USE IT OR LOSE IT

The Surgeon General’s mental health report states that 9% of Americans have mental illness to the point of being “significantly” functionally impaired. He goes on to say that an astounding 20% of children have mental disorders to the point of “at least mild functional impairment.” That’s to say that nearly one in ten adults have a mental impairment to the degree that they are deemed “significantly impaired.” What do you want to bet that they have been grouped together and “serve” us in Washington?!!

Mental illness is not really a joking matter but what is a joke is that one out of ten adults and two out of ten children are mentally impaired in this country. Yet, where there is no hope there is often despair. Why is there so much despair in such a rich, powerful, and Christian nation? Why is there such mental illness in a nation that is full of conveniences, amenities, and services?

There are too many people who don’t strive in life. While we all complain about the burdens of life, they are what keep us mentally and physically healthy. Without responsibilities, ambition, and goals, the mind becomes available for mental calamity. While more and more people seek to be recipients of government, it can be said that it is the struggle of life which keeps us sane. Mental distress is found in idle minds and idle hands. The human psyche is designed to strive, endeavor, and produce; mental health is found in busy minds, not in those without ambition and purpose. While having our provisions handed to us through the government may seem like a good thing to some, it isn’t the mentally healthy thing to do. It has been shown many times over that the happiest people in the world are the givers and producers, not the takers.

While too many have true mental illness, there are also too many who bring functional mental impairment upon themselves. The mind is a classic example of “use it or lose it.”