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Hello everyone! It’s been a minute. We’ve both been very busy, but are trying hard to get back into the habit of writing more for our site. Lately, the topic of mental health and how quickly it has been politicized has been on my mind, so I wanted to write down some of my opinions as both a student of psychology and as a conservative who has struggled with mental illness throughout my life thus far.
To start, what is mental health? It’s hard to discern what exactly it entails, when it is yet again another domain that is heavily dominated by Left-wing ideologies and practices. As a conservative college student who is not only studying psychology, but struggles with mental health herself, there are some points that I would like to address regarding mental health and how it is being painted as a political issue. First off, the existenceof mental health is fundamentally non-partisan, and should never have been politicized to begin with. And yes, it exists. People on both the Right and the Left grapple with various mental illnesses throughout their lives; some struggle with more long-term illnesses, such as bipolar disorder or PTSD, whereas others struggle more short term, whether that takes the form of stress, grief, or another temporary psychological impairment. The vast majority of us have struggled or will struggle with mental health at some point in our life, or will watch someone close to use struggle with it. The problem is, with the Left hijacking the fields of psychology and psychiatry, mental illness on the Right often gets overlooked. That leaves many on the Right feeling trapped, when the vast majority of resources available to them contradict their belief system.
On the Left, victimhood is praised, and it is “trendy” and encouraged to treat your mental illness as your sole personality trait. From a conservative viewpoint, in contrast, mental health has historically been observed to be viewed as just a part of the individual; the person is treated as more than their illness, and is taught that victimhood is not an appropriate response to dealing with mental illness. The problem lies in that many trained psychologists and psychiatrists lean far towards the progressive perspective; they are quick to tell clients that it is OK to solely rely on government assistance and that it’s also OK for the client’s mental illness to consume their personality, and they leave therapy or hastily prescribed medications as the sole method of treatment. While therapy and medications have certainly been shown to effectively treat many, this does not often yield lasting changes in thinking, as oftentimes these patterns of accepted victimhood persist, and the client still views themself through the lens of “mentally ill”, rather than through the lens of being a vibrant individual with many unique traits that make up the whole.
Victimhood fuels a never-ending cycle of self-loathing and mental illness that doesn’t get better; on the contrary, clients often spiral deeper into learned helplessness. Another issue with how the Left handles mental health is that progressives are quick to label any minor psychological issue as a “chronic mental illness”. Today, many students and other young adults are quick to self-label themselves as “depressed” because they had one bad day, or as “having anxiety” because they felt stressed one time before taking a high-stakes test. There is a widespread failure of the ability to distinguish between a chronic mental illness and a normal response to an abnormal event.
Think back to 2016, and the “stress animals” that were brought to campuses across the nation because of the liberal students who were claiming lasting psychological damage from Donald Trump’s election. That was an example of a short-term temper tantrum, and should not be used as a model for mental health in college students; unfortunately, however, that has been the trend. There is a severe need going forward to differentiate between serious mental health conditions that need management and simply “having a bad day”. Thanks to Left-wing activists, however, the waters only continue to muddy, and many individuals who are severely struggling are failing to get the help they need, especially throughout the past year due to COVID. The current average wait time to get into see a psychiatrist as a new patient in an urban area is slightly over six months, and many conservatives are actually reluctant to seek outside treatment due to the rampant liberalism that seeps through the way that therapists and psychiatrists treat patients. Once again, it is time that those of us on the Right who care begin to speak up and start taking action if we want our voices to be heard, rather than be silenced. Mental health is one area where conservatives can do better, and do better we must. We need more conservative therapists and psychologists that will cater to a conservative perspective, and more groups for like-minded conservatives to connect with one another. If not for yourself, do it for a loved one.
- The Wyoming Patriot
P.S. If you know a conservative student in your life, check in on them. Many of them are likely facing consistent harassment and silencing, and those persistent actions can indeed take a toll on their mental health.
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