“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
Not long ago, comedian Louis CK appeared on a late-night show and talked about today’s modern medical advances, amazing technologies, and the freedoms we all enjoy. In the midst of all this, he said, we have surging rates of depression, addiction, and suicide. His punchline sticks with me — describing today’s world — “Everything is amazing … and NO ONE IS HAPPY.” In today’s article, we’re going to take a
look at this from a variety of vantage points.
This is a long article. Here’s links to the CONTENTS:
Intro — Our Unhealthy Default Reality
Recently I’ve been reading a helpful and challenging book by Pilar Gerasimo that focuses on physical and mental health, but it has
profound implications for our spiritual life … and for addiction and recovery.
Gerasimo was the founder, and for many years editor, of Experience Life, a health and fitness magazine. Her book is called “The Healthy Deviant.” As her background might suggest, her focus is especially on physical health, but it also drifts into mental health (as those two are integrally connected). Her point in the book is
this: “Currently, we live in a culture that produces exponentially more unhealthy, unhappy people than healthy, happy ones” … and therefore, the only way to be healthy and happy is continually and deliberately go against the grain of conventional wisdom and practice. To be a “healthy deviant.”
Here’s more of what she says in the book:
In fact, right now, the unhealthy-to-healthy ratio is arguably running about a hundred to one. … If you are currently a healthy and happy person in today’s United States of America (or in any one of a growing
number of countries now following our lead), you represent a tiny and shrinking minority. You are, statistically speaking, an endangered species. …
In my mind these facts raise a rather captivating question: What kind of society makes being healthy and happy so difficult that only a single-digit percentage of its population can hope to pull it off?
The answer is self-evident: A sick society. And within a sick society—one where chronic illness, obesity, drug dependence, anxiety, and depression are rapidly becoming the prevailing norms—what does it mean to be one of the few who buck those unhealthy odds?
You might wonder about her assertion that so many of us are unhealthy. Are things really that bad? I dare you to get the book and read it. She backs it up with a lot of research.
There are two things that are striking about this … and are very sobering to reflect on:
- Though it was published in 2020, she wrote this book in 2018 and
2019 … before the COVID health crisis, the lockdowns associated with it, and subsequent social unrest and political toxicity made everyone’s physical and mental health worse.
- Although she mentions them in the quote above, she doesn’t really focus much on mental health issues. She’s able to make her case for how unhealthy and unhappy we are by pointing to physical health markers alone. She doesn’t even get into the numbers of people dealing with addictions, and mental health
struggles like anxiety and depression.
This is not a criticism of the book — as I stated above, her background qualifies her to focus on the physical health side of things. But it’s important to keep this in mind, because it makes her point in the book all the more important and pointed. If you were to add depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicides into
the mix, the numbers look even worse.
This is Depressing … Why Talk About It?
I have struggled with writing this, because I don’t want to be negative. But this is important … and there’s a reason why we need to talk about what Gerassimo calls “our unhealthy default reality.”
Let me be clear from the outset about a core belief of mine, which makes it so essential to honestly face what Gerassimo and others are telling us:
The antidote to what ails us — in terms of physical, spiritual, or mental
health — is not complicated, but it IS difficult, and we are easily discouraged or distracted away from it. Therefore, we need crystal clarity about the severity of problem we’re facing, and we need regular reminders about the seriousness of our situation … otherwise we won’t do what needs to be done.
This reality
informs my writing and teaching, and how I work with people as a coach and recovery counselor. In many of my workshops and public talks, I lead with this point: We will not do the work required for recovery unless we understand — and never lose sight of — the danger we are in.
So let’s take a brief look at that danger. What’s happening around us in our world today? ...
