By Tim Walsh, MA, LP, DPA, Executive Director of Beauterre
We are facing an epidemic of historic levels in the United States. Reported rates of anxiety and depression are skyrocketing, accompanied by a devastating rise in what public health experts call “deaths of despair.”
The crisis is hitting close to home. In Minnesota, the data reveals a profound collective pain. During a recent single-year period, our state recorded 813 suicides, 994 drug overdose deaths, and an estimated 2,844 alcohol-related fatalities. When you aggregate these numbers, a stunning and tragic statistic emerges: life expectancy in America has actually declined in recent years. These trends are a flashing red light, suggesting that something is terribly sick in our society.
Experts routinely offer complex, macro-level explanations for this epidemic. We hear about societal and cultural influences, shifting economic landscapes, and divisive politics. While these factors are real, they are also largely beyond our individual control. When we focus solely on them, we are left feeling helpless.
At the risk of oversimplifying this mental health crisis, I propose a different approach. In problem-solving, it is often best to look at the proximal cause (what is closest to the problem) rather than the distal cause (what is further away).
The simplest and most direct explanation for this epidemic is this: people do not feel good. To fix it, they are pursuing poor, short-term strategies that make them feel worse in the long run. Concurrently, they are failing to consistently utilize longer-term strategies that are proven to result in health, wealth, longevity, and relational success.
Consider the typical modern menu of short-term coping mechanisms. We use drugs, alcohol, “retail therapy,” gambling, social media, and are on our cell phones constantly. We engage in binge-watching television, rely on diets heavy in sugar, fats, and carbs, or overuse caffeine and energy drinks, smoking and vaping. We turn to pornography, gaming, violent or titillating media, and news feeds designed to cause conspiracy theories, outrage or fear.
Ask yourself: How many of these activities do we engage in every single day? One after another? Multiple times per week?
In moderation, few of these pleasurable things are inherently harmful. The danger arises when we layer them one on top of another, continuously throughout our waking hours. Each of these activities spikes a powerful neurochemical called dopamine.
Dopamine is natural and essential. In healthy amounts, it drives motivation, attention, memory, learning, and goal-directed activity. It creates anticipation and hope for good outcomes, rewarding us for behaviors that help us survive.
However, when we flood our systems with excess pleasure, our brains down-regulate. The brain reduces the release and reuptake of dopamine to protect itself. The resulting deficit leaves us feeling irritable, agitated, anxious, and depressed. Short-term strategies fail because they only address the symptom of how we feel right now, rather than the core cause of who, what, and why we feel that way in the long run.
These quick fixes share specific traits: they offer instant gratification, require almost zero effort, and are strictly targeted toward pleasure-seeking, self-soothing, and pain avoidance. It is no wonder most of these behaviors become chemically or psychologically addictive.
Notably, many of these short-term strategies involve the overuse of technology. It is no coincidence that American rates of anxiety and depression began to rise dramatically around 2010—the exact window when smartphones and algorithmic social media began proliferating across the whole of society.
True, sustainable well-being requires a completely different map. Long-term strategies succeed because they reorient life around purpose, the inner strengths of virtue, deep relationships, intimacy, connectedness, and daily healthy disciplines. These practices generate good feelings as a natural by-product of a meaningful life, rather than chasing pleasure directly.
The neurochemical mix of a healthy life is entirely different from the roller coaster of dopamine addiction. When we experience stable, lasting emotional states like love, joy, serenity, contentment, accomplishment, gratitude, and awe, our bodies release a balanced elixir of “happy chemicals”—including serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins, and regulated dopamine. Unlike the depleted state caused by compulsive pleasure-seeking, this healthy chemical balance is sustainable and renewable.
Sustainable well-being flows from character, right living, and intentional practice. What is truly valuable in life almost always requires effort, stress, challenge, focus, and grit. To build a life worth living, we must return to an ancient truth found across wisdom traditions: we feel good by living well and being good. True self-worth and identity are forged not in the pursuit of the next quick fix, but in the meaningful uphill climb.
