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Since 1949, May has been Mental Health Month. And in those 70 years, a lot has changed – mental health has gone from the margins to normal in our national conversation. Celebrities open up about their own struggles. Mental health has become the dominant theme of life on campus. Elite athletes are needed to show that openness to mental health issues is not a weakness.
And that's great because the fact that we are in a mental health crisis is undeniable. According to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading cause of disability in the world and affects more than 300 million people. And according to the Lancet's 2018 Commission on Mental Health, more than 13 million deaths could be prevented if the underlying mental health problems were resolved. In the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide rates have increased by 25% over the last 20 years, and in the last 10 years, depression and anxiety among adolescents have increased by 60%. % and 70 percent.
So, yes, we absolutely must continue to fight the stigma of mental health. And we need much wider access to mental health treatments and increased funding.
But we can also mark Mental Health Month by reminding ourselves of ways in which we can all prioritize our mental health in our daily lives. This is one of the themes of Thrive Global's coverage of Mental Health Month, which we will be presenting throughout May.
Thrive's discussion of health and well-being focuses largely on downstream harm reduction, focusing only on the true symptoms of a larger problem. For example, at present, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 75% of our health expenditures are spent on treating diseases that can be managed and prevented, such as heart disease and diabetes. When you include mental health, this goes up to 90%. So the answer is to go back in the water, where even minor changes to our daily lives can have dramatic effects on our long-term mental health.
That's why we're so excited to launch Thriving Mind, our new mental wellness program developed in collaboration with Stanford Medicine, which uses its cutting-edge approach to precision health and its latest research. . This will allow businesses – we will launch it first with Hilton – to get back on track to target the root causes of mental health problems, by preventing mental health problems instead of just treating symptoms after they occur.
One of the other changes in the mental health sector, particularly in the last decade, is our growing reliance on social media, games and phones, as well as its impact on our mental health. We are now much more aware of how our "always active" culture is driving the global epidemic of stress and burnout. And that should also be part of our discussion on mental health. We now know that screen time is unfortunate and that overuse of social media is associated with depression, lack of sleep, low self-esteem and low mood.
But it is possible to take control of our relationship with technology. And the best way to do it is to start small. At Thrive Global, our philosophy of behavioral change is rooted in Microsteps – changes that are too thin to fail, supported by science, that can be immediately integrated into our daily lives.
This month is a great opportunity to prioritize our own mental health by going upstream and making small changes that will allow us to unplug and recharge. Here are some of my favorite microsteps:
• Choose a time of night when you turn off your devices – and gently escort them out of your bedroom!
Our phones are repositories of everything we need to put away so we can sleep – our lists of tasks, our inboxes, the demands of the world. Disconnecting from the digital world will help you sleep better and make you feel calmer and less anxious the next day.
• Disable all your notifications, except those from people who may need your attention.
The more our phone buzzes, the more it forces us to release cortisol, the "stress hormone". Set your settings to only receive notifications from people important to you.
• Audit the home screen of your phone to reduce distractions that are wasting time.
Take a few minutes to determine which applications you really need to access. Keep only "tools" that add value – not apps designed to get your attention.
Do not forget that even though we live in a stressful world, there are ways to protect and maintain our mental health to cope with the daily challenges that lie ahead. Let's make each month a month of mental health.
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