Thread by @garwboy

It's #WorldMentalHealthDay

While good, it means countless well-meant posts/platitudes encouraging people to reach out, open up, practice self care, etc.

Such things *can* help with mental health, sure. But you know what would really improve mental health all round?

Money

/1

Whether it's #WorldMentalHealth or any of the other many related occasions, one common theme is that the messaging pretty much always focuses on the 'stuff that doesn't actually cost anything to anyone with any power'. And that's... not great, really.

/2

Telling people to 'reach out to someone' is good advice. Although the onus is on the person struggling with mental health to actually do the work or pay the phone bill.

"I'm here to talk" is also nice. But talk isn't exactly pricey, as the old saying goes (sort of)

/3

And with statements like 'practice self care', I can't help but feel the emphasis is on *self*.

YOU do it. Look after yourSELF

Hard to imagine a similar approach to more tangible health issues. "Got Covid? Well, develop your own vaccine. We believe in you! You got this!"

/4

Fact is, so many modern day mental health problems stem from stress. Even if they weren't caused by it directly, stress makes many mental health problems worse.
And a massive factor in everyday stress stems from money. Or a lack thereof.

/5

Whether it's the stress of not being able to earn enough to survive, or to move out of a stressful/toxic situations, or to have to wait months/years before getting practical help with your mental health condition, so many mental health problems boil down to 'lack of money'

/6

I get that this is a constant problem throughout modern society. But it's particularly noteworthy with mental health stuff because those who *could/should* do something about it, so regularly deflect or downplay this fact.

And that's why I rant on about it on here, like this

/7

So, you get politicians saying things like 'We should tackle mental health problems, not poverty', which is tantamount to saying 'Never mind the fire, it's the smoke we should be doing something about'

theguardian.com/science/brain-…

/8

So, you get big organisations tweeting about #WorldMentalHealthDay and how they support it and encourage awareness, while underpaying their staff and having very few systems in place, if any, for them to address their own mental health issues without losing their (vital) job

/9

So, you get huge organisations like the NHS and similar, recognising that mental health of staff is important, and giving them 'resilience training' to better deal with work stress. And then treating it like a blank cheque to pile more stress on them. So helpful.

/10

I'd argue that, while huge improvements have been made in taking them as seriously as they should be, the 'intangible' nature of most mental health problems means many still feel that intangible solutions are sufficient to deal with them

Obviously, this is wrong.

/11

It's all well and good raising awareness of the seriousness of and problems caused by mental health matters, but being aware of a problem isn't much use if nobody's going to be doing anything about it. And doing something costs money. That's just how our world works.

/12

Constantly trumpeting that mental health problems are real and a serious issue is fine overall. But at some point, we'll need to actually try and deal with them. If someone had a heart attack and you called an ambulance, you'd expect them to do more than update their records

/13

I'm weary of politicians etc. 'raising awareness' of mental health issues, but doing nothing about them (at best)

Eventually, 'raising awareness' is just another term for 'exposure'. And those in power are hope to use it to pay for useful changes. And we know how that goes

/14

So yeah, celebrate/endorse/promote #WorldMentalHealthDay all you like, it has many positives.

But be wary of it becoming an officially sanctioned version of 'thoughts and prayers' cop-outs for those who could actually bring about practical improvements.

/15

I explore this whole aspect in far more detail in my book Psycho-Logical, if anyone's interested

amazon.co.uk/Psycho-Logical…

But obviously I would never insist you buy it at this point, as that would be rather hypocritical.

And thus endeth the rant.

/end