Today marks World Mental Health Day, a day that provides campaigners with the opportunity to raise awareness and advocacy against social stigma that people with mental health issues daily experience.
Mental illness is now recognised as one of the biggest causes of individual distress and misery in our society, comparable to poverty and unemployment. One in four adults in the UK today has been diagnosed with a mental illness, that can have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people in the UK, and thus affect their ability to sustain relationships, work, or just get through the day. What greater indictment of a system could there be.
The issues of mental health and mental illness are complicated. Yes there is persuasive evidence that human biology plays an important role in determining each person’s likelihood of contending with particular mental health conditions, but experiences of social isolation, inequality, feelings of alienation and dissociation, and even the basic assumptions and ideology of materialism and neoliberalism itself are seen today to be significant drivers too.
Sadly despite the efforts of many, the subject of mental illness remains a taboo subject, the fact is that many in our communities suffer from a wide of different problems like clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, anxiety, mania and drug and alcohol problems. Many of us are left to face our problems in silence and isolation, while experiencing daily life as a battle, having to choose between societies consensus ways of dealing with things, medication, psychotherapy, counselling etc etc, or simply learning to forget.
Emotionally, our heads are only just above water. I personally have a black dog that calls regularly, that I unfortunately have no control over, it just happens. Combined with anxiety, can suddenly feel fear, and all those turbulent unexplained feelings that drives one to self destruction,.In extreme circumstance can also get so angst ridden that I cannot leave my house, let alone phone a GP to seek help, because I fear I will be judged and blamed somehow, embarrassed and ashamed for something I have no control over. With a tendency to affix blame and leave me feeling even more unworthy. I'm getting there but still have a long way to go. I have learnt techniques to help, but realize using liquid courage, certainly does not help, though that does not stop me ,especially when out and about in public.
Enough about me, among the most menacing barriers to the social progress we need around mental health. are the profound levels of guilt, shame and stigma that surround these issues.Those who suffer are often, like me, ashamed to speak of it. Those who are lucky enough to be free of mental illness are terrified of it. When it comes to mental illness, we still don't quite get how it all works. Our treatments, while sometimes effective, often are not. And the symptoms, involving a fundamental breakdown of our perceived reality, are existentially terrifying. There is something almost random about physical illness, in how it comes upon us, a physical illness can strike anyone. But mental illness that could also strike any of us, without warning should be equally recognised.
Combined with simple fear, mental illness brings out a judgmental streak that would be unthinkably grotesque when applied to physical illness. Imagine telling someone with a broken leg to "snap out of it." Imagine that a death by cancer was accompanied by the same smug head shaking. Mental illness is so qualitatively different that we feel it permissible to be judgmental. We might even go so far as to blame the sufferer. Because of the stigma involved it often leaves people much sicker.
We live under a system of blame that somehow makes the emotional and psychological difficulties we encounter seem to be our own fault. People left feeling ashamed that they need medication, seeing this as revealing some constitutional weakness. Afraid about needing therapy, thinking that they should be able to solve their problems on their own. Individuals actually fail to seek any treatment, because mental health care is seen as something that only the most dramatically unstable person would turn to. It is estimated that only about a quarter of people with a mental health problem in the UK receive ongoing treatment, leaving the majority of people grappling with mental health issues on their own, seeking help or information, and dependent on the informal support of family, friends or colleagues.
Those who live with mental illness are among the most stigmatised groups in society. We are challenged doubly. On one hand with the struggle of our symptoms that result from our illnesses and then by the stereotypes and prejudice that results from peoples misconceptions about mental illness. Many are robbed of opportunities that help define a quality life, jobs, safe housing, health care and affiliation with a diverse group of people, and are left feeling almost invisible and on our own. Prejudice leads to discrimination and so on.
It should not be the case that some of us have to suffer in silence from anxiety and depression, we should be ok to say we don't feel ok. When some of us actually seek some assistance, we get doubted and pushed away. All this plays a part in making us feeling worse and keep us down. There is growing concern that our Governments policies are actually fuelling the current mental health crisis. Budget cuts to mental health services combined with no genuine support are driving many people to the edge. As a result many people are currently left isolated, facing long waiting lists for mental health therapies and diagnostic assessments
Prime Minister Maggie May herself once described the shortfalls in mental health services on her first day in Downing Street "as one of the burning injustices in our country" Despite these gestures she and the Tories have not delivered on their promise to give mental health the same priority as physical health. They have offered no extra funding whilst systematically raiding mental health budgets over the last eight years. There are now over 6,000 fewer mental health nurses than in 2010. The number of psychiatrists employed by the NHS has fallen by four percent since 2014 , with a 10 percent drop in those who specialise in children's mental health and a similar drop in those working with older adults. Eight years of Tory Government have left those with mental health problems without the support they need.
Currently people with mental health problems are becoming “tangled up” in the bureaucracy and flaws of the government’s new universal credit benefit system,claimants facing considerable hardship and considerable deterioration in their mental health because of universal credit. Sophie Corlett, director of external relations for the mental health charity Mind, has said “They struggle with the process, but they end up tangled in the process and unable to dig their way out of it."“They struggle with the online application, they struggle with the conditionality that comes while you wait for your work capability assessment (WCA), they struggle with waiting for their first payment and if they are able to get an advance payment they struggle to pay that back.”A key concern, she has also said , was the period between the start of a universal credit claim and the WCA, during which claimants can be forced to carry out the usual 30-plus hours of jobsearch activity while waiting to be assessed for their “fitness for work”
Carrying out this jobsearch activity is a huge barrier for many people with mental health problems, who are often not even well enough to visit their own jobcentre. Under the sanctions system, benefit recipients have part of their payments temporarily stopped if they fail to meet strict work-related conditions, such as failing to attend a work placement, or being a few minutes late for a jobcentre appointment. People with complex needs are thus forced into a process which is long, complicated and cruel, which does not recognise their personal abilities, vulnerabilities and difficult circumstances.
With the upcoming roll out of Universal Credit, this will only make matters worse. especially for those of us living with mental health issues. Universal Credit is not fit for purpose, it needs to be stopped and scrapped now, We simply can't trust May and co on mental health.Their toxic policies helping to exasperate the mental health crisis in our country. If this does not actually make you angry then you have become conditioned and devoid of feeling, and they simply have you under control.
We need to break the silence around mental health.Too often mental health is swept under the carpet and ignored , because of the stigma and taboo surrounding it, so we have to keep battling to destroy the negative attitudes and stereotypes that is directed towards people with mental health issues, and to keep challenging policies that heed individuals recovery.
On World Mental Health Day I think its important to stress that the proportion of the population that will experience episodes of acute emotional distress is extremely high. It should not be shameful to say that one is suffering from mental illness, no less than to announce that one is asthmatic or has breast cancer.Talking about these issues, breaking the silence, can also be a source of liberation, so we should keep fighting for the best mental health care to be the natural right of all, because engaging in the struggle toward such a society can be a source of hope for many. In the meantime I will personally try to keep surviving, and hope that one day mental health becomes a genuine Government priority that really helps reduce peoples pain and suffering.
I will end this post by saying, that I believe today should act like a catalyst for Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey to scrap the controversial Universal Credit Welfare system and replace it with something that takes into account peoples needs and strengths.
Meanwhile If you need to talk to someone, the NHS mental health helpline page includes organisations you can call for help, such as Anxiety UK and Bipolar UK. or call The Samaritans on 116 123.And if you need help with your application for Universal Credit contact your local CAB https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
