Syn wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 10:55 pm
I posted this on MU, but I'll copy-paste it here too since I know many of you do not frequent that site. Sorry for the impending wall.
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I don't know how to feel about this.
Whenever corporations do these campaigns, it comes across condescending and fake. With MU and TS, I at least know it's meant genuinely, but it still feels condescending. The announcement post felt like I was being talked down to.
I try to balance my perspective by observing how other people respond to campaigns like this, and it seems to be a hit with the majority. So I recognize, at least to some extent, that I'm an outlier when it comes to this.
I dunno.
To be told there's always help, that I should just talk to people, that "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem," it just all feels very gross. The reality is that this isn't true for a lot of people. There isn't always help. Talking doesn't always act as relief. And these "temporary problems" often aren't temporary. It's condescending to be told I've failed to access the help that's supposedly available to me, or that I just haven't figured out how to solve a temporary issue. People in crisis, or approaching crisis, certainly aren't in the best frame of mind, but can anyone really say with a straight face that there is
always help? That friends and family are
always available? That all problems are
always temporary? If I say I can't access help, that my problems are forever or long term enough to be equivalent, am I helped if someone pats me on the head and tells me I'm wrong? Am I respected? Acknowledged? What good was that person's "awareness" if it requires belittling and discrediting me and my lived experience?
While I don't go out of my way to hide my issues, I am also cagey about sharing specifics. People who know me know that I am troubled, though not to what extent nor how. There is a reason for this. The reason is that, frankly, the vast majority of people are not equipped to deal with complicated, personal, intimate problems. If I were to follow the advice from all these campaigns, my mental health would get worse, not better, and funnily enough,
that is more stigmatizing to me. It's this indictment of who I fundamentally am. I'm so broken that even the pro-help side is totally inaccessible to me. I'm told to do this, to do that, and everyone is
so certain that it'll help, and I'm in the uncomfortable position of saying well, no, it doesn't help. What am I doing wrong? These tips are so universally lauded. Everyone is so sure. It's gone from mental health is fake to mental health is real, yet somehow monolithic. The help is just as nonexistent for people like me on both sides of that spectrum.
I don't exactly know where I am going with this. I guess I just wanted to voice that these things are inevitably exclusionary toward the demographic you're trying to cater to. It'll help a lot of people, and I have no doubt that it'll educate them too, but the way the campaign is structured and reasoned is inherently going to result in many falling through the cracks or being silenced, or in some cases, made to feel worse instead of better.
Just as an example... and I want to stress here that I am in no way upset with the people who came up with the idea, so apologies and what-have-you are unnecessary... but I saw a mock-up where a banner will include the mental health awareness campaign on TS. And for someone in my position, that is amazingly harmful. I'm in an active mental health crisis right now. I have been on the precipice for
years. I engage in recreational activities to have fun, to give myself reasons to keep going another day. Mafia is one of those recreational activities. I don't want to access a recreational activity multiple times a day and be reminded, in big bold font, of just how miserable my life is. That I should be "aware" of being on the edge. But I don't need help being more aware. I am too aware already. I don't need to be reminded, because my mind reminds me every minute of every day.
And that's the issue, isn't it? To most reading, a big banner about mental health awareness
isn't harmful. It makes mental health public. It encourages discussion. Maybe it'll help people get help with their anxiety or depression. These are net goods. And yet it can also harm the people you're wanting others to be aware of.
What's the solution? No clue. On TS, I asked for the banner to be opt out. That seems like an idea. But with all this other stuff, like the language surrounding getting help or coping, I don't have any clear solutions. It probably helps more people than it hurts, and you can't cater to every individual perspective. Maybe I am just offering this viewpoint as something to chew on, and nothing more.