What if everyone was sick?

Would we consider it normal? Would we accept the sickness?

I imagine we would. We get certain illnesses when we're younger, and our parents don't worry too much about them because they're “normal”. Common cold, chicken pox, other regular infections. This is expected as the immune system strengthens, so we don't worry too much about it.

What about chronic illnesses? I struggle to find one that we would consider normal and accept as fact.

But the quality of these illnesses is that they are distinct from normal. They are expected, sure, but they cause a state change within our body that eventually normalizes.

What about a chronic sickness that leaves a permanent state change?

I struggle to think of physical illnesses we accept in this way. Mental illness, however, seems to be widely accepted as normal.

Depressed? Anxious? We all are, you might hear. Being sad is “normal”, being stressed is “normal”.

This is where the territory seems harder to navigate. There is a big difference between being sad as a normal course of life and being depressed. How can you clearly and quickly make that distinction?

My generation gets a lot of flack, but I do really appreciate its divergence from the former generation — specifically in its attitude towards mental health. Therapy is normal, encouraged.

It still strikes me that so many people are depressed and anxious. It is an unacknowledged pandemic. How can so many people be suffering simultaneously without a great movement to ameliorate the suffering?

Maybe it's because mental healing is so individuated, so customized. It's hard to scale — different traumas are hard to identify and harder to treat. How does mental health scale?

Some companies like Calm and Headspace answer that question through their meditation app. A meditation app scales and helps people with their mental health. Meditation is definitely one of the most powerful tools we have for healing our minds. Talk therapy apps seem to be going in a similar direction by providing clients access to tele-therapists.

Healing our minds is such a journey. I find it hard to see it as something we can productize. It feels like only we can walk the paths, and we have to problem solve and decide each step of the way. I can't imagine a one-size-fits-all solution to healing our inner worlds.