Republican primary contender Nikki Haley might be increasing in popularity with a sect of the Republican Party and the Democrats, but of all the primary contenders, Haley has a bizarre way of expressing herself sometimes.
For instance, in a recent post on X, Haley just flat-out said, "We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health."
We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 5, 2024
Whoever is running her X account needs a stern talking to about clarity because this isn't going to go over well with a large chunk of the American voting base. Mental health is an issue that needs to be discussed because it's become an issue that has seized many an individual among the American populace throughout the last couple of decades.
To be fair to Haley, she perhaps meant that the "mental health" problem in question is the "cancer," and that's fine. Perhaps she meant that the laser-like focus on "mental health" is a "cancer"...and she's half right.
Two things can be true at the same time.
There are a myriad of mental health issues out there that should be tackled. Firstly is the political mind virus of transgenderism, which isn't an actual medical mental health issue but an incredibly pervasive political trend that has people convinced they have a mental illness they should be proud of. In this case, I'm with Haley. It is a cancer on our society, and society should see to the mind virus's destruction.
Where Haley may trip up here is that the only contribution the government should make to this is to stop attempting to involve itself in the transgender agenda at all. No hosting transgender parties or referring to transgender people as the "backbone" of America. Society must deal with the transgender question itself. Whenever the government attempts to push a social agenda, it makes headway before the pendulum swings in the opposite direction in a big way.
But the fact that rings true at the same time is that our society focuses far too much on mental health. While I doubt Haley meant this, especially since she posted her X post after it turned out the recent Iowa school shooter was transgender, the hyper-focus on mental health is also, itself, a cancer in our society.
The sad fact is that too much talk about mental health is bad for mental health. A psychotherapist named Jonathan Alpert said that sometimes people suffer from too much therapy. In an interview with Business Insider, Alpert said that the cathartic relief of talking about your problems doesn't change the problems in your life, and many people don't understand this, and too many therapists don't seem to talk about it:
"For many therapy patients, it is satisfying just to have someone listen, and they leave sessions feeling better. But there's a difference between feeling good and changing your life," Alpert wrote for The Times. "Feeling accepted and validated by your therapist doesn't push you to reach your goals. To the contrary, it might even encourage you to stay mired in dysfunction."
Alpert said a proactive approach to therapy can shave down the number of sessions a patient needs to attend drastically. He said he's worked with patients who had previously attended years of therapy only to have them face their fears and calm their anxieties in a matter of weeks.
Although long-term therapy can be necessary to address "severe psychological disorders," Alpert wrote, the average patient typically doesn't need years, or even months, with their doctor.
Alpert wrote a column about his findings in the New York Times and promptly received a tidal wave of hate mail for even suggesting people can work through their problems instead of unloading on therapists every week. This suggests that perhaps there's an addiction of sorts to "mental health care" in our country that is detrimental to it.
This doesn't mean that moderate care for mental health needs to be ignored. We shouldn't toss the baby out with the bath water. For instance, many men in this country are mired in depression due to the ever-changing economic shifts and the increase in feminist thought among women causing an ever-widening gulf between men and their purpose in the modern era. Male suicides are an epidemic, and this issue needs to be addressed.
However, to fix men's mental health issues, it needs to be dealt with in a male-centric way. Men are far happier when they're driven to action and accomplish things. Sitting around and talking about their problems will only help them so far and can make their issues worse over the course of too much time.
The underlying point here is obvious.
It's good to identify mental health issues. Mental health is not, as Haley suggests, a "cancer." It comes in a variety of real issues that need to be looked at and addressed. However, the way we approach mental health does need to change. Specific mental health issues require specific approaches. There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Moreover, we need to seek solutions, not endless amounts of therapy and talk that get us nowhere and may ultimately encourage more mental health problems.
Mental health issues need to be talked about, researched, and explored. However, the mental health question should always be realistic and solution-oriented.
