Our Relationship with Mental Health & How We Might Improve It
A Psychologist’s Essay
There is only so many times in which you can be frustrated by the same thing before you decide to do something about it. I belong to an industry which is extremely misunderstood - mental health. And I think this is a problem because mental health is everyone’s business.
The evidence for this argument is, sadly, all around. I need not google with too much effort, nor scroll too far through my various social media feeds, to find a multitude of content which encapsulates this very issue. Mental health, mental illness and the broader sphere of psychological science is so often misrepresented in our media, culture and community, that sometimes it is difficult to keep up. Whether shown through stereotypical characters in popular culture (think Girl, Interrupted), through click bait articles and headlines, through uninformed discussion by journalists or celebrities or even through overheard conversations on the local bus, the examples are endless.
On top of this, there is also an absence of content which actually talks about mental health in a very real way. In other words, content which recognises that mental health, mental illness and recovery is an experience unique to each individual, changes and fluctuates over time, and directly intersects with real life and relationships. You could be a successful working professional, a survivor of childhood trauma, a happily married new parent, an elderly woman in a nursing home, or a fifteen-year older ballet dancer, and yet also have had bouts of severe depression across your lifetime (to use simplistic examples). Mental health does not discriminate. And by failing to talk about this in mainstream commentary, we perpetuate the notion of “otherness,” safely marginalising those who suffer as “different” to us and therefore, “not like me.” This commentary (or lack thereof) is a problem because these representations shape our cultural worldview of mental health and mental illness. And information that is incorrect, biased or mis-informed creates public discourse which perpetuates stigma and discrimination. What is worse is that we know that public opinion directly influences individual help-seeking.
While these observations are not new; many wonderful authors and researchers have discussed this problem time and time again, what remains missing is a proactive solution. There is an abundance of amazing content in cyberspace, in university classrooms, in practitioner’s offices, in lectures theatres, and in conference halls, which is produced by incredibly knowledgeable people in the mental health industry. And this alone does not even include the millions of people with lived experience of mental health issues who offer knowledge and personal experience beyond anything an article could explain. But a lot of this information struggles to reach beyond those who are already associated in some way with the mental health arena, whether as a consumer, a carer, a family member, a clinician, a student, or a researcher.
The information that does get out there into public awareness is designed to increase knowledge. Think of the fact sheets you see at GP offices all over the country. These resources are factually correct, and while such resources are absolutely necessary as a first step in health promotion (I absolutely do not deny this), we can do better. Because what is missing in mainstream media, in public awareness, are positive (read: constructive) representations of mental health and mental illness, whereby human experience is celebrated. We live in a time of open access and it is time that the rich and very human reality of mental health, help seeking, treatment and recovery is talked about.
It is important to acknowledge that there are of course other platforms who have been relentlessly working in this direction for some time. And it would be remit for me not to acknowledge the fantastic resources that are (Reach out, SANE, e-headspace , RUOK, beyondblue, black dog institute). These organisations have contributed to significant cultural change in recent decades (at least in the Australian context). But what I’m talking about here is content that looks more like Josh Thomas’s television drama series Please Like Me; or the ABC’s series You Can’t Ask That; or Nakkiah Liu and Miranda Tapsell’s podcast Pretty for an Aboriginal, to name a few. Content which uses laughter, controversy, emotion and swear words to bridge the gap between facts and experience.
But these shining examples are not enough. Where’s the rest? Where are the positive influencers? Where are the role models in this space? Where are the industry leaders? Because what’s the use of all the science, if stigma stands firmly in the way of people being comfortable accessing help?
Until next time,
Courtney
The Wattle Tree Clinic, Wollongong
