We live in a time of crisis fatigue.
It seems that every time you read the news, something horrible is coming to light. It’s getting to the point where reading the news each day is like rubbing sandpaper over a barely-healed wound. No wonder why so many people avoid it.
In my work as a mental health occupational therapist (OT), it’s not surprising that the state of the world comes up in a lot of my clients’ concerns:
People the world over are rising up against corrupt governments with unfortunately little change in policy to show for it.
There is clear evidence of increasing drought and other effects of climate change and yet people and governments still deny the science behind it.
Alt-right and Neo-Nazi groups are gaining traction in various countries.
The cost of living is rising at a rate that is not commensurate with wages.
People are expected to work longer hours and pack more into their workdays just because there “isn’t any funding in your sector” or because “the job market is so poor.”
And what do I have to say to this?
They’re right.
Therapy is largely the pursuit of changing the way one interprets or reacts to events and occurrences in the world, to find a healthier, more productive way of dealing with them.
But what happens when the world is on fire?
Like, literally on fire?
IG: @darmfield
There is no way to CBT yourself out of feeling despair for the state of the world when the evidence is quite clear. There is no way to adequately desensitize oneself to horrible occurrences in the news so that the result isn’t numbing/dissociation or retraumatization. The correct response to these events is outrage and a feeling of hopelessness, and no amount of distress tolerance skills will make those feelings go away.
So what do we do? I have been coming up against these issues more frequently in my work with people, especially young people.
A big response from large corporations to increasing incidences of disability due to mental health issues has been to “prioritize worker wellbeing” by instituting programs for mindfulness, massages, yoga, etc. in the workplace. This is all well and good, but it puts too much onus on the individual. It tells the individual, “The way you’re dealing with the stressors of everyday life is insufficient. Here, try this meditation app. Don’t worry, we’ll pay for it.” While individual action is of course important, and I believe that therapy has been and can be an effective form of motivating this in others, focusing on these approaches alone ignores the fact that there are systemic issues at play.
Yes, therapy can be important in helping you stay out of fight-or-flight mode, from completely shutting down, or feeling feelings that are completely unmanageable. But what does therapy have to do with addressing income inequality, corruption in government, lackadaisical or absent climate policy, and systemic oppression? What do we do when the appropriate response to these issues is in fact anger, despair, or dissociation?
If therapy is about helping people reinterpret or process things in such a way that leads to more productive and helpful outcomes, what is the role of therapy in helping people channel feelings of anger, hopelessness, and despair caused by real world events? I’ve been thinking a lot about how I need to do encourage more top-down change in my life. And of course I need to do more to become more politically active in my life and hone in on a few areas that I can put my efforts towards. (I still have to figure this out.) But in addition to pushing myself to become more politically active, I’ve decided on something else: I’m going to do my best to enable the people with whom I’m working to fight for systemic change, if that’s something that would help them. I’m no expert on activism and how to push for systemic change, but I am very lucky to have many people in my life who are very involved, and I can speak to them to learn more. Furthermore, occupational therapists are encouraged to be advocates for their clients, and our very models of practice take (in my opinion) a much more holistic view of challenge and change than many other health professions. The backbone of occupational therapy is about helping people find meaning in life through activity, no matter what challenges they are dealing with. I believe that is is the most practical application of existential philosophy. So if people think that it would be meaningful to do something about the systemic issues that are creating challenges in their lives, I don’t think that encouraging activism, concurrently with more individualistic forms of therapy, would be out of our scope of practice. If therapy involves changing the way one interprets or reacts to events and occurrences in the world to find a healthier, more productive way of dealing with them, then helping people become more active in pushing for systemic change is therapy. The fire in us, rather than burning us up, can turn us into crucibles.
So what do we do? I have been coming up against these issues more frequently in my work with people, especially young people.
A big response from large corporations to increasing incidences of disability due to mental health issues has been to “prioritize worker wellbeing” by instituting programs for mindfulness, massages, yoga, etc. in the workplace. This is all well and good, but it puts too much onus on the individual. It tells the individual, “The way you’re dealing with the stressors of everyday life is insufficient. Here, try this meditation app. Don’t worry, we’ll pay for it.” While individual action is of course important, and I believe that therapy has been and can be an effective form of motivating this in others, focusing on these approaches alone ignores the fact that there are systemic issues at play.
Yes, therapy can be important in helping you stay out of fight-or-flight mode, from completely shutting down, or feeling feelings that are completely unmanageable. But what does therapy have to do with addressing income inequality, corruption in government, lackadaisical or absent climate policy, and systemic oppression? What do we do when the appropriate response to these issues is in fact anger, despair, or dissociation?
If therapy is about helping people reinterpret or process things in such a way that leads to more productive and helpful outcomes, what is the role of therapy in helping people channel feelings of anger, hopelessness, and despair caused by real world events? I’ve been thinking a lot about how I need to do encourage more top-down change in my life. And of course I need to do more to become more politically active in my life and hone in on a few areas that I can put my efforts towards. (I still have to figure this out.) But in addition to pushing myself to become more politically active, I’ve decided on something else: I’m going to do my best to enable the people with whom I’m working to fight for systemic change, if that’s something that would help them. I’m no expert on activism and how to push for systemic change, but I am very lucky to have many people in my life who are very involved, and I can speak to them to learn more. Furthermore, occupational therapists are encouraged to be advocates for their clients, and our very models of practice take (in my opinion) a much more holistic view of challenge and change than many other health professions. The backbone of occupational therapy is about helping people find meaning in life through activity, no matter what challenges they are dealing with. I believe that is is the most practical application of existential philosophy. So if people think that it would be meaningful to do something about the systemic issues that are creating challenges in their lives, I don’t think that encouraging activism, concurrently with more individualistic forms of therapy, would be out of our scope of practice. If therapy involves changing the way one interprets or reacts to events and occurrences in the world to find a healthier, more productive way of dealing with them, then helping people become more active in pushing for systemic change is therapy. The fire in us, rather than burning us up, can turn us into crucibles.
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