<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/06/psychologist-devastating-lies-mental-health-problems-politics>
"We are living, we’re told, through a “mental health crisis”. Mental health
services cannot cope with the explosion of demand over the past two years: 1.6
million people are on waiting lists, while another 8 million need help but
can’t even get on these lists. Even children are showing up at A&E in despair,
wanting to die.
But there is another way to see this crisis – one that doesn’t place it firmly
in the realm of the medical system. Doesn’t it make sense that so many of us
are suffering? Of course it does: we are living in a traumatising and uncertain
world. The climate is breaking down, we’re trying to stay on top of rising
living costs, still weighted with grief, contagion and isolation, while
revelations about the police murdering women and strip-searching children
shatter our faith in those who are supposed to protect us.
As a clinical psychologist who has been working in NHS services for a decade,
I’ve seen first hand how we are failing people by locating their problems
within them as some kind of mental disorder or psychological issue, and thereby
depoliticising their distress. Will six sessions of CBT, designed to target
“unhelpful” thinking styles, really be effective for someone who doesn’t know
how they’re going to feed their family for another week? Antidepressants aren’t
going to eradicate the relentless racial trauma a black man is surviving in a
hostile workplace, and branding people who are enduring sexual violence with a
psychiatric disorder (in a world where two women a week are murdered in their
own home) does nothing to keep them safe. Unsurprisingly, mindfulness isn’t
helping children who are navigating poverty, peer pressure and competitive
exam-driven school conditions, where bullying and social media harm are rife.
If a plant were wilting we wouldn’t diagnose it with “wilting-plant-syndrome” –
we would change its conditions. Yet when humans are suffering under unliveable
conditions, we’re told something is wrong with us, and expected to keep pushing
through. To keep working and producing, without acknowledging our hurt."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
