28. FIRST THINGS FIRST

​The medical view of the mind is that it is just a product of the electrical currents flowing across neurons. This hamstrings approaches to mental health. Effects are focused upon, diseases named, symptoms treated, but cures are elusive.
 
Contrary to popular belief, although the mind is related to the brain, it is not a mere product of neurons (much more on this in Solving the Big Questions), nor is the mind disjointed from bodily function. Depression and psychological stress can sap the will for a productive life, suppress the immune system, and open the door for infectious and degenerative diseases. On the other hand, happiness and optimism can imbue life with health, creativity, and purpose.
 
Because mind and thought are nonmaterial sorts of things, the demanding physical needs of the brain are often ignored by psychologists and therapists. On the other hand, the psychiatric profession sees the mind as closely allied with matter, but only insofar as it relates to pharmaceutical manipulation. All such professions, as a matter of course in their conventional approach to mental illness, miss the point.
 
If the mind is not working properly, the obvious matters of health must be taken care of first. Remembering our origins is key. Daily exercise, sunlight, proper natural nutrition, and pleasant social interaction directly affect the function of the mind. It is remiss to attempt emotional repair using drugs or talk therapy if the patient never sees the light of day, sits in front of a television for hours on end, and consumes only processed junk food. Not living properly affects the body, which in turn affects the brain, which then affects the body, and on and on.
 
While in a dark mood, we may be convinced that the entire problem is our job, mate, or upbringing, and that our inactivity, diet, and lack of sun have nothing to do with how we feel. But vitamin D deficiency from insufficient sun striking our skin, B vitamin deficiency from food processing, insufficient minerals from factory farmed foods and from being leached out of the body with sodas and metabolic acidosis, imbalanced amino acids from a protein-poor diet, toxicity from environmental pollutants, drugs, starches, and sugars can dramatically affect the brain. Toxicities, deficiencies, excesses, and imbalances can make us vulnerable to, and even create the gamut of mental illnesses ranging from mild depression to psychopathic acting out, even murder and suicide.
 
Although the relationship between overall health and brain function is obvious, millions of people are on drugs or live life in silent psychological misery, while the body endures constant abuse from poor life choices. Why feel like a helpless victim of depression or take a drug that could create dependency and produce side effects when something as simple as a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement, eating fresh natural protein-rich foods, drinking lots of pure water, achieving healthy weight, and taking vigorous walks in the sun might be the cure? Unfortunately, a mind that is in an unhealthy setting and not properly fueled cannot be trusted to make such rational decisions about lifestyle.
 
So while well, like right now while reading this book, make the decision to take the healthy steps outlined in the previous chapters at the first sign of mental illness. Giving nature a chance is not only the first thing we should do when physical or mental illness strikes, it is often the only thing we need to do.