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> it’s easy to downplay it or believe that the person struggling can change just by thinking hard enough. The reason some of us downplay mental health issues i

by tomp 5y ago

> it’s easy to downplay it or believe that the person struggling can change just by thinking hard enough. The reason some of us downplay mental health issues is because we hear stats like "97% kids are ADHD" or "74% of university students are on Ritalin" or "108% of Americans are on anti-depressants and visiting psychiatrists" "Mental health" (without further qualifications) is closer to herpes than to cancer.

haswell 5y ago
> The reason some of us downplay mental health issues is because we hear stats like "97% kids are ADHD" Quite frankly, this is a poor excuse. I don't draw sweeping conclusions about "physical health" issues because of cherry picked stats about extremely prevalent physical health issues. "73% of adult Americans are overweight" doesn't make me downplay physical health across an entire spectrum of issues. Another conclusion one might draw is "holy shit, this is a crisis!". And there is growing evidence to support this. Humans haven't evolved to deal with the realities of the current century. We're only just starting to understand the impact of modern technology and many other developments of the last decade. If someone sees a crisis and concludes that this must be something to dismiss, that says more about that person than it does about the crisis. > "Mental health" (without further qualifications) is closer to herpes than to cancer. And yet, people still take herpes seriously. People don't just dismiss ailments that aren't cancer. But there's a more fundamental issue with the entire line of thinking raised by this comment. A key point that many people miss is that mental health and physical health aren’t really two distinct categories at all. The two are deeply intertwined, and usually inseparable. Who you go to see, or what actions you take when you start to have issues will change, but you also see a dermatologist for skin problems, a cardiologist for heart problems, etc.
- tomp 5y ago
  I agree, “mental health issues” are much more similar to obesity than to cancer. Societal reactions reflect that, both dismissive (“just exercise more”, “don’t be lazy”) and constructive (“we should find the cause - is it endocrine disruptors / social media?”)
  - haswell 5y ago
    > I agree, “mental health issues” are much more similar to obesity than to cancer. Will you explain how/why you agree with that sentence? To be clear, nothing in my comments concluded anything close to this. Your agreement is certainly not with me. If I said “poverty is more similar to overspending than homelessness”, I’d expect someone to tell me this is a meaningless (and ridiculous) comparison, and rightly so. Such conclusions are not useful, and don’t help anyone involved: not the person struggling, not the person trying to understand the struggle, not the people trying to fix it. Will you help me understand the point you’re trying to make here? Because it’s unclear.

by tomp 5y ago

haswell 5y ago

> The reason some of us downplay mental health issues is because we hear stats like "97% kids are ADHD" Quite frankly, this is a poor excuse. I don't draw sweeping conclusions about "physical health" issues because of cherry picked stats about extremely prevalent physical health issues. "73% of adult Americans are overweight" doesn't make me downplay physical health across an entire spectrum of issues. Another conclusion one might draw is "holy shit, this is a crisis!". And there is growing evidence to support this. Humans haven't evolved to deal with the realities of the current century. We're only just starting to understand the impact of modern technology and many other developments of the last decade. If someone sees a crisis and concludes that this must be something to dismiss, that says more about that person than it does about the crisis. > "Mental health" (without further qualifications) is closer to herpes than to cancer. And yet, people still take herpes seriously. People don't just dismiss ailments that aren't cancer. But there's a more fundamental issue with the entire line of thinking raised by this comment. A key point that many people miss is that mental health and physical health aren’t really two distinct categories at all. The two are deeply intertwined, and usually inseparable. Who you go to see, or what actions you take when you start to have issues will change, but you also see a dermatologist for skin problems, a cardiologist for heart problems, etc.

tomp 5y ago
I agree, “mental health issues” are much more similar to obesity than to cancer. Societal reactions reflect that, both dismissive (“just exercise more”, “don’t be lazy”) and constructive (“we should find the cause - is it endocrine disruptors / social media?”)
- haswell 5y ago
  > I agree, “mental health issues” are much more similar to obesity than to cancer. Will you explain how/why you agree with that sentence? To be clear, nothing in my comments concluded anything close to this. Your agreement is certainly not with me. If I said “poverty is more similar to overspending than homelessness”, I’d expect someone to tell me this is a meaningless (and ridiculous) comparison, and rightly so. Such conclusions are not useful, and don’t help anyone involved: not the person struggling, not the person trying to understand the struggle, not the people trying to fix it. Will you help me understand the point you’re trying to make here? Because it’s unclear.