The recent news about the chronic underfunding of treatment for those suffering from mental health issues may well have completely passed me by had I read it a decade ago. This sort of shows that it is very true that what catches our attention is predominantly the things that are ‘close’ – I have written elsewhere about how we are affected by the way in which the news is reported and “what catches our eye”.
I am not qualified to comment on the extent of the underfunding, however I do think that there are secondary issues here that need to be ‘connected’. Having read the article on the BBC website it is good to see that the secondary issues are at least addressed in part.
Shockingly (and as I have already mentioned in a recent blog post) it is estimated that 1 in 4 people will suffer a problem with their mental health each year! Some 70% of those suffering a mixture of anxiety and depression and more than half of that number having both conditions to some degree. That means that if you sit four people down for breakfast there is a greater than 50/50 chance that one of them will have some incidence of clinical depression and/or anxiety within the next year!
Does that put things into perspective?
Putting anything into statistics is, of course, a good way to obfuscate the truth (as is using words such as obfuscate!) and the trend is to present the statistics in the most sensational way. Much is made of the incidence of cancer – the fact that around half of us will be affected by some sort of cancer in our lifetime is the headline statistic. To compare it with the incidence of mental health – it would take a banquet for around ninety people before you get to the 50/50 chance that one of them will be diagnosed with cancer in the next year.
Granted – these are not directly comparable – but statistics rarely are, and at least I am pointing out where I am gently misleading you. Most mental health situations are, in themselves, survivable – although it is likely that they will return and they will almost certainly contribute to a reduced life expectancy. In contrast, a high incidence of cancer sufferers will not survive the illness. So, although the “within a year” comparison is ‘correct’ it is not the only metric to be used.
Whilst cancer is still a bit of a taboo subject – it can still in many circumstances be the elephant in the room – there is much less stigma associated with cancer than with mental health issues. To many people, cancer isn’t your fault – being depressed is!! That may not be an ‘educated’ position to take, but it surely is an unfortunately common one.
Another thing that contributes to this difference in attitude to the two is that – almost by definition – those with mental health issues do not seem “normal” to others – their behaviour is “different” and that is enough to single them out for special treatment – and the “special-ness” is rarely a positive thing! The BBC are currently running a special focus on mental health called “In the Mind” and in a documentary last evening there was a very clear example of this.
A group of school pupils were played a video – they, as was natural, were finding the action amusing – however, they were stopped in their tracks somewhat when they were then told that the person in the film was suffering a breakdown. The action was no longer funny – ridicule changed to embarrassment – and then to real awkwardness as they found out that the person was actually watching the video with them.
It was interesting to watch and listen to a conversation between a group of the pupils and the subject of the video. He has tackled his illness by becoming a sort of ambassador – to spread the word about the reality of mental illness – so he was expecting exactly the response that he had received. Some of the pupils were vocal in expressing how their attitude changed when they found out “the truth” and they clearly knew that the initial mocking was wrong – now that they were looking back on it.
I wonder whether those really “got it” at a meta level though – understanding that they had to use this experience and generalise it – to the point where they each need to evaluate situations not just on “what they know” in the instant – but also with a level of understanding of alternative explanations – rather than just “jumping to conclusions”.
There were others in the group who were less vocal, but who seemed to have “got the message” at a much deeper level. Specifically they were now projecting the experience onto other situations that they had encountered – perhaps someone they knew had mental health issues – and realising that they knew and understood less than what they had previously thought was the case.
The documentary reinforced many things that I had gleaned from the book that I read recently. It featured people who could talk from experience about the effects of suffering from these illnesses. It was, of course, a very small sample and it was clear even from those few that the impact is very individual – yes – they were all diagnosed as bi-polar – but it affected them in different ways. It is therefore a little more difficult to project that onto the full population.
There were commonalities – including a disconnection from reality (or at least a warped vision of it); a fear of the stigma associated with mental illness; pushing away friends and family and a difficulty sustaining any relationship; a gratefulness to those who stuck by them despite everything; a need to find ‘space’ often in solitude.
All in all, over recent months (and like the pupils in the documentary) I have become much more aware of the reality of mental illness – of the prevalence of mental health issues – and of the difficulty in spotting it sometimes. Once you get extra information – then it is possible to look back and see where it was missed. That should help “next time” – but it is no guarantee. For each of us, we look for “normal” – for what we expect – so it is easy to miss the rest.
I hope that this increased sensitivity to the issues will result in me being better able to understand them – undoubtedly an area where “feeding my ignorance” must continue!