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Awareness, transmission, what precisely is the difference? Sounds to me like mental health awareness campaigns are just another transmission vector. Do we hav

Awareness, transmission, what precisely is the difference? Sounds to me like mental health awareness campaigns are just another transmission vector. Do we have any reason to believe that “mental health awareness” doesn’t CAUSE mental illness? To me, there’s a pretty direct line between the increase of mental health awareness campaigns and self-reported mental health. Usually this is framed in the framing “oh, the mental health issues always existed, and we just became aware of them, so things are better now since we can address them” and I am unconvinced. I mean, look at this study, eating disorders spiked, are we suggesting people secretly unknowingly had an eating disorder they only became aware of through social media? It’s nonsense! I honestly and sincerely believe there is no reason to believe that the changes to mental health understanding have not been making people sicker and sicker every year for what somewhere around 2 decades now which is around when we saw things like suicidality bottom out. We’ve seen addiction and self-harm rising and let’s not forget eating disorders. Mental health is the only field of medicine I can name where outcomes have declined over the last few decades and I find the lack of scepticism to be well - insane!

TaylorAlexander 2y ago
> there’s a pretty direct line between the increase of mental health awareness campaigns and self-reported mental health This seems like an obvious and intended result. I don't think this is suspicious. If you tell more people about something, more people will have words to describe it. I think in your comment there are multiple places where you conflate reported mental health and actual mental health, for example saying mental health is declining. Is it declining, or are reports increasing due to awareness? The answer would be non-obvious, and even if mental health was declining, I suspect that other factors like declining economic outlooks for the average person would be more likely causes than "mental health awareness campaigns".
DavidPiper 2y ago
There has been research into the fact that student Doctors often report symptoms to their own doctors of the diseases they're currently studying - a kind of psychological awareness temporarily manifesting as physical symptoms. Or the belief of physical symptoms. Sort of like the phantom phone buzz in our legs that many of us get occasionally. These symptoms aren't actually the disease - just like our legs are not actually our phones. > there’s a pretty direct line between the increase of mental health awareness campaigns and self-reported mental health "Self-reported mental health" is very different from clinically diagnosed and treated mental health. > I mean, look at this study, eating disorders spiked, are we suggesting people secretly unknowingly had an eating disorder they only became aware of through social media? It’s nonsense! This is a nonsense line of thinking because "only became aware of" is not the mechanism. There is plenty of research out there about how social media actively changes mental and behavioural patterns - especially in young people - because that is what it is DESIGNED TO DO in order to increase engagement and revenue. Changing your physical behaviour severely enough to become sick is a thing. Changing your mental behaviour severely enough to become sick is a thing. Mental health might be getting worse, but simply "awareness of mental health issues" is not the mechanism.
viraptor 2y ago
> Awareness, transmission, what precisely is the difference? In the first one you see issues in yourself or someone else that you learn later match some diagnosis. In the second one you gain those issues that you didn't have earlier. I've been diagnosed and improved my life exactly because enough people discussed some symptoms that I could say "hey, that's the same as my problems! (that existed for decades before)" I'm sure you could gain some issues, and empathic illnesses are a thing. But disregarding the difference here would be harmful.

TaylorAlexander 2y ago

> there’s a pretty direct line between the increase of mental health awareness campaigns and self-reported mental health This seems like an obvious and intended result. I don't think this is suspicious. If you tell more people about something, more people will have words to describe it. I think in your comment there are multiple places where you conflate reported mental health and actual mental health, for example saying mental health is declining. Is it declining, or are reports increasing due to awareness? The answer would be non-obvious, and even if mental health was declining, I suspect that other factors like declining economic outlooks for the average person would be more likely causes than "mental health awareness campaigns".

DavidPiper 2y ago

There has been research into the fact that student Doctors often report symptoms to their own doctors of the diseases they're currently studying - a kind of psychological awareness temporarily manifesting as physical symptoms. Or the belief of physical symptoms. Sort of like the phantom phone buzz in our legs that many of us get occasionally. These symptoms aren't actually the disease - just like our legs are not actually our phones. > there’s a pretty direct line between the increase of mental health awareness campaigns and self-reported mental health "Self-reported mental health" is very different from clinically diagnosed and treated mental health. > I mean, look at this study, eating disorders spiked, are we suggesting people secretly unknowingly had an eating disorder they only became aware of through social media? It’s nonsense! This is a nonsense line of thinking because "only became aware of" is not the mechanism. There is plenty of research out there about how social media actively changes mental and behavioural patterns - especially in young people - because that is what it is DESIGNED TO DO in order to increase engagement and revenue. Changing your physical behaviour severely enough to become sick is a thing. Changing your mental behaviour severely enough to become sick is a thing. Mental health might be getting worse, but simply "awareness of mental health issues" is not the mechanism.

viraptor 2y ago

> Awareness, transmission, what precisely is the difference? In the first one you see issues in yourself or someone else that you learn later match some diagnosis. In the second one you gain those issues that you didn't have earlier. I've been diagnosed and improved my life exactly because enough people discussed some symptoms that I could say "hey, that's the same as my problems! (that existed for decades before)" I'm sure you could gain some issues, and empathic illnesses are a thing. But disregarding the difference here would be harmful.