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Hello everyone. I wanted to start this thread to talk about what is in the title. Mental Health. In a lot of ways, Mental Health is something that is increasingly on the mind of a large number of people across a large number of different nations. Awareness has been raised over the previous 3 decades to the point at which even royalty is considering it "okay" to talk about how depression and loss have affected them. This is a good thing with increasingly large numbers of people becoming aware of their behaviours and how they influence their view of the world. It also hopefully means that fewer people will feel the need to suffer in silence about their own feelings. However, this also means that there has been a similar sort of rise in the amount of people saying that "[person] only believes [opinion] because they are [mental illness]" and other statements. I believe that this is meant to imply that certain political views are simply the result of mental ill health and not material concerns. We see this in our own forums and elsewhere with the focus on "doomerism" and critique of a "lol nothing matters" attitude. Whilst I would personally disagree with this analysis I think that starting a topic about it might be a good idea. The first thing that I would like to ask people is what they consider good mental health? Now, obviously this seems like a simple question, everyone imagines that it is simply the opposite of “bad” mental health, but that does not necessarily follow. Whilst it has become increasingly common for us to look at symptoms and diagnose a particular condition it has also become harder and harder to define what a “completely healthy” mental health outlook looks like. Personally I would contend that there is not a singular model of mental health that should be adhered to, but instead consideration given to what we define as “useful” or “normal” thinking. This leads into a second thing to discuss. A few years ago I read something that made me concerned for the person writing it. It was “I do not want to be cured of depression, I just want to be able to manage it”. Now, to me at least, that sounded somewhat worrying. But the more I thought about it the more reasonable it seems if you look at things through the “social model” of illness. This model holds that whilst there are differences caused by illness in people; lack of mobility, loss of eyesight and so on, those differences only become “disabling” because the surrounding society refuses to accommodate them. A classic example would be refusing to have large print books for the poorly sighted, because they “do not look aesthetic” or not providing ramps to buildings because “that would ruin the exterior”. These two basic ideas are ones that I find very interesting, but can also see criticisms of. I am also very much aware that this is something that can be quite contentious, so I wanted to ask other people their opinions. To see how other people view mental health in politics, what models should be used for it and what you personally believe is a good solution/ viewpoint. Thank you all very much for your time. Keep safe!
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Jul 12, 2021 20:17
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 07:19 |
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To take off a bit from Lib and Let die, I do think it is interesting to look at how much mental health is a societal definition as well as anything else. I know the old joke about "we live in a society" but how much of our current issues around mental health are caused by, defined by, and in opposition to societal constructs? For instance, is despair the correct response to climate change? Is hope?
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Jul 14, 2021 17:22
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