Mental health, mothering and the influence of environment
/For mental health awareness week, 2021
Whenever I hear the phrase ‘mental health’, a jumble of images and concepts fills my mind. From stories, to personal experiences, academic papers, books on resilience, people saying that resilience is a Western, out-dated concept… there’s tonnes of information out there and it seems impossible to distil it down. In my day job, I consider the mental health of students in schools, and as part of my study – the current paper is on health promotion – I’m currently immersed in mental health, too. Most of what I’ve learned in the last year or so boils down to two things:
1) People from low socioeconomic backgrounds have more mental health problems, than those from other backgrounds (this can be surprising, because we’re often told that mental health is a very individual experience, and we can hold the power over our own mental health)
2) Everybody has a story to tell, or an experience with mental health – and its become much more acceptable to talk about it, whether we’re struggling or finding ways to strengthen it.
Our environment shapes our minds
The research on critical determinants of mental health is fascinating. So much of our Western health models would have us think it is completely up to us as individuals to build resilience, stay positive, and to fix any mental health problems that arise. But in health promotion, you cannot ignore the environmental and socio-cultural impacts – the “social determinants of health”. People living in poverty are the ones who will have worse mental health, because of higher levels of social stress, juggling finances or facing unemployment, and the cost of healthcare (and access to healthcare) is proportionately higher to income. Seeing a psychologist or counsellor in NZ is not free, even with the handful of free visits that people can be referred to by their GP – because of long wait times and unavailability.
There are other factors too, that make poorer mental health more likely: being a girl/woman; being an ethnic minority (not white); having learning difficulties; being physically unwell or having a long-term illness. There are lots of intersecting factors. It’s not to say that just because you’re a certain gender, ethnicity or ‘class’ you’re going to be depressed or have a mental health disorder. And its not to say that personal resilience doesn’t come into it at all, because even in dire circumstances people can find the strength to connect with others and find a way up. But it’s important to recognise the impact our environments and social structures can have on us.
Parenting and mental health
Reading people’s stories about their mental health puts the topic out there in the open. The blogs and poetry I like reading from other Mums includes Emily Writes (for the ranting and swearing about motherhood type of writing) and Jess Urlichs (for the sweet and sad moments of motherhood). Both write candidly about their mental health including anxiety and depression. When it comes to the mental health of parents, I often think of the impact of the intertwining of our pasts and our futures: having one foot in the past, reflecting on what’s automatic to you and how you were raised, and one in the future with how you might want to do things differently, as well as the different circumstances your child will face, compared to you. There’s no doubt that parenting changes with every generation, and sometimes it feels like there is not much support for that. There’s plenty of writing and research out there that talks about how children’s mental health is declining, and things like eco-anxiety about the state of our planet are very real for parents, children and teenagers. There’s the pace of life, too. How fast everything moves, even with Covid creating these weird time vacuums where lockdowns slow time right down and then wham you’re back in the thick of it (if you’re lucky enough to have gone to level 2): parenting, working, studying, trying to be good citizens, trying to stay connected with people even though we seem to have little time to do this. Covid has created lots of uncertainties too, and I get down about what life will look like in the next few years if we can’t get this virus in check. Will we always have lockdowns? Will we hit peak vaccination rates? Will we ever get to travel without quarantining, worrying about our children getting sick, and have some semblance of certainty?
So yeah. No tidy, wrapped-up conclusion here. Mental health is complex, and it’s made complex by the various roles we have, and the weaving together of our environment, social structures and our own individual factors.
