Why Don’t People Work On Their Mental Health Like Their Physical Health
By: Tre King
Tags: Wellness, Therapy, Health, Mental Health, Happiness

Photo by John Fornander on Unsplash

My therapist asked me, “why don’t people work out their minds. I mean, the working out your body is like a billion-dollar industry, but our mental health seems to be behind still.” I just stated stigmas and not being able to see the progress of your mental health. But the more I think about it’s deeper than that. Mental wellness is similar to physical wellness in the sense of the various ways to become healthier; that’s about it. Other than that, mental wellness is a journey of ups and down, unlike the gradual climb of physical health. To understand why “people don’t work out their minds,” we have to understand our mental landscape and how to interact with it as a whole.

The Stigmas

The good and bad stigmas of mental health affect the perspective of people putting work or lack of work into it. First, most of the bad stigmas are silly when you realize most of the “bad parts” of mental health are part of the human experience. For example, anxiety and depression happen in all of our lives at some point. Obviously, it can overwhelm people, which results in a longer stay than some others, but it still doesn’t put someone in the spectrum of mental illness people think they're on. We should contextualize aspects of mental health before judging good or bad. See what circumstances led to the mental state, if any, then figure out a “workout” from there. Also, understand it could be a chemical imbalance or trauma or one leading to the other—again circumstances and context.

I’m not a fitness guru. I just eat healthily, play basketball and go for long walks. (sounds like a dating profile) But I know both physical and mental “workouts” need to be actively pursued to be maintained. We think because we reach certain level of mental peace or health we don’t have to do anything anymore. That’s a foolish though since we all know how life goes with its up and downs that don’t discriminate. Physical working out and becoming mental healthily have easy similarities and difference to spot but that’s doesn’t really answer why people do not seem to “workout” their mental health.

To me the biggest reason for people not trying to exercise their mental health…

is the difficulties in accountability but more than that is not wanting to swallow the tough pill that comes with knowing they’re people we love or hate that are leading us to where our mental health is at bad state. They’re people who loves us who are biggest cheerleaders. Then there people who we love that we’re doing everything possible to impress them — they might not even care or love you back. Worse they’re people we hate that we are doing a disservice to ourselves by ignore their impact. Telling someone the reason their mental state is where its at is because of the people they love or hate is not going to receive some grand reaction. Then actively learning what their impact has done and what it is pushing you towards is going to be harder than any physical workout. No one wants to give attention to those people because we’re all egocentric jackasses, respectfully. Honestly, 9 times out of 10 they’re going to be the focal point our mental “workouts”. Because no one is just depression or just has anxiety disorder. There is most likely someone who started it off. With more severe mental health disorder like bipolar etc. they’re people who worsen it or make you feel terrible for having those conditions. It’s easier to constantly attack an inadequate body part than constantly focusing on a love/hate relationship you have with somebody that is affect your mental state.