"Mentally Ill?"

[bloom]

from http://amananta.wordpress.com/ "Screaming into the Void"


Mentally Ill?
May 5th, 2006
Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Welbutrin, Valium, Xanax, Ativan. PTSD, depression, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, BPD, Social Anxiety Disorder, Anxiety Disorder. What do all of these things have in common besides the obvious, that they are psychiatric conditions and psychiatric medications meant to treat these conditions?

Answer - all of these affect women more often than men by a significant ratio. Now, to anyone with a feminist consciousness, this should not be surprising in the slightest - cross culturally and world wide, women are oppressed. Oppression is scary and depressing, oppression saps your energy and kills your dreams. Endemic oppression such as woman hating leaves you no place to escape from it. There is nowhere a woman can go without being reminded that she is considered less important, not one single place on earth. Not in her daily work, where she is almost invariably paid less or not paid at all; not in marriage, where she inevitably loses legal rights; not in deliberate spinsterhood, where she receives unwanted pity and social disapproval; not in motherhood, where as a married woman, she is considered to be the default caretaker of children who belong to her husband, or as a single mother, where she is made the scapegoat for society's ills; not even if she is a lesbian separatist on a farm in the middle of nowhere, for the mere fact of knowing that right outside the gate lies a world of people who would gladly burn her home around her ears for her temerity in carving out a space for herself.

<big snip>

The patriarchy benefits by labelling sad and angry women as "sick" rather than admitting that they have every reason to be sad and angry and that the system needs to change. Admitting that women have a reason to be sad and angry would mean patriarchy supporters would have to admit that rape is a crime for which men should be punished, instead of nominally naming rape a crime yet convicting only 2% of REPORTED rapists and discouraging over half of girls and women who are raped from reporting it at all. Admitting that women have reasons to be sad and angry would mean they would have to admit that a system which ensures women will usually be paid less than men, consist of most of the impoverished people on the planet, and are discouraged or outright barred from higher payer and more socially prestigious professions, would have to change so that men have an equal chance of landing the shit jobs they've been foisting on women for substandard pay or no pay for thousands of years. Admitting that women have reasons to feel the way they do would mean they would have to LISTEN to our complaints instead of writing them off as the rantings of a crazy woman. And admitting that women have good reasons to be angry and sad would mean the psychiatric/psychological professions would lose big bucks from inappropriately drugging women or sending them into years of psychotherapy to try to understand what strange and buried reason they have for being so "irrationally" angry.

I used to take SSRIs, I used to go to therapy. I will be honest and say yes, I do sometimes still take anti-anxiety drugs. Sometimes it is the only way for me to cope wih this world which is so cruel and insane and is filled with people who think I should be a doormat who smiles all the time while eating like a bird so I can remain at a socially acceptable weight, spend most of my free time cleaning my house until it looks like a picture out of "Women's Day" magazine, always put my own needs and wants after those of my husband and child, remove all body hair that does not grow on my scalp no matter how painful and time-consuming and expensive and utterly pointless it is, and be happy to spend the rest of my life in this pink collar ghetto while being gushingly happy that I have "a good job". So as I said above, I don't blame any woman for being on drugs to help her cope with life in a milleniums-old patriarchy, memories of past abuse and the vast indifference of the world to her pain, or the constant struggle to keep what little legal rights to her own bodily integrity there still are.

But one thing I do ask of those of you like me, who have been on the psychiatric bandwagon, is to stop blaming yourself. Stop blaming your brains for having "bad chemistry", stop blaming your bodies, stop blaming your hormones. Stop blaming yourself for feeling sad and miserable and enraged. I don't believe you are sick for having these feelings - I believe you are reacting in a completely understandable way to a world that hates you. And I want to extend my cyber support to you in whatever you feel you need to do to ease your pain.

[DemExpat]

1. I choose to see my mental health problems

partially as inherited genetic sensitivity to nervous system "overload" under stress, and, not as a feminist issue, but as a spiritual one - that this is the path in this lifetime for me to walk to try to work out spiritual issues of my soul.
There are also many other ingredients like social - moving from home to home as a child and not being able to develop social "roots", and developmental and psychological aspects like growing up in a highly dysfunctional family.

Nutty to some, but this spiritual view, of all the others I have entertained in this life so far, is the one which gives me the most scope to accept myself as whole exactly as I am, and to not negatively judge myself as ill, damaged, or deformed. To see myself as valuable, strong, and good as I am. For me, this works the best.

I see many gifts in my being mentally "unfit" to fit perfectly into our modern day societies - gifts of compassion and insight into some of the workings of the world that I believe I would not have had, or developed, if I had not experienced this mental "mismatch", oversensitivity, or whatever you want to call it. Even the pain and the struggle has taught me much.

Giving up medications was a decision I had to make to walk my path, and I am exquisitely aware that there is no one size fits all approach to mental health.

I can't see it as a feminist issue because in my family histories through the generations the boys have suffered in about the same capacity as the girls, and in my years of therapies the "clients" have always been about equally male and female.
And because even though there are men who hold most power in most societies, at least superficially....most males suffer from patriarchal systems and expectations just as much as females IMO. Some swagger and oppress, but many (most) don't.

It is always interesting to me to read of others' experiences and ideas of mental health problems - especially of those who have lived through, or with it.

DemEx

[bloom]

3. I'm sure that there are plenty of mental health problems

that each gender shares m/l equally and that stem from similar causes.

I think the writer of this essay was trying to get to the particular things that cause women stress and which tend to be "disorders" that are seen as women's issues. They may be wrapped up in some of the same stress and dysfunction that you describe - only some of the problem is part of parcel of how the society is structured. Like if women lose connections with adults if they stay home to raise the children. Postpartum depression is part of that. That sort of thing.

I agree that either gender can suffer from problems that are at least partly caused by a reaction to society.

It was my impression that women suffered from depression at a much higher rate than men. At least to the extent that they sought treatment.


Ex. - On Depression and Gender Differences.

"No matter how the numbers are counted, women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with unipolar major depression: 21.3% of women and 12.7% of men experience at least one bout of major depression over the course of their lifetime.

The gender difference in susceptibility to depression emerges at age 13. Before then, young boys are, if anything, a bit more likely to be depressed than young girls...

Environmental factors are also important. He highlights one event that contributes strongly to gender differences in depression--childhood sexual abuse involving attempted intercourse. "It's a pretty potent risk factor."

Not only do girls experience abuse more than boys but the abuse is more toxic to them. Other studies show that early sexual abuse in girls can create long-term hyperactivity of the stress hormone system so that they over respond to stress in adulthood.

...The emotional coping styles of males and females are radically different, offers psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan. "Men avoid negative emotions. Women don't." Unfortunately, women can get stuck in such emotions, caught in a cycle of passivity and despair."

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=37595

-------

It may be that spirituality is just the thing, though - if it helps people to not get stuck in hopelessness, etc. That's one reason why I don't think too much of the practice of denigrating all religion and spirituality. I think certain worldviews can be useful.

[DemExpat]

8. I don't have time this morning to search, but I am sure I have seen

studies which show that young boys/men now are having more trouble at school, with themselves and their goals, identity issues, etc., than girls at this time - also a societal trend in Western societies - but males don't tend to seek psychological help, the threshold is much higher IMO.

I would agree that the sexual abuse issue is an important one for females....


I think the writer of this essay was trying to get to the particular things that cause women stress and which tend to be "disorders" that are seen as women's issues. They may be wrapped up in some of the same stress and dysfunction that you describe - only some of the problem is part of parcel of how the society is structured. Like if women lose connections with adults if they stay home to raise the children. Postpartum depression is part of that. That sort of thing.
Yes, I agree with this, I guess it comes down to what perspective one chooses to put emphasis on in dealing with problems.


It may be that spirituality is just the thing, though - if it helps people to not get stuck in hopelessness, etc. That's one reason why I don't think too much of the practice of denigrating all religion and spirituality. I think certain worldviews can be useful.

We all use world views to help us make sense of our lives IMO - some prefer a more scientific or biology-based view of mental sickness and health, others societal, (gender issues, for example), others developmental and psychological, still others focus on spirituality or religion. Looking at them all is perhaps beneficial, but most of the time people pick up on one to focus on.

:hi:

DemEx

[Pharaoh]

2. I am a 50 year old male

I have suffered with depression for most of my life,

I think us depressives are more sensitive to the insanity of the world,

I was so depressed at one point years ago that I was drinking too much and thrown into a alcohol rehab place,......was in a group where they told us to open up to our true feelings ect, yada yada yada.....

And of course the AA mantra is that you are sick, there is something wrong with you,,..........that whole line of shit really pissed me off and I told the group that there was nothing wrong with me or them, that we live in a fucked up insane society,

The other folks lit up and a great discussion was about to ensue when the counselor in charge started freaking out and screaming that I was threatening the sobriety of the group..........

That was the end of our great truthful , "just say whats on your mind" session and I have learned to keep certain things to myself................

[bloom]

4. "just say whats on your mind"

I know what you mean. A lot of people don't want to hear about it.

I think there a problem in being focused on the negative. It's a problem when so much negativity is going on in the world- and when we have such easy access to to finding out all about it - like online. I don't know how some people process all of this stuff and that it doesn't bother them (esp. journalists - esp. in a war zone.) - though maybe it does.

[DemExpat]

7. Some people prefer to have a biological "reason" for their suffering

and are satisfied with the "illness" label like that which you describe. If this helps, then IMO it is just as valid as using a spiritual context as I do, or societal as you do.

For me, this did not settle well at all with my psyche, and I needed to get myself OUT from under that 'diseased' label and description before I could start to feel better.

DemEx

[varkam]

5. I think a good point is that..

women tend to seek treatment for mental health issues more often than men do. While it's true that women tend to be diagnosed more often than men with mental disorders in a clinical setting, it's also true that women come through the door more often than men do. Is it the case that women are genuinely more disturbed? Certainly the ones I've dated ;)

I think the more plausible explanation is that women just seek help for mental health issues more often.

[DemExpat]

6. I agree that this is most pausible.

In our societies it is more acceptable somehow that women might need help.....:eyes:

:-)

DemEx

[varkam]

9. I don't know if that's so maladaptive

I think the bigger issue would be that in our societies it isn't acceptable for men to admit their problems, much less seek help for them.

Our gender roles are so screwed up.