First published in HG News March 2018

© Julia Welstead

If you, or someone you know, is suffering from mental health difficulties then you’re not alone – current statistics show that rates of anxiety, depression and mental illness are rising dramatically, particularly among our children and teens. 

As a society we speak of mental health and mental illness, but in reality we are all on a spectrum of wellbeing spanning the two extremes of ‘health’ and ‘illness’, along which we can travel in either direction depending upon personal and environmental factors, events and changes, and how we respond to them. 

What does it mean to be mentally healthy?  

The human givens approach can help us here. When psychologists Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell asked themselves this question, they went right back to basics and looked at human beings as organisms: what we need in order to thrive and what resources we have within ourselves that helps us to meet those needs and survive in whatever environment we find ourselves. 

Utilizing up-to-date neurological and psychological research, Joe and Ivan developed a list of essential emotional needs that, when well met, keep us mentally healthy, but if not being met well, or being met in unhealthy ways (such as through addictive habits) will cause us harm. These core HG needs are distinguishable from our more individual needs and wants, and our more transitory search for ‘happiness’ in that they are vital for the health of all humans, they describe a distillation of what we absolutely cannot survive without. 

This led them to develop the human givens approach to emotional health and wellbeing, based on a solid understanding of the essential needs and resources we are all born with, whatever our circumstances or cultural background. 

Among its many benefits, this approach offers us an understanding of our own mental health signs and symptoms, helps pinpoint why we might be experiencing difficulties and encourages us to focus on what we can do to feel better. It enables individuals to nurture and maintain their own future mental health, empowering them with a sense of control over their life and thus further meeting their emotional need for volition. 

Joe and Ivan’s overarching organising idea, gives us an understanding of what people need to be mentally robust in all walks of life, through changing situations, from birth, through childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age, and across country, religion, creed and culture, as described in the HG Charter.

Their work also brought important new insights, based on neuroscientific evidence, into the causes of anxiety, anger, depression and psychosis, the mechanism behind addictions, obsessive compulsions and self-harming, and an understanding of the consequences of trauma, all of which is of immense practical benefit in improving treatment of these debilitating conditions.

Our innate motivation

We are innately driven to get our needs met: they motivate all our behaviour, and humans will strive to get their needs met in whatever way they can. Unfortunately not all methods are healthy, and some attempts to get needs met can cause problematic behaviours, such as aggression, that affect both the individual and those around them. Sometimes when we’re suffering distress we will withdraw from many facets of our life, like a wounded animal, and this compounds our difficulty in getting many of our needs met adequately, thus escalating the problem.

However we are not helpless (as is sometimes insinuated in the media these days) in finding effective ways to meet our needs. We are all born with the advantage of a set of innate resources with which to reach out into our environment. These include functions in our brain like memory, imagination, language, dreaming, logic, creative pattern-matching and an ability to metaphorically step back from a situation, into our observing self, and take in the wider context.

Our physical being is also a crucial resource, allowing us to move through and sense the world around us, which is why mental and physical health are so inextricably linked. Good eating and exercise are paramount to a good mind:body connection, and sleep and dreaming are also a vital part of our emotional wellbeing.

It is crucial to know about our essential human needs because if they are being met in balance we will be mentally healthy, we cannot be otherwise. If, however, one or more needs are not being well met, we suffer stress as our brain knows that something is amiss. If unsolved, this stress can develop into a range of unhealthy mental health disorders. Our needs and resources are the ‘givens’ of what it means to be human.

A framework for mental health

Thanks to the development of the human givens approach, we now have a framework upon which to hang our understanding of what it means to be mentally healthy and, vitally, how we can achieve, or recover, and maintain that state. It’s a great way of understanding what people need, homing in on what’s missing in their lives and therefore what can be done to help.

The HG approach is now evidence based by substantial body of research.

It’s becoming easier to talk about our mental health than ever before. In recent times mental health awareness has been given a more prominent and acceptable profile in our media, for instance by the UK royal family with their ‘Heads Together’ initiative, and it regularly hits the news headlines as being in need of more government funding and attention. 

Psychoeducation forms a large part of the therapeutic process, as knowledge gives power. Learning how our brain works and working out what is causing distress in our lives gives us the opportunity to change things for the better. Because of its universality, the HG approach offers a great platform from which to teach and educate allcomers.

The HG approach is now being taught in the world of education, politics, business and diplomacy as well as in the sphere of healthcare, because if we know how to maintain our mental health through difficult times, we are less likely to suffer illness and more likely to perform to the best of our ability.

If you would like advice or mental health support for yourself or someone you know, take a look at what an effective therapist can offer and how the HG approach differs from other therapies. It is important to be able to choose a therapist who suits you. 

You can find your nearest HG therapist through the Human Givens Institute website. For mental health courses please visit the Human Givens College website.