To struggle to believe people who say they’ve “never thought about their mental health”?

[HeartyCyanEagle]

I recently read an interview with Joan Collins where she said “I never have thought about my mental health, ever. My mental health is perfect.”

I find statements like that fascinating more than anything. Not because I think everyone must be mentally ill, be traumatised or constantly analyse themselves. But because being human inevitably involves stress, grief, insecurity, anxiety, emotional conflict, disappointment, loss, fear etc at some point.
I also sometimes wonder whether older celebrities/public figures from certain generations define “mental health” very differently altogether.

For example, Joan Collins has obviously lived an extraordinarily dramatic/public/emotionally eventful life across decades - multiple marriages, fame, pressure, heartbreak, public scrutiny etc, which is partly why I find the idea of someone never having reflected on their mental health genuinely fascinating.

So when people say they’ve literally never thought about their mental health, I sometimes wonder whether it reflects generational attitudes, repression/stoicism, different definitions of mental health, image management or genuinely just a very psychologically resilient temperament.

AIBU?

I have never thought about mine, I have sadness, happiness etc but all is related to my life. I’m not sure it’s even healthy for people who have “healthy” mental health to over analyse normal feelings

This. When I'm sad I'm not depressed. Even if I'm really really sad, it's for a reason. When I'm really happy it's not mania I'm just happy. I don't really "think about" those feelings but if I did I would consider them to be emotions, not a mental health condition / mental illness.

I'm aware that it is a privilege not to have to think about one's mental, or physical, health.

I don’t give it a thought. I worry at times, we have some health and wealth challenges at times. Sometimes we are busy or stressed, other times we are chilled.

Its just life and what it can throw at you.

i do think we need to move away from this “my mental health is bad” crap and accept that sometimes life is great and sometimes its shit.

I’m in my 70s and have had the usual ups and downs, bereavements etc and a recent cancer diagnosis but I can honestly say I have been lucky that none of these things has had a lasting impact on my mental health.

I'm in my 50s.
I did experience stress, grief, insecurity, anxiety, emotional conflict, disappointment, loss, fear etc many times in my life. And felt depressed and a didn't want to wake up many times. This is all part of life. I never thought about my mental health - all emotions I experienced are normal, they are not illness.
Modern obsession with medicalisation of normal emotions is unhealthy.

I’ve never really thought about my “mental health”. I’ve had times I’ve felt really down - losing my mum in her 50’s and a miscarriage for example, and obviously I was incredibly sad for a while through both of those experiences, and obviously missing my mum is and always will be an ongoing grief. But I wouldn’t say that it’s impacted my whole “mental health”. I’m not depressed due to it. Just miss her and wish she was here.
and also times I’ve been incredibly happy!

poor mental health isn’t the same as non acceptance of difficult emotions.

honestly I suspect Joan Collins is pretty thick and pretty narcissistic.

protecting and maintaining your menta health is as important as your physical health. Who would say “I’ve never given a seconds thought to my physical health! The heart hasn’t stopped so no need to give it a thought”

JC is the same generation as my late mum.

Unlike JC, DM grew up in grinding poverty and had to leave school at 14 to work in the mill and hand her wages over to her mum.

They just got on with things. Didn't pathologise normal human emotions like sadness, nervousness and shyness. Some women had trouble with their "nerves" and were to be pitied. They understood that life was hard. Didn't angst about the "mental load" or "life admin." Having been children during WW2 they would be bewildered by parents claiming their kids suffered during lockdown, being "socially anxious" "depressed" or "school avoidant."

I"m not romanticising that generation but I we could learn a lot from their fortitude and resilience.

Yes, pity is a much better response than connection, understanding and empathy.

They didn’t really achieve or do anything though did they? Housewives, working in a factory, maybe the typing pool. Cleaning the house.

not really a hard life is it? There was no emotional load. There was no I have to run back to the childminder taking a teams call on my phone in the car, make dinner, pay for the school trips, transfer money on the banking app, log on and finish a board paper etc etc etc

Unless your mentally ill or have a close friend/ relative who is then why would you think about it. I have a severe mental illness but I don't expect the average person in the general public to understand what that actually means.

Wow. So people who transgress social norms and exhibit recognisable markers of distress are just not resilient enough, in your world? Do you have any ideas as to how they can attain resilience?

They lived through a world war, but you think your life is more stressful because you have to multitask?
How dumb is that…

No. Why would you think it’s my problem to solve?

Well you're full of ideas about what they're doing wrong. I thought you might have a few ideas about how to do things right.

I don’t think you understood my post because your response makes no sense

There is a world of difference between human emotion and the rollercoaster of life, and significant and enduring mental health illness. Some pp seem to suggest that people jump straight to MH when they’re having a bad day,
or those who have MH illness are “navel gazers”, it’s incredibly dismissive and insensitive.

What you’ve listed in the OP aren’t mental health conditions, they’re just normal human emotions.

See, I don't think there is a world of difference. After all, we're all in the same world. There is no other life. Most people find some things really hard. Most of us need a hand every now and then. If we don't get that hand, we might be ok eventually. Or we might not.

If we're not ok eventually, we might get diagnosed with a mental health condition. Or, we might spend our time being really nasty and dismissive about those who are diagnosed. Either way, something's amiss.

Maybe I have misunderstood, can you explain what you meant in case I have?

Are you being deliberately obtuse or are you just not very bright?
What exactly do you think you are achieving on your teams call exactly that those people were not achieving in a factory? Do you really think running around making calls is the ultimate achievement?
Perhaps those people in the factory were making clothes that kept everyone warm in winter or house bricks that built the house you live in. They would have done extremely long hours in horrific conditions from the age of about 14, but yeah, sure....I'm sure your phone call or teams meeting 'achieves' so much in comparison 🙄
The housewives often fed multiple generations of a large family with minimal modern conveniences and often on a very low budget (that factory didn't pay her husband much money despite him often doing 50-60 hours a week). When they weren't cooking they were sweeping floors, beating rugs or washing clothes by hand. They couldn't relax at the weekend as all food still needed to be made by hand and there was a good chance the husband would be in work anyway.
Your lack of knowledge about how people lived such a few short generations ago is astonishing.

If you misunderstood then so did I!

It's just one of those WWII fet takes from someone born many decades after it ended who feels the need to crowbar it in at every opportunity.

I don’t think I’m achieving anything. I am explaining why your brain finds it harder to process these things than it did sitting in the typing pool for 6 hours

THE WAR HAPPENED AROUND THEM! THEY EXPERIENCED IT!

And of course, it was both tragic and had no impact on them as they were so robust, it didn’t affect them one bit.

must’ve forgotten about the silent generation and the generational trauma they instilled in the baby boomers I guess