Historically, talking about mental health in public has been discouraged. not anymore. Mental health, which society has long encouraged to open up to, and at the same time stifled it, is now being twisted into a polarizing touchpoint by conservative politicians.
To see how this is playing out in a way that hinders the state’s progress mental health movement, look no further than the sardine-filled 2024 Republican presidential primary. Mental illness has been weaponized politically. But who was surprised by the political riots over the new coronavirus vaccine?
busy From the stage of the National Rifle Association in 2023 At the (NRA) convention, now-disbanded White House frontrunners Donald Trump and Mike Pence made clear that the shootings were a mental health issue, not a gun issue. Such displays of bias are most commonly seen after tragic events such as the unparalleled number of mass shootings we have endured. It’s an extraneous tool for distraction.experts say Not only are most people with mental illness non-violent,but it is also much more likely to be. victim There are more violent crimes than perpetrators.
The medicalization of political subjects is what UCLA’s Dr. Daniel Carr declares to be the crossroads he is working on. Mental health is indeed political.
The NRA, in particular, has become a constant outlet for blaming mental health, which has a very effective impact on our mental health system, according to a board-certified clinical psychologist and author of “The Written Away”. Janos, author of Mental Health Stigma and Stigma. Loss of human potential. The NRA’s anti-mental health rhetoric is part of their daily denunciation campaign, which coincides with increased institutional funding to exclude people with mental health conditions from society.
According to Dr. Naomi Torres Mackie, a clinical psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, this response of blaming mental health is common. Given the complexity of mental health, it is often not understood. “We are emotional beings, and we fear what we don’t understand,” explained Dr. Torres Mackie. “We certainly talk more and more about mental health, but quantity and quality don’t always match up.”
Pence and Trump are not alone. There is a known spike in suicides among teenage girls, a somber reality that Republican presidential nominee Nikki Haley baselessly blames on transgender athletes of her generation. The former South Carolina governor spewed this factual and dehumanizing term at a recent rally. CNN City Hall. Asked how she defines “awakening,” which the right has repeatedly demonized, Haley stammers.“How do we get girls used to the fact that there is a biological boy in the locker room? And why did a third of teenage girls seriously consider suicide last year? I doubt it.”
Eliminating “mental health” to promote resilience not only creates more stigma and shame about mental health, but also fuels toxic positive thinking, said Dr. Torres Mackie.
Such instances of Republican candidates blaming mental health are not uncommon. Comments like those of Haley, Pence and Trump may seem like mere talk, but they are trying to erase decades of work to destigmatize mental illness. Taken together, these non-micro attacks by the candidates make the picture clear. The Republican presidential primary ended in detrimental mental health at the expense of vulnerable and marginalized communities. These comments made by political candidates in public can be interpreted as showing their own worth and can devalue people and make them feel worthless. Dr. Torres Mackie said there is.
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So if the Republican candidate secures the White House next year, what does this mean for the mental health situation? Well, Florida already has some sort of blueprint in place. Casey DeSantis, wife of President Trump’s rival Gov. Ron DeSantis, recently announced a mental health campaign in schools in Florida. Amid the onslaught of other accusatory interventions that Florida schools are enduring, First Lady DeSantis, despite the widespread cultural acceptance of her use of the racially charged word “resilience.” campaign “rejects the word mental health and replaces it with resilience.”
Eliminating “mental health” to promote resilience not only creates more stigma and shame about mental health, but also fuels toxic positive thinking, said Dr. Torres Mackie. This approach embodies the danger of returning to the days when children were encouraged not to talk about their difficulties and pain.
If Pence’s tenure as Governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017 is indicative of a potential mental health landscape under the Republican nomination, institutionalization, like the approach abandoned in the 1960s, is likely to continue. Efforts may be seen to return to the approach taken. Governor Pence’s speeches have grown in number, often addressing this point in institutionalized psychiatry, and he spearheaded the establishment of the Indianapolis psychiatric hospital, the Neurodiagnostic Institute, in 2019. I stood up and addressed this point.
“The desire to exclude people from society that they don’t understand and don’t know how to help is a fear-based response,” says Dr. Torres Mackie.
Agreeing with this, Dr. Janos argues that calls for institutionalized mental health care are a distraction rather than an answer, and that even if it were feasible, no one would be able to meet a serious need. I think it’s the kind of thing that makes people say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” even though it’s not real. policy level.
And it’s not just conservatives who support this approach.
New York City’s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams recently announced a mental health plan that was widely viewed. Institutionalized and Flawed Approach.
Targeting mental health as a scapegoat by the highest levels of political power has a trickle-down effect on individuals. Dr. Torres Mackie said that for people with no pre-existing mental health condition, being publicly stigmatized can lead to the development of a mental health condition. Moreover, this public stigma not only fosters stigma, acting as a barrier between individuals and treatment, but also hinders further funding for structural mental health change.
The more our political leaders target mental health as a justification, the more it harms, devalues, and stigmatizes the entire mental health system. Instead, mental health should be talked about as something that everyone experiences.
The answer here seems simple. If people fear mental illness because they don’t understand it, then all we need to do is increase mental health awareness and education. Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done, as this is one of many places where stigma becomes a barrier.
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