Examples of Paradoxes That Affect Your Mental Health

Over the last few years I’ve written extensively about anxiety, how my own personal anxiety came about and how I think certain things in society have a huge influence on our mental wellbeing even if we can’t see them right in front of us. I’ve recently realised some of the paradoxes that we all live in and after doing some more research, I’ve identified a while host of examples of paradoxes that plague us in our day to day and what I believe affect our mental health.

Why do I think it’s important to discuss them? I wanted to address them because not only do they frustrate the living hell out of me but I think some of them are just downright dangerous and the powers at be don’t seem to care about the affect they are ultimately having on the population. I believe they have a massive impact on our mental health in day to day life, what we think is ‘normal’ and ‘okay to do’ and what we are fine accepting. These examples of paradoxes only make it more important that we make up our own minds and build our own healthy philosophies.

The truth is, these paradoxes have become normalised and that’s why they piss me off. From a very young age we’re in a constant battle to do one thing yet be asked to do another so the only clear way out of these paradoxes (as far as I can tell) is to make your own mind up and be mindful of what is really going on. Many of these paradoxes relate to advertising, something that I believe has a lot to answer for when it comes to our mental health.

In fact, contradiction is everywhere you turn, from the small things in day to day life to the people who are in charge of entire populations, paradoxes are constant and overlapping. This past year (pandemic) has highlighted these paradoxes to me even more than usual. I realised that the powers at be don’t really care at all about you and I (even though this was apparent beforehand). Instead, we are but customers that exist in an artificial economy that only works when we buy, buy and buy some more. Its a self-sustaining system that relies on our wallets.

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It has been apparent in the UK that the government has wanted to keep as much open as possible to prop up the economy ahead of preserving human life. I’m no conspiracy theorist, these are just observations I have made as I’ve watched things unfold.

Although the 2020/21 pandemic has been and still is an awful time for everyone, it did cause a break in many of the paradoxes we exist in. For a short time, many of us had the time to re-evaluate our lives and think about what is truly important, what we put in our bodies, what we spend our money on and what we value in life. However, as we move out of the pandemic, it’s noticeable that things are slowly getting back to how they were; adverts for holidays are aggressively shown on the TV, restaurants are slashing prices and the general bombardment of commercials have become relentless again.

Even though the current pandemic has highlighted these paradoxes, they have still been around for a long time and I believe the following affect our mental wellbeing, most of the time on a subconcious level.

1. The health paradox

One of the biggest examples of paradoxes in society is the contradiction about health. After WW2, the extra surplus of food meant that we could sell it cheaper than ever. Over the last 70 years, food has become extremely cheap to the point where you can pick up a burger for less than $1. The problem is, the cheapest food is the worst kind of food for you. It’s the result of extensive farming and the over breeding of animals. When the poor can only afford fast food and cheap snacks they also end up becoming the most unhealthy which only compounds their poverty. Food has become a form of entertainment. Restaurants like McDonald’s and Burger King make a disgusting amount of money by selling burgers and fries for next to nothing. They then pump that money back into advertising like any smart business would but here lays the paradox.

Now more than ever, the government pumps out national health messages about healthy eating. Junk food has been so overly normalised as ‘real food’ that it’s often difficult for people to know what and how much they should actually be eating. The UK Prime minister, Boris Johnson, caught Covid-19 in the summer of 2020. At the time he was very overweight and only after catching Covid-19 did he begin to take ‘proper’ care of himself. Here we are in 2021 and he is still overweight yet preaching the same message about healthy eating to everyone else. The fast food market pumps a lot of money into the economy so it’s understandable to think that the government wouldn’t want to clamp down their advertising bombardments in fear of losing money.

So on one hand you have a half-assed attempt to preach the message a health to the population to keep them better protected from a virus and on the other we are encouraging the sales of harmful foods.

When Covid-19 was at its peak in 2020, restaurants were closed and many had to shut up shop. It was a time when many realised that although it was nice to visit your local restaurants, it’s not a particularly necessary activity and more of a rare treat. Many people also realised how much money they were saving by not indulging in these types of treats. Whilst messages of health come from schools and the government, the fast food industry is more relentless and louder. This creates a confusing situation where it’s easy to just give in and eat crap, especially when you’re short on cash.

This health paradox affects your mental health because junk food has been so normalised. When you get out of shape and feel unhealthy you can end up feeling unhappy with yourself and a vicious cycle begins. There’s of course an element of self-control when it comes to junk food however the relentless and aggressive marketing of junk food can be overwhelming when it’s put in such a good and ‘normal’ light by the companies that sell them.

There are few better examples of paradoxes than Coca Cola. When you learn that Coca Cola and other soft drinks like it have no nutrition in them at all, you realise that there is no reason for them to exist in the first place, except to make profit. In my opinion, soft drinks like Coca Cola are dangerous because they are marketed as being so appealing and ‘necessary’ and they then become culturally accepted. They’re addictive and taste satisfying so you keep wanting to buy more and more. Not only do these ‘friendly’ drinks have no reason to exist, they’re also extremely bad for your health.

When Cristiano Ronaldo snubbed a bottle of Coke in a press conference recently, Coca Cola’s value dropped significantly. This action by one of the words most powerful men pierced the film of reality momentarily and showed us that products like Coca Cola are only worth so much money because we say they are, not because they actually are necessary.

2. The global climate change disaster

One positive (for the planet) that came from the Covid-19 pandemic was the break in pollution. With more people staying at home and factories having to close, the air was clearer than ever in many developed countries. Since the industrial revolution we’ve been pumping tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere after pulling it out from the ground. Whilst the collective consensus amongst governments and scientists is that this is extremely dangerous, we still do it anyway. Meanwhile, in 2021, things like electric cars and the infrastructure around them are still so behind where they need to be for us to make a real difference to the damage we’ve already done.

We’re told that we need to recycle more and cycle and walk around more instead of using our cars whilst at the same time the rich and powerful of the world continue to dump toxins into the ocean and burn coal in vast amounts. The worst part is, there’s only so much the government is willing to do about it because many of these fuel companies fund governments all around the world.

The USA wants to be carbon-neutral by 2050. In my opinion that’s far too far away of a target. Whilst it’s not easy to switch over to electric straightaway, heels are still being dragged towards a carbon-neutral planet. We’re at a stage where we’re playing catch up but it seems to be too late. According to this website we have 47 years worth of oil left on this planet. That’s only 2068. Whilst you and I (the little people) do our recycling and our walking, the powers at be will continue to turn raw oil into carbon gas over the next 50 years. I believe this situation affects our mental health because it can bring about a sense of hopelessness. How are you and I supposed to feel optimistic about the climate of our planet when those who can make the biggest impact do next to nothing.

I would buy an electric car in a heartbeat if I could afford one and if I was confident I could find a charging point in my local area. The problem is, the infrastructure and the cost of it just isn’t there yet for the vast majority of people to make a real difference. We’ve lived a certain way for the last 70 years and that’s why it’s going to be so difficult to save our climate before it’s too late. It’s not just the electric car infrastructure that has to change, it’s the cleaning of the oceans and the overhaul of the accepted culture around poisoning the atmosphere.

3. The money paradox

As a lot of us have had to stay at home recently and work from our kitchens, we ended up spending less money and therefore were able to save more than we normally would have. With less travel spending and less trips to the shops, I personally managed to save more money then I ever thought I could. This break in normality made me see how much money I spend without thinking about it. Usually I’d pick up a few extra things at the shops but I cut that out when I knew I needed to focus on the essentials during the height of the pandemic.

A lot of people haven’t been as fortunate and lost their jobs when Covid first struck. Still, the relentless advertising campaigns for gambling and commercial products returned in full swing after the first lockdown in the UK and were even more aggressive than before. Understandably, businesses are trying to scrape back money lost during the fist lockdown. The problem is, the world is a very different place now. Now people are becoming much more wise to what they spend their money on, less people are going abroad and instead are choosing to have holidays closer to home.

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Although many are in a tough financial situation now, gambling companies especially are pushing their products because they know people are trying to make some money quickly. All of a sudden, gambling has become more appealing for many. The dangers of gambling are obvious but with one of the biggest mental health crisis’ the world has ever seen in history, it’s a recipe for disaster. We’re told to spend our money wisely on one hand yet on the other we’re being constantly harassed to take a risk to win some quick money. These companies are everywhere, for example, every sports event has a gambling sponsor that tries to lure you in with deals that seem too good to be true on the surface, just to try and make you spend more once you’ve got a taste for them. These teaser deals are on every TV ad break, YouTube ad, magazines, billboards and pretty much everywhere you can lay your eyes.

There’s also a financial paradox that revolves around affordable housing. Most people you talk to just want a house they can call their own and yet house prices are so overly inflated that it’s become a pipedream for most millennials who don’t have rich parents. Instead of being an essential, housing is now a product that many different entities can extra money out of or invest in. If you don’t start saving your pocket money from the age of twelve you have very little chance of owning your own home in a developed country unless you get lucky or work yourself into the ground.

At the same time the governments of the world keep pledging to build more affordable housing, even though it’s obvious to most that the population is fast outpacing housing capacity, let alone the fact that the small print on the few affordable houses still makes it extremely difficult to get yourself on the ladder without a huge deposit or having a doctors wage. Whilst this sounds like I’m complaining, this is a mere observation of the current situation in the UK but it is also a crisis that is plaguing the US.

4. The Social Media Paradox

Another example of a paradox is the obsession we have with social media. If you’re old enough to remember the first social networks of the mid 2000’s you’ll remember how exciting the idea with connecting with people online first was. When social media first came about it was intended for exactly that. Fast forward to 2020 and like anything else it has become a way for giant social media companies to extract money from its users. Now more than ever you’re news fed is crammed full of adverts for products, unless you’re savvy with your settings. Social media is free to use however it will suck out a lot of funds from its users over the long run.

Social media platforms are marketed as being friendly and safe places to connect with other people but they are also dangerous arenas that can connect predators with the vulnerable in society easily. Social media has only been around for 15 or so years and I like to think because I’ve grown up with it, I know how to use it properly. However, younger generations are spending their whole lives connected online and therefore dampening their real-world communication skills. Too much importance is put on online image and reputation and not enough in the real world. Social media can make anxiety worse, increase stress and depression not to mention lead to an increase in envy for others which is of course never healthy.

Paradoxes are all around us

Paradoxes are all around us. The above examples of paradoxes can leave you feeling pretty helpless which is why I believe they have the potential to affect your mental health. When people in positions of power say one thing and then do the opposite you can feel like you have no control over the big important things in life which is why it’s important to focus on what you can control. You can control your own health, what you spend your money on and how you treat the planet. It may not feel like you’re making a big difference but by having a sense of personal control, I think you can look after your own mental wellbeing a lot better.

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This post was previously published on Projectenergise.com and is republished on Medium.

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