Unhappiness is not a mental illness
It is getting quite aggravating recently when more and more news and studies tell of tens millions of people affected by mental illness, just because they have some negative feeling. I don’t get where all this is coming from, really except the modern fetish for victim mentality. If you do not fell you have oppression brownie points, you can easily claim mental illness. The multi-billion dollar industry behind mental illness does not improve the situation either.
Honestly, there is probably more to do with the modern view that everyone should be so damn happy all the time. People should not be expected to be permanently cheerful. It is not how the human brain works. Sometimes there are negative emotions, sadness, anger, anxiety, and stress. It is normal. It happens. It is not mental illness. It is just life.
In fact sometimes I wish some people would stop being so damn cheerful all the time. It is suspicious. You can’t trust someone who always seems happy. Must be hiding something. Think about it.
There was a Guardian article which claimed up to a third of UK high schoolers have mental health issues. This meant things they disliked happened, or they were occasionally bored or unhappy, or their expectations were not being met. You know they were teenagers. Since when the hell is that mental illness?
Another article gave eating poorly, procrastinating, being tired, or lacking in focus as a list of signs of mental health problems for students. If those are not normal characteristics of university students, I don’t know what are.
Kids with all sorts of disorders are often bored or just being kids. I mean given the state of education, is quite understandable that young people are bored, stressed and confused. It would be strange if they weren’t. Ritalin will not fix this.
People these days are constantly given lists of potential issues and are bombarded with advice, tips for mental well-being. This may lead you to think you actually have a problem. Wow I have those symptoms. Wow so many people have issues, why not me?
People are constantly told they have mental illness, they start to believe it. And this is not good. People are being told that negative feelings are abnormal. This is not good. I get that modern life can be stressful for many. I get that stress and anxiety are bad. But they are part of life, and must be managed like many other issues that appear.
It’s great being happy. But that does not mean being giddy every day. If you are truly not happy, there is a distinct possibility that you should change something in your life. Not pop a pill.
Mental health is very important. And it should not be trivialized. If everything is a problem then nothing is, to paraphrase. Some people do have genuine problems and need help, and it does no good for them to be lost in a mass of the pseudo ill.
Sometimes one must work out his own normal, human, internal issues. I do not mean never talk about stuff or seek help. But you cannot get help for everything. Sometimes you just need to get a bit of introspection. Think about things. Figure them out. By yourself, without expecting external intervention. Not with pills, psychiatrists or support groups.
Or, if you are feeling down, do what I do. Drink more. Also, I heard good things about weed.
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Please explain what oppression brownie points are, because it sounds quite weird. I had to google brownie points, I admit. I´m not a native speaker.
But how does this term combine with oppression?
It seems to suggest that a lot of individuals or groups are not really oppressed, they just think that they are.
So who is going to be the judge of that? You?
In sweden where I live, there is such a group with victim mentality: white middle aged men, making complaints about sexism. So that is one thing that justifies your remark.
However, if you are a part of a group that suffers from structural oppression,like women or people of colour, you have a right to complain. It´s even important that you do.
Anyway, I agree with your main points.
The problem as I see it is that the institution of psychiatry and psychology have these functions, among other things, to diagnose people, and this they will find ways to do.
They have confirmation biases, just like police officers.
And they influnece public opinion ,they are the experts after all.
And we are living in a confused time, where everybody is screaming for easy answers, and none are to be found.
Yes, a lot op people thing that claiming oppression gives some sort of moral high-ground. And a lot of people who are nowhere near oppressed claim they are .
Case in point your claim of western women. Women do not suffer from structural oppression in Sweden, or anywhere in the Western World. Women are not even an uniform group. There are women and women and all sorts of circumstances.
I sincerely doubt a majority of white middle aged men in Sweden claim to be oppressed. So i think that statement is full of shit.
"I sincerely doubt a majority of white middle aged men in Sweden claim to be oppressed. So i think that statement is full of shit."
That is not what I said at all.
To claim that women does not suffer from structural oppression is just completely ignoring all research.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_pay_gap
And proof of what I said, reported discrimination to authorities in sweden.
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/mest-man-anmaler-konsdiskriminering
And I don´t like rude people, and rude people who insult me based on what they think I said is even worse.
You are hereby unfollowed. No more upvotes from me.
I agree this is a confused time, where everybody is screaming for easy answers, and there are none. I detect that built in belief structures cripple our aims for the higher good unless the higher good is reflected throughout the enterprise, and until all parties are standing on equal ground ( which is impossible with a monolithic corporate ogre tipping the scales 99% of the time), so it would be most effective toward the common goal to not use further destabilizing methods... I don't know I hear a lot but at the end I'm my own worst enemy. Thank you for letting me butt in, I wanted to advocate for non violent methods. I don't know where to start.
The problem is, if you go to a doctor, here in Australia you will be offered any number of happy pills. Doctors here are paid to prescribe drugs. It is unlikely that your doc will try to find the root cause of the problem. This is another reason why men dont go to the doctor enough. Doc, Im stressed out at work, have no sex life and am always arguing with the wife - Doctor says, take two pills 3 times a day. NEXT