Pre Production: Research into Depression in males
Research Into Depression within Men
Since the most important part of my feedback was to research, I thought it would be a good idea to research the true facts about mental health in men to see whether my own general assumptions/ ideas accurately matches the facts.
I found some interesting key facts on this site;
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
REAL STORIES
I wanted to get real stories from real people so I took to twitter in order to gain a greater perspective;
I came across this article where a woman speaks about her depression. She also provides some insight into the mental health of those after the Ferguson attacks and shines light that racism plays a big part in the mental health of those in the US.
This story I found about a struggling artist was in some ways similar to the mini plot that I had already thought of but was interesting to read about the roles of the siblings through out his story.
In this story the writer speaks on his passion for art and how he has to hide it from his family;
"I do not tell my father what I do in the evening, my painting. I dream to be something elusive, and I fear that maddens him. Yet I continue. Because I cannot stop."
His father often writes him letters, he says that he always writes the same thing;
“Have you thought about going back into the work you began after university? A career in business. I don’t know how much they pay where you are but you could well for yourself. You could do well still.”
His relationship with his sister;
"Now my sister is a teacher, and in the letters she sends she encourages my painting. There’s a part of her, I believe, that wants me to become what I dream to become so she can be assured. If only life had taken a slightly different path, she could have made it. I do not discuss my painting with my father."
My Thoughts;
I think it is interesting that his sister wants him to succeed as she is almost proof that you will still have that yearn/ wonder about what your life would be like if you followed your passions since dancing was one of hers but she's a teacher now.
Even though there wasn't any indication of mental health issues, it is important to understand that it doesn't always lead to that but not having support from family still has negative effects within people.
_______________________________________________________________________
More real stories on the role of religion within mental health
I decided to go back onto twitter to find mini stories and experiences regarding this topic because it was on this very sight where i originally found some shocking stories from people, these are some of the things that originally inspired me to tackle this topic.
The original tweet;
The responses;
Now of course this doesn't represent the entire world and everyone's experiences but it is clear that there are common denominators when looking at the cause and effect of mental health.
_______________________________________________________________________
Religion/Spirituality
An article on Huffington Post UK provided me with some interesting facts about spirituality/Religion and it's role within Depression. To my knowledge before research, I would've Imagined that religion is something that might hinder good mental health. The facts below proves this;
Since the most important part of my feedback was to research, I thought it would be a good idea to research the true facts about mental health in men to see whether my own general assumptions/ ideas accurately matches the facts.
I found some interesting key facts on this site;
- Suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under 35
- 12.5% of men in the UK are suffering from one of the common mental health disorders
- Men are less likely to access psychological therapies than women. Only 36% of referrals to IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies) are men.
- Over three quarters of people who kill themselves are men
- Men have measurably lower access to the social support of friends, relatives and community (References: R. Boreham and D. Pevalin)
- Boys are performing less well than girls at all levels of education. In 2013 only 55.6% of boys achieved 5 or more grade A*-C GCSEs including English and mathematics, compared to 65.7% of girls (Reference: Department for Education).
Here are just a few of the facts that I found.These men may fail to recognise or act on warning signs, and may be unable or unwilling to seek help from support services. At the further end of the spectrum they may rely on unwise, unsustainable self management strategies that are damaging not only to themselves but also to those around them. Such a picture would broadly parallel what is already known about men’s poorer physical health. It is interesting that men's mental health is at a greater risk yet it isn't spoken about as much. In my opinion, society expects men to be a certain way and continuously uphold certain attributes but rarely perceived as vulnerable.
_______________________________________________________________________
This website helped me gain a greater understanding as I was able to find some shocking facts about black mental health;
- People from African and African Caribbean communities are more likely than others to be admitted to hospital for mental illness. --> This is mostly the reason why I want to shed light on the issues within the black community because the research shows that there is a gap between acknowleging the illness and being hospitalised. Why are mental illnesses within this community left so late that they're hospitalised?
- black communities in the UK are still more likely than others to experience problems such as bad housing, unemployment, stress and racism, all of which can make people ill
- While mental illness is no more common in Africa or the Caribbean than it is in the UK as a whole, it's a bigger problem for African and African Caribbean communities living in the UK.
_______________________________________________________________________
Another site that helped my research is the American Pychiatric Association. Although it is American, It still helped shine a light on some of the reasons why the risks may be higher for people of colour especially when they are of age to enter University/College
Some of the reason they put forward for depression within college aged students are;
- The isolation of being one of few blacks on campus
- racial discrimination
- financial and academic stress
Because of mental health stigma, particularly in the black community, many individuals are reluctant to talk about mental health issues. Expressing mental anguish is often seen as exhibiting weakness. What is most dangerous is that even when they acknowledge depression, many black men don't seek mental health services.
_______________________________________________________________________
REAL STORIES
I wanted to get real stories from real people so I took to twitter in order to gain a greater perspective;
One of the responses I've recieved is;
I am still awaiting his response on this matter however this allowed me to conclude that parenting/ parental views have a big impact on how mental health is perceived .
_______________________________________________________________________I came across this article where a woman speaks about her depression. She also provides some insight into the mental health of those after the Ferguson attacks and shines light that racism plays a big part in the mental health of those in the US.
"I knew how hard it was for my mother to find low-income housing. I knew how hard it was for her to keep three constantly growing kids clothed and fed. And I knew how hard it was to keep feeling the shame of living in poverty and the sorrow of feeling like a burden on my family. Since I was the one who wasn’t supposed to live in the apartment, I thought it would be best if I didn’t live at all. So I seriously thought about ending my life. I was 8 years old."
"I’m already black, a woman, and overweight. Why add another stigmatized identity? Why give people another reason to doubt my capability? Why threaten my professional reputation? Why be vulnerable?" In my opinion this could be the root cause for the lack of communication between the black communities._______________________________________________________________________
This story I found about a struggling artist was in some ways similar to the mini plot that I had already thought of but was interesting to read about the roles of the siblings through out his story.
In this story the writer speaks on his passion for art and how he has to hide it from his family;
"I do not tell my father what I do in the evening, my painting. I dream to be something elusive, and I fear that maddens him. Yet I continue. Because I cannot stop."
His father often writes him letters, he says that he always writes the same thing;
“Have you thought about going back into the work you began after university? A career in business. I don’t know how much they pay where you are but you could well for yourself. You could do well still.”
His relationship with his sister;
"Now my sister is a teacher, and in the letters she sends she encourages my painting. There’s a part of her, I believe, that wants me to become what I dream to become so she can be assured. If only life had taken a slightly different path, she could have made it. I do not discuss my painting with my father."
My Thoughts;
I think it is interesting that his sister wants him to succeed as she is almost proof that you will still have that yearn/ wonder about what your life would be like if you followed your passions since dancing was one of hers but she's a teacher now.
Even though there wasn't any indication of mental health issues, it is important to understand that it doesn't always lead to that but not having support from family still has negative effects within people.
_______________________________________________________________________
More real stories on the role of religion within mental health
I decided to go back onto twitter to find mini stories and experiences regarding this topic because it was on this very sight where i originally found some shocking stories from people, these are some of the things that originally inspired me to tackle this topic.
The original tweet;
The responses;
Below are responses/ experiences on the effects of enforcing religious beliefs onto children;
Now of course this doesn't represent the entire world and everyone's experiences but it is clear that there are common denominators when looking at the cause and effect of mental health.
_______________________________________________________________________
An article on Huffington Post UK provided me with some interesting facts about spirituality/Religion and it's role within Depression. To my knowledge before research, I would've Imagined that religion is something that might hinder good mental health. The facts below proves this;
"A key finding of the study, conducted in several different counties, is that a spiritual life view predisposed to major depression, especially significantly in the UK, where spiritual participants were nearly three times more likely to experience an episode of depression than the secular group.
I think I wold like to somehow promote this campaign as it could be useful for people to understand that there are organisations out there to help. Some may find it easier to get help if they feel as though they would be surrounded by others who are just like them.
_______________________________________________________________________
"People who held a religious or spiritual understanding of life had a higher incidence of depression than those with a secular life view. However, this finding varied by country; in particular, people in the UK who had a spiritual understanding of life were the most vulnerable to the onset of major depression.
Regardless of country, the stronger the spiritual or religious belief at the start of the study, the higher the risk of onset of depression."
_______________________________________________________________________
Help
Along the way of finding the statistics I found an organisation that was built to combat the stigma that comes along with mental health. They also have a separate section to offer specific help within the black community;
I think I wold like to somehow promote this campaign as it could be useful for people to understand that there are organisations out there to help. Some may find it easier to get help if they feel as though they would be surrounded by others who are just like them.
_______________________________________________________________________
My Final Thoughts
My research here shows the negative effects of religion and mental health as well as the lack of communication within black households and communities. I think the research findings pretty much speak for themselves. The discussions found on twitter were very recent, (May 6th 2017) mostly from black americans/ people from UK so it is clear that this is still on ongoing issue that needs to be resolved. I think it is quite shocking that black people are more likely to end up in hospital for mental health, and it is clear that due to the unresolved issues within this community, this will never change. This is why I am dedicated to create a film about this because I think it is something that needs to be brought up in conversation. To me, All mental health is important whether it is black, white, or asian. But I will choose to focus on the things that are left unsaid within the black community because there are difficult conversations that need to occur.
I think it is such a shame that religious beliefs has such negative affects, This is something that I would like to touch up on, Since there is evidence of families continuously dismissing their children's real mental health issues and only offering support in the form of prayers, this is another main subject that I would like to include.
Comments
Post a Comment