To think we wouldn't have as many MH problems if we lived differently

[Ginlette]

Panic attacks, anxiety, depression...

How much of this is happening because of the way our society is set up?

If we all lived in fairly small communities and had good relationships with friends and family near by, would we have these issues? If we had stable work that didn't feel like an impossible workload and paid fairly?

I'm even beginning to wonder whether "positives" of modern living are actually subtly undermining our MH as a society.

• The obvious examples being the Internet and phones, but also..
• Mobility: looks good on paper, but maybe the idea of the world being your oyster subconsciously is anxiety inducing?
• Travel: fun but frequent travel again contributes
• Home ownership and improvements, style & beauty inprovements: again this idea of we have choice, but is it contributing to a low level sense of always chasing?
• More freedom of partner and freedom to have children or be childfree: but does it create a "What if?" sensation past generations wouldn't have had fluttering at the edges of their mind?
• Remote working/self employed: I have done this for over a decade but does it maybe contribute to a sense of no base, no community?

I should say, to caveat my earlier post, I don't agree with the bit about choice whether to have children or not. That's a great thing. But living a more genuinely connected, slower life didn't always mean women had to conform.
Women in my family have always worked, and had interesting lives some of them. I'm from a long line of independent women!

In the past, most of our mental energy was devoted to staying alive, making sure we had shelter, foods, etc. There was a direct connection between what we did with our time and the impact on our individual lives. The advent of agriculture and then, millennia later, the Industrial Revolution, changed that significantly. I quite like Marx's theory of alienation to explain how this leaves people feeling unfulfilled with their lives. Modern living (for many in the West, anyway) has IMO created an interesting paradox. We have created a world in which we have more free time and head space than ever to develop ourselves (think Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid) but in doing so we have created a world that works so much against the natural things that humans want (a sense of connection with others etc). Being encouraged to move where the jobs are fractures relationships and communities; endless pursuit of profit for others removes the feeling of contribution to society, etc.

I had a conversation once with a MH nurse who said that in her opinion mental health was worse because society let people languish at home alone. She was not supporting the removal of benefits. She was making the point that people live alone far more than they used to and being home alone, with time on your hands, makes many MH matters worse. In the past people had more social support and for many sheer survival needs would have forced them out to work, therefore mixing with others. They simply didn't have time to overthink and make themselves worse. (She was discussing generalised anxiety and depression here, not something more organic like schizophrenia.) While you can find lots of holes in that argument, I thought it was an interesting point.

In the words of the cheesy song, "Freedom's just another word for nothig left to lose"

To be honest I think lots jump on the mental health bandwagon and use it as an excuse to not work/not work many hours/avoid doing something they rather not do. Of course, there are lots suffering too but I think resilience is at an all time low. Social media obviously exacerbates the issue and makes it more “known”.

It’s interesting you mention exams. Everyone I know around my age still has nightmares about exams (including one friend who frequently dreams she’s in an exam but her eyes are sewn shut so she can’t see the paper).

If teenagers do something that causes them to have recurring nightmares 25 years later, maybe exams really are pretty bad for mental health…?

There is an interesting theory that spending more energy on physical work / movement / exercise leaves less energy for over-worrying / stress, and so those who are more physically active are, in general, less prone to anxiety and depression. There's no suggestion that it's a cure, it is possible of course to be both depressed and a marathon runner. But as a rough rule, it's an interesting theory. As someone who's quite an anxious and depressive person, I want to put this to the test in 2024.

I do agree however the issues you’ve listed are rather privileged.

insecure housing- if you rent you can be booted out with 2 months notice
work security- lots of new jobs are on insecure contracts and don’t pay enough
community- a big one, we all need one. For some being away from family is exactly what is needed but it’s hard to make your own community when your other basic needs take up all your time. Many people have to move away from their community due to insecure housing and jobs.

the 80s were all yuppies and stock markets!

Expectations, people have daft expectations.
Choices, people make bad choices.

Sometimes they make ridiculous choices because they have stupid expectations.

Social media has a lot to answer for I think.
Instagram, Facebook, all the “look at my wonderful life” stuff. It makes everyone feel like an inadequate failure.

low mood used to be blamed on the miserable east enders/coronation street, or is that miserable to make us feel better about ourselves?
television adverts/consumerism/fomo - not good
it is perfectly natural to feel low in january

You are right. Women are run ragged. We were sold a lie, you can't have everything.

If you don't take care of your dopamine, serotonin, glutamate and gaba levels you will see impacts on your mood, sleep and wellbeing.

The modern world is set up to impact on these - cars, ultra-processed food, sedentary lifestyles, a disconnection from the land and others etc. However I'm not sure we should pathologise it and wring our hands as though it's just happening to us and we have no autonomy. There are things we can do to mitigate and if we choose not to take steps to deal with stress, anxiety and depression then we have to take responsibility for it. I've had clinical depression, drug induced psychosis and an eating disorder. The only real 'fix' had been walking the shit out of my body, studying the shit out of my mind, talking the shit out of my issues and EMDR. There are steps you can take to strengthen your brain chemistry and rebalance it.

well said @Rangelife

was it the 1960s there was an explosion in valium being prescribed?

I think working class years ago referred to poor mental health as “my nerves” and self medicated with fags and drink. Now we medicate with phone addiction. I’m old enough to remember people older than me talking about it in this way. My GM was definitely a depressive but had to just get on with it.

They had community but very hard and miserable lives - tragedy and hardship a constant. People have always had mental health issues but I do agree that self isolation/ lack of connection is affecting people’s mental health today.

I think your bullet points offer fantastic opportunities for some but the opposite for many.

I totally agree OP. But I believe different aspects of the society have different effects on different people. As a family unit, we probably had the best mental health during lock down. We discovered that a slower pace of life, fewer expectations, less socialising etc really worked for us. Others found that insufferable. I also feel my son, who we suspect has ASD would not find life so stressful if there were fewer expectations in him (school etc), and more consistency, which goes against modern life, although we attempting to create it for him.

There was a documentary on bcc from the 60s focusing on poor community life and people were referring to “me nerves” and saying cigarettes were essential for their nerves even though they had very little money

My mental health difficulties have nothing to do with the things you listed. Partner with cancer, having a severely disabled teenager and health and social care being arseholes are the issues for me.

I think humans live very unnaturally now, in relation to how our brains are evolved. We're adaptable, sure, but there comes a point.

This!

studies have shown that as humans. We must interact. Social media has stopped us talking face to face which has a HUGE part to do with mental health and how we work as humanity.

we need to get rid of social media which not only stops us talking but we are different behind a screen….this is a proven fact.

social media is nuclear to the human race and the creators know this! Watch videos of some of the start up people say this exact thing.

There is a definite lack of caring/sympathy these days. In call the midwife new mums stayed in bed and were waited on but now you are expected to be up and back to normal straight away. 4 of my dc have high functioning autism/Aspergers syndrome and I'm always being told that it's not "proper autism". Also there is an unrealistic expectation from tv and social media about what life is like. People on tv wake up from a coma and are sitting up in bed having a chat straight away and going home in the next episode but it doesn't work like that. I had a massive shock when I had babies at 35 and 36 weeks because I didn't think they would have any problems at that gestation. But they both spent time in the nicu and both have long term problems from being born early.

I also find that some people are more dramatic these days. They talk about being "rushed to hospital" and " the worst case of tonsilitus the Dr had ever seen". When covid hit, loads of people were telling everyone who would listen that they were vulnerable and then had a massive strop when they weren't on the CEV/CV list.

I’m unsure really.

The low pay crisis and cost of housing is surely causing more MH issues than anything else?

I would go completely insane if I had to live in a community where everyone popped in and out of each other’s houses and lives, I need a certain amount of isolation to survive.

I do agree that SM is toxic, and I don’t use it at all (unless we include MN)

Freedom has to be a good thing, and we do have more choices and more options.

Agree.