Is poor mental health just a weakness of will?  – Suppose someone says they can’t do something challenging because they are not mentally healthy. Are they just weak-willed?

To analyze, let’s consider a similar physical situation. If they had a fracture in their leg, would their inability to walk be due to their weak will? Certainly not; it’s due to a problem with their instrument (their body), not with their intent. Just as the body is an instrument for us, so is our mind. The Bhagavad–gita (06.05) points to this difference between us spiritual beings and our mind when it urges us to use our mind for elevating ourselves, not degrading ourselves. Just as an injured body can’t perform like a normal body, so too can an injured mind not function like a normal mind. Therefore, all mental health problems can certainly not be dismissed as excuses for a weak will. 

Having asserted that there can be real mental health problems, we need to consider a complicating factor. Even with the body, we can’t always easily differentiate between intent and instrument. Suppose we are recovering from a sickness and doing a workout. Suppose we feel that we can do no more than twenty push-ups. If our regular capacity is twenty, our unwillingness to strive for twenty-five push-ups could be attributed to intent, but our unwillingness to struggle till two hundred push-ups should be attributed to instrument. 

Thus, because both intent and instrument can influence each other, separating them can be tough. Such fusion and confusion can be even more with regards to the mind because it is subtle and unmeasurable. To find the reality, we need to use our intelligence, equipping it with honest introspection and feedback from caring yet candid guides

One-sentence summary:

Don’t dismiss all mental health problems as lack of will — use intelligence to differentiate when the problem arises from intent and when from instrument. 

Think it over:

  • Why can’t all mental health problems be dismissed as a weak will?
  • Why is differentiating between intent and instrument difficult?
  • How can we better differentiate intent and instrument?

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06.05: One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

Is poor mental health just a weakness of will?

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