Disinterest In Society
Written by Andi Bazaar | July 16, 2022
"In our society, mental and emotional issues are seen as less legitimate than physical issues, they’re seen as a sign of weakness or somehow as being our own fault. This is why people conceal what they are going through or refuse to open up."
On why mental health is taken as a joke in our society, I heard about 16 year old girl committing suicide. 5 people talking about it:
- Person 1: What is wrong with people these days?
- Person 2: Spoiled brats!
- Person 3: Kids these days do what they want, so Uncultured!
- Person 4: Why can’t they share? They do what they think is right!
- Person 5: They are so privileged these days, despite that they choose suicide. Our time was so much tougher.
All these 5 people have kids, they fail to understand mental health such a sad state!
Our mental health encompasses our psychological, emotional and social well-being. It impacts how we feel, think and behave each day. It contributes to our decision making process, one might be privileged in terms of material wealth but it doesn’t guarantee sound mental health.
“In our society, mental and emotional issues are seen as less legitimate than physical issues, they’re seen as a sign of weakness or somehow as being our own fault. This is why people conceal what they are going through or refuse to open up.”
Some people mistakenly see mental health problems as something we should know how to “snap out of.” Men especially would often rather bottle up their feelings than seek help, this happens because society feeds us its ill thought and instills it in our minds from tender age.
Our society claims that people should start sharing or reach out for help but when one actually does reach out or share his/her trouble, "how many times is it taken seriously and not as a sign of weakness?" Most of the times they are dismissed even before they start sharing.
Until our society really comprehends what mental health really is, the situation really is hopeless.
Men’s mental health is often stigmatized l and unrecognized due to biases in society, men of color and of minority races and ethnicities face further struggles in their mental health for example "Black and Latino men a 6 times more likely to be murdered than white men."
Furthermore men of minority races are at higher risk and experience PTSD more than white men.
In light of the publishing discourse yesterday, my heart is heavy but it also goes out to our coummunity writers alike. All of us are trying to survive in a society that ties our literal wellbeing (food, shelter, physical and mental health) to our productivity also performance.
When things like healthcare, education and shelter/food aren’t yet treated as basic human rights and are instead commodified as industry for the economy, people's ability to be 100% perfect advocates for their highest ideals within that rigged system is not always possible.
“Everyone has their own limits, capacities and survival choices to contend with and everyone is trying to reconcile and balance their deepest ideals/values/dreams with the pressures and chains of their societal reality.”
Anyone living in a society that forces its people to choose between their personal values and their value as a workbee within the economy is a victim of ableism also that friends is how ableism upholds the 1% at the top of said economy here’s how:
Ableism spreads and upholds the idea that a person’s intrinsic value comes from how “useful” someone is to its society but the traits that society/culture deem and view as “valuable” are a rigged because we have all, every one of us, been fed ideas since birth about those traits.
About which traits are valuable and accepted within the society we exist in and I encourage you to ask yourself who has the most to gain from feeding you those ideas? Because do you know what’s really, really useful to the workerbee economy and the 1% pulling the strings?
- people who are “the same"
- people who are “able” to be “productive” in ways valued by the current power structure.
- people who don’t notice they’re in chains.
- people who don’t question things.
- people who don’t imagine or work toward a more compassionate, honest, diverse world.
- people who don’t (or can’t!) “contribute”/conform to society’s demands end up becoming enemy #1.
Policies to support these people are delayed and denied, rhetoric gets spread that infects the avg population with ideas that shame diverse and disabled people’s traits or differences.
It is not a coincidence that the people who feel the most disturbed by injustice are often the most targeted by injustice, we have to wake up!
In the modern day, writers are philosophers and philosophers can be very very dangerous challengers to all of the above.
"our dreams are dangerous, our dreams are beautiful." — I believe those dreams are worth fighting for and I believe we aren’t alone in that fight.
We have each other and there are communitiea fighting for change but communities are people too, people who have to balance their own capabilities and limits within the same society wearing us all down. Infighting doesn’t help anything except by keeping us divided and distracted.
Real change happens when we exercise compassion for ourselves and each other, when we practice flexibility of mind and the courage to question our subconscious assumptions and automatic beliefs.
Especially question the things you’ve never questioned, what you discover might disturb you for example:
"the societally ingrained expectation that everyone should communicate the same way and think the same way that really, personally, disturbs me because diversity of ideas and ways of thinking are how innovation and magic happen."
I don’t judge anyone suffering in their own unique way under an ableist society but I ask of myself and of anyone reading this to fight back, just a little bit by choosing to be less ableist going forward.
"even towards yourself, your productivity does not equal your worth."
Did you know by 2020, mental illness is expected to be the second biggest health problem that occur among Malaysians after heart diseases.
"What is the reaction of society toward people diagnosed with mental illness?" — reaction of society toward mentally illness person.
WHAT IS MENTAL ILLNESS?
Mental Illness / Mental Health Disorders are major disturbance in a person thinking, feeling, or behavior that reflect a problem in mental function. This mean that mental illness can make a person become miserable and cause problems in daily life such as at work, school or during family gathering.
According to Dr Oliver Schofield — brain chemistry plays an important role in mental illness. "Neurotransmitters" is a brain chemical that carry signal to other parts of human brain and body and changes in this chemical can cause mental disorder.
"people suffer from mental illness not only struggle to cope with the symptoms of the disease but also the misunderstandings of society about various mental disorders.”
Some persons who manage their mental illness well still have difficulties finding a job because employers discriminate them, thus mental illness not only results in difficulties coping up with the symptoms but also in disadvantages through society reaction that result in stigma.
Stigma, a negative belief of society toward certain thing. Can be divided into public stigma and self-stigma, public stigma refers to negative attitudes and beliefs that motivate individual to reject, avoid and discriminate people with mental illness.
"Public Stigma" normally caused by less knowledge related to mental health care, meanwhile "self-stigma" refers to the reactions of an individuals who belong to stigmatized group and turn stigmatizing attitudes against themselves. Because of their self-prejudices, persons with mental illness may fail to pursue their goal or be independent.
LET’S TAKE A LOOKS ON WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF STIGMA:
1. Life discrimination.
People diagnosed with this problem are likely to encountered discrimination due to stereotypes and negative image of mental illness in media, some of them also accuse that mentally illness people are violent and frightening.
2. Structural Discrimination.
Example of structural discrimination is allocation of fewer financial resources into mental health system compared to other medical system, for example people with schizophrenia may be treated in a discriminatory way because of this stereotype. Despite all this negativity, there is always a way to reduce stigma towards mental illness. Some of the way include:
A. Protest
Which is often applied against stigmatizing public statements, media reports and advertisements. For example in German, According to José Schenkkan there is protest intervention called "BASTA: the alliance for mentally ill people," that uses email to alert members about stigmatizing advertisement. About 80% of discriminating cases that BASTA took actions against were successful.
B. Education
This also can be used to lessen stigma by providing different information, brief educational courses on mental illness has proved to reduce stigmatizing attitudes among variety of participants.
C. Contact
Contact with people with mental illness may help to increase the effects of education on reducing stigma, research shows that individual that met mental illness person are less likely to be stigmatize. Hence, contact may be an important strategy to decrease stereotypes and stigma.
A Special Thanks To:
- Dr Oliver Schofield (Consulting)
- Henrie Louis Friedrich (Analyst)
- Clayton Euridicé Schofield (Journalist/Editor)
- José Schenkkan (Photographed)
- “In appearance as a model by Steve Oswald Freimann"
