The wisdom in the problem

As helping professionals we are taught to diagnose what is wrong and find solutions so the suffering goes away or is more bearable. Our training sets up the problem as a challenge to fix rather than something to get curious about in its own right.

Take depression. If you or someone you love has experienced it, it’s safe to say it sucks. It’s natural to want to help ourselves or the other person to feel less depressed. We’ve learned there might be a chemical imbalance in the brain. Or gut. Or both. We might uncover unhelpful core beliefs or patterns of reactions tracing back to childhood. And we might try a prescription of sitting with discomfort, challenging thoughts, scheduling activities, changing diet or getting physically active. All useful things.

But sometimes we miss the basic poignant truth that people experience depression because, on some level, their life is depressing. It’s a normal, healthy reaction, and a message worth paying attention to.

Taken from this perspective, the person experiencing depression might be seen more as a canary in the mine, someone who is acutely sensitive to broader, societal pressures that affect us all. It’s not that they are aren’t resilient enough, it’s that they’re having a reaction they can’t ignore to something that isn’t healthy for any of us. Maybe they just need a smaller dose to feel it. Or maybe they have had a larger than normal dose through life events.

When we take the lens out further, we inevitably discover broader themes that transcend individual difficulties. Disadvantage, disconnection, discrimination. Unrealistic standards, expectations, stereotypes. Economic or political models that ignore the real-world stresses they generate or even rely on to meet their objectives.

When we just focus on the individual, the canary can’t sing out to the whole mine. When we just look to alleviate individual pain, we’re more likely to miss a systemic cause. But when we get curious about what the person’s inner wisdom is telling them, we have a chance to listen to the whole message.