Principles

Education that distorts, withholds, or silences the truth, is useless at best, and dangerous at worst.

Treating the wrong illness or building an unsafe house, based on optimism, ignorance, or arrogance, is careless at best, and reckless at worst.

Truth, and the pursuit of truth should be the foundation of any education system, so that young people can make truly informed decisions regarding their physical, mental, relational, and lifestyle health.

To make healthy, productive choices, that lead to reduced harm, improved quality of life, and/or recovery from challenging experiences and mental health issues, it is important to know the truth about,

What challenging experiences and mental health issues are and their detrimental effects,
Their possible causes,
The difference between, needs, rights, and wants,
The benefits, limits, & dangers of various goals, such as characteristics, talents, skills, and achievements on physical, mental, relational, and lifestyle health,
The benefits, limits, & dangers of various responses on physical, mental, relational, and lifestyle health,
What decisions, behaviours, people, services, and treatments are helpful and effective
Goals that are, ‘needs’ based, beneficial, and reasonable, that can be achieved in the short and long term based on personal circumstances, and the help available.

Without this, the dangers are,

Failure to identify or acknowledge a challenging experience or mental health issue,
Failure to identify the cause, leaving uncertainty about the response,
Incorrectly identifying the cause, and fixating on treating it, with no satisfactory results,
Fixating on treating one cause, while neglecting another, with no satisfactory results,
Responding in a way that provides temporary relief, but doesn’t improve our physical, mental, relational or lifestyle health,
Responding in a way that exacerbates the issue, creates new issues, makes us more difficult to care for, isolates, and leaves us in a worse position than we were in before,
Responding in a way that makes us “feel better” but at the undeserving and unwanted expense of others, or,
Becoming discouraged, disillusioned, and worse off because the goals pursued or achieved were not needs based and failed to produce satisfactory results.

Making an informed decision on how best to respond to a challenging experience or mental health issue, requires the ability, or help, to productively think it through, process, and weigh up the advantages, limits, and dangers of the responses available.

Feelings (own or other's) should not be belittled or dismissed without a healthy measure of consideration, however, feelings alone (own or other's) should not dictate the response, because feelings (own or other's) can be inconstant, unreliable, misleading, and make it easier to believe lies.

Feeling worthless is not the same as being worthless. Being called useless does not make a person useless. There is a big difference between believing that something is true, and it being true.

Reason, regarding mental health issues, is the process of identifying what is true, by considering,

The thoughts and feelings expressed by the person suffering, and weighing them up truthfully, reasonably, encouragingly, and empathetically,
What psychiatry, psychology, pharmacology, & biology have learned,
The testimony of those experienced in similar challenging experiences or mental health issues, especially those experienced in reduced harm, improved quality of life, and/or recovery,
The pros and cons of various responses on our physical, mental, relational, and lifestyle health,
What is known to be true, and what is most likely to be true, based on the information available,
The negative impact various responses may have on innocent and undeserving parties,
Realistic responses based on what is learned, personal circumstances, and the help available, that can lead to reduced harm, improved quality of life, and/or recovery, and
The value of our sources of help, i.e., how Truthful, Reasonable, Encouraging, and Empathetic they are.

Without reason there is a danger of,

Being controlled by feelings (own or other’s) which leads to an uncertain, inconstant, and tumultuous mental health experience,
Believing lies about causes and responses which leads to physical, mental, relational, and lifestyle harm,
Making choices in ignorance of potential consequences with little or no opportunity to reverse the damage later,
Wasting time on goals that are unlikely to satisfy needs,
Intentionally or unintentionally pushing people away due to unreasonable attitudes and behaviour,
Acting aggressively or manipulatively towards people who speak the truth, even those who genuinely care, and can genuinely help, because they don’t say what is wanted to be heard,
Enabling manipulative and aggressive people to continue in abusive behaviour, by dominating and controlling conversations around what questions can and can’t be asked about the issue, its causes, and the effectiveness of the responses available.

Courage is the mental or moral strength to attempt to overcome, persevere through, and stand against danger, fear, or difficulty.

If someone wants to experience, reduced harm, improved quality of life, and/or recovery from mental health issues, then courage is required, because challenging experiences and mental health issues can cause & be caused by fear, they are always difficult, and they can be dangerous.

When challenging experiences or mental health issues discourage, someone needs to step up to encourage by offering support, confidence, or hope.

GP’s, Mental Health Nurses, Psychologists, Counsellors, and Psychiatrists are valuable and often necessary sources of support, however there can be waiting lists, and apprehension about accessing their support, which means, friends, family members, people with a responsibility to them, and other people who care will be needed to provide that support, confidence, and hope.

The ways in which that support, confidence, and hope, can be provided to lead to reduced harm, improved quality of life, and/or help recovery include,

Listening and paying attention,
Speaking the truth, reasonably, in an empathetic manner,
Honestly and clearly stating availability, abilities, limitations, and boundaries in terms of what can be coped with conversationally or behaviourally, to prevent discouragement caused by broken promises, false expectations, or crossed boundaries that hinder or remove ongoing encouragement.
Suggesting, seeking, and/or connecting with someone who can help more effectively,
Being courageous, realistic & hopeful by example, (not flippant), showing that it’s possible, and,
Helping set needs-based goals, when asked, and congratulating when a step is taken.

Without encouragement there is a danger of,

Isolation and loneliness,
Unimpeded destructive lies dictating decision making and behaviour,
Losing trust in people and their intentions,
Hopelessness, and stagnant or deteriorating physical, mental, relational, or lifestyle health, and the potential consequences that can lead to.

SL TREE offers hope by stating that:

We are all one of a kind, totally unique individuals, who are inherently valuable, worth protecting, developing, and recovering, because when we're gone, the world loses someone it never had before and will not see again.
It is possible, to the extent in which it is in our control, to improve our physical, mental, relational, and lifestyle health.
Reduced harm, improved quality of life, and/or recovery, is rarely, if ever, a quick fix, it takes courage, honesty, openness, trust, and hard work, but it is worth it, and there are healthy decisions we can make that can have an immediate positive impact.
Life can be better than it is, and there is help if we know where it is, or at the very least start asking where it is and have the courage to ask for it.

Encouragement should work with Truth, Reason, and Empathy, so that the support, confidence, and hope shared is not removed due to disappointing responses, and to ensure that the truth and reason are not compromised to appease understandable but unreasonable responses.

Empathy is the ability to sense, understand & share the feelings of another by imagining what it would be like to be in their situation, it generates awareness of their suffering and can produce a desire to alleviate it i.e., compassion, and it better informs the ways in which that compassion is expressed.

Sympathy, pity, and sorrow can all produce compassion, but its expression can be perceived as uniformed, insensitive, distant, or condescending. Empathy can enrich expressions of compassion, can make them more effective, and more palatable to the person receiving them.

Empathy can be challenging to generate or cope with depending on who the person is or what they are suffering, but if willing and strong enough to share in the difficult and sometimes disturbing feelings they are experiencing, it can be hugely beneficial.

However, compassion, whether from a place of sympathy or empathy is still compassion, and is preferable to, indifference, callousness, and rejection.

Ways to nurture, manage and express empathy through compassion that leads to reduced harm, improved quality of life, and/or recovery for those with mental health issues, include,

Repeating back what they said as understood, appropriately asking for clarification, and expressing the intent to understand,
Learning and practicing ways to support someone going through what they are, suggested by truthful, reasonable, encouraging, and empathetic sources,
Being slow to judge, because what makes sense and seems straightforward is subjectively learned from previous examples and experiences throughout life,
Offering suggestions after consultation with truthful, reasonable, encouraging, and empathetic sources, and a healthy understanding of their suffering is achieved,
Being physically present as much as is possible and reasonable, and via digital communications,
Truthfully and reasonably speaking up for them if they are being unreasonably treated,
Learning and speaking the truth, reasonably, and in an encouraging manner, so that their improvement is more likely than the supporter’s deterioration.

Without compassionate expressions of empathy, there is a very real risk of,

Isolation and loneliness,
Unimpeded destructive lies dictating decision making and behaviour,
Losing trust in people and their intentions,
Believing people are indifferent or callous,
Becoming indifferent and callous, with the potential consequences they can lead to,
Hopelessness, and stagnant or deteriorating physical, mental, relational, or lifestyle health, and the potential consequences that can lead to.

This kind of practical compassion should not be demanded or expected from someone who, or whose primary care giver, determines they are unable.

The person must be, willing, able, and reasonably deemed old enough to hear what they need to share, especially when the person suffering is prone to manipulative, offensive, or aggressive behaviour or is experiencing something that is particularly shocking or traumatising.

Empathy should work with Truth, Reason, and Encouragement so that the negative and discouraging feelings empathy produces do not hinder encouragement, or compromise truth and reason to appease understandable but unreasonable responses.

Principles

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