Thoughts About Mental Health From my son Luke, an Active Army Infantry Soldier

June 30, 2023

My 21 yr old son Luke, an Active Army Infantry Soldier, shares his thoughts on anger, ADHD, counseling men and more. (From the mouth of babes!)

I believe anger can be very useful and positive if controlled in the right direction, and you don’t let it control you. The world was built on the backs of angry men. Even Jesus himself used anger when he overturned the tables in the temple. I don’t believe God would’ve given us such a powerful emotion if it wasn’t meant to be felt, but it has to be used in a controlled manner. I think the idea that you, especially men, should never feel angry is ridiculous.

After watching like half of Andrew Huberman’s podcast on ADHD I still haven’t changed my mind. He seems to believe it’s real, but I think that is just because he’s a doctor, and doesn’t look at it objectively from an outside point of view. He only thinks about it chemically, and thinks about all of the minute details involved with the brain and science. He was even talking about how he had a discussion with his friend, who is a neuroscientist and specialized in this field. His friend was discussing with him whether or not his friend’s son should be put on ADHD medication. I think if someone who’s whole career field is in brain chemistry and mind altering medication has to think about that twice, that is a clear indication that the answer to ADHD being real is not black and white.

I like what you say about labels, I think ADHD is a made up label, and it is perfectly natural especially for young kids to not want to sit down and learn something they have no idea why they’re learning. I think labels destroy people. Whenever I didn’t feel motivated to stay focused in school I had the devil on my shoulder telling me it was because I had ADHD and had something wrong with me. That all of these other kids were just lucky to be able to focus.

If someone is depressed, being told by a doctor that they’re depressed and helpless and to take a pill, this is not going to help them. They have no hope at that point, when professionals tell them there is something wrong with them. Being sad is perfectly normal, and the idea that everyone should be happy all of the time is complete nonsense.

Discipline is the difference between being sad and getting out of bed versus being sad and staying in bed. The problem is depressed people get told it’s perfectly normal to stay in bed all day when you’re sad, and that’s how you should cope with it. That if you aren’t feeling motivated there is something wrong with you.

I think most people don’t have something wrong with them, they just haven’t dealt with that particular area in their life yet. What’s holding them back is being told they have something wrong with them, so they don’t even attempt to deal with that issue in their life. Whether it is making friends, and learning how to effectively communicate (Social Anxiety) being disciplined and focusing in school (ADHD) learning to get out of bed and still doing what has to be done when they’re sad (Depression) learning not to hold onto things excessively, and to accept things and the world for how they are (OCD)

Obviously nothing is one size fits all, but I think this notion, if more popularized, could genuinely help a lot more people than just being given a label, a pill, and stripping away their hope from them. Being handed and pressured by society into accepting a destructive identity is never going to help.

Also, I think when counseling men (I don’t think the same applies for women) discussing their future and goals more than discussing their problems is going to be more helpful. If someone had me talk about all of the bad things that happened to me every single day, I’d probably be depressed too. What gets me out of bed every day is staying focused on my future and my goals. My most proud days are when I felt miserable all day, but still managed to get done the tasks I had set for myself that day regardless of my feelings.

Another common notion that is destroying society is that men are the same as women, and that the solution to their problems is the same. They get told that their roles in the world should be the same. This idea is also ridiculous, but I won’t go into a tangent on it 🤣 not very politically correct either.