Mental health

The definition of “mental health” changes and evolves during the course of humanity. Depending on the spatio-temporal context and the cultural background of individuals and societies, each concept from its popular expression to the academic one, receives feedback either based on new data or through an older narrative.

Science had been reduced to a dualistic view of human nature in which the individual is either healthy or diseased. The highly pathological and medicalized approach of traditional “mental health” seems to result in placing  a rigid code on the individual across the spectrum of psychological disorders and psychopathology, in this way replacing one’s human nature with symptoms and complaints. As is obvious, this model renounces any influence by social, cultural and individual stimulus, turning individuals into victims of their own biomedical condition.

Through personal experiences, Humanlinks approach the topic of mental health, not only from a medical and clinical point of view, but also from different scientific views. Furthermore, numerous scientific disciplines today, such as anthropology, sociology, neurology,  and several psychiatry trends place the issue of mental health not on mental disorders regarding a minority of people suffering from symptoms,  who have ended up with the burden of the psychopathology narrative, but within the social context that interacts, while giving feedback and getting feedback.

Usually, where there is a “mentally ill person” it turns out that his/her environment is also ill. Likewise, the neighborhood, and by extension the greater community are also affected. Historically, since the framework of a normative community was defined with role models of productive people, the “mentally ill” deviated from social norms due to inability to cope with the pressure, resulting in their exclusion. They are automatically targeted, while the whole society and systems stigmatize them as being neither competent nor useful members to be included.

The mentally ill were for many reasons the object of endogenous social mental processes, bearing all this psychological family and social burden.
An important milestone in the history of psychology, psychiatry and beyond, was medication as a treatment for various intense psycho-emotional conditions. The administration of medication, in many cases, was a beneficial factor in the recovery process. At the same time, however, it was also a block concerning an individual’s expressiveness and smooth socialization, under the guise of pathological violence against society and oneself. We therefore come to the conclusion that the manifestation of a non-“normal” behavior is a violent manifestation in the established order of things, resulting in ostracism.

Humanlinks believe that mental illnesses are multifactorial. However, it seems to a great extent, from the experiences of many of our fellow citizens living with mental health issues who have been challenged on many levels, that by adding the COMMUNITY factor, a strong recovery has been observed.

The community is the place, the time, the culture, but above all the people who make it up. In conclusion, each person as a member of the community has the responsibility to respect others, and try, to the greatest extent possible, to understand that there is no such human as abnormal. There are only people with different characteristics.

Self Help and Mental Health

The Humanlinks group was created out of a deep need for its members to meet with people who have shared experiences and share their experiences with each other, to gain strength and hope to overcome life’s trials. As well, to break out of the isolation and loneliness they were experiencing due to social exclusion and the nature of the psychological symptoms of their disorder, as well as their inability to identify with existing mental health services. After 14 years, including psychosocial support, today they are able to manage their lives to the greatest possible extent, learning how to take care of themselves, while cultivating their relationships and fulfilling their dreams. They develop various activities, based on their interests and desires, which they plan and coordinate themselves, thus reinforcing the concept of self-help, the main philosophical cornerstone of their approach and the way they operate.

Self help

For us, self-help does not mean cutting off or interrupting any clinical or other type of professional support when that is required in order to manage symptoms of the disorder from which we suffer. Self-help, for us, means having distinct roles and a good relationship with our doctors and health services we can use whenever we need them for support. Cultivating within ourselves the right to be well informed and having a say as regards treatment methods recommended, while also having every option to manage them is our duty. Self-help also means detaching our personalities from the clinical term that has socially been identified with our disorders and their symptoms, in this way maintaining and reinforcing the stigma. Experience has shown us that nothing motivates us more to care for and love ourselves unconditionally, have true self-esteem, visualize our wishes, support and have compassion for others, than inspirations and wishes  we embrased within  a group environment, having similar experiences with other members with whom we developed a deep almost fraternal relationship.

“Humanlinks” and the Community

A few years ago we were fortunate enough to come together as a team, accomplishing something very difficult for us. To admit that we are “normal” citizens and equal members of a larger community of people with whom we have always wanted to communicate from the heart. We knew we would both learn from, and teach, each other. We would provide answers to questions about mental health issues, in this way contributing, with our experience, to removing the stigma fueled by the ignorance people were challenged with. They on the other hand, would teach us things that we had forgotten or repressed due to our own ignorance and prejudice due to an internalized stigma. We would learn what it’s like to be in public, sit in a café, alone with a book or with friends. Also, how to do shopping, be neighborly with others, stand or sit on the subway without feeling like a target. Likewise, to feel that you have every right to buy a ticket like everyone else and have free access to cultural sites.

Very soon, we found that this harsh and all-mighty community was our own construction within. She was but a “paper tiger”. We saw groups of people struggling to survive, having anxieties, fears and desires, fall in love, rejoice and relate. It had everything we also wanted. Then, the countdown began as to how we lived our lives until then. At this point, we saw that it was us who had to go meet the community, rather than waiting for the community to come meet us. We started by having feelings of embarrassment and anxiety about what the outcome might be. However, soon we had feelings of compassion, understanding and brotherhood instead. There were moments when we felt stronger because we had experienced situations beyond all limits; we came out of those situations safe and sound and managed to survive. We didn’t have fear of abandonment to the extent that other people did, whether consciously or subconsciously. We had been abandoned by life itself and now found ourselves.

We slowly began to create new experiences as we became those who had gained the strength to support and comfort family members that felt safe with us. Instead of strange and phobic people, we became the sweet and friendly neighbors, the special creators and artists, presenting our works in our neighborhood hangouts or on social media. We were now open to communicate with other people. We interacted with the staff in the various cafés or restaurants in our neighborhood, where we go almost every day, cultivating feelings of friendship. We are beginning to feel better under our own skin and in the community. We know that we are still at the beginning of a beautiful journey that we very much want to take. A journey into ourselves and the community. We are aware that we have an “eternal” negative record, that we carry a heavy narrative, which we process in our regular meetings. We apply everything live in our interactions with the public, placing ourselves in the right spot vis-à-vis history, in this way discovering that the best therapy and rehabilitation is the community itself.

During the process of our “integration”, while observing the times we are currently going through, we see that things around us are fragile and there are quick changes. Mental health is becoming the number one issue on the agenda of major global or government health organizations. An attempt is being made to integrate it into a more general narrative of well-being, where mental health will also be included. If we think about our own recent times and mental health issues, we see numerous and fast steps being made towards rehabilitating one of the most abused special-needs groups throughout the history of humanity with countless innocent victims. Nowadays, we know that the biggest victim was the community itself which, by excluding its members, was actually punishing itself. The countdown for a decaying cultural narrative has already begun across the globe. Humans, the world fraternity, are no longer living well.  Considering the analogy to physical symptoms, we hear about mental anguish existing in almost every home.  This might be felt on a conscious level, where it is experienced and verbalized or on an unconscious level, where it is repressed and unacknowledged, ultimately affecting the body itself. The so-called psychosomatic symptoms from physical stress to the most serious ones, such as the manifestation of autoimmune or other diseases, are found more and more often in a hospital emergency room.

Humanlinks develop the following activities on a weekly basis:

• Monday: Movie Nights (Special screenings at Steki)
• Tuesday: Writer’s Café (Writing texts, poetry, prose, diary, etc.)
• Wednesday: “Getting to know the City” (Outings in various places and getting to know the city)
• Thursday: Exercises Relaxation – Yoga
• Friday: Empowerment and Psychotherapy Group
• Saturday: Sports Activities (Basketball – Billiards – Games with other teams)
• Sunday:

1. Music Group (Organizing Concerts in the community)
2. Photography Workshop (Organizing Exhibitions in the community)

• Every two weeks, free screenings for the public in a local cinema
• On the last Friday of every month, dining in restaurants featuring intercultural cuisine

Also, since 2018, “Winter Program January – April” and Monthly festivals have been organized every September, including the following themes:

• Education
• Environment
• Science
• Mental Health
• Public Health
• Art and Community
• The role of parenthood in the various forms of family
• Prevention and management of violence in schools

Defining individual well-being in a non-directive way

 Well-being, a topic well talked about in recent years, is an issue where at this time of crisis seems to be increasingly important.

Although modern man has mastered a great deal of knowledge, and solutions to problems in most areas of his life, he is unable to approach and manage deeper issues such as those related to joy, happiness and contentment. He is mainly oriented towards engaging in compulsive patterns associated with his image and his social status within the modern virtual mass-media communities.
Lifestyle models are idealized, only to quickly deflate, while increasing an internal void since they refer to the way we should relate to others, how we should eat or take care of our families. Much of the community is caught up in this narrative, often with the approval of part of the scientific community, by which it is promoted and reproduced, in this way validating its institutional nature.

Under the above-mentioned conditions, lack of individual and social meaning, the subordination and even elimination of values, principles and goals for personal, and community development and well-being in a non-violent way, are all greatly evident.

In search of answers defining a healthy life, with meaning and happiness, various fields of social sciences and humanities investigate new approaches, or modify previous ones, seeking to find positive and healthy ways of interconnection and social behavior.

Concepts and therapeutic practices confined to the fields of an alternative approach are coming into public therapeutic discourse and clinical application. Theories and practices inspired by ancient philosophies of the East, Greece or elsewhere, such as mindfulness , meditation, yoga , spirituality, and the Pythagorean way of life are applied in special departments of hospitals and schools,  while also being practiced by a great deal  of the general population.

Though, what is this well-being after all? A precise definition and a common practice for everyone to follow cannot be neither given nor applied. It always depends on an individual’s or a group’s cultural reference, personality, character and personal meaning given. Our level of awareness and relationship with ourselves, the awareness and emergence of our true nature as well as the expression of our true desires will determine the degree and quality of the well-being experience. The personal well-being for each and every one is also determined by timing and circumstances. A person cannot experience personal well-being at a time of a great social crisis. But one can offset that within, by having feelings of compassion and empathy, and by offering support and solidarity to the community. Likewise, the experience of well-being is not limited only to the narrow confines of an individual or a group. It is also transmitted to the greater environment, where feelings of generosity, inspiration, sharing and cooperation emerge. All are virtues which can be the basic ingredients for relationships between people, communication, collaboration, and how people relate to the community and the environment. Only then can modern man experience well-being within himself, contributing to the formation of a better world, one equally including all species on the planet.