WE ARE WARRIORS

Written by Andi Bazaar, Co-wrote by Clayton-Euridicé Schofield | Oct 28, 2022

There is a need for culture-friendly models of mental health and new therapeutic interventions, the state of the mental health system is affected by cultural values and it is essential to normalize seeking help in more cultures.

A major factor in improving mental health is the cultural sensitivities of mental health professionals.

While mental health awareness especially among Millennials and Gen-Z is growing but there are barriers to seeking professional help, social media provides a more accessible route to learning more about mental health especially if it's a qualified psychologist dispensing advice.

I always thought that the main problem with mental health was that it was restricted to only the few people that we were working with and I wanted it to be available to more people.

There is a lot of mental health stigma that we internalize and one common question I get is:

"How do I treat this without meds or therapy?" No one would ask this question for physical illness at all but we still believe there is a workaround for mental health because it is not as real.

"when it comes to mental health services, cultural differences matter."

Let’s talk about the importance of what happened in our childhood, why we need to process the traumas that occurred then and how it can help us for our long-term wellbeing. Infancy and early childhood contain some of the most critical parts of our development.

These include but not limited to emotions, attachment, exploring environment and how we view the world because of the young age in which all these factors occur — they will be heavily influenced by our caregivers, how they treat us and how they approach their environment.

There have been many studies that show toddlers before the age of 1 are able to read their caregivers’ emotions and it makes sense. We are helpless at that time and rely fully on our caregivers for all aspects of survival. If they are anxious or depressed, we will mirror that.

Since that attachment is the most fundamental piece of our development, it can get stunted pretty early. For example, if an infant is left to cry (because they are just being fussy) it teaches the toddler that their needs will not be met.

Given that the toddler doesn’t feel secure in their attachment with their caregivers, they will start developing either an anxious attachment where they feel afraid to explore or be separated from their caregivers or an avoidant attachment style in which they don’t care anymore.

While we cannot remember these periods of our life, the same patterns continue to the time we start to be fully aware and form long term memories. For example:

• were our caregivers in tune with our needs?
• did they ignore us or punish us?
• did they hit us or scare us into submission?

All these traumas and aggressions stick with us and influence our mental health way into adulthood, if we felt unsafe in our home environment or not supported we likely feel the same way in our friendships and relationships.

If every time we were happy, our caregivers told us bad things are going to happen so don’t get too excited then we will learn to smother our happiness because it is a sign of upcoming bad events. It is important to go back to our childhood moments and journal about them.

The memories that we have serve a purpose, none of our memories occur by accidents. The save button of our brain is emotion, the stronger the emotion and the more likely the memory is to be strong and vivid. All our memories have emotions attached to them.

When we explore them and truly look at them, we can start to identify these patterns. This is especially beneficial if done with a therapist who can show us that it is okay to accept these memories and to be guide and validate us for any emotion that we show when we remember.

We tend to separate or create artificial chapters in life for example, we were children - then teenagers - then young adults, etc but the reality is more that of a building where everything stacks on top of each other. If the foundation is not strong, the building collapses.

In fact, it has been theorized that the reason why we go through mental health breakdowns is because the mind tries to make everything collapse so that we can start with a stronger foundation and that it is a function that our brains use as a form of reset button.

Many forms of therapy such as "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy" (CBT) focus mainly on the present and recent past and they are very efficient but it is important to also incorporate elements of processing childhood traumas for long lasting results.

The more aware and we process our childhood in a healthy way, the more we can learn to love ourselves, let go of the shame or feeling that we are somehow inferior and our dependency on others for love and validation. It is an arduous path and one that is not easy.

It requires us to face the very same monsters in our minds that we have tried running away from and ignoring but done safely and with people who support us unconditionally, it can pave the way for a form of recovery that is more solid and longer lasting.

I hope that this first part helped shed light on why it is important to process our childhood and the traumas, attachment styles with caregivers and other experiences that happened in order to help our mental health and change unhealthy patterns we may have picked up.

to be continued…

A SPECIAL THANKS TO:

• Dr Oliver Schofield, MD (Consulting)
• Dr Seth Gryffen, MD (Consulting)
• Clayton Euridicé Schofield (Co-wrote/Editor)
• Henrie Louis Friedrich (Analyst)
• Timothée Freimann schofield (Photographed)
• Shot at GQ’s Studios by José Schenkkan & Benjamin Schenkkan Joseph