Your mental health treatment may be missing the mark: Psychologist reveals everything about their lived experience

How incorporating lived experience improves mental healthcare by addressing individual circumstances, improving treatment outcomes, and promoting recovery.

Look beyond awareness and consider how mental healthcare can better respond to people's lived experiences. “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change,” places people with lived experience at the centre of the conversation. Understanding mental health requires more than identifying symptoms.

Why ignoring lived experience in mental healthcare could be harming you?

8 things to keep in mind:

1. Look beyond the diagnosis

Consider two people diagnosed with depression. One person may struggle after losing a job and face financial uncertainty. “Another may have stable employment but can struggle with loneliness after the breakdown of a long-term relationship” Psychologist Dhara Ghuntla at Sujay Hospital, 7 Hills Hospital and Criticare Hospital tells Health Shots. Both may suffer from mood changes, disturbed sleep, reduced motivation and difficulty concentrating.

2. Understanding behaviour before labelling it

• So, a person who repeatedly misses therapy appointments may appear disengaged.
• However, they may find it difficult due to previous experiences of being judged by healthcare professionals, difficulty taking time away from work, or anxiety about discussing even personal issues.
• Similarly, someone who struggles to trust a therapist may have a history of interpersonal trauma or repeated experiences of having their concerns dismissed.
• Clinical practice benefits from asking what drives the behaviour before deciding how to address it.

3. When treatment meets real life

Take the example of a professional experiencing significant work-related anxiety. A therapist may recommend setting clearer workload boundaries.

• However, if the individual depends financially on the job or works in an environment where refusing additional responsibilities has real consequences, simply advising them to “set boundaries” may not be enough.
• The intervention may instead need to include problem-solving, communication skills, gradual behavioural changes and exploration of realistic alternatives. Good clinical practice considers not only what might help, but what is possible for this particular person.

4. Mental health is shaped by context

In India, mental health can intersect with academic and occupational pressure, family expectations, gender roles, caregiving responsibilities, financial stress and attitudes towards mental illness.

• For instance, a student experiencing anxiety may present with poor concentration, sleep difficulties and physical symptoms such as headaches or palpitations.
• Focusing only on symptom reduction may overlook the academic pressure, fear of disappointing family members or uncertainty about the future that is maintaining the distress.
• This is where a biopsychosocial, culturally responsive approach matters. Biological vulnerabilities, psychological processes, and social circumstances interact, and treatment planning must account for that interaction.

5. Listening does not mean accepting every interpretation

People who have used mental health services can identify practical barriers that professionals may not always encounter themselves, including affordability, accessibility, waiting times, language barriers, stigma and difficulties navigating healthcare systems.

7. Recovery has different meanings

For one person, recovery may mean returning to full-time employment.

• For another, it may mean maintaining relationships, leaving the house independently, sleeping consistently, or regaining confidence in everyday activities.
• Someone living with a chronic mental health condition may define recovery as achieving stability and autonomy rather than becoming completely symptom-free.
• This makes the setting of individualised treatment goals particularly important. Clinical outcomes matter, but so do functioning, quality of life and the person's own priorities.

8. Bringing two forms of knowledge together

Mental health professionals contribute training in psychopathology, assessment, risk management, psychological formulation and evidence-based treatment. People with lived experience contribute an understanding of how mental health difficulties affect everyday life and how services are actually encountered by those who use them.

This is an opportunity to move beyond asking whether people are being heard and consider how their experiences can improve mental healthcare. Lived experience does not replace clinical knowledge. It helps make that knowledge more relevant to real life.

(Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.)