Thread by @WordsandGuitar

I've written extensively about my own experiences of depression and anxiety in my book, "A Mind Spread Out On The Ground." In the title essay, I compare depression to the effects of colonialism. Since it's #BellLetsTalk, I want to talk more about what I call colonial depression.

I've tried therapy on and off for many years, and while I've found some CBT helpful, I want to point out the inherent problems involved in CBT and, to an extent, the mindfulness movement - both of which have become incredibly Westernized and are used to try to help depression.

CBT, or cognitive behavioural therapy, is a form of therapy that works based on the premise that how we think about and interpret the events in our lives affects how we feel, so if we train ourselves to think differently about the events in our lives, we can change our moods.

It's incredibly compatible with the classic ideas of liberalism, which suggest that we should all be focusing on our own individual needs instead of the needs of a group. It also feeds into neo-liberalism, which encourages hyper-competition and values "the market" above all else

To give an example, if a person yelled at you at work, a CBT approach to dealing with that situation would have you recognize that the person may have a lot of other things stressing them out that you don't know about. Their reaction is not about you. It's about them.

Therefore, you're only responsible for your own reaction to this situation. This is similar to mindfulness, which encourages you to think about only yourself in the present moment, since that's all you can control. This seems fine - until you consider systemic discrimination.

I did a talk about this yesterday, and I go into detail about this in different essays in my book, so apologies if you've already heard me talk/write about this.

The reality is: you cannot CBT mind trick your way out of systemic discrimination deliberately enacted by government

For example, Six Nations, where I'm from finally got a brand new water treatment facility in 2013. However, there is no federal or provincial funding to maintain that facility, nor is there money to ensure infrastructure that delivers that water to every home on my rez.

It's important to note here: there is never a question of who is going to fund infrastructure for clean, potable running water to the non-Indigenous communities minutes from my rez. It's also important to note my rez *isn't even on a boil water advisory.* We fall thru the cracks.

If you're someone who grew up on Six Nations, you grew up knowing that both federal and provincial governments REFUSE to pay for infrastructure they readily provide to non-Indigenous people. You grow up knowing Canada doesn't think you deserve access to clean water.

And why? Because you're Native. That's it. That's the reason. What's worse? The province willingly gives away clean water from your territory to companies like Nestle for pennies per gallon so they can SELL THAT WATER BACK TO YOU.

How do you CBT your way out of that knowledge?

How can anxiety or depression prescriptions change the fact that the government you live under DELIBERATELY ensures that you not only have no access to clean running water, but also ensures multinational companies can profit off of that lack? All because you're Native?

This is the government telling you that you don't deserve one of the basic fundamental needs of humans everywhere BECAUSE YOU'RE NATIVE. And if you point this out, they trot out the costs this would set them back - something they never do for non-Indigenous communities.

They do this *intentionally* to make non-Indigenous people angry about how many of their tax dollars it'll cost to make sure Native people have water. This deliberately feeds into the popular racist idea that Native people are lazy and do nothing but suck up tax monies.

Let me again point out what often gets ignored in these sorts of discussions: NO GOVERNMENT EVER POINTS OUT HOW MUCH MONEY IT HAS COST THEM TO ENSURE CLEAN RUNNING WATER FOR NON-INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES. Because it's assumed they deserve it, simply for being non-Indigenous.

Whereas Native people DON'T deserve it, and it's therefore an unnecessary expense.

Considering even just water and the ways governments use access to it to devalue Indigenous health and life, aren't feelings of worthlessness in Indigenous people at the very least understandable?

You can go through every basic element necessary for human life - water, food, shelter, employment (necessary due to capitalism to get the other three) - and with every one, it's clear the Canadian government has DELIBERATELY chosen to make it harder for Natives to access them.

This is what I mean when I say "colonial depression." It's a rational reaction to the deliberate choices made by various levels of a colonial government to deprive members of an identifiable group of the necessities they need to live. It can't be relieved by therapy or pills.

It can only be relieved by radically changes that ensure *all of us* have access to, at the very least, clean water, healthy food and safe shelter. As this pandemic has shown, colonialism has made us believe we must "earn" these things, which leads to more colonial depression.

Because make no mistake - colonialism does not just target Indigenous people. It also targets Black people, other people of colour, disabled folks, elderly folks, trans folks, queer folks, poor folks. It combines with capitalism to make us all disposable and expendable.

And for who? For the benefit of the rich. The people who really control not only the market (as we've seen blatantly with the GameStop stock situation), but also the governments we pretend are put in place to help the very people who fund it: us.

I could go into the ways that mental health facilities are often very penal in the way they treat their patients, particularly people with severe mental illness such as psychosis, and how we need to lean more into prison abolition and mental health reform, but I'll leave it there

TLDR: #BellLetsTalk about how colonialism and capitalism inevitably create depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, then profit off it by promising us therapy and pills we have to buy ourselves can stop it when they absolutely cannot.