Exploring the being of knowing

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Understanding Anxiety: What You Need to Know

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Anxiety: What-is-happening?

I have heard it said that there is a hierachical structure to consciousness that goes like this (from higher to lower):

  • love
  • anxiety
  • depression
  • shame

This can be useful if you are trying to get a grasp on how you are situated within an ideological world of social identity.

But what if you are not? What if that information does not help you get a handle on your experience of mental issues?

The Two things:

  1. You just try to keep trying
  2. Do something else

In the scheme of things of mental health, what someone says is “really” happening often has little to do with actually helping with the issue. Whether its your brain, parts of it, your soul, the diagnosis, a name for a problem…

In this sense it is not a calculous of 1 or 2, but of both.

The way to do something else is to understand what is happening. This can happen in any number of ways whether cognitive, emotional or some other way.

Understanding is not specifically and only cognitive, though cognitive comprehension can be helpful.

This might seem strange to some, especially if you are looking to get fixed, or to have something solved. Nonetheless this is where Mental Health Philosophy comes in, because Mental health is more than useful, it is the very manner by which you know what is happening. At every instance of experience, there is a relationship occurring within knowing like with nowhere and nothing else we can know.

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About this blog

Essays in mental health philosophy—less “tips,” more why things work (or don’t). I look at the first principles under therapy, psychiatry, psychology, and everyday life, and occasionally share notes from papers and books-in-progress.

This space stands alongside—not inside—my counseling practice. If you’re seeking therapy in Colorado, there’s a link in the footer.

About the author

Lance Kair, LPC, blends philosophy, mindfulness, and counseling to help clients find agency, meaning, fulfillment, and healing through deep understanding, self-awareness, and compassionate therapeutic collaboration.

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