Mental illness caused by a bad society

Where do you draw the line, is mental illness medical or caused by society?

If a Jew was mentally ill when they were being persecuted in Nazi Germany, it would be hard to draw the line.

Black men are a lot more likely to be sectioned in mental health hospitals. Perhaps that's linked to racism being more prevalent towards black men in the UK?

Autistic people are significantly more likely to kill themselves and die young than other people. Is that genetically inevitable or because society drives people to it?

Parents
  • I guess it’s both on one extreme you have things like dementia where it’s clearly a medical thing and no amount of social work can stop the decline on the other there are some very different societies and very different experiences of mental illness. 

    Also how people with dementia are treated will determine how they react to the condition.

    From an autism point of view, I am in very good mental health now, I don’t think that will change, I know I’m very lucky to have found myself in this position so I’m trying to work out how I got here so I can help people.

Reply
  • I guess it’s both on one extreme you have things like dementia where it’s clearly a medical thing and no amount of social work can stop the decline on the other there are some very different societies and very different experiences of mental illness. 

    Also how people with dementia are treated will determine how they react to the condition.

    From an autism point of view, I am in very good mental health now, I don’t think that will change, I know I’m very lucky to have found myself in this position so I’m trying to work out how I got here so I can help people.

Children
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