Week 10 - Wellness, Mental Health and Social Media
Wellness, Mental Health and Social Media - Study Notes
Page 1
Course: DS1010
Week: 10
Page 2: Introduction
Page 3: Learning Objectives
Definitions: Discuss broad definitions of mental illness.
Constructs: Learn about the constructions of depression and anxiety.
Crisis: Consider the mental health crisis prevalent on campuses.
COVID-19 Impact: Examine the effects of COVID-19 on mental health.
Social Model: Learn about the complexity of applying the social model to mental health scenarios.
Page 4: Understanding Mental Illness
General Definition: Mental illness encompasses a wide range of mental health conditions/disorders affecting mood, thinking, and behavior.
- Examples: Includes but is not limited to depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, and addiction.Implications: Experiencing mental illness can lead to multiple societal issues, including isolation, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hospitalization, loss of social connections, and frustration.
Page 5: Medical/Individual Model of Mental Health
Basic Concept: The brain is the most complex organ; mental illnesses arise when brain function deviates from normal, similar to any other organ such as the heart or kidneys.
Conditions: Disorders include depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety.
Symptoms: Ranges from loss of motivation and energy, changed sleep patterns, extreme mood swings, and disturbances in thought or perception to overwhelming obsessions or fears.
Interference: Mental illness hinders relationships and everyday functioning, often leading to social isolation.
Root Cause: The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) suggests a primary cause is a chemical imbalance in the brain.
Treatment: Primarily medication; however, social issues arise, including stigma and misunderstanding.
Page 6: Understanding Anxiety Disorders
Definition: An anxiety disorder triggers unexpected or unhelpful anxiety that significantly impacts one’s life, encompassing thoughts, feelings, and actions.
- Examples: Phobias, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.Symptoms of General Anxiety Disorder: Persistent worrying or obsession, inability to release worries, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, inability to handle uncertainty, and indecisiveness.
Page 7: Limitations of the Medical Model
Historical Context: Psychiatry has a troubling past characterized by forced experimentation and labor, forced institutionalization, scientific racism, and colonialism.
Modern Implications: Issues such as the pathologization of gender nonconformity and ongoing practices continue to interfere with ethical treatments for mental illness.
Page 8: Present Challenges in Psychiatry
Involuntary Treatment: Involuntary treatments remain legislated under the Mental Health Act of 1990.
Pathologizing Issues: Involuntary treatment persists for trans individuals and for children, with risk assessments focusing on medical solutions rather than addressing the roots of social issues.
Page 9: Ignored Social Issues
Primacy of Medical Model: Mental health continues to adhere to a medical model that overlooks social factors contributing to mental distress and illness exacerbation.
Consequences: Acceptance of policies for involuntary treatment, medicalization of trauma, grief, mass shootings, etc., illustrates the skewed focus of governmental and health institutions.
Page 10: Social Model of Mental Illness
Developmental Gap: The social model of mental health lacks the depth found in understanding other disabilities.
- Disagreements: There is contention about its proper formulation, but consensus exists on its utility for addressing oppression.
- Components: The social model’s framework includes root causes, treatment, and social problems.
Page 11: Example - Postpartum Depression (PPD)
Medical Model Perspective: PPD is recognized as a medical condition characterized by:
- Depressed mood or significant depression with anxiety.
- Anhedonia: Loss of interest even towards normally pleasurable activities such as caring for the baby.
- Changes in weight and appetite, and sleep disturbances, common yet often gauged differently post-childbirth.
- Physical sensations like restlessness or fatigue, feelings of guilt or inadequacy due to not bonding as expected with the newborn.
- Cognitive challenges such as diminished concentration often worsened by sleep deprivation.
- Suicidal ideation related to the perception of better outcomes for the mother and child.
Page 12: Root Causes of Postpartum Depression
Biological Influences: Chemical imbalances in the brain following childbirth compounded by lack of sleep and nutrition.
Page 13: Treatment for Postpartum Depression
Medications: Antidepressants can significantly contribute to recovery.
Additional Support: Requires holistic treatment focusing on sleep, nutrition, and emotional support.
Page 14: Addressing Social Problems in PPD
Socioeconomic Impact: Women in poverty are at greater risk for PPD due to insufficient resources for recovery. Factors like hunger and poor living conditions severely impact treatment efficacy.
Page 15: Challenges Faced by Women with PPD
Contextual Changes: Women with PPD encounter changes such as lack of support, nutrition issues, judgment from others, physical pain, body changes post-pregnancy, and lack of resources, which foster feelings of inadequacy.
Page 16: Necessary Supports for Recovery
Multi-Faceted Approach: Effective recovery requires a combination of medication, mental health care, stable housing, and nutritional support. In Canada, approximately 25% of women experience PPD, with lower rates observed in regions with supportive parental leave and cohabitation.
Page 17: Defining Mental Health Recovery
Recovery Outcomes: Include renewed hope, self-redefinition, and incorporation of the illness into life activities. In addition, engagement in meaningful activities, overcoming stigma, empowerment, symptom management, and support are pivotal.
Page 18: Mental Health on Campus
Student Context: Students face multiple transitions with heightened expectations for performance against uncertain futures.
Increased Stressors: Intense scheduling creates a shared sense of pressure, irrespective of individual backgrounds, compounded by a culture of dark humor among students.
Funding Gaps: Insufficient mental health support coupled with rising demands exacerbates the struggle, especially during exam periods.
Page 20: Gen Z Mental Stressors
Digital Overload: Continuous connectivity leads to social comparisons and online harassment, heightening stress and anxiety levels among Gen Z.
Economic Precarity: Rising costs of living, student debt, and job market uncertainties contribute heavily to mental health strains.
Post-Pandemic Effects: COVID-19 has disrupted educational and social patterns, amplifying feelings of isolation and anxiety among young adults.
Page 21: Gen Z Stereotypes
Generational Dismissal: Older generations have historically criticized younger generations, missing shared challenges like economic uncertainty and social injustice.
Page 22: Discourse of Blame
Generational Discourse: Generalizations about Millennials and Gen Z often blame the younger generation for their struggles while ignoring broader economic challenges.
Consequences: This discourse dismisses genuine issues while framing expectations around welfare and success within harmful narratives.
Page 23: Examples of Generational Blame in Media
Stereotypes in Media: Highlights a trend in media that places undue blame on Millennials for various economic and career challenges, often in a disparaging manner.
Page 24: Dangerous Narratives
Myth of Resilience: The narrative “If I can do it, they can do it” propagates unrealistic expectations and fosters harmful stigmas regarding mental health recovery among students.
Page 25: Critical View on Self-Care and Wellness Trends
Pandemic Responses: New approaches to mental health during the pandemic have often been superficial. Examples include:
- Mobile despair closets for workers.
- Printable coloring pages and meditation sessions, lacking depth in addressing real issues.Critique of Wellness Initiatives: Most wellness initiatives neglect a social justice approach, failing to recognize intersectional disparities shaped by gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
Page 26: Social Media's Role in Wellness
Impressions of Social Media: Examining content that influences societal perceptions about disability and wellness.
Page 27: Campus Exam Stress Solutions
Innovative Supports: Attempted solutions include offering smoothie bars, puppy visits, yoga sessions, and midnight breakfasts designed to alleviate exam stress among students.
Page 28: Individual Model in Wellness Initiatives
Common Trends: Many wellness initiatives, like mindfulness workshops, often uphold the individual medical model, resulting in unintended ableism.
Focus: Solutions are individually beneficial but fail to tackle structural issues that contribute to mental health challenges.
Page 29: Assumptions in the Individual Model
Underlying Assumptions: This model places responsibility on individuals rather than addressing systemic barriers.
Framing of Disability: Disability (including mental health challenges) is viewed through a lens of deficit, personal failure, or issues needing overcoming.
Impact on Wellness Programs: This viewpoint remains ingrained in many wellness programs.
Page 30: Contradictions in Wellness Influencers
Rejection of Medical Solutions: Many wellness influencers endorse alternative paths while neglecting systemic challenges. Individualized solutions are necessary, yet dismissing medical contributions harms comprehensive understanding of health challenges.
Page 31: Understanding Ableism
Definition of Ableism: Systems that privilege able-bodied or neurotypical individuals at the expense of others.
Consequences of Wellness Assumptions: Leads to views of disabled or mentally ill students as underperformers, perpetuating structural ableism hidden as support.
Page 32: Reinforcement of Ableism in Wellness Initiatives
Mindfulness: The directive “Just practice mindfulness” fails to account for traumatic experiences or varying individual capacities.
Workshops and Resilience: Stress-related initiatives imply that stress management is an individual failings rather than resulting from systemic barriers.
Page 33: Limitations of Self-Care Campaigns
Assumptions: Programs often presuppose free time, disposable income, stable housing, and the absence of caregiving responsibilities, which alienate many students.
Critiques of Wellness Event Execution: Initiatives can seem performative when academic pressures remain significant and access to counseling is limited.
Page 34: Addressing Symptoms versus Root Causes in Wellness Campaigns
Example: Programs like mobile despair closets serve as surface fixes to deeper systemic issues.
Page 35: Understanding Mobile Despair Closets
Definition: A mobile despair closet offers minimal relief for significant systemic labor issues.
Context: Concerns around labor practices and underwhelming support reveal the inadequacy of surface-level interventions.
Page 36: Critique of Mobile Despair Closets
Inadequate Responses: Highlighting the insufficiency of solutions like mobile despair closets in the context of chronic overwork and low wages.
Potential Solutions: Structural support through unions may be more effective.
Page 37: TikTok Trends - #ThatGirl
Overview: The #ThatGirl trend promotes a highly curated concept of success and wellness involving early rising, fitness, clean eating, and aesthetic self-care while framing it as the ideal.
Trends and Practices: The content is visually structured and encourages viewers to emulate this perceived ideal of productivity.
Page 38: Reinterpretation of Wellness
Wellness Misconceptions: This trend positions wellness as progressive optimization rather than relaxation, reinforcing the performative nature of self-care.
Cycle of Reinforcement: Equates productivity with empowerment while suggesting downtime is for self-improvement rather than genuine rest.
Page 39: Narrowity of Health Ideals
Exclusivity: The #ThatGirl trend idealizes a narrow archetype of wellness focused on youth, whiteness, and able-bodiedness, creating exclusionary standards.
Outcomes: Establishing a racialized standard for health pressures women to attain often unreachable ideals.
Page 40: Structural Ableism in Wellness Representations
Exclusion of Disabled Bodies: The constructed narrative of wellness inherently excludes disabled individuals reinforcing societal barriers.
Components of Inaccessibility: Focus on physicality, stamina, and conformity constructs wellness as inaccessible to those who don’t fit societal ideals.