Read on Twitter
Last week, I severed a twitter relationship — with a Christian pastor — largely because that person repetitively chose to use the hashtag #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder in his tweets while claiming to desire good faith dialogue about my views.
A thread...
1/12
A thread...
1/12
This morning, my path intersected with a video of Tucker Carlson claiming the same idea: "Sixty-four percent of white Americans who classify themselves as 'liberal' or 'very liberal' have been diagnosed with an actual mental health condition."
2/12
2/12
What Tucker and my tweep (who shall remain anonymous) don't realize is that they're telling on themselves.
Not only is the argument disingenuous about the distinction between correlation and causation, it exposes their choice to perpetuate stigma about mental illness.
3/12
Not only is the argument disingenuous about the distinction between correlation and causation, it exposes their choice to perpetuate stigma about mental illness.
3/12
I'm a seminary trained pastor.
I work in community based mental health.
I'm a grad school student actively learning the complex art and science of diagnosis to obtain licensure as a marriage and family therapist.
4/12
I work in community based mental health.
I'm a grad school student actively learning the complex art and science of diagnosis to obtain licensure as a marriage and family therapist.
4/12
I also facilitate weekly domestic violence intervention groups for male batterers who are court ordered for participation.
Every man in my group is far right in their conservative beliefs.
They all fear mental health diagnoses that would offer a pathway to healing.
5/12
Every man in my group is far right in their conservative beliefs.
They all fear mental health diagnoses that would offer a pathway to healing.
5/12
The problem isn't that liberals have a mental disorder.
More likely, the problem is that conservatives — primarily dominant culture individuals — are too arrogant to seek help because they don't understand how their privilege isn't everyone's normal experience.
6/12
More likely, the problem is that conservatives — primarily dominant culture individuals — are too arrogant to seek help because they don't understand how their privilege isn't everyone's normal experience.
6/12
But this thread isn't about privilege — that's another thread for another day.
7/12
7/12
At present, intimate partner violence shows up in the DSM as a z code — a relational dysfunction that is recognized and needs future research, but doesn't yet make enough neurological sense to categorize as a mental health disorder within an individual.
8/12
8/12
Our inability to explain the science today doesn't negate that violence between people in relationship as a grave illness.
And which partisan group is obsessed with violence — to the degree that they baptize their faith in it while projecting it upon their enemies?
9/12
And which partisan group is obsessed with violence — to the degree that they baptize their faith in it while projecting it upon their enemies?
9/12
All of this to say:
Mental health services are not a propaganda game.
If you're a conservative, I'd suggest you check the voices who speak for your group.
10/12
Mental health services are not a propaganda game.
If you're a conservative, I'd suggest you check the voices who speak for your group.
10/12
Stigmatizing access to mental health services is a life-or-death, zero-sum game:
The more you reject it, the more alienation some feel by accessing the support they need.
The less you value it, the more normalized violence and other disorders become in society.
11/12
The more you reject it, the more alienation some feel by accessing the support they need.
The less you value it, the more normalized violence and other disorders become in society.
11/12
Liberals accepting access to mental health diagnoses as a pathway to healing isn't weakness — and it isn't disordered.
It's honest.
It's mature.
It's admirable.
Why would any conservative weaponize this?
Why refuse a pathway to be healthy
Who is really ill here?
12/12
It's honest.
It's mature.
It's admirable.
Why would any conservative weaponize this?
Why refuse a pathway to be healthy
Who is really ill here?
12/12
