It’s Not Just You: Rethinking “Mental Illness” in a World That Hurts

So many people arrive in therapy saying some version of this: “Something is wrong with me.” They point to anxiety, depression, panic, numbness, rage, compulsions, burnout, grief.

They have tried to push through. They feel like they are failing.

I hear the pain in that story. I also know the story is incomplete.

What if a lot of what we call “mental illness” is not only inside a single person. What if it is a reasonable response to the conditions we are living in. An antipatriarchal and decolonial lens invites us to place our suffering back in context. It asks us to look at power, history, and culture. It asks who benefits when pain is labeled as a personal flaw and who is left carrying the weight.

The personal story we are given

In the dominant story, distress is a private problem. You are told to fix your mindset, your habits, your thoughts. There can be value in learning new skills and in tending to your body and mind. That is real work. But when the focus stops there, we risk missing the water we are all swimming in.

Think about the pressures that shape daily life. Chronic overwork. Precarious housing. Debt. Lack of health care. Racism and transphobia. The isolation of individualism. Ongoing impacts of colonization on land, resources, and culture. These are not minor background details. They are conditions that set the nervous system on high alert or shut it down. If you are struggling, it might be because your body is telling the truth about those conditions.

What an antipatriarchal and decolonial lens reveals

Patriarchy rewards domination and numbing. It tells us to ignore our needs, never be vulnerable, and keep going no matter what. Colonization tells us that power and profit matter more than relationship and reciprocity. These patterns live in institutions, families, and the ways we have been taught to relate to ourselves.

When we see through this lens, symptoms look different.

• Panic may be the body’s alarm in a world that pushes speed and performance over care.

• Depression may be a collapse that follows long periods of carrying more than any one person should carry.

• Dissociation can be a wise survival strategy in the face of ongoing harm.

• Anger can be a healthy response to injustice.

None of this means suffering is easy. It means your body is intelligent and responsive. You are not broken.

Rethinking Mental Illness: Why this matters for therapy

When pain is only framed as a private defect, shame grows. People try harder, mask more, and feel more alone. When we place pain in context, other possibilities open up. We can approach healing as both personal and collective.

In my work, this looks like:

• Naming the social forces that shape stress, safety, and belonging.

• Supporting the nervous system with somatic practices, so there is more room to feel and choose.

• Honoring cultural wisdom and community care, not only individual grit.

• Making room for anger, grief, and desire as legitimate signals, not pathologies to erase.

A few practices to reclaim ground

These practices are simple. They do not fix unjust systems. They can, however, return a little choice to your body.

1. Claim space: Sit or stand and let your spine lengthen. Gently widen your elbows or your knees. Notice the contact of your feet or seat. Let your gaze take in the room. Claim a bit more space than you usually allow. See how your breath responds.

2. Touch that signals care: Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Soften your jaw. Inhale for a count of four, exhale for a count of six. If it helps, add a quiet phrase like “Here I am” or “I am with you.” This is not self improvement. It is self relationship.

3. Rhythm and weight: If you feel revved up, try slow, weighted movement. Press your feet into the floor and imagine the exhale traveling down your legs. If you feel shut down, invite small rhythmic motion. Gentle tapping on the arms and legs, or a slow sway from side to side. Let the body find a pace that feels honest.

4. Orient to what is safe and nourishing: Turn your head and eyes and name a few things that bring even a small sense of ease. Warm light on the wall. A plant. A photo of someone you love. Let your system register that, in this moment, there is something supportive here.

5. Practice “both and”: Place one palm up and one palm down. In one hand hold your very real personal experience. In the other hand hold the bigger context. You can work with your patterns while refusing to pretend the conditions do not matter. Both are true.

What about diagnoses and medication

For many people diagnosis is clarifying and medication is lifesaving. Nothing in this perspective asks you to give that up. The invitation is to add context. You are a person with a history, a community, and a culture, not a bundle of symptoms cut off from the world.

Toward a different story

Healing grows in relationship. With your body. With trusted others. With land and culture. With values that center care over domination. Rethinking mental illness this way shifts the frame from “What is wrong with me” to “What happened and what support do I deserve.”

You are not a problem to be solved. You are a person responding to a complex world. Your responses make sense. From that starting place, real change becomes possible. If you are tired of carrying the belief that your struggles mean something is wrong with you, therapy can be a place to find clarity and care. Explore my services to see how we might work together.