Outward Action Is Good for Your Brain

Beyond a given point man is not helped by more “knowing,” but only by living and doing in a partly self-forgetful way. As Goethe put it, we must plunge into experience and then reflect on the meaning of it. All reflection and no plunging drives us mad; all plunging and no reflection, and we are brutes.

― Ernest Becker, “The Denial of Death”

A growing chorus of psychologists, educators, politicians, business leaders and influencers is sounding the alarm about an American mental health crisis. Many propose that we need more public conversations about mental health and are urging individuals to prioritize and advocate for their own well-being. Though such guidance is well intentioned, asking Americans to spend more time thinking and talking about their mental health may actually be part of the problem. As a society, we are fixating on our inner lives more than ever, yet we are becoming more, not less, psychologically distressed. We need a different approach, one that encourages more outward-focused action and less inward-focused talk.

Americans are increasingly struggling with mental health problems. Over the past decade there has been a persistent rise in anxiety and depression, especially among younger generations. In a KFF/CNN survey conducted in 2022, half of American adults under age 30 and one-third of adults overall reported that they often or always felt anxious in the past year. A 2023 Gallup poll found that one-quarter of American adults under 30 indicated that they currently have depression, up from 13% in 2017. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that suicide rates in the U.S. increased by 37% between 2000 and 2018. After a slight decline between 2018 and 2020, these rates continued to rise. In 2021, 1.7 million American adults attempted suicide and nearly 50,000 died by suicide.

Continue reading at Discourse Magazine.