IT’S. A. TRAP.

Mental health is all the rage these days. Awareness and focus on its impact sending the pendulum in motion for its swing from the far left of ignorance to its spot now on the far right. Over saturation.  A reason to explain all things. An equal to a torn hamstring in athletic performance.  It's fitting. They've been telling us for years that it's all mental.

It is.  All. Mental.

Something about this hyper awareness on mental health has been gnawing at me. If our focus is constantly on making sure we keep our mental health in focus, could we actually be doing more harm than good?  I know that when I am in a depression state, all I think about is being depressed and it's endlessly hopeless. It spins and crashes in on itself over and and over making me more and more depressed until someone or something shakes me like an 80's baby and snaps me out of it.

As I sit in these modern times, I can, if I choose, by way of the things I digest on the internet, be constantly reminded of how depressed, anxious and utterly fucked up I am. It's a goddamn cottage industry. If I stay long enough I can buy games and t shirts to help me work through , advertise, and/or just reinforce my "mental health", all day, every day.

It. Is. A. Trap.

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Over the years, I've tried to steer clear of things that I'm not necessarily qualified to espouse upon. I am not the Dr. Phil of the Instagram. I'm just a guy who's aware that he likely has the same issues as most of have to varying degrees. Depression. Anxiety. Self doubt. Blah blah blah. I am willing to share about them. With that sharing comes at the least an awareness of responsibility to not try and convince you that drinking kale smoothies will remove all anxiety from your life!  If that works for you (and your colon health), keep doing it.

That being said, over the past couple of days, I have made myself aware of the people/pages I follow and if it's constant reminders about ADD and mental health and depression and removing toxic blah blah blah, I unfollow it. I (you) don't need to be constantly reminded that you're fucking anxious by an addictive machine that inherently builds anxiety with your every interaction with it.

So yeah. Take this as my Dr. Phil moment.

We are a product of what we interact with. If you're still putting on eyeliner and listening to My Chemical Romance on the way to work every morning and wondering why you're depressed, perhaps stop doing that.

Newsflash: Watching videos of a guy telling you about all the symptoms of your ADD or anxiety isn't reducing your ADD and anxiety.

I'll be following more pages of golden retrievers, nostalgic memes, stupid running workouts and trying not buy things on the internet.

I've (we've) got enough anxiety and depression on our own without assigning the IV drip of our digital lives to mental health morphine.

#hugsandhi5s