Mental health is a very important component of overall health and well being. Our emotional, psychological, and social well being all contribute to our mental health. It has an impact on how we think, feel, and act. It also influences how we deal with stress, interact with people, and make good decisions. Mental health is essential at all stages of life, from childhood through adolescence to maturity. Poor mental health and mental illness are not the same thing, despite the fact that the phrases are sometimes used interchangeably. A person might have poor mental health without being diagnosed with a mental disease. According to the bell hook reading “To indoctrinate boys into the rules of patriarchy, we force them to feel pain and to deny their feelings”. I was inspired by some of the artists in The Interventionists, "Ready to Wear," The Yes Men and Lucy Orta, for example, who developed individual, eye catching pieces to raise awareness about important concerns. Although it is difficult to establish a definitive relationship between art and mental health, it is not impossible that psychiatric diseases, like any other state of mind, may alter individuals and their creative output. Artists such as Francisco de Goya, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Frida Kahlo, and Mark Rothko were all likely to have struggled with mental health issues at some point in their life. Their work expresses their struggle and psychological state in a unique way. According to the World Health Report website Around 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of ill health and disability worldwide. Mostly everyone suffers from mental health even all ages but the most high percentage are those between 18-25 years old. According to the NIMH “Young adults aged 18-25 years had the highest prevalence of AMI (30.6%) compared to adults aged 26-49 years (25.3%) and aged 50 and older (14.5%). The prevalence of AMI was highest among the adults reporting two or more races (35.8%), followed by White adults (22.6%)”. Furthermore, I gave each of my classmates who chose to participate a piece of paper when I asked(wrote on the board) what causes mental health and if you went through this situation what was the issue/what they suffered? The feedback that I received was that most of them answered stress, financial problems, no family support, traumatic experiences, and family problems. When I read their responses it reminded me of a quote in the bell hooks reading “I remember this traumatic event so well because it was a story told again and again within our family. No one cared that the constant retelling might trigger post traumatic stress”. In addition, I felt video games also cause mental health problems/stress because when I was interviewing my classmates, two of them were playing video games and because they lost, they were shocked and angry. While recording a short video of their response I accidentally recorded their reaction as it shown in the video above. I put the video for 24 hours on my facebook page and made it public so anyone can see it. Unfortunately, my classmates decided not to record them because they didn't want to, they preferred doing it on paper and recorded them while they were writing. I actually left it for 3 hours until my class ended. More and more people started to come to class and literally read the question and one answered “we all have mental health problems” . I asked if I could record their reaction or voice but they didn’t want to. Moreover, the reason why I chose this topic is because in the United States, mental diseases are among the most frequent health problems and more than half of the population was and will be diagnosed with a mental disease or condition at some point in their lives. According to Kimberly Drew's reading “Our activism, like any other part of ourselves, develops into something bigger than a singular experience. Activism is a collective action and an investment in the lives of other people”. My message to the audience is that mental health is a very important part of our health and there is a treatment for it and can be treated . Psychotherapy is a form of therapeutic treatment for mental disease offered by a qualified mental health practitioner. Psychotherapy investigates ideas, feelings, and actions in order to enhance a person's well being.
Resources
“How Mental Illness Shaped the Works of These 5 Artists.” TheCollector, 30 Aug. 2021, www.thecollector.com/how-mental-illness-shaped-works-by-artists/
“The World Health Report 2001: Mental Disorders Affect One in Four People.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/news/item/28-09-2001-the-world-health-report-2001-mental-disorders-affect-one-in-four-people
“Mental Illness.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness#:~:text=Young%20adults%20aged%2018%2D25,by%20White%20adults%20(22.6%25)
“About Mental Health.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 June 2021, www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm#:~:text=Mental%20illnesses%20are%20among%20the,some%20point%20in%20their%20lifetime.&text=1%20in%205%20Americans%20will,illness%20in%20a%20given%20year
“Mental Health Treatments.” Mental Health America, mhanational.org/mental-health-treatments
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