World Mental Health Day 2025: Supporting our Mental Health

Drs. Kerri Ritchie & Caroline Gerin-Lajoie

For individuals working in healthcare it’s easy to become negative and cynical over time. Our world continues to experience so much uncertainty. As humans we can easily focus on the negative, talk about the negative, and search for the negative (doom scrolling). This can amplify the negative feelings. And, at its most extreme, make us feel powerless and hopeless about the world, the community, organizations, institutions, and people around us. It can also be hard to find positive news stories. Maybe that is why cute animal videos are so popular?

Why do we gravitate towards the negative? When there is so much coming our way, our brain helps us to manage all of the incoming information and experiences by bucketing things into simpler categories, such as "good", "bad", "wrong", "right". This leads us to make quick assumptions about situations, people, "facts", motivations, intentions, and then to react to our assumptions.

When we cycle down into the negative zone, and we can all cycle down, the cynical mindset takes hold. We might find ourselves feeling that cynicism is protective and means that we are being intelligent and not taking things at face value. But, what does research on cynicism actually tell us?

• From a health perspective, cynicism is linked to lower life satisfaction, mood, and physical health.

• From an accuracy perspective, individuals engaging in cynical thinking have been found to be less accurate not more.

• From a thinking perspective, in cynical thinking we make assumptions without pausing to consider whether we do have all the information, whether we could be wrong, or are missing things.

Bottom line: In cynical thinking we are missing an openness to new information and conflicting information. This means that cynicism is actually closer to naivete then it is to being thoughtful, considered, and skeptical.

So why is it so important to monitor our thinking styles? We are wired for connection and this is a key component to maintaining our mental health. Cynicism is a powerful pull because it can give us a sense of belonging by bringing us closer to people who have same opinions and beliefs, and it can quiet information overload which is so common in our world today. However, cynicism's negative zone has a substantial cost to our mental health.

Staying open to information is pivotal to having moments of hope, optimism, and therefore enhanced trust and appreciation in others. It's essential for our growth.

On World Mental Health Day, as you think about how you have been approaching certain aspects of your life, what strategies have your been relying on? Are they working for you? Do you want to change or adjust anything?