Rich vs. Poor Mental Health Issues. Who Suffers the Most?
Top Celebrity Mental Breakdowns
The year is 2004, a 24-year-old Macaulay Culkin's mugshot makes headlines around the world when he is charged with possessing marijuana. In 2007, we witnessed the mega-super star Britney Spears’ mental breakdown. Fast-forward to January 2008, the singer is hospitalized and placed under her father’s conservatorship due to mental illness. 2010, Demi Lovato, another loved singer opens up about her struggles with bipolar. In 2013, the Oscar-winning actress, Catherine Zeta-Jones proactively checked into a health care facility. Daily, headlines around the world are blasted with celebrity mental illness or breakdowns.
With all this press, the question must be asked, Does the upper class struggle with the highest number of mental health issues? Or do we just think they do because they are blasted in the headlines? What about the other classes? Does each class in our society equally carry the weight of mental illness? What about crime? Is there a link between mental health and crime? In this episode, we’ll be taking an investigative look into the amazing way mental health forms and is handled in different classes in society. Be sure to like and subscribe, it lets me know you enjoy the content I’m making for you and helps other people find this episode easier.
How Does Social Class Affect Mental Illness?
I know you have heard of the lower class, the working class, and the upper class. But there are actually so many levels, and even layers when it comes to social class. Have you met those people who tell you which class they are in? Yes, I have too… some people feel very strongly about which class they identify with. But on the other hand, other people don’t even know which class category they fall in or even care. Sure, social class may seem like an old idea, but social class is still very prominent to this day.
In recent years, a very influential idea about class has emerged. There was this guy, he was a sociologist, and his name was Pierre Bourdieu. Along with some other super intelligent people, Pierre investigated the different classes. He found that class was and is not only a big deal… but that class isn’t just about economic resources. Class is also about other types of resources. Meaning that classes can vary in terms beyond monetary means, class can be about social connections, or rather; who you know.
Classes vary in terms of cultural knowledge, what you know as far as history, culture, and education. This “cultural knowledge” as we’ll call it, can influence whether people have certain behaviors. These behaviors can be normal, deviant, or could lead to mental health problems. Yes, class can play a huge role in whether people have mental health problems, how severe they are, and ultimately if they go treated or untreated. But before we dive into mental health… let’s talk about class… and how class is treated by society and in the media. I am going to challenge you now to consider another name for a class I’m sure you are familiar with…
The "Dangerous" Working Class - The London Riots
Have you heard of the “dangerous class”? No, I’m not talking about the top 1% or even those under the poverty line… the dangerous class refers to the working class. I know I know, you’re saying but wait… the working class is what keeps the world moving, they keep businesses and schools open, they climb up the power lines to make sure you have electricity to microwave your meal and charge your phone, they maintain the roads you drive on, they make sure the sewage system works so you can just flush your toilet – they basically keep the current economy moving forward. But hear me out here.
Let me give you an example of why this class can also be seen as dangerous. Way back in August of 2011 blasted on UK headlines were the words ‘YOB RULE’, ‘ANARCHY IN THE UK.’ and ‘LONDON’S BURNING’. No, this was not a movie. This really happened. They were the English riots. They weren’t just your run-of-the-mill riots. These riots caused somewhere between 200 and 300 million dollars in damage. So yeah, the media attention the riots received was crazy!
But notice how the headlines didn’t say any one name or even a list of names. No ‘Jim Bob’ here. The working class worked together to cause the riots and ultimately the millions in damage but no one knew who the people were… why? Because no one really knows who the working class is… are… they are nameless. But they are a mighty group of people because they are such a huge class. There were no names because these people weren’t famous. But surely they were important for the amount of damage they caused.
The Scandals Of The Rich
Now, jump from this ‘dangerous’ middle class to the upper class. While the media tends to report mainstream crime, such as these riots – what about corporate crimes? Notice how the media doesn’t report these crimes as ‘crimes’. They use almost marketing-type wording, such as ‘scandals’, ‘leaks’, or even ‘accidents’. And once again, no one person is listed in the headlines or even the reports. Because there have been so many ‘scandals’ with large institutions and banks, it’s easier to just say ‘Well it’s the banks, we all know they are crooked.
Take for example what happened across the US and UK in the 2008 crash. Although the fallout from corrupt banks and leaders caused the world to come crashing down, there was almost no criminal justice that followed. Since 2007 we’ve seen money laundering, tax evasion, we’ve had sanctions-busting in terms of dealing with Iran, we’ve had the fixing of the Foreign Exchange Rate, and so much more. So as a society how do we determine what is bad, what is acceptable, and what is pinned on an individual versus a corporation?
Professor Steve Tombs who is Head of Social Policy and Criminology at the Open University said in an interview on the subject, “But of course what’s very interesting is that the words attached to these violations of laws by companies and sometimes by states, the words that are used almost always evade reference to crime. So we hear things like leaks, accidents, scandals, disasters, spills, and mis-selling. We hear things mislabelling. We almost never hear the word crime.”
When we think about criminals, we tend to think of a very cliche person. We might think of a person wearing a black hoodie carrying a bag of things he has stolen. Or we might even think of a group of teenagers on drugs, breaking into a parked car. What you probably don’t immediately think about is a very well-educated person in a business suit, sitting in an expensive office, tapping away at a computer. Not only can corporate or state crime cause social harm in staggering proportions, but it can even cause the death of thousands of people.
This type of behavior is a perfect example of how the crimes of the powerful, and crimes of the powerless, can be treated completely differently in society. Crime is treated in society based on class… now is mental health treated in society based on class as well? Let’s take a look.
How Does Social Inequality Affect Mental Health?
How people act depending on where they are in society isn't just about crime.… Mental health problems are related to how a person is raised, or rather what class they are in. But this isn’t a new idea, way back in 1939 there was a study done by two sociologists, Faris and Dunham, for the University of Chicago. They found that in the poorest part of Chicago, there was the highest number of treated schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders.
But now here is where it gets interesting… I’m sure you’re thinking, well they were treated, that’s great, they admitted themselves. No. What another study found in 1958 was that those in the lower class who were being treated for mental health were usually being treated based on a referral by the courts. Meaning that the people didn’t choose to be treated, the government sent them to be treated.
These people being admitted from the poor part of Chicago were also more likely to have physical treatments done on them… yes, back then people used to be treated with shock therapy, lobotomy, and other banned treatments instead of psychotherapy! And you might think that this was years ago and things now are different, but in a more recent survey done by the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England found that in 2007 those with the highest household income were less likely to have common ‘classified’ mental health problems.
What are ‘common’ mental health problems, the first that comes to mind would be Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. Just to name a few. And on the other end, we have ‘uncommon’ or rare mental health problems, some that immediately come to mind would be, Multiple Personality Disorder, Schizophrenia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. And a wild one – Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. So I guess the ‘more money, more problems’ phrase is not relevant here. But why?
Why Do Poor People Always Suffer The Most?
Why are people below the poverty line having such a hard time with mental health? There are many theories about this. The three main theories are this:
The lower class experiences more social isolation, loneliness, and stress due to money issues. I’m sure many of you have felt how this constant worry about money can lead to higher stress levels. And living in constant stress, this chronic stress state as we call it, can cause so many mental and physical health issues.
This theory suggests that it is not the circumstances of the lower class that lead to mental health problems but rather that mental health problems lead to lower class circumstances. Meaning that your mental health has an impact on how you function, how you’re being stigmatized by your peers, and how many barriers you have to access resources, which all play a role in shaping your socioeconomic circumstances.
The third theory is a buzzword right now… ‘mislabeling.’ This theory explains that those in the lower class are more likely to have their actions or behaviors labeled as ‘mental health’ problems. What this means is that if you belong to a lower class, then, among other things, you can be a victim of societal perceptions and stereotypes. Meaning that assumptions about your intelligence, your behavior, and your capabilities are inevitable because of your social class. The problem here is that these stereotypes may lead to a tendency to pathologize or label behaviors that deviate from societal norms as mental health problems, while they might be not.
Out of the three theories, which ones have you seen in your circle? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
How Becoming More Open About Mental Health Helps Us All
Going back to when we spoke about celebrities and their mental health… have you noticed that we are living in an era when it is applauded and even praised when a celebrity brings their mental health to the spotlight?
But what about the lower class? Or even the middle class? Is it applauded when someone from those lower classes admits they have a mental health issue and needs help? Think about it this way. Imagine working-class men working at an oil rig in the middle of the ocean. We can all agree that’s a tough job right? Now picture them at the galley kitchen in the evening as they eat their dinner. What do you think they talk about? Can you imagine them talking about their sensitive feelings and how being away from their family has an impact on their emotional well-being and how they need psychological support? Not only is each class treating mental health differently, but as a society, we are treating classes with mental health issues differently…
I’ll leave you with this, according to recent estimates from Johns Hopkins, one in four US adults, so 25% of people, experience mental illness each year, while research from NAMI states that one in twenty people live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. That equates to 13.1 million people… across all class levels.So is social class and mental health evolving or are we just repeating history?
Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next episode.