faulty brain chemistry' than these third world countries where depression is much less prevalent or non existent, and stated that it is more likely something about the way we are living which is creating greater rates of depression, fear, addiction and anxiety.

The article went on to state, 'People have both physical and emotional needs. The extent to which any of these needs are not met closely corresponds to how physically and mentally ill we become.

The Human Givens approach to health and wellbeing lists the needs we all have to meet in life if we want to stay healthy and thrive rather than just survive.

These needs include:

Security: You need to feel safe and secure and feel you have some safe territory. This might also include the need for privacy.

Sustenance: You need sufficient balanced nutrition, adequate physical exercise and regular good quality sleep to maintain your physical health.

Attention: You need to regularly give and receive quality attention.

Volition: You need to feel that you have some influence and control over your own life.

Emotional connection: You need to be connected to others through friendship, work relationships, loving relationships and physical intimacy.

Community: You need to feel part of something larger than yourself, a community of people.

Status: You need to have a sense of your standing with others, to feel you have a recognizable and valued role in life. This also connects to a sense of competence and achievement.

Achievement: You need to find activities and occupations that stimulate and stretch you, learning physical and mental skills and exploring and developing your potential.

Meaning: When these needs are adequately met then life feels meaningful and enjoyable.

The more fully a person’s needs are met, the more healthy their self esteem will be. '

I also agree with their thoughts that we need to stop looking at these people as being different from rest of us and instead see their distress as being a fully understandable aspect of being human.

Hope you enjoyed my blog today.

L&L
Gillian