Diagnosis

How We Defeat the Mental Health Epidemic by Labeling Less and Connecting More

When pro sports executive Eric Kussin, young and aspiring, began struggling to keep his brain and body going, he found himself virtually stuck in bed for more than two years. He had no idea how to find help in the confusing maze that makes up our modern mental health care system.

Diagnosis is Eric’s frustrating tale and also a wakeup call to a society that must work together to help defeat the mental health epidemic. Awareness and advocacy are more available than ever. Yet individual challenges—from panic episodes and ER visits to suicides and overdoses—have only increased.

Why is there an inverse relationship between awareness and outcomes? From his own journey, Eric realized we have a system set on finding the “right” label and attempting to battle a “chemical imbalance” with more medications instead of seeking out root causes. Integrative practitioners helped him find another path, one that discovered the chronic stress and trauma settled into his nervous system over decades, causing physiological and biological changes that eventually reached a breaking point—his mental health crash.

When his status improved, Eric emerged stronger than ever. He committed to reshaping the conversation around mental health and developing a global movement highlighted by the commonality of our emotional pain that everyone experiences. He found that mental health doesn’t afflict, as the oft-cited statistic says, “one in five” people. Rather, all of us—“five in five”—must live with that shared reality.

As a result, #SameHere, the Global Mental Health Movement, was born. Diagnosis provides resources for better understanding neuroscience and taking preventative action, including the #SameHere Scale and the STARR “gym for the brain,” before our health suffers.

Equipped with the impact he has had on individuals and schools to some of the biggest corporations and entertainers in the world, Eric shows how you can take charge of your mental health and wellness proactively, with connection, with more empathy and less labeling.