Having sat down with groups who have clinically diagnosed depression or bipolar-II, it seems there’s one thing you can talk about with them all that they all seem to agree about, pretty much every time.
Sometimes it brings a smile, or laughs of acknowledgement.
The conversation goes something like this…
We. Are good at worrying. In fact, I don’t just mean good at worrying, no, I mean that when it comes to worrying we are truly gifted, and quite exceptionally good at it. How good at it? I mean, seriously good. Other people might think they’re good at worrying, but they are nowhere near as good at it as us.
When it comes to worrying each of us will probably say we’re about as good at worrying as you can get. We do it more than anyone else, and we do it better than anyone else. Most of us would find it hard to even entertain the fact that anyone could be better at it, because, hey, they’re just not, ok.
We can also do it for longer than anyone else, and we can do it more intensely than anyone else, and when someone else might give up worrying because they just haven’t got the skills, we won’t. We’re the best.
Usain Bolt is seriously, incredibly good at running. Let’s face it, it would be very surprising if his name didn’t come up if someone was asked “who’s the best in the world at running?”.
…well, we are the Usain Bolts of worrying.
Isn’t that great? We’re truly good at something!!! Get in!
Now, all that might have sounded like a joke, albeit a very true joke, but it actually is fundamentally a very important observation that informs the designing of a new approach to improving mental health that can really work. It might not make sense yet, and there’s a lot more to talk about. But for now, one thing is clear as day as I am sure you’ll agree; that we’re all incredibly gifted in this field, just like Usain Bolt is in his.
If you’re on board with that, you’re going to like this blog and what it has to say.
In the next blog post, we’re going to talk about the “1000mph question” that’s never asked by mental health professionals, and why it’s so incredible that they don’t ask it, and that they haven’t even worked out that it is a question that they need to ask!