For me, someone who suffers from a major anxiety disorder, there is nothing worse than having someone tell me to suck it up and stop freaking out. For people suffering from anxiety, depression, and the other innumerable emotional disorders out there, ‘not freaking out’ or ‘being happier’ or what have you are things that take an immense amount of time, aid, and effort.
Unfortunately, mental health issues have often fallen by the wayside because they aren’t something that you can, for lack of a better word, see. You don’t have your brain in a sling, like, you know, if you had broken your arm. There are no stitches, no coughing, and no runny noses. This, along with the general naiveté of most of the world exemplified above, leads to the stigmas that mental …
… health issues mean you’re crazy, that you shouldn’t get help, and that they’re embarrassing and shouldn’t be talked about.
Both men and women can suffer from mental health issues. Unsurprisingly, though, women’s mental health issues (alright, let’s be honest here, women’s health issues in general) are not paid attention to.
Luckily, though, there seems to be a move to bring more attention to the topic.
As quoted by Express News Services:
Most of the psychiatric disorders in women remain unrecognised and untreated, and the number of mental disorders in women is higher than in men.
The reasons given for this are statistical, and include the fact that “up to 20 per cent of those who are attending primary healthcare in developing countries suffer from some kind of anxiety or depressive disorders,” which women are often afraid to address due to the stigma attached to seeking the help of psychiatric professionals.
It is good to see people acknowledging that the stigma associated with mental health issues is causing a lot of damage to individuals (both female and male) who are suffering from them. And, for all us readers out there, let’s be more (or continue to be!) conscious and receptive to learning about the expansive field that is mental health.
It is also ridiculously common for doctors to write off health concerns as mental issues.
I think part of the reason people don’t like to talk about mental disorders is because it’s so hard to empathize unless you’ve experienced it. I really have trouble understanding depression because the only time I’ve ever felt depressed I was taking a medication that I quickly stopped taking and the feelings subsided. This doesn’t mean I don’t think depression exists or that people that have it need to suck it up, but I do have trouble empathizing because I have no frame of reference. When someone is physically injured, I think it’s easier to empathize because most people have experienced a similar injury (ex. a broken arm isn’t all that different from a broken toe).
“Unsurprisingly, though, women’s mental health issues (alright, let’s be honest here, women’s health issues in general) are not paid attention to.”
Exactly who isn’t paying attention to woman’s health problems?
Didn’t the NFL just have all players from every team wear pink shoes and a pink ribbon on their jersey for breast cancer awareness month during every game a few weeks ago?
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81af0979/article/nfl-supports-breast-cancer-awareness-month-with-crucial-catch-campaign
This article is from an Indian website referring to Indian women but then you make a broad stroke of your pen and make a sweeping generalization that “unsurprisingly” not just womens mental health issues are ignored but all womens health issues in general are ignored.
So, I ask again, who is ignoring womens health issues?
@Brian, I think you’re right. While mental health issues are kind of taboo, women’s health in general isn’t really ignored in my experience.
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Never Overlook Mental Health Issues