[Image: a short Twitter thread by Minaa B. Text reads: “Someone needs to hear this: Your thoughts are not the only thing impacting your mental health. Poverty, homelessness, student loan debt, unaffordable housing, food deserts, low-income, racism, discrimination & unaffordable healthcare can also impact your mental health. So the next time someone tries to tell you to change your mindset send them your CashApp or Venmo account since they feel like they can afford to be in your business and tell you how to fix your problems.”]
This is a really fantastic point that needs to get around the chronic illness community in particular. When looking at our mental health, it’s easy to think that if we could just untangle our minds properly, we could be Fine. Heck, that’s a very easy takeaway to get from common therapy systems like CBT!
But we also experience all sorts of structural inequality due to ableism, healthcare problems, insurance… and, of course, the outcomes of those things, such as poverty, debt, and poor access to food. Being ill can be a trauma in and of itself, too. And god forbid you have any intersecting marginalized identities.
The things that teach us that we are the drivers of our mental health are viewing it in a vacuum; they just don’t take into account everything else we go through in life. So when you notice you’re beating yourself up for not having enough of a handle on your mental illness, just remember: even if you did a perfect job, there’s a huge part that you don’t control and shouldn’t be expected to “fix.”
[h/t Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM)]
