Consider This from NPR What's Really Causing America's Mental Health Crisis?
Sep 24, 2022
Danielle Carr, an Assistant Professor at UCLA known for her expertise in the social politics of mental health, discusses America’s troubling mental health crisis. She highlights the surge in anxiety and depression, especially among the youth during the pandemic. Carr advocates addressing root socioeconomic issues rather than simply implementing more screenings. She questions the effectiveness of seeing mental health solely through a medical lens and emphasizes the importance of considering political and economic contexts in understanding anxiety.
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Mental Health as a Political Crisis
- Americans are experiencing despair due to biological changes in the brain.
- These changes are caused by the stress of surviving in increasingly difficult circumstances.
Economic Inequality and Mental Health
- Most Americans have experienced declining real income and wages since the 1970s.
- Ordinary life is becoming harder for most, while the elite continue to profit.
Medicalization of Mental Health
- There's a unique medical framing of mental health issues currently.
- This stands out due to a consumer movement destigmatizing mental health while neglecting root causes.