The question of our biologically overstimulated and psychologically anxious times is this one: How clearly do you think?

Clear thinking is a product of mental discipline, calm, and, of course, accurate comprehension of whatever it is that you are seeing and hearing. Clear thinking comes before critical thinking. But we tend not to separate those two functions in our minds and self-conceptions, but we should.

The level of heightened diagnoses of attention deficit disorder, anxiety (personal and social), and other mental health maladies is typically attributed to external factors, such as the effects of interpersonal trauma, abuse, diet, entertainment, and social-technological changes. Of course, the primary solution for addressing the impact of these factors on people’s mental health (and thus their thinking) invariably involves a pharmaceutical or therapeutic intervention.

Maybe that’s the correct approach. Maybe that’s the way to guide people back to the type of clear thinking, comprehension of reality, and critical thinking we all need at scale in order to survive the endless whiplash of societal changes we all seem to be moving through and having imposed upon us.

However, without individuals standing athwart their own mental confusion and self-declaring, “Stop,” the solutions currently proposed will remain, at best, catch as catch can.