Why is there so much support for mental health awareness now?

The pandemic and the homelessness crisis getting to a point where it was no longer able to be ignored.

People would come up to me in middle school and ask me why I never smiled and why did I always look depressed. Sure would’ve loved this mental health awareness back then!

🤗 🤗 R2

Is there support? Trump got elected and people think he's the second coming of Christ. People were drinking bleach to ward off COVID. Abortion has become "murder", while murder has become "self-defense".

The pandemic with its lockdowns and scares has frightened people and we are all suffering from nerves in one form or another.

[quote]People were drinking bleach to ward off COVID.

Did people really drink bleach? the one guy who was supposed to have later was found to have been poisoned by his wife who then claimed he did what Trump told him.

R4 A lot of celebrities talk about their mental health nowadays, perhaps in a way to make other people feel better and more comfortable when talking about it. This is something I’ve noticed.

My psych professor said he actually noticed a lot of people started seeking help when Oprah started talking about the subject a lot.

I don't believe there is. No one has asked me if I'm okay.

Because people have learned the joy of pills!!!!

I also wouldn’t be surprised if #FreeBritney had something to do with it.

There was a recent study finding 51% of millennials are suicidal.

The best support for mental health is in a mental institution. Bring them back.

Op Ha! There is tons of awareness. Tons. However, we don't have a mental health care system in this country. The real crazy ones are out on the streets, the rest suffer in perpetual paperwork they can't possibly handle unless they have a great support system.

I have BCBS, through my employer, and pay as much as possible, it's the best I can access, and the waiting list for a shrink is like 2 years. You can see a chiropractor, who will pretend and write prescriptions if you are lucky. It's insane.

[R14] is spot on. Awareness? I'm bashing you with the blunt end of an ax. Are you aware of this? I'm aware of it. I know our healthcare system is a fucking travesty. Yes, I understand that. But I don't need anodyne feel good word fucking salad papering over the transparent fact that anybody who isn't severely mentally challenged knows it, and doesn't need this shite shoved up their nose when we've got a ton of other shit to deal with.

Because the world has gone mad and the upcoming trauma of the coming years will issue the coup d'grace.

Brace yourselves.

I think there is an awareness of it but at the end of the day most people want someone else to do something about it.

A friend recently had a huge breakdown. There was a t of social media supporting going on, and a lot of "I'm here if you need me" platitudes, but myself and another person were the only ones who actually went to her house, did the washing, cooked some meals and put them in the freezer, checked in on her, bought things at the supermarket and delivered them. It pissed me off that so many of the bleeding hearts couldn't give up even one morning of their weekend to actually do something that might help.

r15 I also think it's a way for society to dismiss it without feeling bad.

News Story: Gory details of a 12 year old bullying victim who livestreamed her hanging on Facebook. More gory details coming soon.

Also, if you are feeling suicidal, call 1-800-fuck off and talk with someone about how you ran out of meds.

r17 I am aware of the reality of your daily (morning long) struggle to deliver soup to your crazy friend.

We are raising awareness that raising awareness - and we have huge levels of awareness - isn't a substitute for a mental health care system that works.

Awareness is really a word meaning we all know about this shit, and it's crazy. That is all. They are aware that millions of crazy people have no health care, and nothing is going to be done about it.

It's almost worse than ignorance. In fact, yeah, it is worse than ignorance.

Mental health awareness in the workplace is fucking free relaxation and mindfulness apps. Never anything to address the issues causing it.

I recently tried to get a therapist for a family member, and there is no one available. I've called so many therapists on my insurance list and they are all booked or not taking new clients. I think the pandemic has really made a lot of people depressed and it can no longer be ignored.

r20 "Here is a Sackler/Monsanto/Halliburton branded squeezeball fidget spinner for your clinical depression/bipolar disorder. You're welcome. Continue paying 600 bucks a month for insurance to get a fancy racquetball."

"We also have a ominous quiet room strictly for schizophrenics to recharge in!"

r21 Which state? I'm in New Mexico. Every good doctor I FINALLY got, instantly moved to Texas. More money. I ended up paying 600 a month for a guy in California by Skype. Family friend. Saved my life, I needed meds, quite expensive for the consultations. Did it for a year and then got a doctor, who then moved away. So it sucks man.

This was before the Pandemic. It was a 2 year wait. Hang in there. Keep trying.

Oh, also, never ever tell people you are "off your meds" when you run out because of this bullshit. Off your meds means crazy dangerous. I say I am trying to get a new prescription ASAP.

Doctors quitting patients, prescriptions expire , and then the system calling the patient "off their meds" is diabolical shit.

You’re fucking crazy, OP.

There are plenty of "life coaches" on YT and Instagram who will guide the mentally ill to happier lives.

Yes they are very sure that it’s your negative mindset is blocking your chi and chakras and holding you back.

I think it's a natural progression as openness and transparency becomes a more valued traits in people. At one point in time, it was considered ideal to maintain the illusion of perfection at all costs. That was the expectation and more or less the polite thing to do. Now people seem to admire candidness and vulnerability more than stoicism. Social media accelerated that and now people are conditioned to share every aspect of their lives. It makes sense that mental health is now a topic of conversation. It's no longer thought of as a taboo, private subject. On one hand, I think it's great that mental illness is no longer seen as a character flaw and there's less stigma associated with it. But the discourse is also in a weird place. It worries me how many young people are basically building their personalities around anxiety/depression etc. That can't be healthy either.

[quote] Why is there so much support for mental health awareness now?

Victimhood is fashionable now.

Virtue-Signalling is VERY fashionable.

Being victomized is a sport right now. People feel justifiably helpless and hopeless in the clutches of a generation that refuses to surrender its talons from the workings of government, and now the wicked spawn of toxic, spineless, ass kissing yes men they've groomed to topple democracy because the boomers hold that much of a grudge agaomst their own mortality.

against^^^(the melatonin and antidepressants were kicking in)

I feel there's a bit of amnesia on this thread.

The topic of mental health awareness has pretty deep roots in the American psyche. I mean, a big premise of the bestseller Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955) was a campaign for increased mental health awareness. Sybil had a huge cultural moment in the 1970s -- fabricated as the story was. Karen Carpenter's death brought eating disorders to the fore in the 1980s. Depression and suicide were discussed a lot in the 1990s; I'm thinking specifically of Prozac Nation, An Unquiet Mind, and other memoirs from the decade. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the early-mid 2000s and it was hardly taboo.

Hell, we've had an awareness of mental illness that dates back centuries. Robert Burton first published The Anatomy of Melancholy in 1621, and John Donne wrote his famous defense of suicide, Biathanatos, in 1608, stating in part, "Whensoever any affliction assails me, methinks I have the keys of my prison in mine own hand and no remedy presents itself so soon to my heart as mine own sword."

What does happen, I think, is that each decade, and each generation, adopt their own ways of framing mental illness, so that their conversations feel novel, while in reality they're merely repackaged.

[quote]There was a recent study finding 51% of millennials are suicidal.

Unfortunately, they also lack followthrough.

I kid, I kid.

I’ll be here all week!

We always used to depend on the kindness of strangers.

I think it’s bad and annoying.

People think self-diagnosis is carte Blanche to act however they want and it’s now the whole world’s responsibility to deal with them.

I think this mostly perpetuated by women. It’s like, I’m not happy you have anxiety issues, but maybe get a therapist and start working on it so you can stop being so annoying.

OP is worse than Veronica Ivy!

r35 = wrong thread

Why feel bad? Why create a problem grounded in what didn't happen in the past?

Maybe as an excuse to not do anything because someone might have done more and sooner in the past?

Look forward, ffs.

White middle class kids are getting addicted to drugs, especially after being prescribes narcotics by their docs.

Suddenly we all care.

Obamacare specifically elevated mental healthcare funding to the level of physical health care funding.

What r14 said. If you can even FIND someone - even a LCSW - who is taking new patients, most don’t take insurance.

And it’s nearly impossible to get help for someone under 18 unless they’re actively suicidal.

There’s a bit of acute care, but nothing preventive or maintenance. The waiting lists are a year out.

And this is in Manhattan, where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a doctor. It’s got to be so much worse elsewhere.

It's really come to the forefront because of Prince Harry's efforts. So many people adore him and he's brought exposure to this issue.

Because depression, suicides, anxiety and addictions all went up during the pandemic. We had riots, looting and a takeover of the Capitol. People basically have gone nuts all around us and society's fabric is in tatters.

That being said, all the awareness hasn't turned into increased accessibility at the health provider level for many of us, or an increase in brick and mortar mental health facilities. It's one thing for society to be aware, another thing for the infrastructure to be built that is needed. And to get people to want to pay for it.

If by "mental health awareness" you mean awareness that although we have clinically proven methods to successfully treat a range of mental illnesses, we're doing a shitty job of it because we have no public health infrastructure in place to handle it and the free market isn't interested in anything but selling pills, then I think it's a good thing.

It's just another socialist hoax.

Because were all friggin’ nuts.