Unfortunately ill informed
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“TW: mention of suicide
I’ve just listened to the latest episode on mental health and was not able to get much more than halfway through it.
I think this podcast as a whole is fantastic, and I appreciate that this episode is speaking about mental health, as it should be spoken about, but when you’re discussing a serious and nuanced topic such as this, you need to be really careful about it.
While both the guest and the host in this episode were very articulate, it was really lacking any kind of educated voice. If you’re going to speak about mental health on a public platform, you need someone who is educated on the topic.
This was obvious in Byron constantly using the phrase “mental health” in sentences that didn’t make sense, “mental health is at an all time high”. Mental health is something that everyone has throughout their entire lives, what you’re actually referring to is mental illness, or mental health issues. It is the same as physical health, if someone said “health is at an all time high”, this would be positive, but saying “health issues are at an all time high” gives it an opposite meaning. This one point is not a massive deal, but it demonstrated from the beginning of the show that no one knew what they were talking about.
Andrew Woodhead, when asked to explain depression, referred to the fight or flight mode, which is entirely related to anxiety, not depression. For a podcast which is trying to educate other people in our generation, you need to be careful not to be spreading misinformation.
There was talk of exercise being just as effective as taking anti depressants - this completely lacked any sort of nuance. I don’t know which studies the R U OK day podcast used for this, but it’s not so simple to say that everyone should walk for half an hour a day and they won’t need medication for their mental illness (this is not exactly what was said, but it is implied in the statement). While it’s true that exercise releases endorphins in the brain, there are many different forms of mental illness, and many of them require medication, no matter how much exercise is involved. Exercising for half an hour a day is also not accessible to many people, especially those struggling with complex mental health issues. Mental illness can be completely debilitating, not to mention people who struggle with physical chronic illnesses as well, who take up a large portion of the mentally ill.
There were also many comments in the first half of the show that promote the stigmatisation of mental illness, such as the conversation about a girl in high school who felt left out because all of her friends had mental illnesses, and speaking about “attention seeking”. This is really stigmatising to people with mental illnesses, who are already stigmatised enough! The whole concept of attention seeking is super outdated. If someone is seeking attention, it is because something is wrong and they need the attention, and people should not be ridiculed for reaching out for help and expressing their feelings, even if you feel they don’t have a right to these feelings.
The last thing I want to point out is that there were no trigger warnings in this episode. If you’re going to talk about something as triggering as suicide, you NEED trigger warnings. This was one of my biggest concerns. There should be trigger warnings for the topics spoken about, and there should be a disclaimer to make sure people know that neither of you are formally educated on the topic, but that it is just a discussion.
I understand that none of the things I’ve brought up have been done intentionally by the host and guest, but rather that they arise from ignorance.
Next time you speak on mental illness, please make sure you have someone educated on the panel 🙏🙏”
Eskille via Apple Podcasts ·
Australia ·
11/19/20
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