Read on Twitter
I'm tired of people pushing therapy as the ultimate solution to mental illness.I feel like "get professional help" rhetoric is becoming a way of individualizing mental health issues rather than addressing the structural oppression that causes them.
Finding a therapist that accepts what you're going through as real is hard for many considering MH professional spaces are dominated by white able-bodied neurotypical woman. Seeing a therapist that doesn't get or believe in what you're going through can be retraumatising.
Few have the time, emotional energy, and money to "shop around" to find someone that works. And while it's a helpful tool to cope with the mental impacts, you can't CBT yourself out of tangible inequality and structural oppression.
I'm not saying therapy is bad, it's not! But just that it's not a solution to mental illness, and treating it as such ignores the existing access barriers, as well as erasing the very real fact that a lot of mental illness comes directly from the trauma of structural oppression.
Many people would have anxiety and depression to a lesser degree if they had financial security, cultural belonging and equality, and access to meet their physical needs. To pretend that these people just need to learn mindfulness and they'll be good to go, is not okay or honest.
Btw I don't consider #ADHD to be a mental illness! This tweet was about mental health generally.
But I have found mental health professionals woefully ill-equipped to deal with the anxiety and depression unmanaged ADHD can manifest into in a meaningful way.
But I have found mental health professionals woefully ill-equipped to deal with the anxiety and depression unmanaged ADHD can manifest into in a meaningful way.
