The Challenge

Doubtful Internal Voice^®

“A spectrum of internal voices ranging from mildly disturbing to
paralyzing that affect confidence and the ability to perform”

Annie E. Casey Foundation found a 25.5 percent increase in children exhibiting mental health issues such as anxiety and depression between 2016 and 2020, with Hispanic/Latinx children seeing a 44 percentage increase from 8.1 percent to 11.7 percent and similar figures for LGBTQ youth who identified a lack of access and acceptance as critical obstacles to seeking care. Moreover, an “alarmingly high” number of high school-age children are reported to have attempted suicide in the past year.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) included in the KIDS COUNT report, 9 percent of high schoolers overall attempted suicide, while the percentage was even higher among Black students (12 percent), those identifying as multiracial (13 percent), and American Indian or Alaska Native students (26 percent).

Mental health problems can affect a student’s energy level, concentration, dependability, mental ability, and optimism, hindering performance. Research suggests that depression is associated with lower grade point averages, and that co-occurring depression and anxiety can increase this association.

Without literacy, students cannot learn. U.S. students have underperformed their peers in the developed world for years, but the crisis has become acute since Covid. An August 2021 McKinsey & Company study comparing students’ testing in 2021 with matched students in previous years found students about 9 points behind in reading and cited evidence that more first and second graders ended 2021 “two or more grade levels below expectations than in any previous year.”

Psychology of Rhythmic Energy^®

“The understanding of how rhythmic energy affects different adverse internal
psychological connections created by trauma, abuse, anxiety, depression, and other
conditions, through releasing and realigning various internal cognitive and emotional
centers to create a new and empowering psychological balance in individuals.”

Trauma
About 6 out of every 100 people (or 6% of the U.S. population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives. Many people who have PTSD will recover and no longer meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD after treatment. National Center for PTSD

70% of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives. That’s 223.4 million people.
More than two thirds of children reported at least 1 traumatic event by age 16. Potentially traumatic events include: Psychological, physical, or sexual abuse.

Perhaps one of the most common forms of trauma is emotional abuse. This can be a common form of trauma because emotional abuse can take many different forms. Sometimes it’s easy for emotional abuse to be hidden or unrecognized. National Council for Wellbeing

Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health concern in the United States. Over 40 million adults in the U.S. (19.1%) have an anxiety disorder. Meanwhile, approximately 7% of children aged 3-17 experience issues with anxiety each year. Most people develop symptoms before age 21. NAMI

Depression
An estimated 21.0 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 8.4% of all U.S. adults.

Nearly 4 in 10 (39.3%) adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in February 2021, compared to 32.3 percent in 2023. A KFF/CNN survey in October 2022 found that 90 percent of the public believes there is a mental health crisis in the U.S.  Mar 20, 2023

Depression was more common among young adults aged 18 to 25 years at slightly more than 17 percent, and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (17 percent). Depression increased most rapidly among adolescents and young adults and increased among nearly all gender, racial/ethnic, income, and education groups. NAMI

Neurological Dissonance^®

“Neurological Dissonance^® is the situation in which fears, worries or concerns create internal voices that conflict with one another accelerating stress in a cycle of pain.”

One in six adults and 30-40% suffer from what is collectively known as Psychophysiologic Disorders. Psychophysiologic Disorders (PPD) is the clinical term for mindbody symptoms. PPD are physical conditions and pain symptoms in the body that develop in response to stress, trauma and other psychological factors.

Psychogenic pain is a term for pain caused by psychological factors like depression and anxiety. It is closely linked to the emotions of depression and anxiety, but can also be caused by other factors like stress (which is inherently, more often than not, linked to anxiety).

Panic Disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress. These episodes occur “out of the blue,” not in conjunction with a known fear or stressor.

• Based on diagnostic interview data from National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), Figure 1 shows past year prevalence of panic disorder among U.S. adults aged 18 or older.1
  – An estimated 2.7% of U.S. adults had panic disorder in the past year.
  – Past year prevalence of panic disorder among adults was higher for females (3.8%) than for males (1.6%).
• An estimated 4.7% of U.S. adults experience panic disorder at some time in their lives.2

Muscle tension is a common problem for people with panic disorder. Typically, muscles become tense during a panic attack and can cause feelings of stiffness throughout the body long after the attack has subsided. Muscle pain and discomfort can often be managed through relaxation techniques.
Bipolar Disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6% of the U.S. population age 18 and older every year. (National Institute of Mental Health).
Pain in bipolar disorder is not limited to the psychological pain of depression or agitation. Physical pain is also a symptom of bipolar disorder, usually in the form of muscle aches and joints. There are also chronic pain illnesses linked to bipolar disorder like migraines, fibromyalgia and arthritis.

Homelessness: The Problems

Homelessness has a lot of roots, from the loss of loved ones, job loss and to untreated PTSD and other mental disabilities. The extent of the challenge is mind-boggling, as illustrated by these numbers from the Housing and Urban Development’s 2020 Assessment Report.

 • After a steady increase since 2016, homeless in the U.S. is at an all-time high. On a single night in 2020, roughly 580,000 people were homeless in the U.S.

 • 2020 marks the first time since data collection began that more individuals experiencing homelessness were unsheltered than were sheltered. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of unsheltered individuals increased 7% while the number of sheltered individuals remained largely unchanged.

 • The number of unsheltered people in families with children increased for the first time since data collection began.

 • The number of individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness increased 15% from 2019-2020. While increases were reported among both sheltered and unsheltered populations, the sizable increase in the number of treatment-resistant unsheltered people with chronic patterns of homelessness (21%) is now the main driver of homelessness.