‘What on earth is mental illness?’- a strange concept. It ‘doesn’t exist’, which is the main issue.
It’s one thing to dismiss an illness to prevent the idea of the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. But, dismissing its existence is a whole other story- the main issue within communities of POC (People of Colour).
I’ve had this discussion with many of my friends that are POC. South Asians are slightly similar to Black people in the sense that they are mentally resilient. If we take our parents as an example they’ve been raised with a fixed mindset, ‘deal with the issue’. You’ll see a lot of our elders they manage tragedies and difficult situations with so much resilience because of how they’ve been raised. Obviously, you would have people amongst our elders that suffer mental illnesses and unfortunately they would be disregarded, or undermined and labelled ‘crazy’. But, I’m comparing the elder generation raised in their motherland to the younger generation that is being raised in a western society. We’re surrounded by mental illness a lot more now in the western world because it’s being acknowledge more- which is brilliant, because without acknowledgement people would less likely go to their GP for help, and as a result would not be diagnosed. Acknowledging it and recognising it as an illness is not the problem. It’s the exposure to mental illness becoming a norm. In this post I will be focusing mainly on depression as I believe it’s presence in society is dramatically increasing.
Sometimes, I wonder whether the method of diagnosis is reliable. I spoke to a psychologist, and she had said the methods doctors use are ‘unreliable’ because ‘anyone (to exaggerate) can just be a really good actor, and be diagnosed with depression’. This is to highlight the flaw in the diagnosis of depression- not to devalue those who have depression as merely ‘good actors’. It’s a flaw because those that get diagnosed with a mental illness however are not suffering from the mental illness may in fact begin to commit to the ‘self fulfilling prophecy’. To elaborate, they will begin believing that they should adopt the symptoms of those depressed. From personal experience I have noticed this amongst friends which is partially why this blog post is focused on the misdiagnosis of this mental illness. I decided to research regarding misdiagnosis within mental health and came across a study by Dr Alex Mitchell- ‘Clinical diagnosis of depression in primary care: a meta-analysis‘. It is a meta-analysis of 118 studies, so the immediate criticism against the study is that it is not primary data and therefore the flaws in the study are perhaps not all that accurate. Continuing to the findings of the study, amongst 50,371 patients from 41 studies, the finding suggests that there are more false positives than either missed or identified cases. This suggests that some people that are diagnosed as depressed are not actually depressed. This isn’t to say ‘don’t go to the GP in case of a misdiagnosis’, but rather it’s a reminder that your plight may not be to the extent you feel it is. However, the other concern is the under diagnosed patients, as they’ll fail to get the treatment they need. The data was also collected in 2009, and a more updated study regarding the misdiagnosis of mental illnesses is definitely required.
Linking on to the point of those that fail to get treated because of under diagnosis, I collected some statistics– although there has been limited research conducted in mental health problems for BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups)- it is suggested that POC are ‘generally considered to be at increased risk of poor mental health’. That’s potentially true to an extent as there are so many pressures on POC. Let’s take Black people as an example, they are constantly having to deal with racism, the whole system is against them. From police brutality to institutionalised racism. Black people are generally from the less privileged areas in the country; why? the system is against them. How many black male students will you find in Cambridge University? Only 14. Their success already has so many hurdles in the way, the pressures to succeed are very high in this world. The pressures of making your family proud are very high. The need to survive for a black person, in this damned world is uncomparable to any other race. So yes, they are at risk. But, what’s worse in the statistics is, ‘Black adults were also found to have the lowest treatment rate of any ethnic group at 6.2% compared to the White British group at 13.3%, another field where black people are disadvantaged because the system is against them, another field where white privilege occurs. Not just that, studies suggest that PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is higher in black women. This association is made because of the high levels of sexual assault they experience. Black women are also less likely to report or seek help for assaults or trauma. But then again, the system is against them, so why would they? The authorities are the last people black people would turn to.
Statistics from a 2008 study suggest that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are at a higher risk of schizophrenia after adjustment for socioeconomic status. The focus here being on the ‘socioeconomic status‘. From personal experience, in a south asian family it is extremely common to think about the locals and their opinion on us. Which shows how detrimental society is towards mental health, because we care so much about our status in the eyes of the others.
So to take from this blog post is; the misdiagnosis of mental health issues- generically, the inequalities against black people in treatment for mental illness, and the detrimental issues of concerning yourself with your socioeconomic status. These are only some of the struggles of ethnic minorities in mental health.
Momina Ullah 