Why emotional wellness?

Why Emotional Wellness?

Our need for emotional wellness may be greater than we initially realize. What is the underlying cause of drunkenness which causes so much grief to families and costs us so much, in the courts and hospital system? What is the cause of shootings (power over behavior)? In Canada we have spent over 1,000 million dollars on the gun registry and the carnage continues. Apparently trying to control (another power tactic) guns is not working. What of the robberies (invasion of your privacy) that are driven by the need for funds to buy drugs? What is the underlying cause of drug use?

Estimates say that health care, legal costs and lost productivity caused by alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use in the US alone, costs approximately $559 billion per year. See http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/addiction-science/introduction/drug-abuse-costs-united-states-economy-hundreds-billions-dollars . So what is the value of an emotional education?

After much study and reflection, I believe that emotional issues are part of the cause of many of these societal ills. What we commonly do is to try putting a band aid on the issue (why didn't the gruesome pictures on cigarette boxes effectively curb their use?), rather than addressing the underlying issues. Not that these measures are totally ineffective, but other approaches deserve exploration. I believe there are other avenues or angles from which these issues could be addressed.

My literary work is an attempt to generate a dialogue and language surrounding emotional wellness. This will allow us to speak into the lives of people we know and love, in order to help them get over their emotionally driven behaviors. These behaviors include drug abuse, alcoholism, bullying (shootings), self harm, anger, road rage, sarcasm, shyness, all types of addictions and obsessions, sexual issues, affairs and blaming to name a few.

Phrases and words like responsibility, feeling through (which requires great courage), emotional journal, time line, unmet need, driven behavior, powerlessness, worthlessness, hurt, shame and guilt would be common conversational topics at the office, water cooler and at family dinner tables.

I look forward to our dialogue and the positive outcomes that will result.