Today is World Mental Health Day, and I mark it with the revelation that I have depression. One in four people will be affected by mental health problems at some point in their lives, and I am on the wrong end of those odds. Still, I am not alone: I know dozens of people who are affected by a rainbow of mental health problems. Sometimes, given my social circle, I forget that in our general culture, mental illness is still massively stigmatised.
And it is. There are many who do not believe that mental illness is “real”. Being “all in the head” is somehow distinct from physical illness. This is not true: many mental health problems require treatment, mental illnesses can be disabling, and the diseases of the mind/body distinction is false anyway. Despite this, when I go through bouts of depression, I am harangued by work colleagues about when I’ll be “over it” and back. Most days, I see tabloid newspapers screaming about how people are claiming disability benefits for depression. Of course they are. It can be debilitating.
Then there’s the treatment. I waited ages before I got any treatment. One dear friend of mine was twice referred to the wrong sort of counselling–only discovering this after having waited to receive this treatment for months. Another friend asked for bereavement counselling and was curtly informed there is a nine month waiting list for that. Treatment of mental illness leaves a lot to be desired.
Then there’s the having to explain to people that sometimes I won’t get out of bed all day, or I might run off in tears, or react strangely to something, and it’s not like there’s a magic wand to cure this problem. I’m different, basically, and that’s sometimes a little difficult.
Despite all of this, maybe I’m lucky–just a little bit lucky. As I mentioned, today is World Mental Health Day, and I have just given a run-down of the experience of a not-impoverished person living in the capital city of a developed country.
If I suffered from mental health problems somewhere else in the world, I’d probably be a lot worse off. Stigma is higher than that which is experienced in a reasonably-aware society. 4 in 5 people in developing countries do not receive treatment at all, even though treating a condition like depression is as successful as treating HIV with antiretrovirals. Mental health problems interact with other problems people face: people with HIV, cancer or other chronic conditions are more likely to experience depression, and as a result of their depression less likely to adhere to treatment regimens for their physical conditions.
And, of course, the elephant in the room: mental illness is a killer. Every 40 seconds, someone commits suicide.
There’s a lot to be done, and it needs to happen globally. Morally, we cannot let people continue to suffer from illness, and we need to get better at supporting people, both through treatment and through destigmatisation. Beyond morals, even to a cold capitalist it makes sense: improving mental health provides a big, happy workforce and a bunch of cheery consumers.
This is what World Mental Health Day is for: let us be aware of the vast public health problem in front of us, and give us the will to fix it.
Another angry woman 
❤
Agree. I don't know about anyone else but I think most, if not all, of my friends have one mental health problem or other. Most common is depression. Also eating disorders are MH issues too which a lot of people forget, because you can actually *see* it a lot of the time.
MH provisions are awful, doctors (in my experience) are either too willing to give out tablets to everyone who comes along, or demonise you for thinking you may be seriously ill… "You're just having a bad day" – I never knew 'bad days' were crying yourself to sleep, not leaving your bed at all, not speaking to anyone, and thinking of the best ways to kill yourself.
We still have a lot of work to do.
*huge hug for you*
Was just wondering about this:
“Despite this, when I go through bouts of depression, I am harangued by work colleagues about when I’ll be ‘over it’ and back.”
“Over it” is a weird one. We can use it for anything from your favourite character in Hollyoaks dying to cancer. If a colleague was off with a really bad case of flu or food poisoning or something, you could ask them the exact same thing and it’d most likely sound friendly and concerned.
So I’m guessing the same sort of question gets asked differently if it’s a mental illness they don’t understand, which could be interesting.
You raise a very interesting point.
In general, it’s because with something like food poisoning, one would never be met with the imperative form of ‘get over it’. With mental health, this happens all the time.
Sometimes, ‘are you over it’ really is friendly and concerned. Other times, the tired ‘yet’ at the end is present, implying the target hasn’t worked hard enough to cure their imaginary illness.
And the stigma’s so pervasive, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.
‘Get’ is a funny word – it’s probably got more different senses than any verb I know of. It can be transitive and mean “start having”, like with presents or herpes, or intransitive and mean “start being”, like with angry or in the car.
But for both of those it’s also got two different senses, the active one, where you get up to get your coat, and the one where it just happens to you, where you get a nasty surprise and get rained on.
Getting over stuff can work either way – either it’s something you have to do, like people being here and queer, or something passive, like getting over flu. For depression, I’m guessing what annoyed you was people treating it like the first.
PS Get is my favourite word.