Americans are more focused on mental health today than at any other point in our history. Public health campaigns urge us to check in on our feelings and talk openly about our struggles. Schools have adopted mental health curriculums. Employers offer mental health days. There are thousands of mental health and wellness apps.
Yet our mental health appears to be getting worse. Over the past several decades, the percentage of Americans who report being in poor mental health has been rising. Over half of U.S. doctors surveyed in 2023 reported a decline in their patients’ mental health. That same year, more than three-quarters of companies reported rising mental health concerns among their work forces.
Could our preoccupation with mental health be part of the problem?
In some ways, encouraging people to think and talk more about their mental health is a good thing. There is now less stigma around mental illness, and more people who can benefit from professional help are getting it. But there is also reason to believe that efforts to bring attention to mental health struggles are inadvertently making us more vulnerable to psychological distress.
Start with our expanding conception of mental illness. The more fixated we are on mental health, the more sensitive we become to anything that might qualify as a symptom and the more we use clinical language to describe normal emotional experiences like grief, burnout and loneliness. This broadening of what we think counts as a disorder — known as concept creep — encourages us to pathologize ordinary life and see ourselves as mentally unhealthy.
Continue reading at The New York Times.
Clay Routledge, PhD, is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Archbridge Institute, where he also leads the institute’s Human Flourishing Lab. As a thought leader in existential psychology and human motivation, Clay translates research into practical insights that help people reach their full potential, build meaningful lives, and advance human progress and flourishing. Dr. Routledge received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is co-editor of Profectus Magazine, an online publication dedicated to human progress and flourishing. He writes the weekly newsletter "Flourishing Friday."
Psychology of Flourishing
Americans are more focused on mental health today than at any other point in our history. Public health campaigns urge us to check in on our feelings and talk openly about our struggles. Schools have adopted mental health curriculums. Employers offer mental health days. There are thousands of mental health and wellness apps.
Yet our mental health appears to be getting worse. Over the past several decades, the percentage of Americans who report being in poor mental health has been rising. Over half of U.S. doctors surveyed in 2023 reported a decline in their patients’ mental health. That same year, more than three-quarters of companies reported rising mental health concerns among their work forces.
Could our preoccupation with mental health be part of the problem?
In some ways, encouraging people to think and talk more about their mental health is a good thing. There is now less stigma around mental illness, and more people who can benefit from professional help are getting it. But there is also reason to believe that efforts to bring attention to mental health struggles are inadvertently making us more vulnerable to psychological distress.
Start with our expanding conception of mental illness. The more fixated we are on mental health, the more sensitive we become to anything that might qualify as a symptom and the more we use clinical language to describe normal emotional experiences like grief, burnout and loneliness. This broadening of what we think counts as a disorder — known as concept creep — encourages us to pathologize ordinary life and see ourselves as mentally unhealthy.
Continue reading at The New York Times.
Clay Routledge
Clay Routledge, PhD, is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Archbridge Institute, where he also leads the institute’s Human Flourishing Lab. As a thought leader in existential psychology and human motivation, Clay translates research into practical insights that help people reach their full potential, build meaningful lives, and advance human progress and flourishing. Dr. Routledge received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is co-editor of Profectus Magazine, an online publication dedicated to human progress and flourishing. He writes the weekly newsletter "Flourishing Friday."
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