Why “Mental Health” Is a Myth—and What You Should Be Talking About Instead
Mental health isn’t inside your head—it’s wired by light, sleep, inflammation, and what you eat. Reclaim your mind with science, not slogans.
MIND + MOOD
Hank Cramblin
8/7/20252 min read
🧠 Why "Mental Health" Is a Myth—and What You Should Be Talking About Instead
You’ve been sold a lie.
The term mental health gets tossed around like a trendy hashtag, but let’s be honest: it’s vague, commercialized, and ultimately misleading. You don’t need another list of "5 ways to be less anxious" while scrolling Instagram on 2 hours of sleep and 4 cups of coffee. What you actually need is a radical reframe of your mental ecosystem—because your brain is not just a brain. It’s a biochemical, electrical, and environmental interface that responds to what you eat, how you breathe, the light you see, and the social energy you absorb.
Let’s start here:
“Mental health” isn't mental. It’s physical. Social. Nutritional. Light-dependent. Circadian-driven. And above all, trainable.
⚡ Mood Isn't Mystery—It's Chemistry
The neurochemical conversation happening in your brain 24/7 is not random. Dopamine, serotonin, GABA, glutamate—these aren’t abstract. They’re molecules made from food, modulated by sunlight, regulated by sleep, and hijacked by stress.
Did you know that serotonin is mostly produced in your gut, not your brain?
Or that sunlight exposure to your eyes is a key signal for dopamine balance?
Or that chronic inflammation blunts dopamine and increases anxiety sensitivity?
👉 The “mystery” of mood is only a mystery if you're ignoring the body.
🧠 Your Brain Needs a Manual, Not a Therapist
Modern psychology has a place—but let’s not pretend that 60 minutes of talk therapy can rewire a brain swimming in inflammatory cytokines from ultra-processed foods and artificial lighting. If you want clarity, calm, and creative energy, here’s your short list:
Train your dopamine. Delay gratification, ditch the dopamine traps (TikTok, sugar, porn), and chase hard-earned wins.
Light early, dark late. Morning sunlight locks in your circadian rhythm. Blue light at midnight scrambles it.
Sleep like it’s sacred. One night of 5-hour sleep drops emotional regulation like you just aged 10 years.
Get magnesium + omega-3s. Low levels? Expect more anxiety, less resilience.
Practice boredom. It resets your attention. No, seriously.
🔍 New Research, New Rules
A 2024 meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Psychology found that inflammation markers (like CRP and IL-6) are consistently elevated in patients with depression, anxiety, and PTSD—suggesting that what we call “mental illness” may actually be chronic low-grade systemic inflammation.
Source: Frontiers
So what if we stopped treating the brain like it's broken and started treating the body like it matters?
💡 The New Mental Health
Call it mental fitness. Call it neurohacking. Call it mind-body realignment. But stop waiting for your thoughts to save you. Your biology is the operating system. Thoughts are just apps.
You don’t need better coping skills.
You need better inputs.
Want the real breakthroughs in mind + mood? Stay here. We're not following the mainstream—we’re rewriting it.