BY: ANISYA NAIR
The twenty-first-century machine knows no bounds. It cranks out some of the most capable humans while at the same time hinders our mindsets. These days more than ever, we find that we’re at the edge of a new revolution: the mental health movement. With more awareness, mental health has become a forefront issue that needs to be tackled in today’s world.
However, picture this.
Having a familial history of schizophrenia, a condition that requires attention and medication before it harnesses extreme power over its victim. Waking up every day with a nine to five job, worrying about having food on the table every minute while simultaneously finding ways to combat the demons in your head.
Sounds like a punishment dished out by Satan himself, does it not?
Unfortunately, such is the life for many who live beneath the poverty line. As of 2015, the United Nations deems that more than 736 million people lived below the international poverty line. With the pandemic at our hands, that number has only increased. One thing is clear; poverty is a disease that demeans one from their potential and quality of life. It plagues one’s mind in several situations, depriving them of hope, joy, and the finer things in life. These conditions are ideal breeding grounds for several mental illnesses ranging from anxiety to depression. When cases are severe, individuals stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty are expected to carry on and fend for themselves.
What’s more, is that poverty during the different stages of one’s life has varying effects too. An article by Psychiatric Times finds that during childhood poverty is associated with various symptoms ranging from “lower school achievement; worse cognitive, behavioral, and attention-related outcomes; higher rates of delinquency, depressive and anxiety disorders; and higher rates of almost every psychiatric disorder in adulthood.” When the youth are dampened with these conditions, it takes away from their innate potential. Not everyone can learn the ropes or work their way up ladders; it becomes even more challenging when faced with beating these inner demons.
Now looking toward poverty-ridden adults, the same volume by Psyhicatric times reported that poverty is linked with “ depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, psychological distress, and suicide.” If all the eligible adults in a country aren’t working, it has subsequent effects on the economy. In this new era of Teslas and iPhones, losing lives to poverty should not be an issue. Yet it is, and such is the harsh reality that we reside in.
Across the world, even the most developed nations don’t have systems equipped to deal with mental health issues. Since this is a newfound field of study, there’s less infrastructure set around it to help those who can afford care, much less those who can barely buy their meals. According to the World Health Organization, “only 2% of national health budgets” are dedicated to mental health. Not only that, some countries don’t even have specified mental health budgets. As shocking as these statistics are, they measure up to the drastic change required in the system.
For those who argue that mental health isn’t as important as physical health, mental illnesses happen to be co-morbid with a lot of other diseases: both infectious and chronic. Once again, that takes a current of individuals from the workforce as they’re left uninsured with never ending medical bills to pay. If a country wants to reach optimal levels of development, this issue needs to be addressed immediately.
Poverty and mental health, two riling issues that need to be dispelled globally, go hand in hand, creating a deadly combination that we’re struggling to deal with. As we’ve seen, newer challenges will undoubtedly aggravate these conditions. Therefore, we must acknowledge this phenomenon between money meagerness and mental health- before it’s far too late to turn against this dark torrent.
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