Mental health and the patriarchy.

[poshsinglemum]

To what extent does the patriarchy contribute to the poor mental health of both men and women? I am thinking along the lines of men ''unable'' to express their emotions due to rigid gender stereotypes and women taking valium when staying at home to look after the kids. I know that these are stereotypes in themselves but please tell me your insights!

It has been well documented that Sylvia Plath was chronically depressed due to Ted Hughes infidelity. Is this patriarchy or simply human nature?
Virginia Woolf had a distrust of the psychiatriactric profession marking it out as a male dominated/patriarchal system even though she had major mentalhealth issues.

Do you think that woemn are seen as ''hysterical or mad'' under a patriarchal system as it seeks to repress the emotional side of life.

Also; why does patriarchy dismiss emotions when they are such an important part of everyday existence? Is it not possible to be both rational AND emotional? Does it serve to justify the staus quo and capitalist alienation from nature? Phew!

knobbing
I find your posts on mental illness offensive. Offensive and incorrect.

I make my posts as simplistic as possible because a person I admire once told me that if you can explain something in a simple way then it shows that you've thoroughly understood it.

yes and not to mention that a woman on her third child may have the added stresses of two other children to take care of this time, or a death in the family, or an iminent divorce, or financial worries, or birth trauma, or any other number of factors that mean that this time she has been pushed over the edge.

"IME/O genetics are a big issue, look at the links between bi polar and family incidence."

Yes, I have looked at it because I have a family member or two with serious mental health problems. Have you ever been raised by a parent who had untreated bipolar disorder? Do you think that such a person is in a position to nurture their children properly?
The answer is no. And this then causes mental health problems for their own children. THis is an environmental factor, not a genetic one.

erm, if PND is completely 'random' and affects people without any discernible pattern, then why do women get asked those questions about their work, family, sexual past etc? aren't there 8 common factors that make it far more likely that a woman will have pnd?

when i had dd, i had 7 of the 8 factors that contribute. i also had horrific, debilitating ante-natal depression (requiring emergency visits & talk of hospitalisation). so i was a prime candidate for pnd, and I know my gp was quite worried about me.

however, the moment dd was born, the depression disappeared. in fact, the next morning, i had almost forgotten how i had felt the day before.the birth was badly handled, drawn out & quite traumatic, yet i still woke up a few hours later completely refreshed in my mind. i had spent all night dreaming that 'they' were coming to take dd away from me & give me an ugly baby, so it's not like I had instantly 'got over' the problems i'd had and re-socialised myself. along with the constant morning sickness, the depression just vanished when dd arrived.

so from my personal experience (in a study of 1) it would seem that depression can have social causes - otherwise why do gps check for a woman's background when looking at depression? AND it seems to have some kind of organic cause - otherwise how did i recover, literally overnight, from depression so bad that i couldn't leave the house?

i know my experience is totally unscientific, but i think it just exemplifies how complex this is, how we can't just point to one cause. the human brain is not really understood enough to come up with answers.

kickass, perhaps you were just happy to no longer be pregnant with an impending birth ahead of you. a pregnant woman is literally trapped in her own body and she knows the only release from this captivity is through pain. I don't understand why that doesn't 'worry' more women.

Morning sickness- there is no escape from the constant nausea (coz you can't take drugs when you're pregnant) and this can't be good for mental health. It would get anyone down, pregnant or not, male or female.

Also the hormones during birth are designed to make you feel wonderful

Well my story

My birth mother had severe scizophrenia and my birth father left the scene

I was then raised by my maternal grandmother and step grandfather.

My step grandfather was abusive and my grandmother co dependent. How the fuck I survived and turned out 'okay' is beyond me. I have had my trials though.

I self harmed as a teenager and I allowed myself to be used by men occasionally. Thankfully I have a lovely husband and beautiful children now. I had a lot of therapy.

My point is that feminism is definately relevant to these issues. I am sure that my birth mother's illness was caused by my abusive grandmother BUT she had an abusive, drunk father. Look back through a dysfunctional family tree long enough and I bet abuse of power by men features somewhere.

I absolutely believe that mental illness is circumstantial. Some maybe more inclined due to biological factors maybe, but if we were more open as a society about sexual abuse and any kind of abuse, I bet you will find abuse features in many if not all cases of mental illness.

My adoptive father believes that women who get raped ask for it if they dress provocatively. That it is a woman's responsibility to use protection as men can't help themselves. He bullied me and I now believe molested me. Oh and guess what his father was a drunk bully too who would beat his wife

I have no doubt that my past anxiety and depression is related to this vile man. It was only by discussing the abuse openly I had the courage to heal and cut him out of my life. He is a woman hater, I see that now.

This issue is so pertinent to the mental health of wifes, daughters and sisters everywhere I cannot believe it isn't at the heart of training for mental health professionals

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and what about those that have no contact with a birth mother who has an EMI? and still develop it? and those who grow up second generation and develop it? and those whos father is treated and still develop it? and the twin studies?

Circumstances and social factors are definitely important but so are genetics.

You view on this seems naive to say the least.

Lizards sound interesting...

SaF you have no idea what my experience is and nor do i know yours. I am fully aware of the different classes of anti depressants on how they work, and the actually fact they do work. absence may of been the wrong word, may be lack of would of been better.

Not only serotonin but in tricyclics norepinephrine and dopamine, and MAOIs also increase levels of all three neurotransmitters by inhibiting an enzyme responsible for inactivating them.

The point is they do work, a lot of the time and along with psychotherapy if appropriate, people can recover well, as far as I am aware studies show combined therapy has a much better out come than one single line of treatment, that tells me a physical component can not be ruled out, but I get the feeling we live in parallel worlds.

I was not referring to you misquoting me, it was sakura.

Will stick with lack thanks :)

So you say and judging what else you say i am not too worried :)

I think a fluctuation is normal Dittany.

Well there is an argument that the first stages of love are equivalent to mental illness, Dittany - though whether this is a positive or negative thing is going to depend at least partly on factors like - is the love reciprocated? Is the beloved an arse?

I strongly believe that my mother's post natal depression and subsequent bipolar disorder was caused by her HORRENDOUS birth with me.

She was induced as was late by two weeks (in France this is not even considered late) and her feet were put in syrups so that she couldn't bare down properly. She lost a huge amount of blood and they thought that she would die. It messed her up big time.And me too tbh.

unecessary dig about patriarchy and lizards SGB Why would you dig at someone who is trying to work through the appalling way women are treated in the mental health system
Or are you saying women designed our mental health system? If you think that you're wrong.

don't be silly poshsinglemum. WOmen get depressed because they've got "womenhormones" and "womangenes" not because of a rational reaction to an unbearable event or circumstance.

Or so knobbing would have us believe...

One of Greer's diamonds:

"A depressed tiger is not ill because it's a tiger, but because it's in a cage"

very sorry what happened to your mum.
It's just barbaric.

Sakura: Because, while the mental health system is deeply flawed, your apocalyptic posts ('It;s The Patriarchy! We're all Doooooomed') do not exactly offer a way forward.
And not all women want to be SAHMs or to be mothers at all, so blaming everything on the mistreatment of mothers is daft.