Question: Can social cohesion help promote and raise awareness of mental health/mental illness?

Possible Answer/Position/Thesis:

Mental illness is an issue that affects many individuals in our society. It includes a wide range of different conditions that can affect our mood, way of thinking, and personal behavior. Mental illness creates a form of isolation, that can lead to further damage of individuals. To raise awareness of mental illness there is one thing that’s extremely important, and that’s the idea of social cohesion, the idea of having trusted relationships to openly communicate with others in a community about their own, personal struggles. Dr. Anne Hallward, a psychiatrist who has her own radio show, has a passion about wanting to help work with shame in a bigger way, because she believes shame is the cause of all health and societal issues, specifically including mental health. Similarly, Dr. Helen Epstein wants to advocate, educate, and promote public health awareness, like Hallward, she believes change in society starts with forming trusting relationships because that opens doors for communication. Both these individuals want to help create change among society. Working thesis: Individuals need to understand that they aren’t alone, the more the communicate amongst others, not only are they beginning to help themselves, but also help society as whole.

Shame is considered a lethal public threat, simply meaning, shame is deadly. “…suicide is now one of the causes of death, top ten for this country (4:00), states Hallward. She questions herself how can she work with shame in a bigger way. Hallward believes that telling one story, can open one door for many people to enter. This explicitly means that you and your singular story, could be the very thing you have to offer others who need help. There could be only a few, but there could also be many people that could enter your storytelling door. Hallward found a study which that was done by Thomas Houston, from the University of Massachusetts who found that “when you listen to a story told by someone like you, who you can really identify with and who is struggling with an issue, your blood pressure goes down and it lasts for months” (5:00). This proves that social and political change starts with communication. Communication is a fundamental requirement for social cohesion, because it creates trusting relationships. This also supports Helen Epstein’s idea that change starts with social cohesion. She makes this comparison to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda, “ Ugandans personal experiences with the virus has succeeded in preventing its spread by breaking the cycle of social stigmas surrounding those infected” (109), this relates to Hallwards idea that global conversations, social cohesion, and sharing personal stories, are really what it takes to create social and political change, because in Uganda AIDS was eliminated because of the idea of social cohesion.

Hallward talks about how shame creates isolation, the things we are silent about create shame. When we have shame, we are hiding things from people, which can lead to personal damage in sense of depression, addiction, suicide; all forms of mental illnesses. Shame makes us want to hide. Hallward makes this comparison in her Ted Talk by stating “But the thing about being in a closet is you can see that it is very dark in there. And in that darkness you can’t see very clearly. You don’t get a good perceptive–only your experiences–and you’re also alone in the dark” (3:00). There are an endless number of these closets, all with different names, shapes, stories, and experiences. People need to realize that they are not alone, communication and the idea of social cohesion is the number one thing necessary to help raise awareness and help people with mental illnesses heal.

 

Working thesis: Individuals need to understand that they aren’t alone, the more the communicate amongst others, not only are they beginning to help themselves, but also help society as whole.