Mental Health Is For Everyone - 1711 Words

Mental Health is for â€Å"Everyone† It is of almost no consolation that mental health is finally being recognized as an essential piece to the puzzle of overall wellness in the United States when intersectionality is not taken into account. Nationally, 56% of adults suffering from mental illness do not receive treatment and that number surges to a roaring 70% in Nevada specifically (â€Å"The state†¦Ã¢â‚¬  1). The struggle of intersectionality for many is that while defending the rights and experience of one part of â€Å"self†, the other parts are often compromised (Crenshaw 179). A non intersectional understanding would be to assume that all of these adults suffer from the same barriers when it is found that one in five people are limited by cost alone.†¦show more content†¦It is only a recent triumph that women and their stress levels have been considered equal to that of men. In fact, in the 1800’s and early 1900’s there was seemingly little use in considering mental health diff erences among groups because women were â€Å"so obviously inferior† (Wilhelm 1). Viewing women as their own entity with unique stress factors provided the freedom to develop risk factors for individuals that are more likely to need certain care than others. Where stereotypes drew up a white, dramatic, middle age woman with anxiety for mental illness in the past, the data was finding otherwise. Men were recognized as being more susceptible to mental illness, and social construct rather than just â€Å"being a woman† was finally recognized as causing uniquely elevated levels of vulnerability in regards to specific illnesses (Prior 1). This challenged all previous views of patriarchy, halting the ongoing process of shaping and reshaping a society based on man’s superiority (Johnson 80). To live in a patriarchal nation is to live by a specific set of rules that demand expectations from only two accepted genders. However, the blatant fact of male vulnerability in il lness began a much needed conversation about individual need and experience. Suddenly, not all women could be clumped into a group of hypersensitive, fragile