Good Mental Health and the Role of Truth

If you spend a significant portion of your time around Generation Alpha, you will invariably hear the phrase “touch grass.” My understanding of this phrase is that it is used by Generation Alpha to encourage a person who spends much of their time online to reconnect with something real, such as grass. It is a simple phrase, but it has a rather deep philosophical truth at its root.

Good Mental Health and Contact with Reality

The philosophical truth at the root is that something begins to go wrong with a person when they have not had regular contact with reality. Reality in its traditional sense, means those parts of our world that we perceive with our senses and interact with through our senses. I agree with this philosophical truth and would also contend that maintaining good mental health requires maintaining contact with reality.

We currently live in a world where there are so many sources of information and so much access to various belief systems that reality can be difficult to decipher. It has become a generally accepted fact in our society that the more time one spends consuming social media and online content, the more symptoms of mental health disorders are experienced. In other words, more time spent consuming social media and online content leads to a decrease in mental health.

Our minds were not made to consume this much information at such a rapid rate. We do not have the capacity to distinguish between what is reality and what is not reality when we consume information at such rapid rates and from so many different sources. It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain contact with reality and to maintain good mental health.

One reason why this rapid and overwhelming consumption of information brings a decline in mental health is that it involves the health of our minds. One of the main purposes of our mind is to recognize reality in order to determine truth. Truth can be defined as beliefs based on reality. I will state that again: mental health involves the health of our minds, and one of the main purposes of our mind is to recognize reality in order to determine truth.

When the purpose for which our minds are made becomes difficult to achieve, the health of our mind declines. There tends to be a lot of overlap when we are discussing our mind and our brains. To be clear, when I use the term “mind,” I am referring to an immaterial part of us.

To put it in traditional Christian philosophical terms, we generally separate the mind into two main parts: the intellect and the will. The purpose of the intellect is to know what is true and good, and the purpose of the will is to make decisions and act on the known truth and the known good. If we cannot determine the truth and what is good, then the health of our mind declines, as it is not able to function properly.

Reality and Truth

This can go both ways. The difficulty with determining reality and truth can lead to mental health disorder symptoms, and mental health disorder symptoms can make it difficult to determine reality and truth. While determining the cause is essential, whatever the cause is, reconnecting with reality can help alleviate symptoms and improve mental health.

For example, one of the key characteristics of someone who suffers from anxiety is that there is an overestimation of the danger of a perceived threat. Perhaps it is anxiety over social interactions with peers. The anxiety might look like a child believing that if the interaction doesn’t go well, everyone in the entire school will make fun of them for the rest of their lives.

Whatever the cause of this anxious thought is, it is helpful to connect with the reality and truth of the likelihood of this perceived outcome. The truth is that, in all likelihood, even if some peers make fun of the child, not all will, and the probability of everyone making fun of the child for the rest of their lives is slim. Presenting this truth to an anxious person can be helpful and allow the person to challenge the anxious thought and ultimately decrease the intensity of the anxiety.

This is just one example of one symptom of one mental health disorder that can be decreased in intensity through reconnecting with reality and truth. I would contend that the same is true for any mental health disorder; reconnecting with reality and truth can decrease symptoms and increase mental health. This becomes important when one is choosing who to listen to or who to seek guidance from regarding mental health.

The Reality of Absolute Truth

Many people do not believe that there is such a thing as truth. They might be more open to the idea of reality, but some believe that even this too is subjective. If connection to reality and truth can increase mental health and disconnecting from reality and truth decreases mental health, it is vital to understand the philosophy that one adheres to before taking advice or guidance from them regarding mental health.

It is important to note that reconnecting with reality and truth can decrease the intensity of symptoms over time, though not always immediately. Often, acknowledging reality and truth can raise the intensity of symptoms for a time. For example, when someone has experienced a loss, it is typical for denial to set in. As an attempt to protect oneself from emotional pain, one may deny the reality of the loss.

However, it is essential that eventually, one acknowledges the loss. Imagine someone losing their job. There is time for denial, but if one were not to acknowledge the reality of the job loss, all sorts of unhelpful consequences would follow. Unhelpful consequences include showing up to a job where you are no longer employed, not looking for another source of income, or not having income and not being able to pay bills.

In this example, acknowledging the loss of a job is emotionally painful, stressful, and likely to produce anxiety. These sufferings are temporary but not acknowledging it bears long-lasting consequences that will bring long-lasting emotional pain, stress, and anxiety.

Reality and truth matter to Christians, because reality and truth matter to God. Scripture tells us that God purposefully and lovingly created all things, visible and invisible, and all these things have purpose. God told His people who He was and who He was not. Jesus taught us what is good and what is not. He taught us what is true and what is not true.

The serpent’s first move in Scripture was to call into question reality and the truth about God. In the garden, the serpent said, “Did God really tell you that?” Then the serpent said that what God had told Adam and Eve was not true. If you’ve read the Bible, you know what happened next. From the beginning of time, reality and truth were what the life of humanity hinged upon. Failing to acknowledge both can cause our relationships to rupture and suffer.

Good mental health and emotional pain are not incompatible

Connecting with and acknowledging reality and truth can sometimes be painful and can even cause suffering. But to live disconnected from reality and truth is even more painful and causes even more suffering. The difficult and sometimes confusing fact about good mental health is that one can be in good mental health and still suffer immense emotional pain.

Due to the fallen world that we live in, reality and truth can be quite painful at times. It is a common and understandable error in thought that the goal of mental health counseling is to help one to feel comfortable and happy in life. Sometimes, over time, a person does feel more comfortable and happier in life by achieving good mental health, but that would be a byproduct of being more connected with reality and truth, not an end goal.

The health of our minds has to do with how grounded we are in reality and truth, not about how we may happen to feel at any given moment. If the ultimate truth is that we were created by an all-loving Creator who made us on purpose and for a purpose, and that we are always loved by Him, then our ability to stay connected to this truth would bring us peace and joy, well beyond the fleeting feelings of comfort and happiness.

Peace and joy can be experienced at the same time as suffering and at the same time as unhappiness and discomfort.

In conclusion, to achieve good mental health, it is essential to connect with reality and truth. Our minds were created for reality and truth. We were created to connect to the world and others through our senses, and to recognize and submit to God’s truth with our minds.

Just as painful and difficult procedures and practices are often necessary for physical health, so too it is often necessary to go through pain and difficulty to improve one’s mental health. Some truths and realities are too difficult to face alone.

Christian Counseling for Good Mental Health

In these scenarios, it can be helpful and beneficial to seek support and guidance from a mental health counselor. Although this does not take away the pain and suffering, the intensity of the pain and suffering can be eased by walking through it with another person to guide you.