Do inequalities impact Mental Health?

Mental illness has been disregarded, misunderstood, stigmatized, and, for a long time, wrongly treated for generations. Much of this is changing now, while misunderstanding and stigma remain still prevalent. As a culture, we still have a long way to go before the entire scope of mental health issues and the harm they cause to our individual and collective well-being is completely recognized and addressed. More than 500 million people around the world are affected by mental illness. Daily struggles and battles that these people go through are still un-said and largely undocumented. It exists amongst us and still, we are unaware of it, reducing its possibilities of recovery and progress.

A major factor that strongly influences our fight against mental health is the divide — the barriers we have created in terms of gender, status, income levels, caste, or any other. They not only impede the path of growth but also affect the well-being of a person. It pushes you backward emotionally, breaks you down slowly, and kills the spirit inside.

It seems that the process is internal, but it is highly influenced by factors from outside. Social inferiority turns to social isolation which later translates to social defeat. We all have listened to hundreds of stories of oppression turning people to their knees making people fight for even the basic of human needs. Don’t you think that the mental well-being of those people was under threat?

Division creates barriers wherein the growth of one comes at the cost of the other. Social Dominance and subordination that have been institutionalized in our societies have caused unrepairable harm to the lives of hundreds. The struggle these hardships cause is real and true and we need to view them as problems we need to find solutions for. Sweden offers an answer. Sweden, a country with a robust health infrastructure but low-income inequality sees a lesser rate of mental health disorders than the UK or the USA both with a strong health system but high-income inequality.

It is important to understand what goes through a person’s mind when he faces inequality — his morale starts shaking, he losses his sense of belonging, starts feeling left out of the larger group, becomes an outsider. Such labeling makes an impact wherein the person slowly and steadily losses sight and becomes a victim of mental illness. This does not mean that only poverty is the basis for inequality, a person who is left out feels unequal will also go through a similar journey respite his status.

So, it is important that we create opportunities for free communication wherein people can express themselves and slowly start towards building a society on the fundamental principles of sharing and giving back. This will surely be a slow process but we need to keep the communication going — because this is the only way in which we can motivate others to come and reach out. As Glenn Close famously said “What Mental Health needs is more sunlight, more candor and more unashamed conversation.”