Mental Hygiene
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by Marti D. Ribeiro
Marti is an Air Force combat veteran who serves as a SWAN advisor. She loves to travel and spend time with her kids. She also loves to play soccer whenever she can!
I sat in the waiting area of the mental health department of my local VA hospital, waiting for my appointment with my counselor. I’m a regular there, so this wasn’t anything new. What was new, however, was the sign outside of the group therapy room. Normally it says “Group Therapy” on the outside of the door – pretty self explanatory. But today there was a new sign that said “Mental Hygiene.”
Mental Hygiene.
What exactly does that mean?
My first thoughts drifted to the Discovery Channel’s one-hour special on lobotomies. You know those procedures they did decades ago where they would cram a metal rod in your brain and wiggle it around, hoping to make you sane? Or those toothbrush commercials where the cartoon guy could flip open his head, like it was on a hinge, to clean all of his teeth properly.
What do they do in the “Mental Hygiene” room? Clean the gray matter between your ears? Rid you of what mentally ails you? It kind of has a dark and horror film-like connotation. I imagine tables of shiny instruments and a scary looking surgeon screaming, “Is it safe?”
But, my over-active imagination aside, how do you clean yourself mentally? How do you clean out the bad memories, images, smells, sounds, and faces that overload your brain? How do you truly get a “fresh start?”
Well, I wish I had the answer. I wish the “Mental Hygiene” room had the answer, too. But unfortunately, I’m sure I’d be highly disappointed if I walked in expecting to have the bad memories cleaned out.
So, I’ll steer clear of the “Mental Hygiene” room and keep trucking along with my recovery.
Maybe I just need a lobotomy….
