“I’m not crazy!” Neil said angrily. His sister Emma had tactfully suggested that he might benefit from seeing a therapist. “I’m not suggesting that you are,” she firmly replied. “If your feet hurt you’d see a podiatrist. For a toothache you’d go to a dentist. So, for your depression you need to see a psychotherapist.”

Our society has come a long way in recognizing the value of consulting psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers and other qualified mental health professionals for help with emotional problems, but we still have a very long way to go.

Sadly, there’s still a stigma about needing or undergoing psychotherapy. If it became known that a candidate for President of the United States had undergone treatment for anxiety or depression, this would undoubtedly be used against him or her. The unfortunately all-too-common attitude is, “Anyone who couldn’t solve his or her own hang-ups without outside help is too weak and unpredictable to be trusted to handle big-league responsibilities.”

Consequently, whenever people who hold a high office in government or industry go to someone for psychotherapy, they often use false names, park several blocks away from the therapist’s office, prefer appointments after dark, pay with cash, never submit insurance claims, and cover up their tracks in other ways, too.

Sadly, because of the stigma still attached to seeking psychological therapy, many who could benefit from help avoid it like the plague. It has been argued that as a result, many people in high offices and with great responsibilities are seriously disturbed because they have never received the treatment that they require. The truth is:

• Just about everyone has certain emotional problems.

Life is too complicated to escape having some psychological and emotional worries. Unfortunately, these normal difficulties are often incorrectly called “mental illnesses,” which makes them sound ominous and demeaning.

Indeed, the very notion of “mental illness” is a common misconception because an illness is an illness regardless of the organ that is affected. In other words, we now know that some serious psychological conditions like severe depression, bipolar disorders, psychoses, and OCD are brain disorders that are due to neurochemical and other metabolic imbalances arising in the physiology of the brain.

To say that an illness is “mental” suggests that the brain, unlike all the other organs in the body, is not a part of the human organism. So, if a person suffers from heart trouble, liver problems, a lung condition, or kidney disease (etc.) we simply say he or she is suffering from an illness, right? Thus, the tendency to separate the brain and its physiological processes from the rest of the body is a false dichotomy and, therefore, so-called “mental illness” is better conceptualized as illness per se.

Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that these brain disorders will always require medical treatment.  Just like many other illnesses respond well to certain life-style changes (e.g., hypertension, Type II Diabetes, high cholesterol – to name a few), so do many of the brain disorders commonly treated by “mental health” professionals. That is, despite being legitimate illnesses, it’s often possible to “do something about them” (i.e., CBT) instead of “take something for them” (i.e., medication).

Still:

• Many psychological disorders are merely common problems that do not arise from problematic brain metabolism.

Also:

• The notion of someone being “crazy” or “insane” is based on ignorance. (In fact, the term insane is a purely legal concept that has no real use or meaning in a clinical or therapeutic setting.)

And:

• The people who need help the most are often least likely to go for it.

The truth is that people are too close to their own difficulties to see them clearly enough to make accurate assessments. Imagine trying to look at yourself in a mirror with your nose one inch from the surface. Everything works, the mirror is reflecting your image, your eyes and brain are perceiving the stimulus, but you still can’t bring it into focus because you’re just too close to see things clearly. To bring the picture into clearer focus, you’ll need to take a step back. Similarly,

• An outside (preferably trained) observer is in a far better position to pinpoint the troublesome issues in a person’s life and offer help in finding constructive solutions.

Remember:  Think well, act well, feel well, be well!

Copyright by Clifford N. Lazarus, Ph.D.