We all know that hydration is important for our physical health. But according to Michael J. Merchant, the President of Anasazi Foundation, it’s also important to “hydrate” in a mental, emotional, and spiritual way.
Transcript of Do We “Hydrate” Mentally?:
Yeah, we often like to use the metaphor—when we think about mental health—of hydration. If you or I were to get severely dehydrated, we would show symptoms of illness and if we were to go to an emergency room with those symptoms of illness before a doctor would diagnose us they would—they would put an IV in us and fill us up with fluid. Because they can’t really tell whether there’s a connection between some sort of illness and what we’re experiencing—the symptoms we’re experiencing and the hydration.
And so, until we’re hydrated they won’t know that. Sometimes, the symptoms are directly related to dehydration, other times there’s an illness that needs to be treated.
Well, we don’t do that in mental health. In mental health, we see symptoms we diagnose and we treat. And yet, these young people come to Anasazi oftentimes, I mean they are dehydrated spiritually, emotionally, physically.
And here’s an opportunity—the trail’s a tremendous opportunity to hydrate them to where we really get a chance to see who they are and to see if there is an illness that needs to be addressed and treated. A lot of times, it’s just the result of no sleep, eating the wrong foods, addiction to the technology, or there’s a trauma in their life—there’s an experience—but where we can hydrate them and they’ll be able to have the strength to actually walk forward and be healthy in their life.
