Privilege and Mental Health: A Toxic Relationship

Graphics: Sóley Ylja A. Bartsch

It doesn’t take much research to find out that we live in a world that is rather depressed. A fair amount of individuals will tell you that they suffer from anxiety, depression, melancholy, or have negative feelings, when you get to know them a bit better. Many also tend to seek professional help or have been diagnosed with one of the millions of mental, psychological or personality disorders which adversely affects their lives. Why is that?

I have a few speculations on this matter and, aside from genetics, they all have to do with privilege. The good news is that, because we have more awareness around mental health and more tools to better tackle this aspect of our lives than ever before, more individuals are starting to express how they really feel, instead of bottling up their feelings like many of us have seen our parents and grandparents do. This is a part of the privilege that we hold today, which I believe is truly important and should continue to evolve.

However, here comes the darker part of privilege which few people like to discuss. The first aspect of it is not much in our control and that is today’s culture of consumerism. Our generation has the most amount of free time, resources, and access to materials, than any other before us (at least in the so-called “first-world countries”). This has developed a huge consumerist attitude which probably originates from the “American Dream” and continued to grow until it absorbed most aspects in our lives. 

But what does this have to do with mental health? More than one may think…

In his book Liquid Love (2003), the sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman discusses how modern love relationships are affected by this type of mentality. His theory is basically that because we have such easy access to new partners (through applications) and/or unlimited access to sexual fantasies (ex. pornography), people always search for something “new” and “exciting” instead of working on the relationship they may already have. After the honeymoon phase is over and the freshness of the relationship is gone, many people decide to search for the next thrill instead of trying to preserve what they already have. 

The above actions often leave people lonely. Ironically, when you have so much access to multiple partners you can easily jump from one person to another and end up feeling more alone than ever.  Thus, all this privilege of choice leads to lonely people who often don’t know how to navigate within a romantic relationship when things get a bit tough. 

Moreover, we have unlimited access to pornography, dating simulators and all kinds of fantasies. This often leads to people isolating themselves from the outside world and ending up living in their own mental bubble. 

I believe that this kind of attitude exists outside of relationships too. The fast-paced society, matched with the images of perfection that we see online all the time make a lot of people feel inadequate, bored and misunderstood. For every social or mental need that we have we can just turn towards our smart phones to solve it and avoid social interaction. You want to rant about something? Instead of finding people who you can discuss the topic you want to rant about, you can just do it on Twitter. You want to boast about your vacation? You don’t need actual friends anymore, you can just do it on Instagram. You want to relieve yourself sexually? No need to find a willing partner; you can just go online. 

We cover our needs with easy fast fixes, away from “the others” and in the comfort of our own home and space. We also don’t need to argue with anyone because we have built a special little bubble in all our media which contains only the material we agree with and therefore you don’t actually need to try and form relationships with people who you may slightly disagree with. Another outlet for those who love to debate is having media full of “caricatures” of people they disagree with – ie. radical people who do not represent the average person very well – and argue with them instead of actual people around them. 

All this breeds a society of mental illnesses. For the very simple reason: people are lonely and afraid to talk to other people. We have become very sensitive to criticism and at the same time very insecure because we are not “good enough” compared to the perfect images we see online. Last but not least, we are so used to getting what we want as soon as possible that we have lost our patience. Hence, I’m not surprised that we are more depressed than ever. 

However, is it really all this bad? I think not. Because of all this privilege people can, for the first time ever, be vulnerable. I believe that we can use all this technology and the wonders that the human brain creates to our advantage. Instead of isolating ourselves we can use all the above to connect and help people become more sensitive, which will probably lead to a better and more understanding society.

I do believe we can do that. It will, however, take an honest glare on what we are doing wrong, patience, and the will to connect through confrontation with the others. It is time for us to stop hiding behind our media-made bubbles and start facing the people around us.