This thread speaks to the fundamental assumptions we make about mental health and asks us to question how much of what we consider mental "deficiencies" are innately connected to our schema for the valuation of human lives

Capitalism defines function as capacity for productivity https://twitter.com/art_twink/status/1283159388799135745

(Moving away from spectrum disorders which are covered thoroughly in the thread above)

It is incredibly common when people have approached me with depression or anxiety, to find that the negative self image they are grappling with is fundamentally about their capacity to produce

People who have a hard time finding work for instance, are more likely to internalize that they themselves are fundamentally flawed, and beat themselves up about it rather than properly laying the blame at the feet of the system that values lives by how much money they produce.

Our evaluation of ability in our society is binary and inextricably bound to one's perceived ability to find, secure and maintain employment

Our notion of disability itself is guided primarily by the question "But can you do work and generate income though?"

Millions of amazing, thoughtful, brilliant, talented people are constantly down on themselves or in a state of fight or flight because the only valuation they and those around them have been socialized to accept is tied to if they have a job and what kind of job they have.

Capitalism is exemplified by the Biblical story about workers being forced to make bricks without straw.

The system tasks us with a set level of expected production (9-5 M-F) but constantly reduces the amount of resources available (medical support, child support, mental health)

It should be obvious that our society puts people in an untenable position and refuses to recognize this as it continues making demands.

Instead, we internalize this.
We criticize and devalue ourselves
We criticize and devalue each other
We agonize
We lash out
We self medicate

One of the key components to disorders that involve ruminating, obsessing or fixation is that the part of your brain that is in charge of marking things "complete" isn't inclined to do so.

So your brain stays hungry, anxious, afraid, concerned, unsatiated.

It can't relax.

Capitalism by its nature does the same thing.

It sets the conditions such that feeling content and resolved is difficult if not impossible.

The driving idea behind it is that there is never enough. There is more to get and so it is your duty to get it.

We can't ever relax.

So we have a whole society that is geared to shut down the part of your brain that records and values completion and satiation.

So no matter how much we do, it's never enough and we can never take the time to appreciate our accomplishments because there's more to be done

How can we not be a society of depression, fatigue and anxiety?

In addition, we only make space for a narrow set of psychological configurations and deem anything outside that set as inherently dysfunctional.

Our entire view of function is dysfunctional.

Let me remind you

You are whole

You are not an impostor

Your value doesn't flow from your paycheck

You are not your job description

You have succeeded constantly and that's why you're here

There IS a system artificially burdening your soul

You are still you under it all