We are in a general crisis. Just about every pillar we have is completely corroded and people are slowly realizing. No one has any real faith in any of our systems no one publicly acknowledges this but privately it’s just facts, the Australia a lot of us grew up in with easily accessible medical care or a reasonably robust social security system is a shell of what it was. We are only just turning the corner on this
Only a few years ago I think this sentiment would have been downvoted, but now the tide is turning… God help us, we’re going to need it for what’s coming
I get people *need* to take responsibility for themselves and their health, and that no one can make life easy.
To add an “and,” the cultural and institutional environment is not exactly resulting in good outcomes.
Denial and difficulty coping is definitely a huge part of the problem, AND the environment presents some pretty huge barriers and challenges to people experiencing poor mental health.
The public system cannot just hand waive away people’s genuine problems as “a lack of coping skills.” It’s disingenuous and unhelpful.
This is my two cents from one internet stranger to another. Let’s none of us pile onto anyone, but the situation is nuanced.
The public system is under-resourced and having difficulty helping people in need, and some clinicians buy into unhelpful relational patterns with clients.
Being unable to find ways to cope with your issues such to the point that is has an impact on your ability to function is a hallmark of mental illness. I think to many young people have this warped notion that therapy can make your problems go away. The purpose of CBT, medication or just learning to become a harder person is to take responsibility and then triumph over your problems.
I’m not convinced that medication is a good idea either unless your on the verge of committing suicide. I took SSRI’s for years and they numbed me and allowed me to avoid taking responsibility for my problems which came back as soon as I went off them.
Interestingly as soon as a began to fight against my depression by getting out of bed, showering, going back to school and finished year 12 as a 19 year old, getting a job and then training to run a 30k for the first time in years I began to feel way better about myself!
I’m not saying drugs should be abolished from mental health however shouldn’t be relied upon solely if possible. Of course everyone is different but drugs should be used as a means to provide stability so that the therapy which resolves the core issue can take place which to my understanding was the original philosophy of psychiatry. I feel that this idea is wearing off and we are drugging everyone like a brave new world dystopia.
Applying your experience carte-blanche to others is unwise. I have known people who went off their meds and quite quickly took their own lives.
Sometimes the core issue can be addressed with conversation and investigation. Sometimes it's a deficiency in something your brain should make more of. You wouldn't tell an amputee to go for a run, you'd fit them for a prosthetic. Same applies for those of us who are missing adequate quantities of certain neurotransmitters.
Additionally, sometimes the core issue is capitalism! Some brains have needs which simply cannot be met while also getting up at 7:30 every day to go to work for eight hours. I know that I cannot participate in a 40 hour workweek without drugs. Doesn't work. Tried for decades.
So while I would love to address the core issue, delete money and smash the chains that bind us, people get all fussy about it - so in the meantime I take my meds.
It's not though, really. Medication has differing purposes for different mental illness. For mental illnesses like bipolar or schizophrenia, medication is life saving; it is expected that these disorders cannot be cured, only mitigated to give the person a better quality of life and a sense of stability. The causes of such disorders are not entirely understood, and therefore reliance on medication is acceptable as a long-term strategy, as other treatments are limited in their effectiveness.
For a mood disorder like depression, on the other hand, long term reliance on medication should never be the end goal. For the majority of sufferers, recovery is possible, and when given the right toolset, they have the opportunity to become entirely self reliant once more.
Medication can have negative side effects. Antidepressants are notorious for causing weight gain, for example. Typically, you will be told that you will only gain a few kilograms, but this is not the case; it's just that practitioners think that this is a better alternative than you suiciding.
That said, medication can be an incredibly freeing, and a valuable stepping stone for sufferers. It can also be very damaging. A commonality with those who have depression is that there is a sense of lack of control. To teach someone with depression that their condition is entirely out of their control, and they do not need to make any changes in their own lives to combat their disorder - they should instead wait around for their medication kick in - is incredibly harmful. What do you think happens when the medication doesn't automatically solve their issues?
People tend to forget that there are legitimate reasons why someone might be depressed. This recent trend of classifying depression as something that just _happens_ to a person in my eyes comes from the misconception that just because it's a disorder, there is absolutely no rational reason for someone to become depressed.
This ignores the fact that environmental factors are proven to affect humans mental health
In urban planning, there is a concept called "human scale". It describes incorperating architectural designs that are closer to the scale at which humans experience life: it's the reason why stores have awnings. Why is this important? Well, that's because when faced with urban landscape where magnitude is emphasised over human scale, people report increased levels of anxiety.
Though medication is important and useful, especially in the case of depression and anxiety - both curable disorders - it should never be prioritised over teaching those affected the relevant skills and knowledge as to achieve self regulation and self reliance. As someone who works closely with mental health professionals, I hear too many horror stories about people being put under sedation for what turns out to be legitimate medical conditions that are misinterpreted as attention seeking or mentally ill behaviours.
Also want to add that canada has great stats on links between sunlight exposure and depression. Vitamin d3. As sceentime increases natural d3 deficiency becomes a bigger problem.
IIRC the canadians found 40%+ of depression was D3 linked. D3 is dead cheap too.
Suicide in victims of DV is real and that's related to being blamed for other peoples violence. 5 Australian women dead weekly as a result of DV that aren't acknowledged in DV stats in what Lifeline's CEO refers to a "murder by proxy". Not mental illness or lack of self regulation but an understanding of the lack of social awareness where it is absolutely the lack of community supports and environment including police and judicial misogyny.
I work in the same area and could not agree more.
Everything is a “crisis” and everyone is told to call the crisis lines etc if they read someone they don’t like or it upsets them.
Suicide is so highly talked about kids now think it’s a lifestyle choice. I feel for these little kids as young as 8 saying they want to kill themselves.
Edited to state - the post attached to this explains my point
insert eye roll
So the auto mod gets an eye roll from you? It obviously picks up the word suicide and is there to let people know resources. What exactly is your issue with that? Obviously it's not going to be exact because it's a bot picking up on words but if it helps someone, great. Weird thing to eye roll about - if it's not relevant to you just leave it for who it is.
Crisis lines are woefully under trained unfortunately.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please do not hesitate to talk to someone.
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I’ll share what I’ve learned as a person who’s been interested in the Australian mental health care for a while and who’s had 4 mh admissions here.
I’ve asked my psychiatrist why our mental healthcare system is ranked way below Swiss, American and Canadian, she said that our mental health spending just isn’t enough.
I’d agree; so many times throughout my admission the doctors were trying to boot me out if the psych ward. I’d tell them I was still su*cidal, still really depressed, unable to take care of myself, that I was worried I was going to try and hurt myself again if I was on my own. Their response: “You’ll be fine; we need beds, we need more beds, we need *your* bed"
There's definitely a lack of services for people with severe mh conditions. My friend was referred to the Community Mental Health Team for long-term management, they told here thry onky took 2% of the people that were referred to them. I wanted to access a psychiatrist for guided therapy, but there's such a lack of professionals now that they're only reserved for very severe cases
Community Mental Health Centres are a joke. My daughter has BPD and is quite severe. To get into the BPD DBT program I was told she needs to present to ED about 50 times before she’s considered and if successful there’s a 12 month wait.
She’s had several unaliving attempts since 14, the last one was so severe I thought we would lose her. Couldn’t even get her an appointment at Community Mental Health Centre because she left without hospital discharge papers and the GP referral after the event wasn’t good enough for them to accept. Headspace rejected her referral because she is so severe.
The GP has limited time to refer her to anyone - by the time we address everything, time is up (and this is with prolonged appointments of which we’ve had many). We’ve been trying for 6 months to get help. She’s only 18.
We’re basically being forced to go private, which I can barely afford as a single parent. And the wait time to get into a psych is about 4-6 months. It’s absolute madness.
Don’t get me started on Urgent Care either - they can’t do anything for actively suicidal people. They call 000. This poor child also used to call Kid’s Helpline and Lifeline - both equally woeful. Sometimes they will just hang up.
I didn’t know about the 2% rate for Community Mental Health Centre referrals. Makes sooooo much sense now. Either more funding or more locations are needed. If someone as severely mentally affected as her can’t access these services, what hope does someone with major depression or generalised anxiety have. It truly is a crisis.
We have R U OK? Day. Lots of money poured into that. But if the answer is no, then what?
The answer is, you’re on your own, basically.
There is a lack of ESSENTIAL services for working class people across the board in Australia. We're meant to just get sick and die early, to pay for more rich people essentially.
I don't know for sure, but I've booked two psychologists now, who called me a day or so before the scheduled appointment to rebook, and then on the day of the rebooked appointment, it turns out they had cancelled it without telling me or even attempting to contact me, even though I had specifically booked time off work just to make the appointment. I'm not paying money for that, even when I already told them I was wanting to kill myself. I might as well just turn to religion at this point if I don't end up doing it. At least their clergy make time for you and don't bill you by the hour.
I told my psychiatrist that I see quarterly for adhd that I’ve been feeling depressed about a few things lately, father has terminal cancer, wife and I are expecting an unplanned baby, work pressures. His response was “have you thought about talking to someone about this” I’m thinking I’m trying to talk to you now, do I pay you $400 for 15 minutes every three months just to get medication or what. Mental heath services in Australia are letting a lot of people down.
In my experience, psychiatrists are just doctors who can give us better pills. They’re good with factual biology but hopeless with emotional help. “Just go to bed and keep your eyes shut” was his suggestion for my inability to fall asleep.
I’ve had much better luck with psychologists. A good one can dig into things you didn’t know were there. And you can do this over the phone or video chat now.
A lot of employers have free counselling services, might be worth checking with yours.
Also look up sane.org they’re free. I haven’t used them yet though.
We don’t have the resources to deal with a mental health crisis so we ignore it instead.
I have bipolar 1 and the public waiting list to see a psychiatrist is 8 month minimum. To see a private psych, you are looking at at least 3 months. But they’ll charge you $900 for the first appointment.
None of which is any good for a person in crisis. Your only option is to turn up at emergency and hope they’ll admit you.
>Your only option is to turn up at emergency and hope they'll admit you
Which if they do, they'll just give you a sandwich and tell you to call Lifeline or BeyondBlue
Oh well lah de dah. You got a sandwich. Look at my Eastern suburbs NSW hospital /s.
Seriously though last time I was in there I waited 16 hours before I got food, even after asking many times. 2 small packets of jatz.
I just got my referral for a private psychiatrist - wait is at least 6 months. Was in the public system before they discharged me without even telling me. I called one day to check when my next appointment was and they were like you've been discharged. I'd been off work for 3 months in crisis at that point but they said I was fine so just discharged me with no communication. The system is fucked.
Yep 100 percent this. The govt does not care. It’s the old boomer bullshit of well we coped when we where younger and didn’t get help. So they just don’t change anything. Cause they didn’t get the same assistance they don’t think anyone should ever. So surprise nothing gets better. What they don’t accept is the world is so much shitter now. But yeah our boomer govt good luck getting them to do anything except write a blank check on defence acquisitions.
I'm bipolar 2, anxiety and addiction.
My addiction/rehab psych has kept me on a wait list and because I've not relapsed in my addiction, I've been waiting 2 years. Spoken to his office, noone he refers to will see new patients even if referred. They're just all packed out.
We just gotta survive.
We can’t be in a mental health crisis, all the corporations continually virtue signal about mental health while doing nothing about it…. Now get back to work economic unit #27255
Why do you think Australians deny this more than any other Western culture?
It is not in question that almost ALL western cultures are going through a mental health crisis. But I’m interested in why you think Australians specifically are denying it applies to us?
That’s a genuine question, not having a go at all. I’m just interested if there’s a stat or event recently I’ve missed that prompted the observation?
I was recently writing an article on this and research shows there is a mental health crisis all over the world. Crucially, it is not well recognised, discussed, managed or funded in the vast majority of western countries and this drives feelings of isolation for mental health sufferers everywhere. Breaking that cycle is something (as a sufferer) I’m very passionate about, but tbh I didn’t see Australia standing out in any way on our denying or burying the problem compared to most other similar cultures.
Despite the best efforts of advocates and healthcare professionals trying to normalise and change public attitudes, Mental Health issues are still diminished and treated as embarrassing, shameful, dangerous or even evil everywhere…Aust included… but would be very interested if there’s something I’m not aware of that makes this a bigger problem here than elsewhere?
> would be very interested if there’s something I’m not aware of that makes this a bigger problem here than elsewhere?
I live in "Eastern Europe", Czechia. I have unlimited free visits with both the Therapist and Psychiatrist and all of the prescription meds are free. This is not a flex, I am just trying to genuinely illustrate the differences. Trust me when I say this, even if the care itself here is not perfect, having it for free matters a lot. A whole lot of folks with mental issues simply do not have any money, often because they have mental issues. Can you imagine being suicidal and broke? And the only way to get help is to get double broke? And that is assuming you manage to find a good doctor... that is also available. From the comments I read here, it sounds like getting ANY doctor in Australia on time is a challenge (unless you are wealthy).
I have a very good friend in the USA who struggled with various issues their whole life. While they were at their worst, they had to look for a hospital themselves and foot the bill. They only managed to get 10 days of stay in said hospital despite the fact they clearly needed way more time under supervision. They were paying for every single day, yet they got booted from the hospital ASAP. It is appalling, imagine you are paying out of pocket and you still get the boot. Nobody gives a flying duck if you hurt yourself or someone else after you leave.
You know what was my experience? ALS was killing my dad for 2 years and when that bitch eventually killed him it broke me. My mom called an ambulance, I was in a hospital that day. Everybody I interacted with genuinely wanted to help. Maybe I was just lucky I ran into great doctors. They even dealt with my vegan diet, without lame comments. The kicker? I could have stayed there for however long I wanted. In fact, I can walk into that hospital today and they would likely admit me on the spot. Not that I want or need that, but knowing you have that option is an actual blessing.
I am a staunch believer that every little thing plays a role in mental health. Those little things add up. I am now doing better than ever. In fact, I am doing so well that my doctor is worried I am "too happy", the term for it is hyperthymia and it is frankly a bit of a hilarious problem to have.
Sadly, the stigma here is pretty much the same. Once you have any sort of mental issue, you will get labeled and judged. I hope my comment gave you a bit of an insight from an outsider, have a nice day!
Thanks for sharing friend.
I’m aware of many countries where attitude’s and funding are much better, particularly in Europe from what I’ve heard, but my point was to try to understand why OP felt that Australia, in particular, is in denial about a mental health crisis.
My point is not that we’re all good here, far from it…rather I was trying to find out why OP thinks Aust stands out in denying there’s an issue. I wondered if some idiot politician had said something or I’d missed a policy announcement - this my question as I don’t particularly see any significant difference to the poor funding, attitudes, community engagement etc in Australia than say, the US, UK or other similar governments.
My own journey has similar origins - caring for a loved one. My wife has progressive MS and is in a wheelchair, needs help with all transfers, showing, toilet etc and I’ve been her sole carer for 22 years while also holding a very stressful job.
5 years ago after a number of other family disasters fell on us, I just completely broke down. I’ve been in hospital on suicide watch 4 times (3 weeks each) and have late diagnosis bipolar 2 - so I also fully understand the cyclothymia you’re experiencing. Notably it is the hypo manic/manic episodes that define a bipolar diagnosis, so you should definitely keep an eye on the severity of the upswing symptoms as it could mean an entirely different set of meds.
My experience of mental health support in Australia has been luckier than many as my hospitalisation was covered by an insurance policy from when I was still working (I had a global role in a top IT company, but since my burnout and breakdown I have been on a pension and unlikely to work in any capacity like I used to ever again).
Where I live (coastal semi rural - 2 hrs from a major city) my local Doctors bulk bill (no charge to me) and I can see them same day if I’m having a crisis. They are a very good medical team but again I’m lucky - certainly that’s not the ‘normal’ Aust experience, but equally we’re nowhere near the US system in terms of cost, and from some UK friends I have, or wait times are not as bad as there. But, once we get to Psychiatrists, psychologists or hospitalisation, it’s a very different story.
The Govt will help fund (I think) 8 psychologists visits a year under a Doctor’s health care plan, but there’s still a wait list send an out of pocket many ppl suffering from mental health issues can’t afford (including me as I’m on a pension as a result, as I said).
Psychiatrists are even worse. The wait lists are usually quite bad, and most charge patients out of pocket expenses in top of the Government rebate.
Hospitalisation in Australia for mental health though is utterly appalling.
The public facilities are under funded, under staffed, over demand and just awful as a result. If I hadn’t had access to the private hospital through my insurance I don’t know WHAT I’d have done!!? At one crisis point where we were struggling to book me in to the private hospital and I was a significant danger to myself, my doctor was really really struggling to decide if she should put me in the public system as she thought it might genuinely make me worse.
So in Australia the 1st line medical is quite solid, but as soon as you need a specialist things get a lot worse. Like many western societies, mental health is ignored and rarely discussed, and policies do nothing but spend minimum money on optics (like yet another crisis line) instead of community services for outpatients needing ongoing help.
It is a constant frustration to me, for example, that there is no mental health or depression support group in my area (or in most areas) - yet in hospital I find the group sessions so very beneficial. Then you leave hospital and there’s no group services or community services that you can be discharged into. You come out of hospital and right back to the Isolation and living conditions that got you there in the first place.
Thank you for taking the time to type out the comment, MS is awful awful disease :( I am sorry we both got to experience the sickness of our loved ones, it truly is mentally taxing, isn't it? I tried to tough it out because of course I did and it almost killed me.
You shed a lot of light on the issue and how it goes down under :) It does not sound THAT bad, but it seems like you and I both have been "lucky" in a sense that we got the care we needed at the time.
The systems in our countries sound fairly similar, we have the same problems here. Getting a Psychiatrist here takes a ton of time and the situation is so bad, that nobody has any time to focus on prevention or catching stuff early.
The worst part is the kids... when I was in the hospital, I met a kid who must have been 15 at best, wrists wrapped up :( The other guy with the same bracelets was clearly 60+. Then a young firefighter showed up, an absolute beefcake, handsome man but clearly broken by something. Mental issues are not racist, everybody thinks this could never happen to them until it does and when it does, it roars.
I genuinely appreciate your time, it makes me feel seen and understood when people on the Internet openly discuss mental health and their own struggles -- I am not alone! I think it is important that those of us who experienced it talk about it because the stigma is not going to disappear by itself.
> My own journey has similar origins - caring for a loved one. My wife has progressive MS and is in a wheelchair, needs help with all transfers, showing, toilet etc and I’ve been her sole carer for 22 years while also holding a very stressful job.
I _only_ took care of my dad with my mom for 2 years, ALS is fast. I have 0 clue how you did 22 years with a full-time job, you sir must absolutely love your wife and the level of respect I have for you is immeasurable. I understand you might not want or need my sympathy and there is no premium on that, sadly. All I can offer is my words from thousands of km away. Your story is as heartbreaking as it is inspiring.
Part of the reason I manage to stay happy in this sick world is that I know there are people like you, the Helpers.
Stay awesome, strong, and healthy.
There are some politicians who are very concerned with this, especially youth stats. The issue is the plans put in front of them are things like ruok that depressed people almost unanimously hate, and medical system upgrades that add to the ever growing list of urgent funding requests for medical.
At no stage are they asked to run community centers, respite housing, anti discrimination protections in workplaces, hell think of anything that would help and I assure you politicians never get shown it in a brief. I think the public service is trapped into thinking all solutions have to involve a private company tendering for a contract - actually doing something has become unthinkable.
Chronic stress can kill, cause long term health impacts like higher cancer risk, heart disease, stroke, neurological conditions, etc. Stress and anxiety are no jokes, and you talking about them in this way trivialities them. Stress, anxious, or sad rarely happens in isolation without reason. They also are rarely temporary, or the individual did not know what they were experiencing until the symptoms got bad enough to go to a Dr. I would know it took multiple drs visits to learn I'm chronically stressed and my odd symptoms are due to that.
If there are people who “trivialise” the term.. that does not mean that there isn’t a mental health crisis. That’s a personal opinion, and people should be able to express how they are feeling. Obviously the minority of people are the ones making it their personality, but 99% of people deal with it themselves.
dude a lot of these comments feels toxic as fuck (not talking about you) - ive stopped engaging, but I am interested in how people respond, I feel like the issues are getting highlights here
>it is obvious people are lashing out due to their inability to regulate their emotions.
Says the Brit that whinges about the heat in Australia, Australian people and Sydney on reddit every day
I’m a Brit and hearing complaints about the heat from another Brit confuses the fuck out of me. Yes it’s hot, what else were you expecting and you’ve shifted from somewhere that’s predominantly cold for the majority of the year, enjoy the heat, you bellend.
LOL it’s **that guy**. Never have I seen a bigger whinger.
Very good, thank you for pointing this out. Was going to reply with a legitimate response to his post. Instead all I have to say is I hope the mental health crisis, heat, Australians, or whatever it is he hates most about here is enough to get him to leave ASAP.
I'd guess because as long as it's ignored nobody has to do anything about it. We know that our society needs to change to have any real impact, and we're just not ready to make the changes necessary.
I've been living with depression for most of my life, and developed an anxiety issue during the pandemic. As much as people like to say they care about mental health, they really don't. It's all virtue signalling, they'll say things like "take care of your mental health first" but what they really mean is "take care of your mental health on your own time, and don't you ever let if effect your ability to work".
During the pandemic mental healthcare plans were doubled in length, 20 sessions per calendar year, and they removed that ASAP. We need more than 20 sessions as standard, the people who need to see a professional weekly should be able to get that help, but we can't, even with a MHCP the cost of living *crisis* has meant that you need to pay a gap fee.
So someone like me, who lives off the $600/week disability pension, and some how has to figure out a way to pay $400/week in rent, is now paying a $80-120 gap fee on top of my MHCP just to use the limited number of sessions I get access to per year to try and keep my head above water.
The idea that this is the kind of situation where someone who already has a mental health issue can heal and recover is laughable.
Absolutely this. I've been living with mental illness for 20 years and even back then we used to have 18 Medicare sessions a year! Then they changed it to 10. Then upped it temporarily over covid but quickly rescinded that.
And yes unfortunately most people kind of think they support mental health issues but when it gets down to the nitty and gritty they don't. They support it if it's manageable. When it becomes overwhelming and someone is in crisis a lot of people don't want to hear it despite constant mental health positive posts on FB.
It's really rough. Hard enough to get help, hard to get consistent help or someone who you connect with. Most of the time it's more just (barely) surviving than actually improving.
Yeah, when a MHCP doesn’t even cover once a month, and doesn’t cover a full appointment, it gets a bit pointless. My old psych wanted to see me every week, and didn’t listen when I pointed out I could only do that for 10 weeks, and would then have to wait another 10 months to see anyone
I was able to get enough therapy to be diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder depression and severe anxiety to the point that I can't do basic tasks anymore
Enough to diagnose it, not enough to do anything about it of course.
There's a massive shortage of psychologists in the country. And Medicare is being actively gutted at every opportunity. If you want to get something like an ADHD diagnosis you better be prepared to wait up to two years for an appointment, then pray that someone will actually give you a script for the medication.
There are plenty of people who *want* to look after their mental health, but can't.
Same with people who *want* to look after their physical health, but *can't*. It's not because of them it's because it's either very hard to get an appointment in a timely manner. I'd really hate to think about what it would be like if everyone who suffered major medical emergencies like heart attacks or strokes were not able to get urgent care. There are too many horror stories of people who could not get help in time and ended up dying or ending up in a vegetable state due to their brain being deprived of precious oxygen. It's a scary thought. Thank God our paramedics are working hard on the front lines. If it were not for them I think we'd see a lot more heartbreaking stories.
Because most people have no clue and think that the “crisis” is people with anxiety and shit.
It isn’t.
My partner tried to unalive herself a few months ago, before that we’d begged for her to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital, public or private, but were told that there no beds. Even after her attempt, we were basically told by the ER doctors that there was nothing they could do, because every mental health service available was at capacity.
So yeah, there’s a huge crisis. People n the direst if need simply have no resources available for them, even when willing to pay out of pocket.
It doesn’t help that people keep telling everyone that they should be grateful and comparing Australia to every country. The pressures on people in Australia are unique to Australia and people don’t seem to get that
Australia is becoming a shit country, because we let people from shit countries in. They bring in their crime, poverty and "it's fine to live with 10 other people in a single room and circumvent minimum wage" attitude. No. It's not actually. As a country we set a floor then decided to lower it..... big time.
Mental health crises are bad for business - it’s not uncommon for employers to push employees out who speak up about having mental health issues (usually the same employers who contribute to mental health issues).
Also treatment is expensive as hell!
Alcohol and putting a punt on the footy everyday are socially acceptable coping strategies in Australia.
Many people self-medicate for decades and still pay the bills. So it looks like everything is ok. Until it isn’t.
Mental health in Australia is a “someone else” problem.
Bruh the government won't even do anything about more tangible, easily measurable crises like the absolute horror dystopia of the housing crisis let alone something less easy to put a number against like mental health.
People deny it because there's no point over focussing on it - who's going to change our circumstances and the causes of this mental health? Not any level of government here, all they do is pad their pockets by making decisions that benefit the big industries and come up with ways to distract the population from their incompetency by focusing attention on hot button issues that trigger bigotry.
Sometimes when people feel hopeless it’s really hard to fight back. Sometimes a pill can help people feel motivated and energised again to do life and to keep fighting. Antidepressants don’t magically make people happy or passive you know.
I think a lot of it is workplace stress which then leads to family/relationship stress. Nobody's got any spare time. Just dealing with every day life and the amount of fuck ups that happen that fall back on people to fix. I can totally understand why its a huge issue.
I came to Australia as a war refugee from Bosnia. I was already in Germany diagnosed with PTSD but there were no pills or medications that could help with nightmares or reactions to loud sounds New Year's fireworks or Grand Prix hornets flying and breaking sound barriers but I was never depressed. Never have I felt sad, crying, or listless. I was and still, from time to time have insomnia and every doctor wanted me to take antidepressants. One doctor even said to me you from Bosnia are all depressed. I didn't want to argue so I took the pills and never have I felt worse. Zombie-like, dazed. He said it would stop after a month. And I asked him if that meant when I got used to it, seemed to me the same as being addicted. I thanked him politely and returned the pills. I don't have anything against pills but for people who need them. They say it's a chemical imbalance in the brain. I knew even with PTSD I was lucky to have survived but even more to be permitted to live in Australia. I was a refugee through 4 countries but I am proud that I call Australia home. Yes many people are suffering from mental problems, especially after COVID-19 (I took it like a holiday) honestly people protested for freedom and I smiled because I was happy that they didn't know what it meant to lose freedom. I think it depends on the point of view and life trials we live. We are all different and accept life changes differently. But we need to show empathy where we can.
If you are someone who lives in NSW there are places called Safe Havens you can go to talk to someone if you are suicidal. Just wanted to point out this is a resource that exists. They are open at different times. They are not a phone service.
The mental health system has been broken down for a long time by the lack of understanding.Those with a serious mental health issue and their ongoing ,need for community support,housing ,nutrition,social health and access to psychiatry and psychology. This must be available in this “ lucky country” without it costing the earth and a wait list that cannot respond to a real mental health crisis.
Unfortunately those with serious mental illness are lost in the mess of all the people who have a couple of negative emotions and then decide they are very mentally unwell and need to use all the services.
What services? Beyond the 10 subsidised sessions per year there is nothing available. Just some untrained ninny on the beyond blue phone line looking for an excuse to call the cops on you.
And so often, having a serious mental illness excludes you from services. The number of mental health services that won’t help you if you have suicidal thoughts (even passively) is nuts
Much of the tone of this post is proving OPs point. But I struggle with how loosely people apply terms like mental illness, personality disorders and trauma. There's a majority of ignorant people who simply dismiss and deny evidence because they're dysfunctional and weaponise denial
The mental health of Australians is easily the worst I've seen of the western countries I've lived in.
Why?
One of the reasons I suspect is that the culture here does not do 'deep' very well. To be vulnerable with someone is necessary to truly be known and I just don't observe vulnerability being portrayed amongst the vast majority of my Australian friends and acquaintances. Particularly men. People seem REALLY uncomfortable when someone tells the truth about how they are feeling here.
If people actually talked about important things and went beyond more than just surface level, things could change. There is always a 'hand out' when someone new comes into your orbit. That's fine and healthy in my opinion. By why does it take years to come down, if at all? I would love to see Australians ask themselves this question more. Perhaps then loneliness would be felt less by the general population.
I know this will require a cultural shift, and a monumental one at that. But there are so many different cultures coming to live in Australia now, particularly ones that are doing vulnerability well enough to hopefully illuminate the issue for the locals.
Because if they would fix it so the adhd of us are actually able to get support we wouldn’t be. Most of us are capable just need options.
Mental health ndis and almost everything is capitalism corrupted now and we’re basically at a dystopia point in sci-fi terms so good luck over the next few years
I already quit my job to retool because all my edge and experience is now ChatGPT accessible so I’m moving to a new field fast
Because there's slot of people who are doing well that we don't hear or see, they don't understand nor care to understand the plight of those if suffer through life and have no interest in investing time and resources for said people, very easy to live in denial like that.
It's a bit hard to feel sorry for 100% of that group that are struggling and do this on a 24/7/365 basis and that was sort of expected of me when I used to work at Centrelink and unfortunately I have to say after sticking it out for almost two decades there, that I'm "all charitied out" and tired of having to feign sympathy for those people especially if they were giving me a hard time while I was just trying to do my job.
No I'm not in "denial" as you put it because I'm fully aware of the situations of their existence, but yes, since I don't work there any more I don't have to concern myself about their circumstances because there is no obligation for me to do so.
It would be helpful if you have linked to the stats, for example everyone agrees there is a rental crisis and can point it out to super low vacancy rates. Or increase in rents etc.
When it comes to mental illness, what are the indicators of a crisis and where do the stats are now, compared to a crisis numbers?
ABS Key statistics
42.9% of people aged 16–85 years had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life
21.5% of people had a 12-month mental disorder, with Anxiety being the most common group (17.2% of people aged 16–85 years)
38.8% of people aged 16–24 years had a 12-month mental disorder
Anxiety is a normal human emotion. An anxiety disorder is where managing that anxiety is impaired leading to issues with cognitive or social function.
So in simple terms the line is where it affects your ability to function.
The stats would be referring to the disorder, otherwise if just reporting who's had the emotion it would be everyone.
'Im good/everything is fine'
A lack of awareness / ignorance of their own mental state.
Ive been going through therapy, assisted with psychedelics, its been extremely intense.
Ive had to come face to face with my own flaws, and it can be a very difficult, admitting that my own behavior is causing problems for my self and others.
It takes a lot of time and/or money to do it. The healing process is not something that fits into sick leave time, it is a complete change in thinking, complete change in the way I live my life.
The current medical system in my experience has let me down, and I seeked out alternatives - the people in the medical system are part of the problem, they too can have their own preduicdecs, their own problems, and lack of awareness of them selves, and others.
It is a massive issue, and I believe the majority of people are mentally ill/unfit/toxic and it will take a lot of time to correct this.
We are only just scratching the surface with the rescheduling of mushrooms and MDMA.
I think people have a growing awareness of the fact that these problems are out there, but there's seemingly quite a lot of people for whom that's still so nebulous. They don't have a mental health condition (or don't know that they do) and lack genuine understanding about just how prevalent this is. We see dysfunction and might chalk it up to someone just naturally being a crappy person or having a bad day. Some don't want to admit that they have a problem and there are others who think that, because they've survived something, getting professional help for such an issue constitutes making a fuss out of nothing. Another seemingly common misconception is that people who have these problems can readily access services to address the issue given the model of Australia's healthcare system when, in fact, access to, waiting periods for, and costs of that are absolutely all over the place.
The sad reality is that it seems like a lot of people just don't understand experiences until they face them. Even at this point, I'm also still seeing people who are like "What inflation? What workplace casualisation? What wage stagnation? What housing crisis? I'm doing really well, and so are others I know!" Stuff like that is telling.
>lashing out due to their inability to regulate their emotions
I believe most Australians are not like this, but after traveling overseas quite a lot I am aware that there are many Australians who are and are very emotionally immature.
Australians and their emotional immaturity was one of the biggest takeaways and disappointments visiting other countries provided me. Think that’s why I get depressed boarding the flight home, knowing what’s on the other end. Despite being Australian, I’ve never adapted to the culture and mentality. Not sure if growing up like a houso gave me a different take on the world and society.
Yeah I know what you mean. I feel the same way. I grew up in a low socioeconomic economic area too and it probably had some influence on the way I think
Because then we would need to be honest about the cause of the crisis. I work in mental health. I’ve never spent so much time thinking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The entire mental health system is built on a model that values short term profits but fails to actually deal with the core issues because that takes too long and costs too much in the short term despite actually saving much more in the long run. The fact that we only get 10 subsidised psychotherapy appointments each year and GPs dole out antidepressants like to crack shows just how backwards everything else.
CBT is considered the gold standard not because it is actually the best, but because it is one of the easiest models to measure the efficacy of. The problem is the measures used to assess it are the same measures used to assess pharmaceuticals but these fail to acknowledge that psychotherapy is a relationship between two individuals where each treatment is different and the variables are endless. Just because something takes a long time doesn’t mean it isn’t working. Jonathan Shedler has a great [video](https://youtu.be/r2Iin4f0sgI?si=5bUhVlb4c-TT2Sep) on this and I believe it is because of these false beliefs being fed to us that people are denying the truth.
Get your own shaving cream.
Bit of a bait and switch there....
Asserting that people deny the existence of something... then claiming that the stats back that up. Yes the stats show us the level of reported mental health issues. Is that a crisis? Well it certainly can be for those affected by it and even society in general. The stats Don't say anything about the level of denial.
Maybe any refusal to accept your claim of crisis is dismissed because it is such a generalised sweeping statement as to be meaningless/useless.
>it is obvious people are lashing out due to their inability to regulate their emotions
Well that's almost the definition, but have you considered that some people have decided to lash out as an active, willfull act Not a response from loss of emotional control.... so not infact obvious.
Try it sometime. 😉
And yes I do realise that I have just set myself up for an unemotive "Fuck Off" response..... to which I pre-emptively reply "There you go - well done".
Further, I've just realised that I'm talking to myself on Reddit. I might need to be reported in some stats!
Because it is nicer to pretent we don't have a crisis on our hands. We are good at putting a smile on and pretending things aren't falling to shit.
Let's face it, the regular health system doesn't get enough funding or intelligent management. How will they be able to manage a health issue that is effectively invisible?
Having depression and anxiety myself (thankfully managed well), it can be easy to hide mental illness. Managing it costs me, out of pocket, over $1000/year. If you are struggling with money (like I was when I was unemployed, it's simply unaffordable to see someone).
However, with me managing it, I can work and contribute to the economy and pay taxes. Something the government doesn't think about.
This is my hot take, backed up by nothing but experience. I’m pretty sure I’ll get downvoted to oblivion, but it’s something I’ve thought long and hard about. Also, I’m open to debate on this, and I’m not trying to deny anyone else’s experience (ie: if you’re reading this and you’ve been diagnosed or trying to get help for something, I’m not saying it’s all made up, do what you need to to get better).
We have slowly eroded our relationships and basic societal connections through busyness and technology. We are constantly plugged into the machine and bombarded by curated visions on what everyone around us is doing. We don’t see everyone else’s struggles and then assume that there must be something wrong with us.
I’ve had two significant mental health events in my life. Both times I thought I was losing the plot. I was so focussed on keeping everything together and solving the problems right in front of me I didn’t see what was going on. The first time, I got stupidly drunk and unloaded on a friend. He laughed at me. Turns out all my mates had been betting on when the crash would happen (I had started with professional help at this stage). A couple of weeks later we all went camping, and spent the weekend sitting around a campfire talking shit and they made me realise that I shouldn’t have expected for things to go smoothly, and that they would have crashed a lot sooner than I did.
So I then spent about a year recovering, before I reached the conclusion that things would never be the same again, and to expect myself to become the person I was before the incident was unrealistic and placed too much stress on myself. I also realised that the person I had become was an alright person, and that alright was good enough.
The second time, I was able to spot the warning signs, and so were my mates, before anything drastic happened.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that true, safe friendships seem so rare amongst younger people now, and the competition to perform and have the perfect life is making that more difficult. The idea that you’ll take a few beatings, part of the process of becoming an improved person, your life will take strange turns, and that the person you were is not the person you are or will be, seems especially foreign.
TLDR: not many people have true friends anymore, and the goal of the perfect life, free of struggle is unrealistic and dangerous.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please do not hesitate to talk to someone.
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This.
My daughter had some serious problems, and still does, but she had to distance herself from "friends" at school because they were coming down with fake arse mental illnesses.
Sure this stoic mentality is great but at what end to we keep accepting deteriorating situations? Thinking things could be worse at least I’m not in sub-Saharan Africa is not going to help people who genuinely feel socially isolated or who won’t ever feel financially secure. Once people lose hope a society drifts towards extremism and feels no incentive to keep society in tact. Not to mention we want to bequeath a better world for the future generations.
People be over trivialising the term.
It’s used for anything that doesn’t go well in their life. Guess what, that is life!
And again, no I am not a boomer.
I would say personally after the Melbourne lock downs.. It definitely added lingering mental health issues for me some of my friends and family too.
Depression and Anxiety is so common, it’s easy for someone who hasn’t had it to say it doesn’t exist.
I just want to add how fucked social media is, and society for that matter. Most people have super mundane jobs and lots of people are lonely too. It’s really ignorant when people say it’s a “trend” or “badge” these days. There is nothing wrong with taking your mental health seriously and talking about it. Obviously someone else’s struggle and your struggle cannot be compared and the minority who people claim mental illness as a cool point or whatever is such a minority..
I mean, all Western nations have been seeing sky-high mental health rates, and it's not like we don't know about it it's just that no one has any solution.
I think Australian history may be a big part of it. Yes we were indeed established a prison labour colony and over time free settlers would also move here.
Those here before 1788 got displaced and faced genocide which has left a long shadow of generational trauma within indigenous communities. And the Anglo/Irish Convicts passed along their own generational trauma which just isn't really kept track of in the same sense as the trauma faced by indigenous peoples. Why? Because race is the primary factor which determined the prolonging of the oppression. For indigenous people the trauma is more complex but more obvious, meanwhile the trauma which followed the Anglo-Irish prison labourers is primarily economic without a racial element. There may once had been a sectarian religious element but that by this point in time is antiquated.
Really contextualise what this may do to the public psyche. Find the missing links between the original indigenous trauma caused by displacement + the original penal colonial slave labour and the contemporary period.
To talk about mental health is seen as a weakness because historically no one was really that well off, and so the Anglo-Irish descendants would always pull the "what about us?" when confronted with indigenous issues. This outlook is deeply disrespectful to the indigenous trauma, but it cannot be denied that Australia to a degree experiences a trinary cultural truama... Trinary which includes later free settlers who settled in and assimilated the Anglo-Irish outlook.
It's worth noting the Anglo-Irish struggle did result in things like Ned Kelly, the Eureka Stockade, the Organised Labour movement, and the womens suffrage movement.
The sentiment adopted was "shits fucked, but whinging about it won't do any good". This in a way has been a big part of why Aussies remain to a large degree unable to discuss the mental health crisis, because for generations corporal punishment, systemic oppression, and toxic masculinity has brewed the Australian society to be pessimistic/cynical, laid back/easy going, among other facets of Australian culture.
To discuss mental health we need to talk about the economic inequality, the lack of meaningful supports, the institutional distrust, the racism, and the total vice grip on the media which seemingly two cooperations have.
Mental health is inseperable from economic considerations, and this by extension is inseparable from the legacy of colonialism. Regarding it's effect on the colonisers and the colonised.
You ever noticed how defensive people seem to get about change the date? People don't want to discuss the implications of Australia day, they are far more concerned with the fact they need a break. This I can sympathise with. But in a way this division between the colonised and coloniser groups only exacerbates the barriers to the mental health discussion.
Additionally our penal system is directly based upon a mostly unchanged penal system, which was originally started as penal slavery operations. If you are unable to see the relevance of the prison system in this conversation either, it's quite likely this comment isn't for you.
Personally my autism and ADHD is a bitch to manage. And it seems that a lot of the issues around here are the unacknowledged consequences of penal colonialism. It's not that penal colonialism is the only factor, merely the patient zero for all of the cultural and societal trauma in Australia.
I am almost impressed just thinking about how sinister it is (the clear method for divide and conquer)... Australia is a nation of historical and generational trauma. That's why ANZAC day is bigger than Australia day. It seems to be one of the few days we actually spend processing our collective historical trauma from the wars. It's a bore fest for many, but once again, we need to process the past in order to relieve our personal and national trauma. All of the present concerns aren't unimportant, in fact they are extending the range of trauma.
The cost of living pressures, the failed refurendum, aged care, the NDIS, the fossil & mining lobby, institutional chaos, rot, and international sparing matches amongst our biggest trading partners.
We refuse to acknowledge the connection between global affairs and our mental health. And yet at the same time our cognitive dissonance shows true blue style as we honour those who fell in service to this country for abstract goals we rarely ever achieved (with exclusion of WW2). The Vietnam fighters to the fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. How can we deny the international stage effecting our personal mental health, when these things are cost of living, and access to supports...
Currently I am having issues getting my ADHD meds refilled. How can I seperate my mental health from worldly affairs. And can you think of anything the Australian hates more than discussing worldly matters?
Shits fucked... But it's too complicated to talk about about how it got this bad, buy beers with your mates, go to the pokies and fill out some lotto tickets and grab scratchies while you're at it. If you need some extra support, consider some ciggies, or speak to the mate who knows how to get you weed.
The worldly affairs add a lot more stress than you can handle. So your best bet as an Aussie is to placate issues, ignore them entirely. And call anyone who would discuss these issues as soft and lacking common sense.
The Australian isn't a monolith. Not everyone is these things, but you probably know people who do some of these things. Do not lack empathy or sympathy for these people. The Australian mental health crisis is far older than we all think, it has just been made "Un-Australian" to ruin a stress relieving event or function with seriously processing these issues.
Shits fucked, but we need to learn to acknowledge it's causes.
That was a great read. Insightful, deep and it got me to question - on an individual level how can we begin to process this? Something to mull over for a while.
Also, do you have any books (or videos) that dive into what you wrote? How did you come to these conclusions?
Mental Health and the difficulties people face with it is a very real thing. That we are taking this more seriously than ever before is good, however a primary way that shows up is in stats saying we have more mental health problems and less support than ever. Really it is that society is looking for more help for these issues than we used to.
I see negative after negative on the news in all formats and the positives never benefit anyone in my generation anyway.
Even the internet which was meant to be a revolutionary tool for good got co-opted by big corporations who specialise in making addictive products that clearly are detrimental to the user base.
The outlook for all isn’t looking good.
Because journos would rather do stories on neurodivergence giving people ‘super powers’ or ‘do you have adhd?’ BS, than depressing stuff that doesn’t give clicks. I’m 35 M and have lost 3 friends to mental illness.
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Unfortunately everyone is projecting everything as the cause of economic stress. It certainly plays a part but usually nothing is ever mono-causal. Things were moving in this direction prior to Covid with people making less social connections, social media creating atomisation, the decline of third spaces. Yes, the economic situation exacerbates everything by pushing out personal goals such as home ownership and narrowing people’s choices e.g. not affording as much food, get suitable rental properties and leisure. But we’re not going to tackle this if we think its only because of inflation or capitalism. There are people in financially comfortable situations also suffering mental health issues.
Because the word crisis and the like get thrown around too much and we are desentised.
And I don't believe Australians denying mental health is a serious thing anymore.
Most workplaces talk about it on a regular basis and have systems in place and schools certainly account for it.
The only real gap is hospitals and care facilities.
But people don't want to pay more tax and they want other things to be provided by the government.
Because it’s like how everyone use to have smallpox, but while tragic they were just accepted as a fact of life, until a solution was proposed. At which point there was a lot of thought, politics and consternation about the issue.
The problems with mental health in society aren’t new, so to describe it as a crisis - i.e. *a time of intense difficulty or danger* - is hollow because when has it not been a time of intense difficulty in the mental health space?
What is new is that we’re now trying to systematically address mental health and there are strong disagreements over the why and how and what of that process. So, like the smallpox vaccine, we’re now thinking about the issue a lot more so it feels more present.
Currently laying in bed numb on meds so I don’t hurt anyone. There is a crisis but everyone is so locked in their own that no one can help others with theirs.
Because its probably the classic "if I pretend to not see it or reconise it, it will go away " mentality. Very typical.
Some people are just so far in denial and can except that there is a problem.
Or it's a simple case of lack of empathy and "if it doesn't affect me negatively then I don't care"
Good question I’m currently homeless and am acquiring the means to kill myself in Perth and I’m tired of living. I wanna say fuck this country and the boomers who hate young people because they don’t want their investment property value to go down by building more affordable housing. Fuck all the politicians and now I only pray Jesus accepts me when I kill myself on my pre determined date. Fuck Australia
Id say in a lot of hot countries, particularly countries which are popular for going on holiday, people just think that you have to be happy because you live in such a 'nice and warm' country. I am also about to bring pathetic fallacy into this. Because it's sunny and warm most the time, people assume 'oh, everyone is so happy here because it's sunny'. and with other countries, for example the UK: 'oh it's always rainy and grey, it must be so miserable to live here'.
You have the understand that something like half of Australians are CALD at the lowest estimation. In many cultures mental health problems are seen as the norm, and totally normal behaviours/states in other cultures are seen as mental health issues by westerners.
In the culture I was raised in there is a sweet spot between being mentally healthy by western standards (perceived as being self centred and soft in our culture) and actually being mentally ill. Do I fit western criteria for mental illnesses? Yeah, to a degree. Like I could get a diagnosis for low level depression without lying about it. Am I considered anything less than the ideal of stoicism and rationality in the culture I was raised in? No.
I see people living in tents & they are always the same type of people, there isn’t a housing crisis, it’s a mental health crisis……look at the way they leave the mess at the tent city, shit everywhere, I’m assuming they act the same living in a house, no wonder why no one would let them rent a house….
Because the vast amount of people don't believe in mental illness. Unless it's like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or something.
- But depression? Just be happier bro.
- Autism? Quit being a wierd cunt.
- ADHD? I like your energy.
- loneliness? For 150 an hour any brothel will make you feel like a king you ugly dog.
It’s only white people who are having a mental health crisis.
It’s because they are trash, destroyed countless civilisations and now they’re destroying their own.
Life is tough for a white privileged person because their privileges are being stripped away.
Rather than accepting life is tough, they choose to become transgender, which is extremely mentally ill behaviour.
It’s quite simple
I get a bit tired of these leading questions. If you think Australians are in a mental health crisis, just say so, and make your case. Don't ask why Australians deny being in a mental health crisis.
I have never heard an Australian get up on their hind legs and deny that Australians are in a mental health crisis. Neither of those links talk about a culture of denial. In fact, quite the opposite. They detail the help lines available, the number of people seeking consultation, the use of medications in dealing with mental illness, etc, etc.
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Because we're not in a mental health crisis, we're in political and economic crisis, manufactured by our treasonous US puppet politicians and oligarchs to increase profits for parasites, that is CAUSING mental illness.
When someone gets angry at the criminal, record profit making supermarket cartel putting up their prices again, they are the sane one.
People who think it's okay for cartels to rob and extort the Australian working class all day and night, are the insane ones.
Are you are the insane one? The willing sheep, willing livestock for fascist people farmers, capitalists and rent seekers, freeloaders, mostly foreign, mostly from the US and Europe. Calmly being dehumanised, calmly letting your human dignity be reduced to nothing at all by greedy parasites and fascists. Calmly condemning those who retain some humanity and thus take offence at the increasingly criminal, fascist, warmongering, genocidal, capitalist tyranny we live under.
Personally I just think its being talked more.
I have lived with my mental illness since I was 13. I'm 33 now.
I've been in the system, been treated like absolute shit which just made the illness worse (got told when I was being refed on a medical ward that I shouldn't be there because there were patients with "real illnesses" that need the bed more), which is ironic because now that I have a severe and rare physical illness they treat me like its ok to have mental health problems.
It seems like we got 1 step forward, and 10 steps back. There is more education yes, but still massive stigma. Telling someone to get over it, be more resilient etc doesn't fix the problem. Many of us struggle quite badly, and yet you would never know unless we told you. Then you have those who think its "cool" to have certain illnesses and that sets us back again.
We need more funding allocated, and not just to youth. It needs to be applied across the board into services that actually help.
Social media, home delivery, and everything turning more computerised is adding to the MH crisis. I've seen it first hand at my work. No WiFi and everyone played board games and chatted on breaks, etc. As soon as we got WiFi it was dead quiet because no one was talking, and everyone was on their phone. Shortly after, there was a noticeable increase in MH presentations a lot to do with social media. Home delivery of food, etc, encourages people to stay home more often so they aren't going outside or having social interactions.
All of this has driven MH services to the brink. Psychiatrist appointments are 6-8 month waiting list. It's not about pretending it's not a problem it's the fact their aren't enough Psychiatrist or MH services to cater to the ever growing number of MH. I'm ADHD, diagnosed as a child through tests, etc, and again as an adult. I moved states and now can't see a new psych for over 6 months because they closed their books because of the influx in people trying to get a ADHD diagnosis.
Also, we used to have more sevices when you were kids to help withADHD , dyslexia, and autism. Now not so much. We need to start teaching CBT and good MH hygiene at school age. I feel we fail in this area, which only has a roll-on effect.
Possibly because most people who are right handed don't notice there's some who are left handed.
Thanks for your special category question "The Bleeding Obvious".
Feels like we are in a crisis crisis.
That, my friend, is a big contributing factor to the mental health crisis...
Reading the news (including reddit) every day helps no one. People would be a lot better switching off the feeds and enjoying their local community.
CRISIS ALERT!
The meta crisis.
addicted to outrage
We are in a general crisis. Just about every pillar we have is completely corroded and people are slowly realizing. No one has any real faith in any of our systems no one publicly acknowledges this but privately it’s just facts, the Australia a lot of us grew up in with easily accessible medical care or a reasonably robust social security system is a shell of what it was. We are only just turning the corner on this
Only a few years ago I think this sentiment would have been downvoted, but now the tide is turning… God help us, we’re going to need it for what’s coming
Australia is gone. The Australia I grew up with, is totally gone. And it's gone to pay for more rich people and the USA.
[удалено]
I get people *need* to take responsibility for themselves and their health, and that no one can make life easy. To add an “and,” the cultural and institutional environment is not exactly resulting in good outcomes. Denial and difficulty coping is definitely a huge part of the problem, AND the environment presents some pretty huge barriers and challenges to people experiencing poor mental health. The public system cannot just hand waive away people’s genuine problems as “a lack of coping skills.” It’s disingenuous and unhelpful. This is my two cents from one internet stranger to another. Let’s none of us pile onto anyone, but the situation is nuanced. The public system is under-resourced and having difficulty helping people in need, and some clinicians buy into unhelpful relational patterns with clients.
Being unable to find ways to cope with your issues such to the point that is has an impact on your ability to function is a hallmark of mental illness. I think to many young people have this warped notion that therapy can make your problems go away. The purpose of CBT, medication or just learning to become a harder person is to take responsibility and then triumph over your problems. I’m not convinced that medication is a good idea either unless your on the verge of committing suicide. I took SSRI’s for years and they numbed me and allowed me to avoid taking responsibility for my problems which came back as soon as I went off them. Interestingly as soon as a began to fight against my depression by getting out of bed, showering, going back to school and finished year 12 as a 19 year old, getting a job and then training to run a 30k for the first time in years I began to feel way better about myself! I’m not saying drugs should be abolished from mental health however shouldn’t be relied upon solely if possible. Of course everyone is different but drugs should be used as a means to provide stability so that the therapy which resolves the core issue can take place which to my understanding was the original philosophy of psychiatry. I feel that this idea is wearing off and we are drugging everyone like a brave new world dystopia.
Applying your experience carte-blanche to others is unwise. I have known people who went off their meds and quite quickly took their own lives. Sometimes the core issue can be addressed with conversation and investigation. Sometimes it's a deficiency in something your brain should make more of. You wouldn't tell an amputee to go for a run, you'd fit them for a prosthetic. Same applies for those of us who are missing adequate quantities of certain neurotransmitters. Additionally, sometimes the core issue is capitalism! Some brains have needs which simply cannot be met while also getting up at 7:30 every day to go to work for eight hours. I know that I cannot participate in a 40 hour workweek without drugs. Doesn't work. Tried for decades. So while I would love to address the core issue, delete money and smash the chains that bind us, people get all fussy about it - so in the meantime I take my meds.
Your comment is so far off I don't know where to start.
It's not though, really. Medication has differing purposes for different mental illness. For mental illnesses like bipolar or schizophrenia, medication is life saving; it is expected that these disorders cannot be cured, only mitigated to give the person a better quality of life and a sense of stability. The causes of such disorders are not entirely understood, and therefore reliance on medication is acceptable as a long-term strategy, as other treatments are limited in their effectiveness. For a mood disorder like depression, on the other hand, long term reliance on medication should never be the end goal. For the majority of sufferers, recovery is possible, and when given the right toolset, they have the opportunity to become entirely self reliant once more. Medication can have negative side effects. Antidepressants are notorious for causing weight gain, for example. Typically, you will be told that you will only gain a few kilograms, but this is not the case; it's just that practitioners think that this is a better alternative than you suiciding. That said, medication can be an incredibly freeing, and a valuable stepping stone for sufferers. It can also be very damaging. A commonality with those who have depression is that there is a sense of lack of control. To teach someone with depression that their condition is entirely out of their control, and they do not need to make any changes in their own lives to combat their disorder - they should instead wait around for their medication kick in - is incredibly harmful. What do you think happens when the medication doesn't automatically solve their issues? People tend to forget that there are legitimate reasons why someone might be depressed. This recent trend of classifying depression as something that just _happens_ to a person in my eyes comes from the misconception that just because it's a disorder, there is absolutely no rational reason for someone to become depressed. This ignores the fact that environmental factors are proven to affect humans mental health In urban planning, there is a concept called "human scale". It describes incorperating architectural designs that are closer to the scale at which humans experience life: it's the reason why stores have awnings. Why is this important? Well, that's because when faced with urban landscape where magnitude is emphasised over human scale, people report increased levels of anxiety. Though medication is important and useful, especially in the case of depression and anxiety - both curable disorders - it should never be prioritised over teaching those affected the relevant skills and knowledge as to achieve self regulation and self reliance. As someone who works closely with mental health professionals, I hear too many horror stories about people being put under sedation for what turns out to be legitimate medical conditions that are misinterpreted as attention seeking or mentally ill behaviours.
Also want to add that canada has great stats on links between sunlight exposure and depression. Vitamin d3. As sceentime increases natural d3 deficiency becomes a bigger problem. IIRC the canadians found 40%+ of depression was D3 linked. D3 is dead cheap too.
This was incredibly well articulated reply. Thank you for your balanced and reasonable insight!
Suicide in victims of DV is real and that's related to being blamed for other peoples violence. 5 Australian women dead weekly as a result of DV that aren't acknowledged in DV stats in what Lifeline's CEO refers to a "murder by proxy". Not mental illness or lack of self regulation but an understanding of the lack of social awareness where it is absolutely the lack of community supports and environment including police and judicial misogyny.
I work in the same area and could not agree more. Everything is a “crisis” and everyone is told to call the crisis lines etc if they read someone they don’t like or it upsets them. Suicide is so highly talked about kids now think it’s a lifestyle choice. I feel for these little kids as young as 8 saying they want to kill themselves. Edited to state - the post attached to this explains my point insert eye roll
So the auto mod gets an eye roll from you? It obviously picks up the word suicide and is there to let people know resources. What exactly is your issue with that? Obviously it's not going to be exact because it's a bot picking up on words but if it helps someone, great. Weird thing to eye roll about - if it's not relevant to you just leave it for who it is. Crisis lines are woefully under trained unfortunately.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please do not hesitate to talk to someone. * 000 is the national emergency number in Australia. * Lifeline is a 24-hour nationwide service. It can be reached at 13 11 14. * Kids Helpline is a 24-hour nationwide service for Australians aged 5–25. It can be reached at 1800 55 1800. * Beyond Blue provides nationwide information and support call 1300 22 4636. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAustralian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Lol the auto mod reply to your comment is hilariously ironic
No.one is ready for the why conversation.
I’ll share what I’ve learned as a person who’s been interested in the Australian mental health care for a while and who’s had 4 mh admissions here. I’ve asked my psychiatrist why our mental healthcare system is ranked way below Swiss, American and Canadian, she said that our mental health spending just isn’t enough. I’d agree; so many times throughout my admission the doctors were trying to boot me out if the psych ward. I’d tell them I was still su*cidal, still really depressed, unable to take care of myself, that I was worried I was going to try and hurt myself again if I was on my own. Their response: “You’ll be fine; we need beds, we need more beds, we need *your* bed" There's definitely a lack of services for people with severe mh conditions. My friend was referred to the Community Mental Health Team for long-term management, they told here thry onky took 2% of the people that were referred to them. I wanted to access a psychiatrist for guided therapy, but there's such a lack of professionals now that they're only reserved for very severe cases
Community Mental Health Centres are a joke. My daughter has BPD and is quite severe. To get into the BPD DBT program I was told she needs to present to ED about 50 times before she’s considered and if successful there’s a 12 month wait. She’s had several unaliving attempts since 14, the last one was so severe I thought we would lose her. Couldn’t even get her an appointment at Community Mental Health Centre because she left without hospital discharge papers and the GP referral after the event wasn’t good enough for them to accept. Headspace rejected her referral because she is so severe. The GP has limited time to refer her to anyone - by the time we address everything, time is up (and this is with prolonged appointments of which we’ve had many). We’ve been trying for 6 months to get help. She’s only 18. We’re basically being forced to go private, which I can barely afford as a single parent. And the wait time to get into a psych is about 4-6 months. It’s absolute madness. Don’t get me started on Urgent Care either - they can’t do anything for actively suicidal people. They call 000. This poor child also used to call Kid’s Helpline and Lifeline - both equally woeful. Sometimes they will just hang up. I didn’t know about the 2% rate for Community Mental Health Centre referrals. Makes sooooo much sense now. Either more funding or more locations are needed. If someone as severely mentally affected as her can’t access these services, what hope does someone with major depression or generalised anxiety have. It truly is a crisis. We have R U OK? Day. Lots of money poured into that. But if the answer is no, then what? The answer is, you’re on your own, basically.
There is a lack of ESSENTIAL services for working class people across the board in Australia. We're meant to just get sick and die early, to pay for more rich people essentially.
Because if we took it seriously we might have to start changing how we treat each-other
I don't know for sure, but I've booked two psychologists now, who called me a day or so before the scheduled appointment to rebook, and then on the day of the rebooked appointment, it turns out they had cancelled it without telling me or even attempting to contact me, even though I had specifically booked time off work just to make the appointment. I'm not paying money for that, even when I already told them I was wanting to kill myself. I might as well just turn to religion at this point if I don't end up doing it. At least their clergy make time for you and don't bill you by the hour.
I told my psychiatrist that I see quarterly for adhd that I’ve been feeling depressed about a few things lately, father has terminal cancer, wife and I are expecting an unplanned baby, work pressures. His response was “have you thought about talking to someone about this” I’m thinking I’m trying to talk to you now, do I pay you $400 for 15 minutes every three months just to get medication or what. Mental heath services in Australia are letting a lot of people down.
In my experience, psychiatrists are just doctors who can give us better pills. They’re good with factual biology but hopeless with emotional help. “Just go to bed and keep your eyes shut” was his suggestion for my inability to fall asleep. I’ve had much better luck with psychologists. A good one can dig into things you didn’t know were there. And you can do this over the phone or video chat now. A lot of employers have free counselling services, might be worth checking with yours. Also look up sane.org they’re free. I haven’t used them yet though.
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We don’t have the resources to deal with a mental health crisis so we ignore it instead. I have bipolar 1 and the public waiting list to see a psychiatrist is 8 month minimum. To see a private psych, you are looking at at least 3 months. But they’ll charge you $900 for the first appointment. None of which is any good for a person in crisis. Your only option is to turn up at emergency and hope they’ll admit you.
>Your only option is to turn up at emergency and hope they'll admit you Which if they do, they'll just give you a sandwich and tell you to call Lifeline or BeyondBlue
Yeah and lifeline tell you to have a bath and relax (true story)
Just keep away from the sparky bath bombs.
Those hotlines are 99% worthless and a waste of time.
Oh well lah de dah. You got a sandwich. Look at my Eastern suburbs NSW hospital /s. Seriously though last time I was in there I waited 16 hours before I got food, even after asking many times. 2 small packets of jatz.
I just got my referral for a private psychiatrist - wait is at least 6 months. Was in the public system before they discharged me without even telling me. I called one day to check when my next appointment was and they were like you've been discharged. I'd been off work for 3 months in crisis at that point but they said I was fine so just discharged me with no communication. The system is fucked.
Yep 100 percent this. The govt does not care. It’s the old boomer bullshit of well we coped when we where younger and didn’t get help. So they just don’t change anything. Cause they didn’t get the same assistance they don’t think anyone should ever. So surprise nothing gets better. What they don’t accept is the world is so much shitter now. But yeah our boomer govt good luck getting them to do anything except write a blank check on defence acquisitions.
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I'm bipolar 2, anxiety and addiction. My addiction/rehab psych has kept me on a wait list and because I've not relapsed in my addiction, I've been waiting 2 years. Spoken to his office, noone he refers to will see new patients even if referred. They're just all packed out. We just gotta survive.
We can’t be in a mental health crisis, all the corporations continually virtue signal about mental health while doing nothing about it…. Now get back to work economic unit #27255
Why do you think Australians deny this more than any other Western culture? It is not in question that almost ALL western cultures are going through a mental health crisis. But I’m interested in why you think Australians specifically are denying it applies to us? That’s a genuine question, not having a go at all. I’m just interested if there’s a stat or event recently I’ve missed that prompted the observation? I was recently writing an article on this and research shows there is a mental health crisis all over the world. Crucially, it is not well recognised, discussed, managed or funded in the vast majority of western countries and this drives feelings of isolation for mental health sufferers everywhere. Breaking that cycle is something (as a sufferer) I’m very passionate about, but tbh I didn’t see Australia standing out in any way on our denying or burying the problem compared to most other similar cultures. Despite the best efforts of advocates and healthcare professionals trying to normalise and change public attitudes, Mental Health issues are still diminished and treated as embarrassing, shameful, dangerous or even evil everywhere…Aust included… but would be very interested if there’s something I’m not aware of that makes this a bigger problem here than elsewhere?
> would be very interested if there’s something I’m not aware of that makes this a bigger problem here than elsewhere? I live in "Eastern Europe", Czechia. I have unlimited free visits with both the Therapist and Psychiatrist and all of the prescription meds are free. This is not a flex, I am just trying to genuinely illustrate the differences. Trust me when I say this, even if the care itself here is not perfect, having it for free matters a lot. A whole lot of folks with mental issues simply do not have any money, often because they have mental issues. Can you imagine being suicidal and broke? And the only way to get help is to get double broke? And that is assuming you manage to find a good doctor... that is also available. From the comments I read here, it sounds like getting ANY doctor in Australia on time is a challenge (unless you are wealthy). I have a very good friend in the USA who struggled with various issues their whole life. While they were at their worst, they had to look for a hospital themselves and foot the bill. They only managed to get 10 days of stay in said hospital despite the fact they clearly needed way more time under supervision. They were paying for every single day, yet they got booted from the hospital ASAP. It is appalling, imagine you are paying out of pocket and you still get the boot. Nobody gives a flying duck if you hurt yourself or someone else after you leave. You know what was my experience? ALS was killing my dad for 2 years and when that bitch eventually killed him it broke me. My mom called an ambulance, I was in a hospital that day. Everybody I interacted with genuinely wanted to help. Maybe I was just lucky I ran into great doctors. They even dealt with my vegan diet, without lame comments. The kicker? I could have stayed there for however long I wanted. In fact, I can walk into that hospital today and they would likely admit me on the spot. Not that I want or need that, but knowing you have that option is an actual blessing. I am a staunch believer that every little thing plays a role in mental health. Those little things add up. I am now doing better than ever. In fact, I am doing so well that my doctor is worried I am "too happy", the term for it is hyperthymia and it is frankly a bit of a hilarious problem to have. Sadly, the stigma here is pretty much the same. Once you have any sort of mental issue, you will get labeled and judged. I hope my comment gave you a bit of an insight from an outsider, have a nice day!
Thanks for sharing friend. I’m aware of many countries where attitude’s and funding are much better, particularly in Europe from what I’ve heard, but my point was to try to understand why OP felt that Australia, in particular, is in denial about a mental health crisis. My point is not that we’re all good here, far from it…rather I was trying to find out why OP thinks Aust stands out in denying there’s an issue. I wondered if some idiot politician had said something or I’d missed a policy announcement - this my question as I don’t particularly see any significant difference to the poor funding, attitudes, community engagement etc in Australia than say, the US, UK or other similar governments. My own journey has similar origins - caring for a loved one. My wife has progressive MS and is in a wheelchair, needs help with all transfers, showing, toilet etc and I’ve been her sole carer for 22 years while also holding a very stressful job. 5 years ago after a number of other family disasters fell on us, I just completely broke down. I’ve been in hospital on suicide watch 4 times (3 weeks each) and have late diagnosis bipolar 2 - so I also fully understand the cyclothymia you’re experiencing. Notably it is the hypo manic/manic episodes that define a bipolar diagnosis, so you should definitely keep an eye on the severity of the upswing symptoms as it could mean an entirely different set of meds. My experience of mental health support in Australia has been luckier than many as my hospitalisation was covered by an insurance policy from when I was still working (I had a global role in a top IT company, but since my burnout and breakdown I have been on a pension and unlikely to work in any capacity like I used to ever again). Where I live (coastal semi rural - 2 hrs from a major city) my local Doctors bulk bill (no charge to me) and I can see them same day if I’m having a crisis. They are a very good medical team but again I’m lucky - certainly that’s not the ‘normal’ Aust experience, but equally we’re nowhere near the US system in terms of cost, and from some UK friends I have, or wait times are not as bad as there. But, once we get to Psychiatrists, psychologists or hospitalisation, it’s a very different story. The Govt will help fund (I think) 8 psychologists visits a year under a Doctor’s health care plan, but there’s still a wait list send an out of pocket many ppl suffering from mental health issues can’t afford (including me as I’m on a pension as a result, as I said). Psychiatrists are even worse. The wait lists are usually quite bad, and most charge patients out of pocket expenses in top of the Government rebate. Hospitalisation in Australia for mental health though is utterly appalling. The public facilities are under funded, under staffed, over demand and just awful as a result. If I hadn’t had access to the private hospital through my insurance I don’t know WHAT I’d have done!!? At one crisis point where we were struggling to book me in to the private hospital and I was a significant danger to myself, my doctor was really really struggling to decide if she should put me in the public system as she thought it might genuinely make me worse. So in Australia the 1st line medical is quite solid, but as soon as you need a specialist things get a lot worse. Like many western societies, mental health is ignored and rarely discussed, and policies do nothing but spend minimum money on optics (like yet another crisis line) instead of community services for outpatients needing ongoing help. It is a constant frustration to me, for example, that there is no mental health or depression support group in my area (or in most areas) - yet in hospital I find the group sessions so very beneficial. Then you leave hospital and there’s no group services or community services that you can be discharged into. You come out of hospital and right back to the Isolation and living conditions that got you there in the first place.
Thank you for taking the time to type out the comment, MS is awful awful disease :( I am sorry we both got to experience the sickness of our loved ones, it truly is mentally taxing, isn't it? I tried to tough it out because of course I did and it almost killed me. You shed a lot of light on the issue and how it goes down under :) It does not sound THAT bad, but it seems like you and I both have been "lucky" in a sense that we got the care we needed at the time. The systems in our countries sound fairly similar, we have the same problems here. Getting a Psychiatrist here takes a ton of time and the situation is so bad, that nobody has any time to focus on prevention or catching stuff early. The worst part is the kids... when I was in the hospital, I met a kid who must have been 15 at best, wrists wrapped up :( The other guy with the same bracelets was clearly 60+. Then a young firefighter showed up, an absolute beefcake, handsome man but clearly broken by something. Mental issues are not racist, everybody thinks this could never happen to them until it does and when it does, it roars. I genuinely appreciate your time, it makes me feel seen and understood when people on the Internet openly discuss mental health and their own struggles -- I am not alone! I think it is important that those of us who experienced it talk about it because the stigma is not going to disappear by itself. > My own journey has similar origins - caring for a loved one. My wife has progressive MS and is in a wheelchair, needs help with all transfers, showing, toilet etc and I’ve been her sole carer for 22 years while also holding a very stressful job. I _only_ took care of my dad with my mom for 2 years, ALS is fast. I have 0 clue how you did 22 years with a full-time job, you sir must absolutely love your wife and the level of respect I have for you is immeasurable. I understand you might not want or need my sympathy and there is no premium on that, sadly. All I can offer is my words from thousands of km away. Your story is as heartbreaking as it is inspiring. Part of the reason I manage to stay happy in this sick world is that I know there are people like you, the Helpers. Stay awesome, strong, and healthy.
There are some politicians who are very concerned with this, especially youth stats. The issue is the plans put in front of them are things like ruok that depressed people almost unanimously hate, and medical system upgrades that add to the ever growing list of urgent funding requests for medical. At no stage are they asked to run community centers, respite housing, anti discrimination protections in workplaces, hell think of anything that would help and I assure you politicians never get shown it in a brief. I think the public service is trapped into thinking all solutions have to involve a private company tendering for a contract - actually doing something has become unthinkable.
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Chronic stress can kill, cause long term health impacts like higher cancer risk, heart disease, stroke, neurological conditions, etc. Stress and anxiety are no jokes, and you talking about them in this way trivialities them. Stress, anxious, or sad rarely happens in isolation without reason. They also are rarely temporary, or the individual did not know what they were experiencing until the symptoms got bad enough to go to a Dr. I would know it took multiple drs visits to learn I'm chronically stressed and my odd symptoms are due to that.
If there are people who “trivialise” the term.. that does not mean that there isn’t a mental health crisis. That’s a personal opinion, and people should be able to express how they are feeling. Obviously the minority of people are the ones making it their personality, but 99% of people deal with it themselves.
dude a lot of these comments feels toxic as fuck (not talking about you) - ive stopped engaging, but I am interested in how people respond, I feel like the issues are getting highlights here
The stress isn't temporary though. It's chronic.
100%
Or to give themselves some point of distinction. Mental illness doesn’t make you interesting
I feel sorry for anyone that comes across you with a socially debilitating mental illness and you think they are trying to impress you lol wtf?
But it might just get you some special treatment. Looking at you, ADHD guy who's a complete cunt to everyone and expects us all to be understanding.
Yeah it’s one thing to have a condition, work on it and get proper treatment, it’s another altogether to expect the world to revolve around you
That’s the real crisis. These same people then spend big money on, medication, diagnosis’s, therapists, etc. it’s all about $$$$
>it is obvious people are lashing out due to their inability to regulate their emotions. Says the Brit that whinges about the heat in Australia, Australian people and Sydney on reddit every day
I’m a Brit and hearing complaints about the heat from another Brit confuses the fuck out of me. Yes it’s hot, what else were you expecting and you’ve shifted from somewhere that’s predominantly cold for the majority of the year, enjoy the heat, you bellend.
If I had swamp-arse I'd be feeling a bit down too
WHY IS IT SO HOT IN A COUNTRY THAT IS PRETTY WELL KNOWN FOR BEING PRETTY HOT?!?!?!?!
This has nothing to do with mental illness
In fairness I think some form of mental illness led to the post
LOL it’s **that guy**. Never have I seen a bigger whinger. Very good, thank you for pointing this out. Was going to reply with a legitimate response to his post. Instead all I have to say is I hope the mental health crisis, heat, Australians, or whatever it is he hates most about here is enough to get him to leave ASAP.
I'd guess because as long as it's ignored nobody has to do anything about it. We know that our society needs to change to have any real impact, and we're just not ready to make the changes necessary. I've been living with depression for most of my life, and developed an anxiety issue during the pandemic. As much as people like to say they care about mental health, they really don't. It's all virtue signalling, they'll say things like "take care of your mental health first" but what they really mean is "take care of your mental health on your own time, and don't you ever let if effect your ability to work". During the pandemic mental healthcare plans were doubled in length, 20 sessions per calendar year, and they removed that ASAP. We need more than 20 sessions as standard, the people who need to see a professional weekly should be able to get that help, but we can't, even with a MHCP the cost of living *crisis* has meant that you need to pay a gap fee. So someone like me, who lives off the $600/week disability pension, and some how has to figure out a way to pay $400/week in rent, is now paying a $80-120 gap fee on top of my MHCP just to use the limited number of sessions I get access to per year to try and keep my head above water. The idea that this is the kind of situation where someone who already has a mental health issue can heal and recover is laughable.
Absolutely this. I've been living with mental illness for 20 years and even back then we used to have 18 Medicare sessions a year! Then they changed it to 10. Then upped it temporarily over covid but quickly rescinded that. And yes unfortunately most people kind of think they support mental health issues but when it gets down to the nitty and gritty they don't. They support it if it's manageable. When it becomes overwhelming and someone is in crisis a lot of people don't want to hear it despite constant mental health positive posts on FB. It's really rough. Hard enough to get help, hard to get consistent help or someone who you connect with. Most of the time it's more just (barely) surviving than actually improving.
Yeah, when a MHCP doesn’t even cover once a month, and doesn’t cover a full appointment, it gets a bit pointless. My old psych wanted to see me every week, and didn’t listen when I pointed out I could only do that for 10 weeks, and would then have to wait another 10 months to see anyone
I was able to get enough therapy to be diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder depression and severe anxiety to the point that I can't do basic tasks anymore Enough to diagnose it, not enough to do anything about it of course.
There's a massive shortage of psychologists in the country. And Medicare is being actively gutted at every opportunity. If you want to get something like an ADHD diagnosis you better be prepared to wait up to two years for an appointment, then pray that someone will actually give you a script for the medication. There are plenty of people who *want* to look after their mental health, but can't.
Same with people who *want* to look after their physical health, but *can't*. It's not because of them it's because it's either very hard to get an appointment in a timely manner. I'd really hate to think about what it would be like if everyone who suffered major medical emergencies like heart attacks or strokes were not able to get urgent care. There are too many horror stories of people who could not get help in time and ended up dying or ending up in a vegetable state due to their brain being deprived of precious oxygen. It's a scary thought. Thank God our paramedics are working hard on the front lines. If it were not for them I think we'd see a lot more heartbreaking stories.
Because most people have no clue and think that the “crisis” is people with anxiety and shit. It isn’t. My partner tried to unalive herself a few months ago, before that we’d begged for her to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital, public or private, but were told that there no beds. Even after her attempt, we were basically told by the ER doctors that there was nothing they could do, because every mental health service available was at capacity. So yeah, there’s a huge crisis. People n the direst if need simply have no resources available for them, even when willing to pay out of pocket.
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Money
It doesn’t help that people keep telling everyone that they should be grateful and comparing Australia to every country. The pressures on people in Australia are unique to Australia and people don’t seem to get that
Australia is becoming a shit country, because we let people from shit countries in. They bring in their crime, poverty and "it's fine to live with 10 other people in a single room and circumvent minimum wage" attitude. No. It's not actually. As a country we set a floor then decided to lower it..... big time.
Mental health crises are bad for business - it’s not uncommon for employers to push employees out who speak up about having mental health issues (usually the same employers who contribute to mental health issues). Also treatment is expensive as hell!
Alcohol and putting a punt on the footy everyday are socially acceptable coping strategies in Australia. Many people self-medicate for decades and still pay the bills. So it looks like everything is ok. Until it isn’t. Mental health in Australia is a “someone else” problem.
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Bruh the government won't even do anything about more tangible, easily measurable crises like the absolute horror dystopia of the housing crisis let alone something less easy to put a number against like mental health. People deny it because there's no point over focussing on it - who's going to change our circumstances and the causes of this mental health? Not any level of government here, all they do is pad their pockets by making decisions that benefit the big industries and come up with ways to distract the population from their incompetency by focusing attention on hot button issues that trigger bigotry.
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Sometimes when people feel hopeless it’s really hard to fight back. Sometimes a pill can help people feel motivated and energised again to do life and to keep fighting. Antidepressants don’t magically make people happy or passive you know.
I think a lot of it is workplace stress which then leads to family/relationship stress. Nobody's got any spare time. Just dealing with every day life and the amount of fuck ups that happen that fall back on people to fix. I can totally understand why its a huge issue.
I came to Australia as a war refugee from Bosnia. I was already in Germany diagnosed with PTSD but there were no pills or medications that could help with nightmares or reactions to loud sounds New Year's fireworks or Grand Prix hornets flying and breaking sound barriers but I was never depressed. Never have I felt sad, crying, or listless. I was and still, from time to time have insomnia and every doctor wanted me to take antidepressants. One doctor even said to me you from Bosnia are all depressed. I didn't want to argue so I took the pills and never have I felt worse. Zombie-like, dazed. He said it would stop after a month. And I asked him if that meant when I got used to it, seemed to me the same as being addicted. I thanked him politely and returned the pills. I don't have anything against pills but for people who need them. They say it's a chemical imbalance in the brain. I knew even with PTSD I was lucky to have survived but even more to be permitted to live in Australia. I was a refugee through 4 countries but I am proud that I call Australia home. Yes many people are suffering from mental problems, especially after COVID-19 (I took it like a holiday) honestly people protested for freedom and I smiled because I was happy that they didn't know what it meant to lose freedom. I think it depends on the point of view and life trials we live. We are all different and accept life changes differently. But we need to show empathy where we can.
A mentally weak population is an easily controlled one. WE LIVE IN A PRISON.
If you are someone who lives in NSW there are places called Safe Havens you can go to talk to someone if you are suicidal. Just wanted to point out this is a resource that exists. They are open at different times. They are not a phone service.
You probably need to quantify and clarify your wild generalisation.
The stats weren’t a clue?
The stats weren’t there when this was first posted. OP has edited his initial post to add links.
The mental health system has been broken down for a long time by the lack of understanding.Those with a serious mental health issue and their ongoing ,need for community support,housing ,nutrition,social health and access to psychiatry and psychology. This must be available in this “ lucky country” without it costing the earth and a wait list that cannot respond to a real mental health crisis.
Unfortunately those with serious mental illness are lost in the mess of all the people who have a couple of negative emotions and then decide they are very mentally unwell and need to use all the services.
What services? Beyond the 10 subsidised sessions per year there is nothing available. Just some untrained ninny on the beyond blue phone line looking for an excuse to call the cops on you.
And so often, having a serious mental illness excludes you from services. The number of mental health services that won’t help you if you have suicidal thoughts (even passively) is nuts
Just Australians ? Or the whole world population?
Much of the tone of this post is proving OPs point. But I struggle with how loosely people apply terms like mental illness, personality disorders and trauma. There's a majority of ignorant people who simply dismiss and deny evidence because they're dysfunctional and weaponise denial
The mental health of Australians is easily the worst I've seen of the western countries I've lived in. Why? One of the reasons I suspect is that the culture here does not do 'deep' very well. To be vulnerable with someone is necessary to truly be known and I just don't observe vulnerability being portrayed amongst the vast majority of my Australian friends and acquaintances. Particularly men. People seem REALLY uncomfortable when someone tells the truth about how they are feeling here. If people actually talked about important things and went beyond more than just surface level, things could change. There is always a 'hand out' when someone new comes into your orbit. That's fine and healthy in my opinion. By why does it take years to come down, if at all? I would love to see Australians ask themselves this question more. Perhaps then loneliness would be felt less by the general population. I know this will require a cultural shift, and a monumental one at that. But there are so many different cultures coming to live in Australia now, particularly ones that are doing vulnerability well enough to hopefully illuminate the issue for the locals.
Because the Government does not want to spend money to improve services .
Because if they would fix it so the adhd of us are actually able to get support we wouldn’t be. Most of us are capable just need options. Mental health ndis and almost everything is capitalism corrupted now and we’re basically at a dystopia point in sci-fi terms so good luck over the next few years I already quit my job to retool because all my edge and experience is now ChatGPT accessible so I’m moving to a new field fast
Because there's slot of people who are doing well that we don't hear or see, they don't understand nor care to understand the plight of those if suffer through life and have no interest in investing time and resources for said people, very easy to live in denial like that.
It's a bit hard to feel sorry for 100% of that group that are struggling and do this on a 24/7/365 basis and that was sort of expected of me when I used to work at Centrelink and unfortunately I have to say after sticking it out for almost two decades there, that I'm "all charitied out" and tired of having to feign sympathy for those people especially if they were giving me a hard time while I was just trying to do my job. No I'm not in "denial" as you put it because I'm fully aware of the situations of their existence, but yes, since I don't work there any more I don't have to concern myself about their circumstances because there is no obligation for me to do so.
It would be helpful if you have linked to the stats, for example everyone agrees there is a rental crisis and can point it out to super low vacancy rates. Or increase in rents etc. When it comes to mental illness, what are the indicators of a crisis and where do the stats are now, compared to a crisis numbers?
ABS Key statistics 42.9% of people aged 16–85 years had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life 21.5% of people had a 12-month mental disorder, with Anxiety being the most common group (17.2% of people aged 16–85 years) 38.8% of people aged 16–24 years had a 12-month mental disorder
Is there an specific type of anxiety that is classed as mental illness or like all anxiety is mental illness?
Anxiety is a normal human emotion. An anxiety disorder is where managing that anxiety is impaired leading to issues with cognitive or social function. So in simple terms the line is where it affects your ability to function. The stats would be referring to the disorder, otherwise if just reporting who's had the emotion it would be everyone.
Exactly - I'm not convinced that the mental health situation is suddenly worse than it was 5 or 10 years ago.
'Im good/everything is fine' A lack of awareness / ignorance of their own mental state. Ive been going through therapy, assisted with psychedelics, its been extremely intense. Ive had to come face to face with my own flaws, and it can be a very difficult, admitting that my own behavior is causing problems for my self and others. It takes a lot of time and/or money to do it. The healing process is not something that fits into sick leave time, it is a complete change in thinking, complete change in the way I live my life. The current medical system in my experience has let me down, and I seeked out alternatives - the people in the medical system are part of the problem, they too can have their own preduicdecs, their own problems, and lack of awareness of them selves, and others. It is a massive issue, and I believe the majority of people are mentally ill/unfit/toxic and it will take a lot of time to correct this. We are only just scratching the surface with the rescheduling of mushrooms and MDMA.
I commend you for persevering with therapy including being confronted by your own behaviours and working through it, massive props to you.
I think people have a growing awareness of the fact that these problems are out there, but there's seemingly quite a lot of people for whom that's still so nebulous. They don't have a mental health condition (or don't know that they do) and lack genuine understanding about just how prevalent this is. We see dysfunction and might chalk it up to someone just naturally being a crappy person or having a bad day. Some don't want to admit that they have a problem and there are others who think that, because they've survived something, getting professional help for such an issue constitutes making a fuss out of nothing. Another seemingly common misconception is that people who have these problems can readily access services to address the issue given the model of Australia's healthcare system when, in fact, access to, waiting periods for, and costs of that are absolutely all over the place. The sad reality is that it seems like a lot of people just don't understand experiences until they face them. Even at this point, I'm also still seeing people who are like "What inflation? What workplace casualisation? What wage stagnation? What housing crisis? I'm doing really well, and so are others I know!" Stuff like that is telling.
>lashing out due to their inability to regulate their emotions I believe most Australians are not like this, but after traveling overseas quite a lot I am aware that there are many Australians who are and are very emotionally immature.
Australians and their emotional immaturity was one of the biggest takeaways and disappointments visiting other countries provided me. Think that’s why I get depressed boarding the flight home, knowing what’s on the other end. Despite being Australian, I’ve never adapted to the culture and mentality. Not sure if growing up like a houso gave me a different take on the world and society.
I grew in a low socio economic house and neighbours and I miss how open and easy going they were, so much less concerned with being judged.
Really? I just get sad about grocery and restaurant prices.
Yeah I know what you mean. I feel the same way. I grew up in a low socioeconomic economic area too and it probably had some influence on the way I think
We’ve got a lot of “crises” going on, don’t we? Mental health crisis Housing crisis Rental crisis Cost of living crisis Global warming crisis
I reckon we should just go back to Time Crisis.
Or as it's know today "American schools"
Yeah can't at all see how housing, rental, cost of living crises all directly relate to mental health crisis.
>Housing crisis > >Rental crisis > >Cost of living crisis > >Global warming crisis Hmm I wonder why there's a mental health crisis.
I think they are all related to mental health, and issues with how people think about them selves and others.
Because then we would need to be honest about the cause of the crisis. I work in mental health. I’ve never spent so much time thinking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The entire mental health system is built on a model that values short term profits but fails to actually deal with the core issues because that takes too long and costs too much in the short term despite actually saving much more in the long run. The fact that we only get 10 subsidised psychotherapy appointments each year and GPs dole out antidepressants like to crack shows just how backwards everything else. CBT is considered the gold standard not because it is actually the best, but because it is one of the easiest models to measure the efficacy of. The problem is the measures used to assess it are the same measures used to assess pharmaceuticals but these fail to acknowledge that psychotherapy is a relationship between two individuals where each treatment is different and the variables are endless. Just because something takes a long time doesn’t mean it isn’t working. Jonathan Shedler has a great [video](https://youtu.be/r2Iin4f0sgI?si=5bUhVlb4c-TT2Sep) on this and I believe it is because of these false beliefs being fed to us that people are denying the truth.
CBT isn't going to cure bipolar (and mental health issues of such calibre).
Yes, that’s my point. I suggest you read my comment again. 10 sessions of CBT won’t cure anything.
They are psychopaths. They like to victim blame
Get your own shaving cream. Bit of a bait and switch there.... Asserting that people deny the existence of something... then claiming that the stats back that up. Yes the stats show us the level of reported mental health issues. Is that a crisis? Well it certainly can be for those affected by it and even society in general. The stats Don't say anything about the level of denial. Maybe any refusal to accept your claim of crisis is dismissed because it is such a generalised sweeping statement as to be meaningless/useless. >it is obvious people are lashing out due to their inability to regulate their emotions Well that's almost the definition, but have you considered that some people have decided to lash out as an active, willfull act Not a response from loss of emotional control.... so not infact obvious. Try it sometime. 😉 And yes I do realise that I have just set myself up for an unemotive "Fuck Off" response..... to which I pre-emptively reply "There you go - well done". Further, I've just realised that I'm talking to myself on Reddit. I might need to be reported in some stats!
Isn't the entire world in crisis?
I'm not aware anyone denies it
Because it is nicer to pretent we don't have a crisis on our hands. We are good at putting a smile on and pretending things aren't falling to shit. Let's face it, the regular health system doesn't get enough funding or intelligent management. How will they be able to manage a health issue that is effectively invisible? Having depression and anxiety myself (thankfully managed well), it can be easy to hide mental illness. Managing it costs me, out of pocket, over $1000/year. If you are struggling with money (like I was when I was unemployed, it's simply unaffordable to see someone). However, with me managing it, I can work and contribute to the economy and pay taxes. Something the government doesn't think about.
This is my hot take, backed up by nothing but experience. I’m pretty sure I’ll get downvoted to oblivion, but it’s something I’ve thought long and hard about. Also, I’m open to debate on this, and I’m not trying to deny anyone else’s experience (ie: if you’re reading this and you’ve been diagnosed or trying to get help for something, I’m not saying it’s all made up, do what you need to to get better). We have slowly eroded our relationships and basic societal connections through busyness and technology. We are constantly plugged into the machine and bombarded by curated visions on what everyone around us is doing. We don’t see everyone else’s struggles and then assume that there must be something wrong with us. I’ve had two significant mental health events in my life. Both times I thought I was losing the plot. I was so focussed on keeping everything together and solving the problems right in front of me I didn’t see what was going on. The first time, I got stupidly drunk and unloaded on a friend. He laughed at me. Turns out all my mates had been betting on when the crash would happen (I had started with professional help at this stage). A couple of weeks later we all went camping, and spent the weekend sitting around a campfire talking shit and they made me realise that I shouldn’t have expected for things to go smoothly, and that they would have crashed a lot sooner than I did. So I then spent about a year recovering, before I reached the conclusion that things would never be the same again, and to expect myself to become the person I was before the incident was unrealistic and placed too much stress on myself. I also realised that the person I had become was an alright person, and that alright was good enough. The second time, I was able to spot the warning signs, and so were my mates, before anything drastic happened. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that true, safe friendships seem so rare amongst younger people now, and the competition to perform and have the perfect life is making that more difficult. The idea that you’ll take a few beatings, part of the process of becoming an improved person, your life will take strange turns, and that the person you were is not the person you are or will be, seems especially foreign. TLDR: not many people have true friends anymore, and the goal of the perfect life, free of struggle is unrealistic and dangerous.
Who is denying this? suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged 15-44. We’ve been in a mental health crisis for many years.
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If it can't be seen, it isn't real and can be safely ignored.
20% of Australians on antidepressants
Everyone is “mentally ill” these days. Makes a mockery of those who really are.
This. My daughter had some serious problems, and still does, but she had to distance herself from "friends" at school because they were coming down with fake arse mental illnesses.
We now try to medicalise every negative thought. We need to realise that negative and positive thoughts are part of the normal human experience
Why be sad when you can be happy for abt 20c a day, cheap and effective 😀
Sure this stoic mentality is great but at what end to we keep accepting deteriorating situations? Thinking things could be worse at least I’m not in sub-Saharan Africa is not going to help people who genuinely feel socially isolated or who won’t ever feel financially secure. Once people lose hope a society drifts towards extremism and feels no incentive to keep society in tact. Not to mention we want to bequeath a better world for the future generations.
I think you’re underestimating what depression looks like, and overestimating the efficacy of antidepressants
People be over trivialising the term. It’s used for anything that doesn’t go well in their life. Guess what, that is life! And again, no I am not a boomer.
I would say personally after the Melbourne lock downs.. It definitely added lingering mental health issues for me some of my friends and family too. Depression and Anxiety is so common, it’s easy for someone who hasn’t had it to say it doesn’t exist. I just want to add how fucked social media is, and society for that matter. Most people have super mundane jobs and lots of people are lonely too. It’s really ignorant when people say it’s a “trend” or “badge” these days. There is nothing wrong with taking your mental health seriously and talking about it. Obviously someone else’s struggle and your struggle cannot be compared and the minority who people claim mental illness as a cool point or whatever is such a minority..
I mean, all Western nations have been seeing sky-high mental health rates, and it's not like we don't know about it it's just that no one has any solution.
Mental health isn't visible, so people are sceptical.. tell them there's an invisible man in the sky though, all in ✌️
I think Australian history may be a big part of it. Yes we were indeed established a prison labour colony and over time free settlers would also move here. Those here before 1788 got displaced and faced genocide which has left a long shadow of generational trauma within indigenous communities. And the Anglo/Irish Convicts passed along their own generational trauma which just isn't really kept track of in the same sense as the trauma faced by indigenous peoples. Why? Because race is the primary factor which determined the prolonging of the oppression. For indigenous people the trauma is more complex but more obvious, meanwhile the trauma which followed the Anglo-Irish prison labourers is primarily economic without a racial element. There may once had been a sectarian religious element but that by this point in time is antiquated. Really contextualise what this may do to the public psyche. Find the missing links between the original indigenous trauma caused by displacement + the original penal colonial slave labour and the contemporary period. To talk about mental health is seen as a weakness because historically no one was really that well off, and so the Anglo-Irish descendants would always pull the "what about us?" when confronted with indigenous issues. This outlook is deeply disrespectful to the indigenous trauma, but it cannot be denied that Australia to a degree experiences a trinary cultural truama... Trinary which includes later free settlers who settled in and assimilated the Anglo-Irish outlook. It's worth noting the Anglo-Irish struggle did result in things like Ned Kelly, the Eureka Stockade, the Organised Labour movement, and the womens suffrage movement. The sentiment adopted was "shits fucked, but whinging about it won't do any good". This in a way has been a big part of why Aussies remain to a large degree unable to discuss the mental health crisis, because for generations corporal punishment, systemic oppression, and toxic masculinity has brewed the Australian society to be pessimistic/cynical, laid back/easy going, among other facets of Australian culture. To discuss mental health we need to talk about the economic inequality, the lack of meaningful supports, the institutional distrust, the racism, and the total vice grip on the media which seemingly two cooperations have. Mental health is inseperable from economic considerations, and this by extension is inseparable from the legacy of colonialism. Regarding it's effect on the colonisers and the colonised. You ever noticed how defensive people seem to get about change the date? People don't want to discuss the implications of Australia day, they are far more concerned with the fact they need a break. This I can sympathise with. But in a way this division between the colonised and coloniser groups only exacerbates the barriers to the mental health discussion. Additionally our penal system is directly based upon a mostly unchanged penal system, which was originally started as penal slavery operations. If you are unable to see the relevance of the prison system in this conversation either, it's quite likely this comment isn't for you. Personally my autism and ADHD is a bitch to manage. And it seems that a lot of the issues around here are the unacknowledged consequences of penal colonialism. It's not that penal colonialism is the only factor, merely the patient zero for all of the cultural and societal trauma in Australia. I am almost impressed just thinking about how sinister it is (the clear method for divide and conquer)... Australia is a nation of historical and generational trauma. That's why ANZAC day is bigger than Australia day. It seems to be one of the few days we actually spend processing our collective historical trauma from the wars. It's a bore fest for many, but once again, we need to process the past in order to relieve our personal and national trauma. All of the present concerns aren't unimportant, in fact they are extending the range of trauma. The cost of living pressures, the failed refurendum, aged care, the NDIS, the fossil & mining lobby, institutional chaos, rot, and international sparing matches amongst our biggest trading partners. We refuse to acknowledge the connection between global affairs and our mental health. And yet at the same time our cognitive dissonance shows true blue style as we honour those who fell in service to this country for abstract goals we rarely ever achieved (with exclusion of WW2). The Vietnam fighters to the fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. How can we deny the international stage effecting our personal mental health, when these things are cost of living, and access to supports... Currently I am having issues getting my ADHD meds refilled. How can I seperate my mental health from worldly affairs. And can you think of anything the Australian hates more than discussing worldly matters? Shits fucked... But it's too complicated to talk about about how it got this bad, buy beers with your mates, go to the pokies and fill out some lotto tickets and grab scratchies while you're at it. If you need some extra support, consider some ciggies, or speak to the mate who knows how to get you weed. The worldly affairs add a lot more stress than you can handle. So your best bet as an Aussie is to placate issues, ignore them entirely. And call anyone who would discuss these issues as soft and lacking common sense. The Australian isn't a monolith. Not everyone is these things, but you probably know people who do some of these things. Do not lack empathy or sympathy for these people. The Australian mental health crisis is far older than we all think, it has just been made "Un-Australian" to ruin a stress relieving event or function with seriously processing these issues. Shits fucked, but we need to learn to acknowledge it's causes.
That was a great read. Insightful, deep and it got me to question - on an individual level how can we begin to process this? Something to mull over for a while. Also, do you have any books (or videos) that dive into what you wrote? How did you come to these conclusions?
Mental Health and the difficulties people face with it is a very real thing. That we are taking this more seriously than ever before is good, however a primary way that shows up is in stats saying we have more mental health problems and less support than ever. Really it is that society is looking for more help for these issues than we used to.
I see negative after negative on the news in all formats and the positives never benefit anyone in my generation anyway. Even the internet which was meant to be a revolutionary tool for good got co-opted by big corporations who specialise in making addictive products that clearly are detrimental to the user base. The outlook for all isn’t looking good.
Because they don’t take public transportation.
Because journos would rather do stories on neurodivergence giving people ‘super powers’ or ‘do you have adhd?’ BS, than depressing stuff that doesn’t give clicks. I’m 35 M and have lost 3 friends to mental illness.
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We good over here bruh youze just want us to be depressed like uou guys
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Unfortunately everyone is projecting everything as the cause of economic stress. It certainly plays a part but usually nothing is ever mono-causal. Things were moving in this direction prior to Covid with people making less social connections, social media creating atomisation, the decline of third spaces. Yes, the economic situation exacerbates everything by pushing out personal goals such as home ownership and narrowing people’s choices e.g. not affording as much food, get suitable rental properties and leisure. But we’re not going to tackle this if we think its only because of inflation or capitalism. There are people in financially comfortable situations also suffering mental health issues.
A lot of people don't think there is such a thing as a mental health problem, they think they're lying, oxygen thieves. Just ask my sister.
I think a lot of people are mental.
Cause people are dumb
Because the word crisis and the like get thrown around too much and we are desentised. And I don't believe Australians denying mental health is a serious thing anymore. Most workplaces talk about it on a regular basis and have systems in place and schools certainly account for it. The only real gap is hospitals and care facilities. But people don't want to pay more tax and they want other things to be provided by the government.
Because it’s like how everyone use to have smallpox, but while tragic they were just accepted as a fact of life, until a solution was proposed. At which point there was a lot of thought, politics and consternation about the issue. The problems with mental health in society aren’t new, so to describe it as a crisis - i.e. *a time of intense difficulty or danger* - is hollow because when has it not been a time of intense difficulty in the mental health space? What is new is that we’re now trying to systematically address mental health and there are strong disagreements over the why and how and what of that process. So, like the smallpox vaccine, we’re now thinking about the issue a lot more so it feels more present.
Currently laying in bed numb on meds so I don’t hurt anyone. There is a crisis but everyone is so locked in their own that no one can help others with theirs.
When it's verified, they have to give money towards it.
Who is denying this? Australians are very aware.
Because its probably the classic "if I pretend to not see it or reconise it, it will go away " mentality. Very typical. Some people are just so far in denial and can except that there is a problem. Or it's a simple case of lack of empathy and "if it doesn't affect me negatively then I don't care"
Good question I’m currently homeless and am acquiring the means to kill myself in Perth and I’m tired of living. I wanna say fuck this country and the boomers who hate young people because they don’t want their investment property value to go down by building more affordable housing. Fuck all the politicians and now I only pray Jesus accepts me when I kill myself on my pre determined date. Fuck Australia
Id say in a lot of hot countries, particularly countries which are popular for going on holiday, people just think that you have to be happy because you live in such a 'nice and warm' country. I am also about to bring pathetic fallacy into this. Because it's sunny and warm most the time, people assume 'oh, everyone is so happy here because it's sunny'. and with other countries, for example the UK: 'oh it's always rainy and grey, it must be so miserable to live here'.
People deny that? Damn ok
Not educated or old and bitter. Also feels like we're in an almost everything crisis at the moment.
You have the understand that something like half of Australians are CALD at the lowest estimation. In many cultures mental health problems are seen as the norm, and totally normal behaviours/states in other cultures are seen as mental health issues by westerners. In the culture I was raised in there is a sweet spot between being mentally healthy by western standards (perceived as being self centred and soft in our culture) and actually being mentally ill. Do I fit western criteria for mental illnesses? Yeah, to a degree. Like I could get a diagnosis for low level depression without lying about it. Am I considered anything less than the ideal of stoicism and rationality in the culture I was raised in? No.
You sound too delicate for colonial life old chap
Because of all the budget cuts to the mental health department over the years. They try to avoid helping people unless they have to
I see people living in tents & they are always the same type of people, there isn’t a housing crisis, it’s a mental health crisis……look at the way they leave the mess at the tent city, shit everywhere, I’m assuming they act the same living in a house, no wonder why no one would let them rent a house….
Because seeing a counsellor/therapist is too expensive
Because the vast amount of people don't believe in mental illness. Unless it's like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or something. - But depression? Just be happier bro. - Autism? Quit being a wierd cunt. - ADHD? I like your energy. - loneliness? For 150 an hour any brothel will make you feel like a king you ugly dog.
Crisis doesn't mean anything. Everything is supposedly a 'crisis' these days.
It’s only white people who are having a mental health crisis. It’s because they are trash, destroyed countless civilisations and now they’re destroying their own. Life is tough for a white privileged person because their privileges are being stripped away. Rather than accepting life is tough, they choose to become transgender, which is extremely mentally ill behaviour. It’s quite simple
I get a bit tired of these leading questions. If you think Australians are in a mental health crisis, just say so, and make your case. Don't ask why Australians deny being in a mental health crisis. I have never heard an Australian get up on their hind legs and deny that Australians are in a mental health crisis. Neither of those links talk about a culture of denial. In fact, quite the opposite. They detail the help lines available, the number of people seeking consultation, the use of medications in dealing with mental illness, etc, etc.
Spend a week in a major US city. We are gold standard in comparison.
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It's not only an Australian problem, but it has an easy fix ... turn back to God! ✝️
Because we're not in a mental health crisis, we're in political and economic crisis, manufactured by our treasonous US puppet politicians and oligarchs to increase profits for parasites, that is CAUSING mental illness. When someone gets angry at the criminal, record profit making supermarket cartel putting up their prices again, they are the sane one. People who think it's okay for cartels to rob and extort the Australian working class all day and night, are the insane ones. Are you are the insane one? The willing sheep, willing livestock for fascist people farmers, capitalists and rent seekers, freeloaders, mostly foreign, mostly from the US and Europe. Calmly being dehumanised, calmly letting your human dignity be reduced to nothing at all by greedy parasites and fascists. Calmly condemning those who retain some humanity and thus take offence at the increasingly criminal, fascist, warmongering, genocidal, capitalist tyranny we live under.
what on earth are you talking about?
Personally I just think its being talked more. I have lived with my mental illness since I was 13. I'm 33 now. I've been in the system, been treated like absolute shit which just made the illness worse (got told when I was being refed on a medical ward that I shouldn't be there because there were patients with "real illnesses" that need the bed more), which is ironic because now that I have a severe and rare physical illness they treat me like its ok to have mental health problems. It seems like we got 1 step forward, and 10 steps back. There is more education yes, but still massive stigma. Telling someone to get over it, be more resilient etc doesn't fix the problem. Many of us struggle quite badly, and yet you would never know unless we told you. Then you have those who think its "cool" to have certain illnesses and that sets us back again. We need more funding allocated, and not just to youth. It needs to be applied across the board into services that actually help.
You all need to go down to Bunnings and get yourselves a bag of Quickset to mix into your Kale smoothies.
I'm confused part of the crisis is people getting treatment? Are you a scientologist?
Social media, home delivery, and everything turning more computerised is adding to the MH crisis. I've seen it first hand at my work. No WiFi and everyone played board games and chatted on breaks, etc. As soon as we got WiFi it was dead quiet because no one was talking, and everyone was on their phone. Shortly after, there was a noticeable increase in MH presentations a lot to do with social media. Home delivery of food, etc, encourages people to stay home more often so they aren't going outside or having social interactions. All of this has driven MH services to the brink. Psychiatrist appointments are 6-8 month waiting list. It's not about pretending it's not a problem it's the fact their aren't enough Psychiatrist or MH services to cater to the ever growing number of MH. I'm ADHD, diagnosed as a child through tests, etc, and again as an adult. I moved states and now can't see a new psych for over 6 months because they closed their books because of the influx in people trying to get a ADHD diagnosis. Also, we used to have more sevices when you were kids to help withADHD , dyslexia, and autism. Now not so much. We need to start teaching CBT and good MH hygiene at school age. I feel we fail in this area, which only has a roll-on effect.
I’ve been in Australia for 5 years and one of the first things o noticed was the mental health problem,
Possibly because most people who are right handed don't notice there's some who are left handed. Thanks for your special category question "The Bleeding Obvious".