The Social Context of Mental Health and Illness

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Below are the top discussions from Reddit that mention this online Coursera course from University of Toronto.

Offered by University of Toronto. Learn how social factors promote mental health, influence the onset and course of mental illness, and ... Enroll for free.

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Taught by
Charmaine Williams
Associate Professor
and 11 more instructors

Offered by
University of Toronto

Reddit Posts and Comments

0 posts • 7 mentions • top 5 shown below

r/Writeresearch • comment
1 points • xnsb

There is a BBC documentary called Mental: A history of the madhouse on YouTube. It doesn't exactly cover your question but does show what happened when these institutions closed in the 70s and 80s.

Also, the first section of this coursera course is on the history of mental institutions. There might be some useful material in there: https://www.coursera.org/learn/mental-health

r/Psychosis • comment
1 points • unrealcrocodiletears

TL;DR 1. Don't sweat being scared. We're scared of the unknown. You're empowering yourself with knowledge. 2. Philosophy is about nerdy intangible shit. It's not physically validated making it all theories until it is proved or disproved with future studies limited by technological advancement. 3. Stigma = Fear. Fear ≠ Knowledge. 4. Boundaries are important. Try to find out from his family or someone who has seen him, what kind of boundaries he requires before dropping in. Everyone is different, some people want the company and support. (Some are introverts.) Also, be conscious of your boundaries with him.

It's okay to be scared. I struggled a lot with it, especially since my family has a history of schizophrenia. But it creates an opportunity for us to learn more and grow as a person. A way to challenge this fear is to inform yourself. We are essentially afraid of the unknown, a situation where we don't understand the situation.

Mental health is studied in Psychology. Psychology is a sect in Philosophy. Philosophy is the study of the intangible. We can observe emotions, but we can't consistently measure them clinically. Our understanding of the intangible is limited by our science and technology. This means we are perpetually learning more and evolving dependent on current or future studies and resources available.

Stigma is perpetuated by fear, which generally originates from a time when we didn't have the knowledge or resources we have today. The reptilian part of our brain is responsible for triggering one or more of the four f's of survival (feast, fight, flee, or fornicate) when we're placed in a situation which scares us. This is due to our adrenal system which kept us alive prior to dominating the food chain. It's also what gives people the strength to lift buses and shit whenever they see people in danger.

Stigma from a mental health consumer's perspective can be crippling. I used to facilitate recovery groups for people with mood disorders. It surprised me how many people limit their own personality by using a diagnosis for their identity. It's easy to do considering we were still performing lobatomies in mental health institutions as late as the 1970's. I'm really lucky to have known about Coursera when it was free. I did this course, and it opened my eyes to different aspects of mental health.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/mental-health

I think you can join and do one class free. That one would be worth the investment.

We also have a special part of our brain that can be used to trigger more empathetic responses to unknown situations. With our knowledge in neural plasticity, we can find ways to create habits that decrease the potential to trigger our reptilian centre.

Be scared. Own that shit, but don't let that fear define you or your beliefs. You're a smart guy, you're doing awesome by asking for more information.

When talking about unhealthy behavior think about the difference between enabling and supporting. If you're friend is experiencing psychosis but uses psychoactive drugs or refuses to take their medication (cuts cold turkey), make strong boundaries. Addiction is often comorbid with mental health concerns, and it can create caustic situations.

If you really want to support your friend, try to think about how you would feel in his situation. How would you want him to treat you if roles were reversed? Make sure those ideas wouldn't trigger him and go nuts. People just want to be treated like before when we have mental health symptoms flare. It's confusing and feels really shameful due to all of the preconceived notions of mental health. (Stigma sucks)

I have never been hospitalized for any mental health concerns. I have been clinically diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but am high functioning. I don't wear my symptoms on my sleeve. I have a professional background in mental health. I have a warm, friendly, and inviting demeanor and create quick rapports with people. I experience psychosis because of the trauma endured in childhood. I was a SUPER sensitive kid. Cried at everything. And slowly I decided to stop reacting and start empowering myself. I've done courses, read multiple books, have years of volunteer experience with a crisis line that supports sexual assault/abuse survivors.

Super cool side story: one of my best friends has been diagnosed with high functioning schizophrenia among other ailments. He is unmedicated due to other ailments, but is able to consistently confirm what is realistic and what is delusional. Hands down smartest guy I know. He's going for his doctorate in Metaphysical Sciences and is constantly helping me with my thesis in the same field. Psychosis is a life changing thing, but it doesn't mean things are "done". :)

r/psychotherapy • comment
1 points • Alex_416

This is an older post, but I'm sifting through some of the older training posts instead of creating a new one... Just wanted to say that Udemy courses are *always* on sale. It's just a tactic to get you to buy it ASAP. I've never seen them at "full price."

I've heard this is worthwhile: https://www.coursera.org/learn/mental-health it's from the U of T school of social work.

r/DecidingToBeBetter • post
7 points • [deleted]
Being more involved with the world - politics, economics, social issues

I feel a bit uncomfortable opening a topic about this issue, as I know there is a lot of stigma around people "not being interested in politics". "They must be stupid", and so on. Well, I know that's not the case for me. I've spent my life so far mostly being interested in science, engineering, technology, neurology, psychology, but also creative ventures. I'm a very curious person I would say, and enjoy finding out a lot about many different topics. However, I have never developed a solid base when it came to geography, politics, economics, culture. Due to undetected depression in primary school, I performed badly and was sent to lower vocational (is how you call it I think - I'm Dutch). Long story short I managed over time to find myself and climbed up to university level. I never did any proper high school though (not on university preparatory level) and so miss a lot of basic knowledge about the world that I feel embarrassed about. On top of that, I'm a very abstract and visual person, and have a great deal of difficulty remembering names (of things, places, people). That's difficult with specifically these subjects. I've been triggered by events in the last few years to get more interested in politics, but after a short burst of reading online articles I'd usually give up because it felt like there was just too much for me to know and catch up on, too many relationships spanning the globe with too many dependencies and stakes. It was overwhelming. With the elections in the US my interest was peaked again and I notice myself reading a lot of articles in the last 3 days. I'm running into the same problems though; not knowing a lot about the history, the games in the shadows, the international relationships, the wars and war crimes, the whole situation with Russia, there's just too much. I feel like knowing everything that is playing, everything that is at stake, and then staying up to date, would leave me no time for the things that really interest me as a passion instead of a necessity.

However, I do see the importance of these subjects and I do want to develop at least a gross feel for it. It will probably never be the focus of my life. My question to you is, could you advise me some good summaries, books, sources of information that can get me up to speed in a reasonable amount of time? In other words, let's say you had to start over. What would you do?

Edit:

I found some sources myself. Coursera:

r/IWantToLearn • comment
5 points • Homey_Muse