Not everything needs therapy

Former Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blair has said we need to stop diagnosing everyone with anxiety and depression. Not every ailment that is not physical needs to be medicalised. He says that what the younger generation insists is a mental health problem is merely life’s ups and downs.

Now, whether or not you’re a fan of the former prime minister, you have to admit that he might actually be right. When I was working in London, our boss, the Chief Executive of an agency, was brutally attacked at a train station one evening on the way home. It turned out to be someone with mental health issues. He came out of the gents’ washroom wielding a knife and stabbed our boss in the stomach multiple times. Despite being covered in blood he was able to overpower the youth until a train pulled up and people ran out to help him.

When our boss came back to the office, after months of being off, one of the managers asked whether he should see a therapist to deal with the trauma. This was more than 30 years ago and, at the time, our Chief Executive was approaching 60. He said that, in his day, people did not go to therapy. We just got on with our lives, and this is exactly what he did. No one in the office talked about it again and he wanted it that way.

Unfortunately today, young people want to see mental health experts for the littlest things. Oh, my work is stressing me out and I need to see someone. Of course it’s stressing you out. It’s work and not a social gathering. You’re supposed to meet your deadlines, you’re required to meet company targets and you’re bound to meet people with whom you don’t get on. Not everything is hunky-dory in life. If you think you’re entitled to go into work and be happy then you’d be wrong and you’ve been watching too many work related comedies on television. Yes you might be satisfied at work but maybe not happy. The two are completely different. Work is meant to be work and stress naturally comes with it and the only thing you’re entitled to is your salary and any other benefits that were promised to you before you joined.

But I think that today’s generation takes it too far and a lot of this attitude comes from the way the children are brought up. They are mollycoddled. The other day a woman with a small child was trying to cross the road at an unauthorised location. One car stopped, causing traffic build up behind him, because it was not an authorised stop. What must that child be thinking? That child is thinking that cars are meant to make an unauthorised stop just because he’s standing there. And he’ll grow up thinking this about everything in life. And when it doesn’t happen he’ll kick up a fuss by moaning to authorities or going to a therapist because he’s stressed out because of some deadline.

Life has its ups and downs. Today you might be perfectly healthy but then, bam! out of the blue, you suddenly develop a health condition for which you might need lifelong medication. Do you cry about it in private? Of course you do. But do you spend thousands seeing a psychiatrist to help you deal with it! Well, people of a certain age will definitely do that because, presumably, their parents instilled in them the fact that they will never get sick!

People who don’t go to therapists for every little thing must think, so what if John keeps seeing a therapist? Think about it this way. In some countries, healthcare is free. If someone keeps taking advantage of that then the healthcare system is overburdened by frivolities and those who really are sick won’t get seen. It results in long waiting lists and less money to spend on the healthcare system. It might also affect your health insurance. If someone keeps claiming for frivolous things, it might affect your premium because the insurance company has to recoup what it keeps paying out to those who are depressed.