Along with living sustainably in the biosphere, human wellbeing should be the proper goal of human societies. Social conditions to promote wellbeing are an essential foundation for healthy social functioning. Now more than ever, societal commitments to wellbeing are needed to reverse and recover from rising global trends in psychological distress, mental ill-health and harmful social behaviour.
Most governments claim to be working for human welfare or wellbeing. After all, wellbeing is intrinsically important in human lives and when realised in practice, produces compassionate, socially integrated and productive citizens. A growing number of governments are committing to wellbeing as an explicit policy goal and measuring various indicators – beyond GDP – to track progress. The World Health Organization has called on governments worldwide to pledge to adopt concrete actions to promote wellbeing.
Wellbeing is the right principle for our times, with social currency and growing political momentum, but right now there is a problem. The beliefs and practices that most governments and societies are bringing to the issue of wellbeing are just not up to the task. Why? Because there is a gaping hole – a missing piece – in our collective understanding of what wellbeing is, how it works and how it is made or unmade by the conditions in which we live. Without better answers to these questions, the opportunity of wellbeing to heal and recover our societies is far less likely to be fulfilled. The policies governments implement for wellbeing are more likely to fall far short of what is needed.
We need to start with understanding stress. We all know the feeling of being stressed, but stress arousal is far more than a feeling. It is a well-defined physiological process starting with perception in the brain, and projecting down into the body to trigger the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.
To properly understand wellbeing, we must first appreciate the constructive role that short-term (acute) bursts of stress arousal can play in social intelligence. When a social challenge or threat is perceived, acute stress helps people to rapidly adjust their behaviour accordingly.
The real problem for individuals and societies is when acute stress switches into a longer-term state of chronic stress. Chronic stress happens when a person faces a recurrent, perceived threat to coping or social standing and can’t find any way to resolve or avoid that threat. The kinds of everyday social conditions likely to cause chronic stress in adults (referred to as ‘stressors’) include financial problems, difficulty meeting everyday needs, pressure at work, housing insecurity, abusive personal relationships, an unsafe neighbourhood, being subjected to discrimination or bullying and social isolation. Many people in modern societies face these kinds of chronically stressful experiences every day.
People exposed to stressor conditions in childhood are more likely to experience chronic stress later in life. The threats of climate change and extreme weather, coupled with awareness of governments failing to act effectively on the issue, are a potent source of chronic stress.
Our mental health crisis results in large part from the cumulative impacts of contemporary social and economic conditions on chronic stress. When people undergo chronic stress, they are very likely to experience symptoms of anxiety or depression. They are more likely to seek temporary psychological relief through activities such as alcohol use or gambling. They are more likely to project feelings of distress, anger or frustration onto other people.
Currently, societies’ main responses to socially induced stress and mental suffering are to define these as brain diseases, to be treated with drugs or psychotherapy. This medical approach is sometimes needed for people with more severe mental illness, but as a response to the causes and impacts of chronic stress, it is failing. If governments continue to make this their default response to psychosocial stress, that failure will go on. To really make a difference, governments must shift their focus from a medical view of mental illness to creating social conditions for psychological wellbeing.
Psychological wellbeing is about having both personal resources and supportive social conditions to live with a sense of meaning, cope with acute stressors and avoid chronic stress. At work, this might mean a job you enjoy, where you are treated respectfully, have autonomy to manage workload, and are able to voice your views when needed. At home, it could mean having supportive relationships you can rely on through life’s ups and downs, and feeling secure in your finances and housing.
Just as importantly, wellbeing is about having time outside of work or daily tasks to engage in other forms of activity that reduce stress and provide identity, happiness and connectedness such as positive social connection with others, creative pursuits of all sorts and engagement with the natural world.
The multiple social problems faced by contemporary societies seem complex and intractable but, conceptually, the systemic solutions to these problems are straightforward. Once the relationships between social conditions, chronic stress and wellbeing are understood, these solutions fall into focus. To move toward wellbeing, societies must reduce the exposure of populations to stressor conditions and increase access to the positive conditions needed to cultivate wellbeing for all.
In How to Create Societies for Human Wellbeing, I show that the essential conditions needed for wellbeing are not complicated or unknown, and can be fostered within the families, communities, schools and workplaces where people grow, live, work and play. Thus, the wellbeing community is an indispensable foundation for building a wellbeing society. The key ingredients of wellbeing communities include training and support for parents of young children, education for lifelong learning, comprehensive primary health care, social connectedness, secure housing, walkable neighbourhoods, contact with nature, growing and sharing healthy foods, engagement in arts and crafts and time for relaxation.
Governments have a duty to promote wellbeing as a matter of fundamental public interest. Some governments are trying to do so and changing their approach accordingly. However, most governments continue to reapply the same tired and failing belief systems and practices, which seem to serve their short-term political interests. It is up to individuals and communities everywhere not only to demand their governments commit to wellbeing, but also to take the lead, and show them what is needed, by building wellbeing communities.
Matthew Fisher is an Australian philosopher and researcher in Public Health at the University of Adelaide. He has published widely on topics of wellbeing, public policy and social change.
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