Hammer and Dance: A New Model for Mental Health?

Why society treats mental health problems as if they were infectious diseases.

Is Mental illness an infection? Certainly not, but the so-called “hammer and dance” theory of managing COVID-19, is much like how we as society choose to deal with mental health.

As coronavirus infection rates soared, governments worldwide struck heavy hammer-blows of social measures — including lockdowns — in an attempt flatten the curve. The theory goes once the virus has been suppressed, measures are relaxed, and the dance of containment begins.

A similar scenario plays out every time an individual succumbs to a mental health crisis: A surge in symptoms, provoke a hammer blow of suppression. Once symptoms remit, so begins a dance to keep them under control. However can such a theory be applied to ideas of crisis and recovery?

Warning signs of a Mental Health Crisis

Let’s go with the analogy to begin with: The warning signs of an impending mental health crisis emerge like a pandemic. Like the reports of ‘mysterious new penumonia’ of an unknown origin coming out of Wuhan in early-January, the “prodrome” of any illness often goes unheeded.