Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Minister, has got into hot water by saying just that, claiming that the diagnosis of mental problems "may have gone too far" and wanting to push 150,000 people with "mild conditions" back into work.
Of course there's no evidence that thousands of people are effectively "faking it" and developing non-existent mental problems, but that didn't stop Mel Stride making such wild statements. Just because he's mentally healthy (or so one assumes), he imagines that everyone else would be mentally healthy if they just got a grip.
Anyway, why would anyone claim to have a mental illness at the present time when it's never been harder to get therapy or treatment, when the NHS is currently overwhelmed with demand? They'd just be making life difficult for themselves.
Has Mel Stride ever talked to anyone with a severe mental disorder and grasped exactly how debilitating and crushing it can be? It doesn't sound like it. He just delivers a casual slap in the face and adds insult to injury.
He would be well advised not to parade his ignorance.
Pic: Mel Stride
My father always claimed all illness was just in your head. In a way he was right about some of it since the stress he caused resulted in a lot of symptoms. I can't imagine how frustrated he must have been when my mom, two bothers, and I all came down with the Asian flu so he had to take off work to care for us. I was too sick to know about all that but Mom told me so years later. I guess the lung cancer that killed him must have been all in his head as well.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: Yes, so the lung cancer was all in his head? And did he never get any other kind of illness? Flu, migraines, arthritis?
DeleteHe had arthritis but he didn't think of it as an illness.
DeleteLinda
Linda: I see. A convenient interpretation!
Deletethecontemplativecat here I am so sorry to hear about your father. Some dads created an atmosphere of anxiety and fear to control his family. Mel S Tride is an idiot. He is being so politically proactive in his treatment of mentally ill patients by tossing th em to the streets?
ReplyDeleteContemplativecat: Just another politician trying to boost his public profile by saying something dramatic and controversial.
DeleteHe has a bit of a point, as there are many who claim to have mental illnesses like autism and OCD, but have never been diagnosed. I suspect like autism, there’s a spectrum that many of these illnesses fall on. Why do some claim an illness without ‘proof’? The attention or just the feeling of standing out in the crowd?
ReplyDeleteBijoux: I agree that self diagnosis without any formal confirmation or evidence (except Doctor Google) is extremely dubious.
DeleteHello Nick.
ReplyDeleteI saw this article and I immediately thought about your recent post in which I said something about the over-emphasis on mental health which is probably driving a so-called mental health crisis in UK.
It's good to talk about mental health so people don't suffer. But, for younger generations especially, it's part of a broader cultural shift.
I have a friend who diagnosed himself with stuff, even putting it on his social media bio, and I think it's a way to mollycoddled by society. My issues is that if we create a culture which gives people an easy excuse, people will nearly always take it. People then don't need to take accountability for their improvements because they'd rather have an excuse than a result. And it's not what mental health is really supposed to be about.
A recent Economist article:
"The case to re-examine the way that mental health is talked about and treated in Britain rests on two arguments. First, that demand for mental-health services has been artificially inflated. Second, that this increased demand is inadvertently harming people who most need help."
https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/12/07/britains-mental-health-crisis-is-a-tale-of-unintended-consequences
Have a nice Sunday. Liam :)
Liam: Interesting about your friend who diagnosed himself. Certainly I think some people claim a mental illness so that other people will treat them with kid gloves. Unfortunately those with genuine mental problems aren't getting the immediate help they need because of the desperately overwhelmed mental health services.
DeleteIt's all on a spectrum, and I reckon most of us are a bit doo-lally to some degree!! With that in mind, I seriously think there should be more Talk therapy around for the milder cases.
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P.S I think I agree with Liam - especially the end of his comment about increased demand harming people who most need help.
DeleteSome of the people with mild symptoms may only need someone to listen to them.
Sx
Ms Scarlet: Agreed, we're all a bit bonkers under the appearance of "normality". And of course mild symptoms can become much more serious
Deleteif they aren't dealt with at an early stage.
Whenever I see this kind of ignorant assholery I think to myself: imagine being married to this insensitive clod. And being mentally ill from doing so.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
www: Indeed, who would want to be his wife?
DeleteYou'll remember the scandals around institutional care which led to the Care in the Community programmes....the costs to be borne by local government rather than the NHS. Followed by the continual squeeze on local authority grants from central government, to be followed by private 'health' suppliers taking up the slack resulting in the same institutional problems which Care in the Community was supposed to resolve.
ReplyDeleteCare in mental health is fragmented, inefficient and under funded, one result being that people with genuine mental problems are ending up in prison rather than in care.
In the workplace I would like to see HR resources applied to staff feeling that they have mental health problems, to help them stay at work with the feeling that they have backing...but the buggers are too busy covering their companies' backs in respect of DIE legislation to actually show some care for their colleagues and make the economic point to their bosses of keeping valuable staff happy and productive.
Helen: Agreed, HR departments should be providing ongoing help for employees with mental problems. And so should the NHS and social services, but as you say local authorities have had drastic funding cuts.
DeleteI understand that it's hard for people who have never experienced mental illness to understand what it's like but to say that is just crazy.
ReplyDeleteMary: He has no idea what he's talking about, he's just parroting something from the internet.
DeleteNick, two things have gone too far: People, self diagnosing with the help of Dr Google - let's call it their "free out of jail card". Anything goes.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, worse, the armchair psychologists who label people willy-nilly when they haven't got the first clue what they are talking about. Who needs psychologists/psychiatrists who have studied the field for years when some non-entity can slam you with a "diagnosis"? It's shameful. Ripe in blogland, ripe everywhere. The final insult when someone can't come up with a RATIONAL and well reasoned counter view; instead trying to discredit you the lazy way. Slam a label on you, speculate about your life. Disdain doesn't cover how I feel about them. And if I hear the word "toxic", not least as used in the papers' agony aunts' columns, one more time I shall go into the forest and find a red mushroom with white dots on it. Then we'll talk toxic. Pass me the rubber gloves first before I pick it.
U
Ursula: Indeed, psychologically illiterate people fling all these diagnostic labels around, most of which are nonsense. Someone is labelled OCD or Aspergers or has PTSD or ADHD, when they might have nothing of the kind. And I agree about the over-use of "toxic", especially in the term toxic masculinity. As I see it virtually all masculinity is toxic, based as it is on misogyny, violence and control.
DeleteNick , I know little about the Health Care system in UK, but here you wait up to one year to get an appointment for a therapy or help. I think even for persons who seem to have smaller problems it is important to get help , because they suffer too. Covid was a terrible time for pupils and students who developped depressions , suicide ideas and the feeling that nobody cares for them. This Mel Stride is like most people who know nothing about mental problems has the immediate solution. Saïd saw and still sees so many traumatised persons who need help and understanding.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: You can wait up to a year in the UK for psychiatric help - by which time some people have given up and killed themselves. The Covid restrictions had serious psychological consequences for all age groups which people are still dealing with. I can only imagine the extent of mental anguish that Saïd is coming up against.
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