MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. —
The term “mental health” is a strange one. Too often we equate “mental health” with problems, symptoms, or crises. Yet, mental health is just that – a form of health. The brain is part of the body. We take pride as military members in honing physical fitness, and the same should be true of the command center of that body (the brain).
In so many domains of life, we take pride in knowing what we need and where to get it. Doing some home improvement DIY? Sometimes the clerk at your local hardware store is the right resource to start with. Taking a class? The instructor is probably a helpful expert to lean into. If you needed a tooth pulled, well, TikTok or YouTube are probably not the most effective place to start for solving that issue.
But there is a double standard around mental health when it comes down to taking pride in utilizing the tools and resources at our disposal. I could just give therapy clients 10 years’ worth of psychology textbooks so they can take more pride in being self-reliant with mental health practices, but it is much more efficient to go to the right place for the right expertise. That is where knowing who to go to for what purpose is so important to hone our psychological strength.
In the military, we are so lucky to have the resources that we do at our disposal for this very purpose. Military OneSource as well as Military Family Life Counseling and Airmen and…
