A built-in check engine light for your mental health …

There’s a problem common to mental health, physical health, and spiritual health that is dramatically commonplace and is bad for us.

It’s the practice of treating symptoms rather than root causes to mental health disorders, mental illness, physical issues and illness, and even poor spiritual health.

When it comes to your mental health there are a couple things that serve as “check engine” lights to warn you something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

That first warning light is anxiety. Many people, and too many mental health professionals, try to treat anxiety as if it’s a “root cause issue” but it isn’t, it’s a mental health “check engine” light warning you something is causing this problem.

We’re seeing this much more. I believe anxiety is a skyrocketing issue in the West, and agree with this take from James Porter Moreland as he writes in “Finding Quiet: My Story of Overcoming Anxiety and the Practices that Brought Peace”:

I am among those who do not believe that “the percentage of people who have anxiety has always held pretty constant; rather, it’s just that today we’re more open to speaking about it.” No, I am convinced that the anxiety (and depression) rate is higher today than it has ever been. Why?

Because the conditions present today in American culture — e.g., the rapid pace at which we live, the bombardment we receive from all kinds of readily available technology, the isolation we experience in a hyperindividualistic society — are so extreme that we are living with stress, stress, and more stress.

Indeed, we are so used to being under stress that we hardly recognize it much of the time. One of the greatest, if not the greatest, causes of serious anxiety is stress. Despite all this, there is good news: statistics also show there is reasonable hope to significantly minimize or even get rid of disabling anxiety if you do the right things.

That last line is so important – “… there is reasonable hope to significantly minimize or even get rid of disabling anxiety if you do the right things,” which does mean it’s important to understand that anxiety is a symptom or warning of something greater that needs to be treated in order to overcome the root cause of anxiety.

You might say anxiety is an amber-colored check engine light that warns you something is wrong and you should find out what it is and fix it. The other check engine light is a red light that warns something important is wrong and you need to give serious attention to treating it as soon as possible or there is the potential for serious damage. That red check engine light is depression.

There are numerous potential root causes for both anxiety and depression. If you only treat the symptoms of anxiety, or the symptoms of depression, you may experience light to mild temporary relief but you risk that one or both will come roaring back until you adequately treat the root cause for why these “check engine” lights came on in the first place.

A wise person driving along in their car and notices their check engine light suddenly comes on will, as soon as possible, have a competent, skilled mechanic assess why the light came on and then fix the problem. A foolish person asks the mechanic if they will simply turn off the light.

Turning off the check engine light in a car puts you at risk for potentially more serious and costly damage being done to your car if you don’t take action. The same is true with anxiety and depression; they are warning you something is wrong, it needs to be identified, and then it needs to be treated so you can overcome the root cause to “… significantly minimize or even get rid of disabling anxiety [and depression] if you do the right things.”

If you currently have such a “mental health check engine light” flashing in your life, I encourage you to make an appointment with a competent mental health professional to get the help you need so you don’t drive yourself so long you cause serious damage.

Scotty